military and espionage

If your just getting into gaming and would like to give a first person shooter a try this game would be a good place to start. It's a realitivly simple game, not requiring too much replay, and provides you with ample instruction. On the other hand it probably won't offer all that much to an expirenced gamer as there's not a whole lot of inovation going on in this game. The main exception being the spy gadgets Cate recieves.
Overall I had a pretty fun time with NOLF, it took me about two weeks of casual gaming to complete but I had a good time. My main gripe with this game is the cut scenes, most of them are boring and long so you'll probably be tempted to skip them even though you'll lose information. Alright so you can skip those if they rub your patience the wrong way, however there is no way to skip at least one very long text based mission you'll encounter further into the game which drove me nuts especially when I forgot to save after that mission, died on the next level and had to do the entire dialogue mission all over. Another little thing that bugged me was Cates inability to jump off and survive the fall from all but the very smallest ledges or hights, this became rather annoying as it began to happen more often as the game wore on but its still not a major problem.
By todays standards the NOLF is quite dated, I pushed to graphics as far up as they'ed go and the game still didn't look all that great, don't get me wrong it's not an ugly game, there was a lot of effort put into the asthetic piece of NOLF when it was being created, just don't expect this game to blow your socks off in the graphics department.
No One Lives Forever also shows its age through game play, if your looking for a radically different FPS you probably won't find it here (unless you live to use gadgets in games). Of course back in 2000 or 2001 this game would have been concidered bleeding edge with its advanced-for-the-time AI and graphical engine but today it simply won't stack up with the best of them. But if average gameplay with a 60's backdrop and a spy theme thrown in is your thing you'll want to concider this game, I'm still glad I did.
(Also note that I first played this game all the way through with a 450MHz G4 processor, OS 10.2 and a tired ATI Rage 128 card and expirenced no slow gameplay if I remember correctly, so older Macs should still be OK).

I think one of the reasons the graphcs are so blasé in this game is the fact that it is so old and just now getting ported to OS X, you know, the *other* operating system that so many of us enjoy working with daily. It's like giving breadcrumbs to a starving man. The man is eternally grateful just to get something of immeasurable worth that he is willing to overlook the obvious shortcomings.It's still just a breadcrumb. Not a meal, or even a snack. NOLF is like that. An FPS that wants to convince Mac users they're really getting a fabulous dinner with all the fixings.

With that said, the scene cutaways are campy, cute, and LONG. And no way to bypass them to get into playing the game. It's not groundbreaking entertainment; for that, I'd recommend Red Faction. Now there's a fun FPS. Enjoy. But don't take it too seriously. This is just the breadcrumbs of what a really great game could be. And without any of the fixings, either!

this is an old game. it got the game of the year award for 2000 (along with deus ex) but has been three years coming to mac. the mac version does have four extra levels. while these are reminiscent of other levels in the game, they are very good additions, not tack-ons. i bought this game as soon as it was available and did it three times on increasing difficulty.

Nolf can best be characterized as a "sneaker", because you try to get through setting off no alarms and killing as few bad guys as possible. you can get rid of them if you like, but this often sets off alarms. note: various bright orange outfits do not add to cates credibility as a sneaky spy. another object is to find intelligence items ("secrets" in other games) because this gets you extra life and ammo. no matter how you do it, this game is never boring or mechanical; you just want to keep on going. there are few puzzles, and it is not too hard to get around.

as for gameplay, this is just a shooter, but what really shines is the imagination shown in the level design. the game authors did an excellent job of varying the environments. morocco, german research facilities, shipyards, airplanes, trains, underground bunkers, sunken ships, outer space, tropical islands, alpine resorts, etc. although many of the levels appear to have the same basic framework, texture work and scenery keep things different and interesting. the AI is excellent, better than most games i have done. the antagonists are hard to outthink and very difficult to outrun. they are remarkably adaptable to any tactic you devise. there are many funny conversations scattered throughout the game. you can sneak by during these or wait them out and kill each participant after they separate. reviewers have complained about blabbermouth cutscenes. this is valid, though the training tells you specifically how to reject these. there are many weapons and gadgets, but very few of them are necessary. a silenced pistol and sniper rifle are all the guns you need as most things can be picked up along the way.

this game shows its age in some places. the polygons are coarse, but this is made up for by good textures. it runs slowly in places, but the "read me" section has many hints on how to improve performance. personally, i hated the music (and it covered up sound effects); turning it off helped performance. also, fart jokes came and went with tombraider.

so... despite a few flaws, this game has so much diversity that it will keep the player's attention for days. it never drags and is supremely replayable. although i dont like it as much as deus ex, nolf is definite 5 star material which is worth its price.