Developer: Cauldron HQ
Publisher: Activision
Available On: PC, PS3, XBOX 360

Everyone loves violence. Well, perhaps only the gun-toting psychopathic Americans the media and classification regulations seem to portray. Australians, we must be quite sane – with the OFLC sticking a pacifier down our barrels before we even get a chance to re-enact video game violence in real life situations.

Before I get too patriotic I should point out that Soldier Of Fortune : Payback is to soon see an Australian release, cut down to it’s allowed MA15+ rating featuring no dismemberment and less radical violence.

Some may then say that those who boycott this game for it’s less extreme local packaging should consider the values of an enjoyable gaming experience, over simply searching for a way to vent their blood lust frustration.

I will point out straight away that any violence that could possibly stem from Payback, is entirely due to the frustration of how poor a game this really is. After all, this ‘violence’ is presented in such a mediocre and unconvincing format that pacifism seems a great alternative to relieve tension from the SoF : Payback experience.

Sending a somewhat unfortunate soldier into China to investigate the use of slave labour, Payback soon becomes another sub-standard plot of Middle Eastern terrorism and the subsequent response from a hardened American. Attempting to follow whatever plot Payback may have is quite futile, I have no idea how the setting jumped from Chinese governments and slave labour into the bland stereotypical Middle Eastern desert, until the final scene at a foreign brothel portrayed all the glory Payback had to offer. Why Payback only allows one campaign to be in progress at once is beyond me. Perhaps they realised this isn’t a family game and only one person will play it or – anyone else around would certainly be scared away by what they saw. Either way there’s no excuse for a PC game in this day and age to only allow one single player campaign in process, the concept is atrocious.

With lots of violence, no story and no setting, I hoped Payback could provide a little of the enjoyable gameplay the first two titles had to offer. Each level opens with a choice of weaponry, which becomes useless once initial ammo is depleted – then you’ll have to stick to whatever weapon enemies drop along the way as they’ll rarely be packing your ammo type. Grenades are always thrown high and tend to hover making it very difficult to accurately target an explosion, especially in levels such as the garage scene where most grenades will tend to bounce back and take you out.

Dying, it happens often. Perhaps most often caused by my intense lack of enthusiasm or just damn caring at all about what was happening. The difficulty is way out of tune in Payback. Many times I fell to only one shot from an enemy – something that definitely should not happen in a single player FPS. It’s a lot worse then when a boss approaches who seems to have unlimited ammo for a grenade launcher that will also take you out in one shot. Boss battles are a hilarious affair, each boss merely being a regular human enemy that can take a LOT of bullets. In fact after a bout of returning fire you’ll find enemy bosses still splatter as much blood as regular foes, eventuating in a boss covered head to toe in blood, yet still running around firing wildly. With bosses having such an unfair advantage on the situation it’s always a case of finding a spot where you can shoot him, but he won’t move or be able to shoot back.

Poor AI, the icing of the bulimic’s FPS cake. Rarely a moment of uplifting action actually occurs in Payback. The potential for a good thriller scene or scripted action is apparent, supported by an engine that can occasionally sport some decent visuals. A few scenes set the mood right, crawling through an enemy infested base to have all the lights drop, yells from the enemy and subsequent gun fire, but once again any second of enjoyment from Payback is obscured by poor game design or in this case – enemy AI, especially when you take one look out to find that these enemies are all in fact standing right in the middle of a crater, waiting for you to take them out. There’s a lot of the far too common cases where the player can continually shoot an enemy in the leg or arm while crouching. They’ll take damage, but not move an inch – allowing you to finish them off with no opposition at all. Even more unconvincing when it occurs in one of the pre-mentioned boss battle (although it is often the only way to comfortably win). If an enemy does decide to get on their feet, it can often look quite ludicrous in cases such as this apparent unknown Chinese bullet evasion method of running in fucking circles.

Pointing out all the specific cases of shoddy game design in Payback would take all day and while I may have the time, I presume you do not. I wish I could divulge on some more positive features of Payback as while it is plagued with horrible difficulty throughout a few moments of potential shine. Until you suddenly explode for no reason.

Soldier Of Fortune : Payback

45%

The Good -

* Violence, violence, violence.
* At least the CloakNT engine looks modern.
* Checkpoint saving system.

The Bad -

* Terrible AI.
* Terrible pacing/difficulty.
* Terrible dialogue, story, setting.