Soldier of fortune 2 double helix files

Call it sick. Call it evil. And when you finally see that the fruit of their sleepless labours is a certifiable piece of cack, you tend to feel sorry for them, finding it hard to rip said baby up limb by limb. Which is why it might surprise you to learn that I was looking forward to laying into Soldier Of Fortune 2 with all my might.

You know, the sort of people South Park's Jimbo and Ned caricaturise so brilliantly. It was enjoyable in a deeply dumb and visceral way, but there was something unmistakably wrong and xenophobic about it. Maybe it was the fact that you were penalised for shooting American civilians but not Arabic ones. Most of the fun came from the pure carnage rather than the poor level design or the rather rotten Al.

It wisely avoids Islamic terrorists and lets you loose on Russians, Colombians, Chinese and even Yanks. The sick scoring system has gone. Your closest associate is a woman. And, the real clincher, killing any civilian of whatever nationality means you automatically lose the game. Things start off rather badly though, with a first level that is as predictable as it is forgettable, set many years before the main story Mullins is clean-shaven but still looks like he shoots dogs and beats up women for fun , dull brown environments and enemies as thick as bricks.

The Colombians not only work in teams even shouting to each other , they duck behind tall grass, they hop over walls, they round you up and shower you with grenades.

And then you come across a group of marines who join you on your mission and display some great Al of their own. One of them is sent to scout ahead and waves for the rest to follow if the coast is clear, and the commanding officer tells you off if you wander too far from the team.

They react to situations as well as the enemy, hiding behind trees and running back when a grenade is sent their way. The next mission presents another surprise: stealth. And these are even more annoying than the ones in Medal Of Honor, where you had to stop the enemy from reaching the alarms. Here, the enemy need only catch sight of you and the bells start ringing followed by plenty of manpower, as if they were all connected telepathically.

I should mention at this juncture that, played on one of the higher levels, Double Helix is a real hard nut. I still have save games from Half-Life where you come up against soldiers or black ops that I can play over and over again without getting bored. You have to question how much fun it is to see someone's face explode, their leg blown across the room, their windpipe gushing blood, time and time again.

But if the violence bothers you that much, you can always turn it off. There are other problems that stop it from being the game it could have been - small bugs, ridiculously heavy fogging in some areas - but on the whole it oozes quality. The graphics are tremendously detailed though enemies do have a generic look and the levels exploit the Quake III engine to the full. And, above all, the enemies are a joy to fight against, which is exactly what we want from our shooters.

If all you want is a quick blast without all of the hassle of playing through the actual game, you can set up a randomly generated map in just the type of environment you want, with just the sort of weapons you want. A multiplayer test demo has already proved popular online and there are several mods on the way. The original Soldier Of Fortune may have appalled and disgusted due to its graphic portrayal of bodily mutilation, but that was back in a more innocent age.

Since the events of September 11, the goalposts have moved, perhaps irreversibly, and releasing a game involving terrorism is virtually asking for outraged headlines, particularly when the plot involves the threat of biological warfare. Clearly something of a political hot potato, development on Soldier Of Fortune 2 is nevertheless carrying on regardless, and at this stage it is unlikely to be changed into a game in which bouquets of flowers are handed out to the nasty men.

It would be irresponsible of us to ignore the issue though, and during a demonstration of the game we spoke at length to Raven Software's project administrator, Kenn Hoekstra. He claimed: "There's been a lot of sensitivity to the issue and a lot of people trying to make judgments about what the American public can handle and what they can't. I think what it comes down to, if you want to talk about freedom of choice, is that people can choose to entertain themselves however they want. They can watch what they want to watch, do what they want to do, and we're not going to try to make that judgment for people.

This game has been in development for two years and we're sticking to our development philosophy and our design and just trying to make the best game we can. That game will again feature real-life Vietnam veteran John Mullins, who has recently spent some time at the Raven office in his capacity as mercenary consultant. The story begins with a prelude mission that takes place 15 years ago. Back in the present day, and the virus that the scientist was working on shows up in Colombia.

It's another excuse for Mullins to grab his passport, and off he sets on a globe-trotting odyssey of slaughter and pain that takes in such exotic locations as an ocean liner en route to Tampa Bay, a Hong Kong prison, and a top secret underground complex in Kamchatka, wherever that is. There is even a level set on an aeroplane in flight, which we really had to question. Hoekstra was keen to stress that the plane had not been hijacked, and even gave us a tour around it to confirm that there were no passengers.

