There are near-endless amounts of first-person shooters available on the market, but today we wanted to highlight one that is currently celebrating its 20th anniversary - Soldier of Fortune. Released in 2000 by Raven Software and Activision, the title was iconic, in part, due to its use of the GHOUL engine, which will dive into a bit later.In Soldier of Fortune, you play as John Mullins, a mercenary that works for an organization known as “The Shop.” The Shop has tasked you and your partner, Aaron Parsons, with stopping a terrorist organization that has stolen a bunch of nukes. Your mission should you choose to accept it (and I mean, why wouldn’t you?!) is to keep these nukes from falling in the wrong hands as this organization attempts to sell the nuclear weapons.
The story is very basic, but let’s be honest, you’re here for the shooting and explosions. So let’s dive into more about that part of the iconic shooter.
Soldier of Fortune blends old-school and modern shooting titles into a fun experience
In Soldier of Fortune, you have a variety of weapons at your disposal that should help make dispatching foes easier. It also manages to blend classic shooting mechanics with more modern techniques, which is great for gamers that enjoy having different options or may want to replay the game in a new way.
You can peek around walls and be strategic or you can grab your trusty shotgun and go with a more run-and-gun approach The choice is yours. Depending on your difficulty selection (with the harder difficulties being extremely difficult), your approach to each situation may also change, again adding to the replayability of this title.
Even if you decide to blaze your way through each level, Soldier of Fortune keeps some realism intact by limiting the number of weapons you can hold. This can lead to some intense situations as you expend your ammo and are required to either find more of it or just drop the weapon entirely, replacing it with something else that you have found on the ground.
Weapons are satisfying to shoot and the sound designers really deserve an acknowledgment here, as each weapon sounds extremely powerful, adding to the overall excitement that each battle contains. Overall, there are 10 different missions to play through with each mission having multiple levels to blast through on your way to saving the world.
The GHOUL engine was an extremely interesting, but controversial addition to the title
In the early 2000s, many shooters were starting to pop up, but the GHOUL engine used in
Soldier of Fortune was one of the more interesting examples that helped set the title apart from others.
Basically, each bad guy had different zones on their bodies that could all take damage. This means you could take out an opponent’s legs or even shoot the gun out of their hand to stop them from firing at you.
Not only could you target specific areas to damage, but if your weapon was powerful enough, you could completely dismember different portions of the body. Was it a bit over-the-top? Sure. But was it also fun? Absolutely.
For the time, it was a pretty brutal addition and something that players to this day remember about the title. It was also a bit controversial, with some locations around the world giving it strict ratings and
even some organizations classifying it as an “adult motion picture.”
The developer’s definitely acknowledged these rulings, going as far as to release a version without all of the gore, called Soldier of Fortune: Tactical Low-Violence Version.
A first-person shooter worth revisiting
Overall, if you are looking for a first-person shooter to check out and miss some of the intense action that accompanied many of the FPS titles from the early 2000s, this is definitely worth revisiting.
Even today, its shooting holds up and its graphics are surprisingly polished for a 20-year-old game. Especially the
Soldier of Fortune: Platinum Edition which adds even more multiple modes to enjoy with your friends. If you want even more Soldier of Fortune goodness, there's a
sequel made by Raven and the more modern
third entry in the series to enjoy, as well.
What do you think? Interested in revisiting this classic first-person shooter? Let us know in the comments! 