SOF Impressions (1 Viewer)

[Dave Scarpa]

From TeamXbox:

Well today , I went to work today and I was given the chance to go hands on with Activisions next first person shooter title SOF2 H. I have always been a huge face of the Soldier of Fortune franchise. Last June I purchased the PC version of the game and while the core of the game is intact , a few things have changed.

I will answer any questions that you may have.

Lets take a look at the Single player. The single player is well basically Cutscene , gun , shoot , dodge and press a button or two . This game is alot like rtcw, as you can see from the gameplay as well as the live modes. If you always wanted counterstrike to have a single player mode , you will be right at home with this game . There has been no extra missions added to this game , but the game does features downloable content , so we may get more in the future. The single player has about 25 - 30 hrs of solid gameplay and has a very emotional story line . I found myself very anoyed while playing through the single of rtcw , but playing through the sof2 for the 30 minute I played with it , I very much so enjoyed it.

Graphics

The graphics and detail of this game have been toned down alot , you started with a sharp looking and clean looking PC game but they , changed the textures alot , but I was quite dumbfounded by that as the xbox's cpu and gpu should be able to fully handle the pc game's detail. I played this game on a sharp hdtv , and yes this game does support 480 p , so it cleaned it up a bit , it doesnt look as good as rtcw or uc , but the quality of detail is inbetween timesplitters 2 and rtcw.

Sound

They really did an overall great job of sound for this game, the same sounds from the pc version are completely intact . There is nothing like hearing somebody screaming that there bottom half has been broken off or the sound of somebody choking on their blood . It has some dramatic music that really get you all emotional about the game.

Controls

The controls were very responsive , and tight if you could say it in one word . The controls are exactly the same of return to castle wolfenstein , so us fellow rtcw'rs will feel right at home .

Live Play

I played Live for about 15 minutes with the test copy from work , there was no lag at all which I experienced from rtcw on many ocassions . The communicator works alot like uc and ghost recon. You can talk to your team members or talk to people close to you .

There are a few different modes you got death match , team deathmatch,capture the flag .For those that do not know , how deathmatch works is you get a gun you must kill the others and the one with most amount of kills w/ 5 min respawns is the winner of the match . Team deathmatch works much the same but two teams , the team with most kills win the match. Please note its based on times as well.For capture the flag there is two teams ,when a given team has posession of both red and blue flags at their base they are named the winner of the round , the team with 5 flag captures wins the match.

Then there is infiltration , it works alot like rtcw objective mode. One team must steal the briefcase and take to extraction point and other team must protect the case from being stolen. The mode that will sure draw alot of counterstrikers will be demolition. This mode uses alot of tactics play that is seen in a small little game called counterstrike. One team must set up the bomb ( one member is responsible for doing so) if that member that is carrying the bomb gets killed another member must find the dead body of the former bomb holder and pickup the bomb. Note it takes arround 5 seconds to plant the bomb so defense tactics are also required. Once the bomb is planted the other team has 30 seconds to defuse the bomb. The the team with the bomb(counter-terrorists) must avoid from losing the bomb , and the (terrorists) must kill the guy with the bomb and get it back. For The match also has a time limit so it makes for some very competitive gameplay.

Overall

This game this is your usual fps story , the multiplayer is amazing , but the single player leaves a little to be desired. The game features over 15 different military class weapons that each have their own purpose in the game . There is 20 nicely designed maps , they didnt hire map designers for nothing . The single player is alot of fun and really makes you laugh after awhile . It may not be for the weak at heart , but for most arround here should enjoy it .

Expect a full review to follow

This will be the only fps I will be playing this summer , and so will you.

I cannot wait to get my retail copy to take home on thursday . I have thursday,friday, and saturday off . Should be one hell of a week for xbox live .

On a side note , midtown madness 3 shipped today.

have a good one guys

- B

 

[BrianB]

the multiplayer is amazing

Amazing he can fully judge that on 15 mins of play...

 

[James St]

The communicator works alot like uc and ghost recon

Never really touched UC but with GR you have to push a button to talk. Is that how it is with this game or is voice on fulltime?

 

[Dave Scarpa]

I just posted that as the first general impressions I've seen On the game I think we'll get a review soon

 

[Peter Manojlovich]

OXM has a full review of SOF2ouble Helix in their Halo2 issue. Overall, the game received an 8.5, but the single player mission was criticized and the graphics were considered sub-par.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

One team must set up the bomb

Set up us the bomb!

He really shouldn't even comment on lag if he only played 15 minutes.

 

[James St]

He really shouldn't even comment on lag if he only played 15 minutes.

Agreed. Also what kind of connection is he using? In an environment(XBL) where your connection is key then I think it should be mentioned.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Activision are hosting Dedicated Servers for SOFII there are 16 server up right now.

