No One Lives Forever is a spectacular spy adventure which was developed by Monolith and released in the year 2000. I’m ashamed it’s taken me twelve years to actually get around to finally playing this and man am I glad that I did.
Set in the 60’s you take on the role of Cate Archer a super female spy who has to face the misogyny and sexism of being in a mans world. This alone sets NOLF apart from the regular shooter or even video games in general. I find it delightful to be in the shoes of a strong female who can outwit and outsmart her various male counterparts, who has great voice acting and doesn’t take any guff from anyone. I might go as far as saying she is one of the only great true feminist characters in a video game.
It’s obviously a love letter to the bond films but also a few of those spy espionage series of the sixties like The Saint, The Avengers and Mission Impossible to name a few. It’s just as cheesy in tone too but portrayed in an endearing light. The villains are cultural stereotypes with silly accents, the henchmen are grovelling fools and the spies are a mixture of the two all portrayed with a tongue in cheek comedic way. Most of the hilarity comes from the dialogue you overhear between henchmen, which are often absurd little windows into their ridiculous lives. For a first person shooter where you can shoot a lot of men it’s surprisingly dialogue heavy letting you choose a variety of dialogue options at various points and even completing segments of missions without killing a single enemy. That said you don’t have to shoot everyone on sight, which in turns sets off alarms throughout the rather large levels. NOLF is not a straight up shooter, as stealth plays a massive part in some missions, requiring you stay silent and unseen and pretty much outright encouraged. It reminds me a lot of Deus Ex albeit not as open ended or complex but there is a plethora of gadgets to be used to various effect and you gain new ones every few missions much akin to Deus Ex’s tools.
What else can I say about this wonderful game? Being a twelve year old game the graphics aren’t as amazing as they were way back when but they certainly don’t get in the way of you having a bloody good time. It’s certainly a solid game in terms of the engine, with a soundtrack that is catchy as it is fitting. NOLF is certainly an underrated gem of gaming that isn’t praised enough I fear and I implore you go to out and buy it. It’s not exactly widely available, sadly not appearing on any of the digital distribution networks but I urge you to experience the genius of this funny and inventive masterpiece however you can.
