We are a fucked up country with leaders living in the stone age simply so we had to get special treatment, blame the fucks up there. Oh, dont you dare mention by the way that in the meanwhile 10x more extreme gore titles like Dead Space are on all shelves in every major store all over the place. Now cause everything got digitalized and we have far more games nobody cares about censorship anymore but yeah, that was a nightmarish time.
@dustisdeadbodies85 Yeah, red blood=bad. It was madness back then, but it got better quickly. The original Time Crisis was on the "index" (no advertisements, no display in stores, you had to ask for it, and be 18 of course), the successor Project Titan, featuring the same gameplay was rated 16+...
"feared their new owner's corporate culture would gradually consume their sense of identity" and what do you know.. last developed original ip would be Singularity. These poor devs have spent the last 10 years doing nothing but call of duty ports and a remaster.
Yes. The reward for success was basically being sent down to the mines for hard labour until they were worn out and quit. People would call me naive, but I wish the artists could somehow take their industry back.
I know you think is cool to hate big companies and all that but the truth is Raven's best games were made under the Activision brand. Jedi Knight & Academy, X-Men Legends series, Singularity, Wolfenstein 2009, Star Trek: Voyager...
I remember being a kid and playing this game. The gore was unlike any other game! And surprise, surprise... I didn't turn out to be a serial killer, or violent at all. Shocker... the media was wrong... again.
@@civilwarfare101 And shotgun, and magnum pistol aaand ... the rest as well! Sound in the environment and the characters are all very good. It had such a cool atmosphere. Just great over the top action.
Loved the attention to detail the gore had in it, shoot a guy with a shotgun in the gut and his intestince would pop out, all we get these days is red face
I actually preferred the SOF2 Demo that used just the one map. All players new every last detail of that map and could run it in their sleep, including all the little glitches like squatting your way inside of a barrel. Made it like a royal rumble of vets, and a lot of fun.
Can't remember how I got it, but it definitely wasn't my parents. Probably my brother. It was an amazing game - the first I ever completed. I was 12 or something and I turned out fine (this far).
Everyone in the 90s watched action movies, live police pursuits, and gory 80s horror flicks...of which came the teeny-slasher horror wave of the 90s. So raising hell about red splashes in shitty 3d graphics on 14' monitors was obviously sanctimonious and hypocritical, even back then. GenX in the 80s was addicted to TV and pop consumerism, and along came these youngsters, with a developing culture of their own. Not caring about TV, blockbuster movies, not into buying cars, fancy clothes and big concerts anymore. Yet another artificial moral panic generated by the entertainment industry, by corporations, religious nut jobs, and political nobodies. All of whom saw a way to advance their own agenda...
@@NightFlash24 "Not caring about TV, blockbuster movies, not into buying cars, fancy clothes and big concerts anymore." sounds like you weren't alive in the 90s.
I miss Ravens own Ip’s. They made some great and interesting shooters. Wolfenstein 2009 is a highly underrated game. It’s still an absolute blast to play. They need to add it back on Steam.
dude i used to play this game with my dad when i was in elementary school, we had pcs side by side and would play all the time. i didn’t really play sports as a kid and my dad was big into war games so this is what i got to do. wouldn’t trade it for the world some of my best memories
This is literally the best gaming related channel on youtube. Honestly they deserver millions of subscribers with the effort they put into these documentaries.
Finally,the FPS of my childhood is getting some attention,SOF 1 and 2 (especially 2 for me) is one of the best FPS out there,and until Doom Eternal comes out with it's "Destructible Demons" system,it will remain the goriest and most brutal FPS out there. Raven Software,before becoming a slave to Activision,used to have such a good formula for FPS games,those long,well paced campaigns of varied missions,with sweet trips to a hub area from time to time,great variety in weapons and actually well written stories,it's amazing,I wish they'd go back to making games that aren't COD one day . SOF2 Quake 4 Woflenstein 2009 Singularity All great games,all a reminder to Raven's wasted potential.
