Review: The Operative: No One Lives Forever

Jump to Comments

Replace James Bond with a Scottish woman, add some twisted humor and interesting gadgets and you have the recipe for NOLF.

Story
Without going too much into detail, I can say that the game takes place in the ’60s and an organization by the name H.A.R.M. is planning to take over the world with a newly created toxin that will cause every victim it’s injected into to explode after some time. It’s up to you, Cate Archer, an operative in the agency “Unity”, to stop these psychos from succeeding.

Graphics
Considering this game came out in 2000, the visuals aren’t much to brag about today. But thanks to the intense colors in some parts of the game, especially on Archer herself, it still has it’s charm.
The many faces in the game are modelled nicely for the time and they all look great. The only bad thing is that they only have one expression, and the only thing that moves is their mouths, but it’s no big deal. The main characters are easy to recognize from far away due to very characteristic clothing.
I haven’t noticed too many graphical glitches in the game, but I’m sure there are some.

Sound
I don’t really have much bad to say about the audio in NOLF.
The classic spy style music fits perfectly with the ’60s theme and enhances the feel in every way possible. The game also features sour, horrible opera and funky grooves in nightclubs, amongst other styles.
The voice acting is superb, with very characteristic voices on some of the main characters. Amongst others, I can mention a burly Scottish man (usually drunk to some degree), a fat, German woman who loves to sing, even though she can’t and a handsome, fellow operative from the USA.
The sound effects are good, with quite realistic sounds for all weapons, and when you kill someone you usually hear them scream loudly in pain. The occasional bikes and snow scooters sound good too, although the sound cuts off at times and starts over again. This isn’t anything I’m bothered by though.

Controls & gameplay
The control scheme should be familiar to anyone who has played an FPS before. You have a button to walk and one to crouch. These buttons should be taken into use often, since the game gets a lot harder if you’re detected and the alarm sounds. Many missions also have stealth as a requirement for success, so you can’t set off any alarms. One mission is completely stealth, no casualties allowed. This level is riddled with security cameras, so you should get used to taking things slow in these portions of the game. If you encounter an object that can be used, like doors and switches, you can activate these by pressing the right mouse buttons. This works well, and helps keeping things easy to do fast.
As a spy you have many gadgets at your disposal to make your day easier. Some of the most useful ones are the barrette, which contains a poison needle and can be used as a lock pick, the modified cigarette lighter, which can be used as a welder, the code breaker, which allows you to get through keypad protected doors and the sunglasses, which can take pictures of important objects, see infrared beams and detect mines.
You have a wide variety of guns at your disposal, but you can only pick two or three of them at the beginning of each mission. If you encounter more guns through the level you can pick them up as well.
Your arsenal includes pistols, SMGs, an AK47, a sniper rifle, a crossbow, a grenade launcher, a spear gun and a laser gun prototype amongst others. In addition you have explosives disguised as lipsticks and various gases disguised as perfume.
Throughout the game you encounter intelligence items which contains information about everything and nothing. These are not usually vital to the success of your mission, but will help increase your rating at the end of each mission.
As far as bugs go, I have only found one, and that is that you can get stuck in and not get out of some places. Like in small hatches or behind signs outside that are close to the transition between for instance the grass and a rocky hill. I also found it hard to climb down some ladders without falling down instead or getting a lot of drop frames, but if you jump on it and crouch you should be fine.

Humor
This game is one of the funniest games I have ever seen, and deserves to have it’s own humour section, just to emphasize it.
I can’t find numbers for how many times I laughed playing through this game. It’s really that funny. In what other games can you find stupid code phrases like:
“Guten abend, Fraulein. Do you make love to strangers?”
“Certainly not!”
“Then allow me to introduce myself.”

Some of the jokes are a bit on the edge, like a man obviously having an affair with a goat.
But, if you like this kind of humor, you must play this game.

A lot of funny jokes can also be found in the memos you pick up along the way (intelligence items), and you can also view the ones you have found from the main menu in case you don’t have time to read them or want to read them again. You will notice names following you throughout the game, and reading the letters and memos will really boost the overall funny experience.
Example:
“Dear Selma,
I miss you terribly! Tell your mother I have a job now for a fine company, and the pay is very good. The only drawback is that I have to kill people from time to time, but the insurance policy is first-rate!
Love, Pierre”

Conclusion
This game should definitely be filed under classics, being the superb game it is.
This game is an ingenious work of art that belongs in every serious gamer’s collection.
NOLF will keep you going for some time. The game consists of 15 missions (16 in the Game of the Year Edition). Some of them are individual parts of a larger mission. I used 20-30 hours to complete it, and it’s absolutely a funny and original ride.
For a little more bang for your buck you should go for the Game of the Year Edition which includes an extra level after the credits have rolled by and some other bonuses.

I have been reviewing the Game of the Year Edition for PC.

Score
9.6/10

7 Comments

Filed under Review

Tags: action, first person, fps, no one lives forever, nolf, Review