''Soldier of Fortune'' is a

first-person shooter First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the pl ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

developed by

Raven Software Raven Software Corporation is an American video game developer based in Wisconsin and founded in 1990. In 1997, Raven made an exclusive publishing deal with Activision and was subsequently acquired by them. After the acquisition, many of the stu ...

and published by

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...

in 2000 for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

. It was later released for the

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...

(as ''Soldier of Fortune: Gold Edition''), as well as the

Dreamcast The is a home video game console released by Sega on November 27, 1998, in Japan; September 9, 1999, in North America; and October 14, 1999, in Europe. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, preceding Sony's PlayStation 2, N ...

, while

Loki Software Loki Software, Inc. (Loki Entertainment) was an American video game developer based in Tustin, California, that ported several video games from Microsoft Windows to Linux. It took its name from the Norse deity Loki. Although successful in its ...

also made a

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

for

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

. It was digitally re-released on

GOG.com GOG.com (formerly Good Old Games) is a digital distribution platform for video games and films. It is operated by GOG sp. z o.o., a wholly owned subsidiary of CD Projekt based in Warsaw, Poland. GOG.com delivers DRM-free video games through it ...

on October 2, 2018, along with its two successors. The player takes on the role of a U.S. mercenary as he trots around the globe hoping to halt a terrorist nuclear weapons plot. The game, which was built with the

Quake II engine The ''Quake II'' engine is a game engine developed by id Software for use in their 1997 first-person shooter ''Quake II''. It is the successor to the ''Quake'' engine. Since its release, the ''Quake II'' engine has been licensed for use in se ...

, is notable for its realistic depictions of violence, made possible by the GHOUL engine, including the dismemberment of human bodies. This was the game's stylistic attraction and it caused considerable controversy, especially in Canada and Germany, where it was classified as a restricted-rated film and listed on the Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons, respectively. The technology creates 26 different zones on the bodies of enemies, allowing for vastly different reactions depending upon which one is targeted. The game sold well initially and critical reception was positive. Two sequels were released: '' Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix'' (2002) and '' Soldier of Fortune: Payback'' (2007). ''Soldier of Fortune Online'', a

massively multiplayer online first-person shooter game A massively multiplayer online first-person shooter game (MMOFPS) is an online game which mixes the genres of first-person shooter and massively multiplayer online game. A MMOFPS is a real-time shooter experience where a very large number of play ...

, was published in Korea in 2010, but it servers were shut down shortly after its release.

Gameplay

''Soldier of Fortune'' is best known for its graphic depictions of firearms dismembering the human body. This graphic violence is the game's main stylistic attraction, much like the

destructible environment In video games, the term destructible environment, or deformable terrain, refers to an environment within a game which can be wholly or partially destroyed by the player. It may refer to any part of the environment, including terrain, buildings an ...

s of ''

Red Faction ''Red Faction'' is a series of shooter video games developed by Volition and owned by Koch Media. Originating in 2001, the ''Red Faction'' games have spanned Microsoft Windows, macOS and consoles, including the PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, P ...

'' or

bullet time Bullet time (also known as frozen moment, dead time, flow motion or time slice) is a visual effect or visual impression of detaching the time and space of a camera (or viewer) from those of its visible subject. It is a depth enhanced simulation of ...

of ''

Max Payne ''Max Payne'' is a neo-noir third-person shooter video game series developed by Remedy Entertainment (''Max Payne'' and ''Max Payne 2'') and Rockstar Studios (''Max Payne 3''). The series is named after its protagonist, Max Payne, a New York Ci ...

''. The GHOUL engine enables depiction of extreme graphic violence, in which character models are based on body parts that can each independently sustain damage (

gore Gore may refer to: Places Australia * Gore, Queensland * Gore Creek (New South Wales) * Gore Island (Queensland) Canada * Gore, Nova Scotia, a rural community * Gore, Quebec, a township municipality * Gore Bay, Ontario, a township on Manitouli ...

zones). There are 26 zones in total: a shot to the head with a powerful gun will often make the target's head explode, leaving nothing but the bloody stump of the neck remaining; a close-range shot to the stomach with a

shotgun A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge (firearms), cartridge known as a shotshell, which usually discharges numerous small p ...

will leave an enemy's bowels in a bloody mess, and a shot to the nether regions will cause the victims to clutch their groin in agony for a few seconds before kneeling over dead. It is possible to shoot off an enemy's limbs (head, arms, legs) leaving nothing left but a bloody torso. In the last mission there is also a fictional

microwave weapon A directed-energy weapon (DEW) is a ranged weapon that damages its target with highly focused energy without a solid projectile, including lasers, microwaves, particle beams, and sound beams. Potential applications of this technology includ ...