 

[Dave Bennett]

Man I've seen some shoddy grammar in my day but I'm amazed at what passes for internet "journalism" these days. The team xbox guy seems like he has trouble putting sentences together in addition to giving any kind of info that isn't a comparison to another game. Oh well atleast he's not like the 15 year old "journalist" that did a comparison review for IGN comparing the PS2 online to the XBox. In that review, he gave the edge to the PS2 because since he had no job the fee issue was paramount(of course he didn't use such multi syallable words )
Speaking of RTCW, I do agree with what he said. I rented the game the past week(though I've actually not had a chance to play it on live yet!) and the single player is at times boring.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

OK I Played SOF2 for around 3 Hrs tonight. I like the game alot. The Level design is great for Online Play. Lots of areas to hide and Menuver in. The Graphics are comparable to what I remember in the PC version with a slight texture downgrade, but the lighting and Outside environments still are decent. The Player models are fine and there is A bit of Gore but not over used. You can play 20 maps online or a random generated one. Absolutely no lag in any of the levels I played, whether I was Peer to Peer or on one of the Activision Servers. Load times are fine with only a Slight Delay refreshing your server lists.

It's a Keeper folks.

 

[BrianB]

It's a Keeper folks.

C'mon, Dave. 3 hours of play & you can tell you'll still be happy with it in a month - it's an online game so it's 100% at the mercy of the players. Let's see how it goes with them over the next week

 

[Bryan_ZZ]

That is his opinion - please give it back to him.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Bryan we have to play some inside Pitch sometime.

Really I can tell if I'm having fun with a game and SOFII is a great time. The levels are very complex and quite large. You can have a blast with 12 guys on a good size map, big enough so in DM you don't get instantly jibbed as you spawn. There's a great variety of weapons, and the Random Level generator does a great job even Online. The 5.1 stereo is excellent and the graphics do the job nicely I like the look of the game. Voice Chat works alot like Ghost Recon you hold the walkie talkie button to talk. If you are close enuff to the enemy you can talk to them as well. It's very fun.

 

[Mike__D]

From IGN's review:

Presentation
This game suffers from uber long load times, boring loading screens and menus, pretty blah graphics, horrid collision detections, and a huge neon sign pointing out this is one heck of a sloppy port. 4.0
Graphics
When a game a next generation console game's graphics can be likened to Ghost Recon and Goldeneye, you know something is wrong. 4.0
Sound
Repetitive, annoying sound effects and an almost non-existent soundtrack leaves a lot to be aurally desired. 5.0
Gameplay
It's a standard straightforward shooter. You don't need tactics or stealth to get through this one. 6.0
Lasting Appeal
With plenty of single player and multiplayer options, you could play this game for months to come. Heaven help you. 8.0
OVERALL SCORE (not an average) 5.8

Ouch.

Mike D.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Of course Like Inside Pitch they ignored Online. Rent it and decide for your self. It's very good online

 

[James St]

Activision are hosting Dedicated Servers for SOFII there are 16 server up right now.

Are these like the Xservers used early on with UC? I wonder if they'll add more or get rid of them after a few weeks.

Also how many players can each game hold? With push button voice comm, we should be able to host more people since it doesn't use as much bandwidth.

 

[Steve Blair]

I'll state it's a keeper as well and I've had great fun with it online. If you like Ghost Recon and Wolfenstein I'd say you'll probably like this game. I'm loving it actually and hope to see you guys on there soon. Best Buy has it for 39.99 this week so get over there!

 

[Bryan_ZZ]

I picked it up as well. Here is my analogy: It is like that favorite old car that drives like a dream, but looks like it has had better days.

A portion of the graphics leave something to be desired. Textures can get muddy and the smoke grenades completely obscure the screen until you get a good distance away. The maps are great, however and would definitely be a blast to play with a small HTF group. The Live interface is GREAT and tells you where all of your friends are very clearly.

The weapons are fun to use - my favorite so far is the sniper rifle with scope. I am trying to get the hang of the walkie-talkies. There is a setting where you have to press the white button to talk and another setting where you can toggle it on/off with the white button. That is up to the session host. There are 12 channels to use. The name of the person you are talking to is shown on the bottom left of the screen.

The few maps I have played are HUGE and have tons of great hiding / sniping spots. It took me fifteen minutes just to walk around the airport hangar.

I would love to see a few more HTF members pick this up so we can have a small group playing together. There are enough graphical flaws for me not to recommend it to everybody; but if you want to have online fun blasting away at opponents on some big maps with cool weapons, join us!

Bryan

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Bryan Glad to see you picked up the Game it is Fun isn't it. Hope to see you on sometime soon. I'll probably be on tonight after 9pm Maybe I'll talk to you then

 

[Dave F]

I've only tried single player so far, but I found it uninspired. Mediocre graphics, and linear gameplay that is made too obvious by the close quarters.

I haven't seen anything that really makes me want to play it more, which puts it in the same category as Red Faction II, although I had a little more fun with that one.

-Dave