A+
		Title	The Operative: No One Lives Forever
		Publisher	Fox Interactive	Graphics	B+
		Developer	Monolith Productions	Sound	A+
		Released	November 8, 2000	Gameplay	A+
		Platform	PC (Windows)	Longevity	A+
	ESRB Information
	Comic Mischief Mild Language Violence

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If you are thinking that No One Lives Forever sounds like the title of a James Bond movie, you wouldn’t be far off. The classic James Bond movies almost demand to be made fun of and imitated, and people have taken every opportunity to do so (if you don’t believe me, read this Wikipedia entry on James Bond parodies http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bond_parodies). Typically it would seem that spoofs of James Bond are very hit and miss, or age poorly. In the case of Casino Royale (the David Niven/Peter Sellers satire Bond film), the film is so off kilter it is very difficult to understand what the heck is going on (and it seems like they ran out of money towards the end of the movie). In the case of Austin Powers you have stuff that was very funny at the time of its release but has aged poorly…it’s almost cringe worthy material now. No One Lives Forever is heavily influenced by the early James Bond movies, yet has a very obvious flair that makes it different in a very good way.

Unlike the above mentioned film spoofs, NOLF does a gender switch on the title character. Cate Archer is theprotagonist in NOLF; she’s a past thief who becomes a UNITY agent (she’s a British secret agent). She gets tossed into real missions by those in charge rather reluctantly when several agents are killed (thus leaving UNITY shorthanded). The instant you start the game, there is one thing that sets it apart from probably any other game. You actually want to watch the cutscenes. In almost any other game, the cutscenes are basically reasons to figure out how to skip watching them…in NOLF they are not only necessary to understand what’s going on, but they are actually entertaining! They are built and shot more like movies than the typical cutscene, and the voice acting (both within the cutscenes and within the game) is excellent (which, after playing through both games, is certainly on par with that in Freedom Force, if not as over the top). Even the enemy conversations that go on when you can’t be seen (while you sneak around the corner to accomplish your objectives) are usually funny enough to make you crack up in laughter (watch the goat video for proof).

No One Lives Forever is actually a fairly long game. It took me somewhere between 25-30 hours to complete, and if you are new to the game it will probably take longer. The missions are very different in their objectives and locales. There are scuba diving missions, missions in outer-space, missions in the mountains, etc. Usually there is more than one way to complete a mission…as a spy you have certain gadgets on hand that allow you to get around unnoticed by security cameras. You have camera disablers, and a powder that makes bodies disappear, along with other unusual spy gadgets that may come in handy.

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No One Lives Forever is a shooter yes, but it is also takes heavy influences from the thief series. Sneaking around is the MO in many cases, and being sneaky is rewarded with better end of the level spy rankings.However, sneaking around without being seen is very difficult, and in the missions that force you to do something unseen (or more accurately, without an alarm being raised) you may find yourself getting increasingly frustrated. Usually you can get away with killing enemies in these levels if you use a silenced weapon (and the bodies aren’t seen by a security camera). The stealth levels are incredibly difficult, and are the one negative of the game. You may play them multiple times before finally being successful. Interestingly enough, while for most games I play with the speakers blaring, this is a game that almost requires headphones to catch everything (preferably ear covering ones). You simply do not catch all the sounds of people walking around, cameras whirring, and funny conversations without headphones. I was prepared to give this game a lower grade because of its difficulty when I realized that my speakers weren’t giving me the whole story and popped on headphones…they make a huge difference, and make those sneaky levels more manageable.

No James Bond spoof would be complete without gadgets, so of course NOLF is full of them. As mentioned, you have the camera disabler and body removing powder. You also have a barrette that can pick locks and be used to poison enemies with cyanide, to go along with a lighter that can be used to break unpickable locks. You have perfumes that cause instant sleep on those who walk through its mist, and you have a robotic dog that distracts guard dogs. There are so many gadgets that you can’t carry them all, so the game forces you to choose what you take with you on missions (or you can choose the default equipment). It shows you how to use new gadgets in a test lab (similar to Q’s lab) before a mission starts throughout the game.

The story is typical spy stuff, but extremely well thought out as far as continuity goes. You are chasing down information on H.A.R.M., an evil organization that (you find out) is using a biological agents to create human bombs. You have to do everything from figuring out the brains behind the operation through interrogation (you question an idiot that claims he hunts lions…then through further questioning you discover that he actually uses a .22 rifle, shoots them from just a few feet away 20 + times, and they are in cages…), general detective work, and killing lots of lackeys. A couple of the missions/gameplay sequences are straight out of Moonraker (which is probably the campiest of the James Bond films, but ithas some very entertaining action sequences); at one point, you jump out of a plane in an attempt to catch someone else below you that has a parachute. There is also the deal of the escaping from an exploding space ship while shooting people WITH LASERS that screams James Bond, but luckily the scenes in the game aren’t just throw-ins…they fit extremely well into the game, and (save for lacking Jaws with the blond girl 3 feet shorter than him) hold up favorably to the actual scenes (and probably fit better to boot).

I went back and forth on the grade for this game many times…it is at timesfrustratingly difficult, and there are a couple of gameplay mechanics that could be improved upon. You can’t move bodies the old fashioned way (Cate looks like she has good “leg” muscles…she should be able to drag bodies across the floor regardless of size); you are forced to use body removing spray, which you may or may not have. As mentioned before, the missions that require no “sounding” of the alarm are very tough and may have you looking for the cheat to go to the nextlevel (I’ll save you time…mpmaphole). However when looking over the entire body of the game, these flaws are minor. Unlike a lot of people who do reviews (PC Gamer, I’m looking at you), a game does not have to be perfect to get a perfect score. I mean, they gave the Orange Box a 94…reviewing should not be the journalistic equivalent of the Windows Experience Index where the lowest score for any of the parts equals the score for the whole. I have played some really good games and some games so painfully awful that evenmentioning them hurts (just watch the Pen Pen Trilcelon video, and when you wake up in 2 hours after trying to kill the massive migraine you can fire off the meanly worded email to my inbox). A game does not have to be perfect to get a perfect score…you score it on your slider of what the best of the best is. Having played too many games to count (the majority being pretty bad) I know what I like and what I don’t, and No One Lives Forever is very near the top of the pile.

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