Sound like a Hollywood action movie? Well it should, but it is not. Welcome to the awesome world of Soldier of Fortune, one of the best damn first-person shooters to come out in years.

Soldier of Fortune places you in the persona of John Mullins, one of the three members of the Soldier of Fortune team. Your faithful partner is "Hawk" Parsons, and then there is the "Shop" master, Sam Gladstone. Some gamers might remember a game called Half-Life that came out a few years back. Anyone remember? Well one thing that set Half-Life above and beyond that of the other games in the genre at that time was one thing, storyline. You weren’t a nameless grunt going through corridors and enemy bases waging war on an unknown alien race. You were Gordon Freeman, scientist turned superhero. Gordon interacted with other scientists, and his action drastically effected what would happen next. This is what was call involvement in games, boys and girls, and if any company wants to start taking notes on how to make a FPS in the new century, they need to contact Valve or Raven, because what they have will keep them on top and other companies will be left to the bargain bin.

Soldier of Fortune starts off small when it comes to story. Your first mission is a typical save-the-survivors mission from a terrorist holding a subway station. But, after the mission is successfully completed you are brought into view of what was really going on. Your little escapade in the subway was only a mere diversion to steal four nuclear warheads. The first part of the game has you looking for and destroying these warheads. The second mission of the game is especially exhilarating while moving forward on a speeding train to destroy one warhead.

Lets take a look at the stuff powering your wild ride. With a decent operating system you should be OK with this game. Graphics are some of the best I have seen in a long time in a game of this kind (Unreal, eat your heart out). After playing the game for a good portion of time one thing came to my mind that just set in, "Holy crap, this is the Quake II Engine?!" Yes, the Quake II engine lives on. This also shows how long this game has been in production. The engine has been modified, and looks to have been completely reformatted to work with more real-life settings as compared to the space odyssey missions of Quake II. As I go on you will see more than enough parallels between this game and Half-Life…

Sound is another area where this game seems to excel. I would even go so far as to say that the sound is better than Half-Life, or even some of the newer games like Quake III: Arena and Unreal Tournament. Of course, there is no music to this game, and that is the way it should be. This isn’t a frag fest like Quake III: Arena, so you don’t need awesome Sonic Mayhem techno music playing in the background. You need to be stealthy and precise, music booming in your hears will not help you accomplish that.

Gameplay is really standard. I don’t really see anything new introduced to the genre with SOF’s gameplay. Each weapon, well most, have a second feature, but all that means is snipe mode for the sniper rifle, or something minor to that extent. The keys can be grafted to fit your needs as a gamer. One thing I really do like is this game will support all five buttons on my Intellimouse Explorer (the one with five buttons and the light instead of a ball). Quake III: Arena and Messiah don’t seem to want to use all the buttons, which is why I bought it so I was kind of disappointed with that.

The GHOUL rendering system used for the game allows form some incredible amounts of detail on the characters and the surrounding areas. Added to the 26 "gore zones" on each character model, this game can be so realistic it is scary.

It is my belief that the "gore zones" are what is accountable for the 1-inch high Mature Rating pasted on the front of the box, and the sides of the box, and the back of the box (I found it surprising it was not on the top as well as the bottom of the box). Technologically speaking the gore-zones are 26 different area’s in which you can hit a character with a bullet and get 13 different reactions (13 for each half of the body). Now being the male I am, the only two places we aim are the head, and the genital area. It is very humorous when you shoot a character in the crotch only to seem him scream in pain as you then lay waste to him, and his buddies. Now don’t get the wrong picture here. I don’t feel anymore obliged to take a gun to school on Monday than I did before I actually played the game. The gore-zones are a great addition to the game, as well as some really varied death animations as most games will give you a select few. Real life physics like blood splashing on walls and such are all included.

Soldier of Fortune really stood out to me as a game that was good from the very first time I booted up the demo. For some reason, maybe because of the developer, this game had to be good in my mind, but I didn’t let this cloud my judgment when it came to this review. Soldier of Fortune is a great first person shooter. Everything about this game is very, very well done, and I’m happy to say that the extra development time that was given to this game is well deserved. Sure, SOF may not be for everyone. But this game is easy to get into, and update, and play. With a Won.net program installed you can easily install maps, skins, and any other custom additions to the game. If you want a very well done first person shooter, pick up SOF. You will not be disappointed with that decision. I can only hope for a sequel (I hope you are listening, Raven).