Perhaps wisely, there will be no reappearance of the Middle Eastern level. As Hoekstra says: "Actually I think one of the things we got flak about in the original game was the Middle Eastern connection. Out of respect for not trying to classify everyone as a terrorist, we opted for the more kind of SPECTRE-esque, taking over the world idea.

It's certainly an elaborate tale, and Hoekstra admits: "We tried to focus a lot more on the story this time around. In the last game the story was an afterthought and this time we planned it from the beginning. You kind of unravel the mystery of what's going on - I know that's in increased demand in FPS games. This time around, Raven is implementing different levels of AI, with trained enemies working in a more tactical manner.

Conversely, so-called thug AI will be used for more basic foes, such as I long Kong street gangs. Whoever you're fighting, there is still plenty of scope for doing damage, and we were given a graphic demonstration of a blood-drenched corpse being shot repeatedly in the eye.

Other visceral treats included bones sticking out from the still warm flesh of your enemies. However, if this isn't your bag, a password system is being implemented enabling you to lock out specific aspects of the game, such as blood or dismemberment, effectively letting you tailor the violence to a level you deem suitable.

Or you could just play something else. At the end of the day, Soldier Of Fortune hits always been about running around shooting people in the face, and the sequel will still offer this.

But as Hoekstra says: "We've tried to remain true to the original gameplay as far as action goes, but we've also tried to put in more stealth elements and multiple ways for you to complete missions.

You can run and gun and shoot everything that moves or you can try to be stealthy and avoid security cameras.

What Raven, and by association, Activision, won't be able to avoid is the inevitable criticism that the game will receive when it hits shelves next year. Tile US games industry has a reputation for being extremely violent as it is, and this can only help to reinforce that. But as Hoekstra admits: "The timing is unfortunate but it's fundamentally trying to give people entertainment.

We're not making a political statement. Unusually for a first-person shooter, Soldier Of Fortune 2 will not feature multiplayer action, the official line being that this is now almost a genre In itself and that simply adding a few half-arsed Deathmatch levels would not be doing it justice. However, a huge amount of value is to be added by the inclusion of a random scenario generator.

Essentially this will wortc in the same way as random maps in real-time strategy games, with variables selected such as what enemies you want to fight and what environment and terrain you want to employ. And if infinite random missions aren't enough, you can even design your own, by placing buildings and so forth, and deciding objectives such as rescuing hostages, meeting a contact or straightforward seek and destroy.

Sounds like a treat for all budding game designers. One of the more shocking revelations of the show came during the demonstration of Soldier Of Fortune 2. The developers were keen to point out that there'll be considerably less gore this time round, which is either a blessing or a curse depending on your mental stability.

We were taken through some of the vehicles that you'll be able to pilot, including tanks and helicopters, the latter of which will give you the chance to man the gun turret and leadhole some bad guys. Needless to say, we were more than a little eager to have a go. The story is once again based around John Mullins, the hero of the first game. You'll have to lead him through a series of missions, including search-and-destroy runs and intelligence gathering. Ultimately it'll be your goal to stop a deadly virus from being released onto an unsuspecting public.

While the developers were keen to demonstrate the inclusion of a random map generator, they were somewhat cagey about multiplayer options, even going so far as to hint that there won't be any. You need to mount and not extract because you will need to insert CD1 then CD2. There is no way to insert CD2 if you have extracted. Jaeger 0 point Windows version. Charlie 0 point. This game was ahead of it's time! Remember the jungle part being a great one. Still a good game today. Definitely worth a download!

What the hell am i supposed to do with these Share your gamer memories, give useful links or comment anything you'd like. This game is no longer abandonware, we won't put it back online. Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix is available for a small price on the following websites, and is no longer abandonware. You can read our online store guide. Some of these file may not be included in the game stores. MyAbandonware More than old games to download for free!

Browse By Buy Game GOG. Captures and Snapshots Windows Mac. See older comments 1. Write a comment Share your gamer memories, give useful links or comment anything you'd like. Any Windows Mac. Send comment. Buy on GOG.