, causing the enemies to fry or explode, depending on the firing mode. However,

nonviolence Nonviolence is the personal practice of not causing harm to others under any condition. It may come from the belief that hurting people, animals and/or the environment is unnecessary to achieve an outcome and it may refer to a general philosoph ...

is a possibility, if the player is a good shot it is possible to shoot an enemy's weapon out of their hand, causing them to cower on the floor to surrender. The game also came with password-protected options to disable all gore and there is even a version of the game with the extreme violence permanently locked-out, titled ''Soldier of Fortune: Tactical Low-Violence Version''.

Multiplayer

multiplayer A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system (couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...

mode, there are seven gametypes: Arsenal, Assassination,

Capture the Flag Capture the flag (CTF) is a traditional outdoor sport where two or more teams each have a flag (or other markers) and the objective is to capture the other team's flag, located at the team's "base", and bring it safely back to their own base. ...

, Conquer the Bunker, Control,

Deathmatch Deathmatch, also known as free-for-all, is a gameplay mode integrated into many shooter games, including first-person shooter (FPS), and real-time strategy (RTS) video games, where the goal is to kill (or "frag") the other players' characters a ...

and Realistic Deathmatch.

Plot

The story involves the theft of

nuclear weapon A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bom ...

s, and the main enemy turns out to be an

Afrikaner Afrikaners () are a South African ethnic group descended from Free Burghers, predominantly Dutch settlers first arriving at the Cape of Good Hope in the 17th and 18th centuries.Entry: Cape Colony. ''Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 4 Part 2: ...

neo-fascist Neo-fascism is a post-World War II far-right ideology that includes significant elements of fascism. Neo-fascism usually includes ultranationalism, racial supremacy, populism, authoritarianism, nativism, xenophobia, and anti-immigration sent ...

group based in Germany, led by

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

n exile Sergei Dekker. At the beginning of the game, terrorists steal four nuclear weapons from a storage facility in Russia, and proceed to sell them to various nations. This is a prelude to the acquisition of advanced

weapons of mass destruction A weapon of mass destruction (WMD) is a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or any other weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to numerous individuals or cause great damage to artificial structures (e.g., buildings), natura ...

by this terrorist group. John Mullins, working for a U.S.-based

mercenary A mercenary, sometimes also known as a soldier of fortune or hired gun, is a private individual, particularly a soldier, that joins a military conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any o ...

("soldier of fortune") organization known only as "The Shop", and his partner, Aaron "Hawk" Parsons, are assigned to prevent the nukes from falling into the wrong hands, and stop the terrorists in their plans. His missions take him to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

and finally

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Development

Raven Software acquired a license from the mercenary magazine '' Soldier of Fortune'' to produce a video game based on the publication. The game was built around a modified version of the ''

Quake II ''Quake II'' is a 1997 first-person shooter video game developed by id Software and published by Activision. It is the second installment of the Quake (series), ''Quake'' series, but not a direct sequel to ''Quake (video game), Quake''. The game ...

'' game engine. It was the first game to utilize the GHOUL damage model engine developed by Raven Software. This introduced the ability to dismember enemies in combat, adding to the realism of the game. Upgraded versions of the GHOUL system were later used in other Raven titles, such as '' Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix'' and '' Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast''. The game was originally supposed to be much more realistic, featuring mostly real weapons, and the players taking damage would impede their movement and dexterity, depending on where and how many times they were hit. In 1998 (prior to the

Kosovo War The Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that started 28 February 1998 and lasted until 11 June 1999. It was fought by the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (i.e. Serbia and Montenegro), which controlled Kosovo before the war ...

) the game was also supposed to be partially based in Bosnia instead of Kosovo. The game is

AMD Eyefinity AMD Eyefinity is a brand name for AMD video card products that support multi-monitor setups by integrating multiple (up to six) display controllers on one GPU. AMD Eyefinity was introduced with the Radeon HD 5000 Series "Evergreen" in September 2 ...

validated. The game also made use of the

Aureal Semiconductor Aureal Semiconductor Inc. was an American electronics manufacturer, best known throughout the mid-late 1990s for their PC sound card technologies including A3D and the Vortex (a line of audio ASICs.) The company was the reincarnation of the, at ...

A3D and

Creative Labs Creative Technology Ltd. is a Singaporean multinational technology company headquartered with overseas offices in Shanghai, Tokyo, Dublin, and Silicon Valley (where in the US it is known as Creative Labs). The principal activities of the compa ...

EAX technology.

Rerelease

re-released ''Soldier of Fortune'' alongside its two successors digitally on October 1, 2018.

Reception

The Dreamcast version and the ''Gold Edition'' received "mixed or average reviews" according to the

review aggregation A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

. Robert Howarth of ''

GameFan ''GameFan'' (originally known as ''Diehard GameFan'') was a publication started by Tim Lindquist, Greg Off, George Weising. and Dave Halverson in September 1992 that provided coverage of domestic and import video games. It was notable for its ex ...