Same man, the truly great days of gaming in hindsight. I spent probably years of my life playing SOF2 online, and Wolfenstein, but less online, I apparently was into speedrunning before it was a thing, I used to run the first 10 missions so much that I had every path memorized and was super consistent with my time. SOF2 was the shit tho, I still remember being a 10 year old trying to join clans and eventually convincing one clan that I was 16 so they let me in lol But I got a question for you, since you played the same games as myself growing up, what's your opinion of the new Wolfenstein games?
pronstorestiffi I put raven in the same category as “Looking glass studios” and “Pandemic” .......all groundbreaking developers that were destroyed out of envy, by larger soulless corporations.
Activision has a massive arsenal of dead franchises/IP's especially in recent years. EA isn't any different, just hasn't killed as many IP's as Activision.
.. or just get them on gog... and if you are german(considering the name), to buy it without vpn/keyseller: get a cookie editor. open gog in a browser, log in. open second tab, google the game you want, now look for a cookie in the gog tab that contains something like with DE-eu... edit every DE to AT and save. now be quick, click google link to the game, and put it in the cart, and check out. if the cookie gets refreshed, its gone from cart/cant be viewed and you have to repeat it. once you are in the payment process its safe. can be downloaded without further issues via galaxy aswell.
The first four, five years of competitive Soldier of Fortune 2 (especially in Europe) were incredible, will never forget those times. Shoutout to everyone who was there 🤜
SOF looked beautiful when it launched. Textures had amazing detail, that Glock is something you can never forget as well as SPAS shotgun and armored enemies. No joke it looked really modern at that time. SOF2 I remember because of it's amazingly fluid multiplayer with corner peaking and fast time to kill. I have switched to it after CS and Q2-3 and switched SOF2 for COD2 (hello bolt rifle servers) and later CSS. RIP.
It sounds dorky but I can't express my gratitude for this channel enough. I don't know half the games they talk about but everything seems so thorough and professional. I respect the hell out of that.
Raven made some of my favorite games of the early 2000s I spent countless hours playing elite force 1 and 2 as well as Jedi knight 2 and 3 back in high school and college. I also really enjoyed soldier of fortune 2 for what it was. they generally made really good FPS games over the years. It is really sad they are now relegated to working on nothing but call of duty.
I loved "Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix's" MP. It was my first online FPS. Such fun times! Its main rival at the time was Counter-Strike. So, if you were playing an online FPS, it was either that, or whatever the competition threw at it e.g. Quake III, Unreal Tournament, Soldier of Fortune, etc. Like most pre-millennium properties, Soldier of Fortune (games and magazine) represents a different time. I don't think the franchise should be brought back, but it should be cited as a main contributor to moving video games (as a medium) forward, both technologically and artistically.
SoF2 was one of a kind. The gore in the game was very disturbing, my dad didn't allow me to play it lol the story was great as well, and the missons very different.
The first two Soldier of Fortune games are some of my favorite games of all time, friends used to come over just to play the first level and abuse the Ghoul engine by dismembering enemies with the knife and shotgun. Still keep both installed on my PC never to be uninstalled due to the effort it took getting both working on modern hardware (still use Windows 7 as both don't work on Windows 10 at all from prior experience both crash on startup with modern Windows). Now I'm tempted to go back on my PC and play through both games again, another great documentary of one of my favorite series!
@@cheater87 I noticed them for cheap on gog but haven't needed the gog versions at least not yet the physical copies I have still work just fine. Whenever the day comes that I do upgrade to Windows 10 then yeah that's when ill need the gog versions because my physical copies won't work anymore.
Gainstrup i only ever played the campaign for it and just really liked how it just gave you different ways to fuck shit up. if your looking for something with a high skill cap, spelling is a good place to start. Dident? Cmon brah.