'' wrote of the PC version, "for those adults looking for extreme action, ''Soldier of Fortune'' could be just what the doctor ordered." Howarth considered its story to be "on par" with many action movies; he also commented that the GHOUL damage model rendering system was "an amazing technology". Chris Kramer of '' NextGen''s June 2000 issue wrote of the PC original, "Sure, it's not for kids, but it's as good an FPS as you could ever ask for." 15 issues later, Jim Preston called the Dreamcast version "An OK port of an OK game." Robert Mayer of ''

Computer Games Strategy Plus ''Computer Games Magazine'' was a monthly computer and console gaming print magazine, founded in October 1988 as the United Kingdom publication ''Games International''. During its history, it was known variously as ''Strategy Plus'' (October 1 ...

'' gave the PC version four stars out of five, saying, "Raven Software set out to make a shooter, and they've made a damn fine one. Just be sure you're up to it before you dive in. It gets mighty bloody in there." ''

Edge Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed by ...

'' gave the same PC version seven out of ten, calling it "an above-average firstperson shooter. It doesn't bring much to the genre, save for its gory depiction of violence." Cal Nguyen of ''

AllGame RhythmOne , previously known as Blinkx, and also known as RhythmOne Group, is an American digital advertising technology company that owns and operates the web properties AllMusic, AllMovie, and SideReel. Blinkx was founded in 2004, went publ ...

'' gave the PC version four-and-a-half stars out of five, saying, "If you're bent on eliminating terrorist threats by skinheads,

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolution ...

's army, Russian mafias or even New York mobsters, then take a lesson from the ''Soldier of Fortune'' and tear open a new one." Later, J.C. Barnes gave the Dreamcast version three-and-a-half stars out of five, calling it "a solid shooter that doesn't break new ground in graphics, sound or artificial intelligence, but it's a solid shooter worth some attention. Aside from the tricky controls and lighting issues, FPS fans shouldn't be too disappointed with this single-player adventure." Nash Werner of ''

GamePro Gamepro.com is an international multiplatform video game magazine media company that covers the video game industry, video game hardware and video game software in countries such as Germany and France. The publication, GamePro, was originally la ...

'' said of the PC version, "With its well-written storyline and thought-provoking missions, ''SoF''s singleplayer will keep you thrilled for hours, and you'll probably be playing the Assassin mode for months. Despite ridiculously long load times, ''Soldier of Fortune'' is recommended for everyone who appreciates a good FPS." Jake the Snake said of the Dreamcast version, "If you're longing for some over-the-top shooting with real weapons, ''Soldier of Fortune'' hits its mark with extreme prejudice, but less crazed gamers should steer clear." However, The D-Pad Destroyer said of the PlayStation 2 version, "with all its faults, ''Fortune'' is fairly fun for hardcore soldier types, but everyone else will just want to keep their membership in ''

''." Nick Valentino of ''GameZone'' gave the same console version 6 out of 10, saying that it was "just another FPS trying to jump on the bandwagon of other successful titles and sorely misses the mark. With very little to offer in terms of design or new features, it fails to capture the right FPS feel which other games have effectively achieved. In other words, look someplace else." According to

PC Data PC Data was an American market research and point of sale tracking firm founded in 1991 and based in Reston, Virginia. Its founder, Ann Stephens, had worked previously as the head researcher for the Software Publishers Association. Initially, th ...

, a firm that tracked sales in the U.S., the PC version sold 100,919 units by November 2000.

NPD Techworld The NPD Group, Inc. (NPD; formerly National Purchase Diary Panel Inc. and NPD Research Inc.) is an American market research company founded on September 28, 1966, and based in Port Washington, New York. In 2017, NPD ranked as the 8th largest mar ...

, which also covered the U.S., reported 298,563 units sold for said PC version by December 2002.

Violence controversy

In 2000, after receiving a complaint from a member of the public about the explicit content of the game, the British Columbia Film Classification Office investigated and decided the violence, gore and acts of torture were not suitable for persons under 18 years of age. In a controversial decision, the game was labeled an "adult motion picture" and was rated as a pornographic film. In Germany, the game was placed on the Index List of the Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons.

Sequels

Based on its success, Raven Software and Activision later published '' Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix'' in 2002, based on the ''Quake III: Team Arena'' engine. Initially released for Windows, the sequel was later

ported In software engineering, porting is the process of adapting software for the purpose of achieving some form of execution in a computing environment that is different from the one that a given program (meant for such execution) was originally desi ...

to the

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the na ...

. A third game in the series, '' Soldier of Fortune: Payback'' was made by

Cauldron HQ Bohemia Interactive a.s. is a Czech video game developer and video game publisher, publisher based in Prague. The company focuses on creating military simulation games such as ''Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis'' and the ''ARMA (series), A ...

and released on November 14, 2007. An

MMOFPS A massively multiplayer online first-person shooter game (MMOFPS) is an online game which mixes the genres of first-person shooter and massively multiplayer online game. A MMOFPS is a real-time shooter experience where a very large number of play ...

based on the series, ''Soldier of Fortune Online'', was published in Korea by Dragonfly and went in Closed Beta on August 12, 2010 and ended on August 16, 2010.

Notes

References

External links