In high school 2004 roughly we were able to get admin privileges and hid the install files for SOF2 on probably a 3rd of the schools computers. Study that year in the Computer lab quickly turned into 16 player Lan games. It was great.
I remember my parents bought this game for me when I was way to young lol i never remembered the name but I recognized the gameplay. I only ever did the one beginning mission in the subway and was terrified. Life long hunt for the name of this game has been completed! I’m so happy
Thank you so much for making a video on this series. I use to spend hours playing SOF2 on the devil's clan server. It was my first online FPS game and still remains my favorite. The overpowered shotgun, extremely accurate rifles, accidentally killing yourself with an overcooked grenade and the loads of custom maps/skins- game was just an awesome experience. Sadly the community is pretty dead. I blame the choke hold on the IP not getting migrated to services like steam. Think of all the custom content players developed for the game that people will never get to experience again.
Oh man, the memories... I played the shit out of SOF2 online, mostly the Wasteland (desert) maps. It was my first online experience, I loved it so much. I still have so many in-game screenshots. My next 'love' was Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, funnily enough, also made by Raven Software. Thanks for being such a huge part of my childhood!
I know. one of my friends had it on ps2 when we were kids and he used to bring it over. Almost certain it was his dads and it always felt like something we shouldn't have been playing. it was akin to sneakily looking at your pops playboys. I remember staring at the guts and being like. "NOOO WAAAY"
@@37Kilo2 Blizzard is doing a great job killing themselves actually. Activision doesn't control Blizzard games, even though they both are in co-operation. Just like how Modern Warfare isn't a Blizzard game despite being on the BattleNet launcher. All Activision really have control over is their games, which is probably just CoD.
@@37Kilo2 Blizzard is doing a great job on their own . 'Don't you guys have phones' and 'Don't you guys have free speech' . They make EA fucking Electronic Arts look like saints.
I remember the first time I sprayed someone with a machine gun and they just stood there twitching while taking the bullets Hollywood style until I was done shooting. I was mind blown
@@ashleythomas4112 the second one was tits. fuckin hook an APC full of rebels up under your helicopter and drop it into a base then crash the chopper and come out guns blazing!
Ah, yes. I remember how much we german kids frequented sites providing uncut patches for games. SoF 1 and 2 were two of my favorites back then. The government tried so hard to protect our little purity from violent games and it was all for naught. We all played and enjoyed them. All they managed to do was costing the devs and publishers sales, because we pirated those titles like crazy.
i remember when my dad bought a computer for everyone, and i just really really diverse into the technology. my first game on computer was bookworm then plant's vs zombies and more childish pc games, then i go to the fun stuff where i can control the character, jump, dodge, shoot, everyone know's the basic lesson. Soldier of Fortune was my favourite game, aside from half life, counter strike, and some other fps games, this one always put me on being aggressive head are popping, limbs go kaboom. and i really miss raven software.
Thanks guys for covering this game! I remember sneaking onto my mates older brothers PC to play this when he was out at work when I was a kid (the original one). We were blown away by the gore and the second one was even better! Years later the third came out and I played it on Xbox 360, what a joke of a game. A real pity. The gore could be super advanced on current hardware and a great selling point. Add an okay story and you got yourself a winner. Oh well.
SF3 has a very advanced gore system (played the PC version) more so then the past games, even tho a pistol can rip a harm on this game... but the real problem with it, is the IP is based on and the expectations people add for it, people were expecting more, they were expecting a better SF2 and got one more low budget Call of Duty clone, if it was not called Soldier of Fortune, i'm sure it would had gotten better reviews. IMO If you make a effort to forget what SF3 should have been, and look at it for what it is, the game can still give you some hours of fun shooting. Is like Code of Honor 3, even tho is a pretty obvious low budget game copying fear (is even made with fear engine) and call of duty, is still a very nice game to play.
@@Argoon1981 As far as I remember the gore was way less detailed and realistic, I may be wrong though. I do remember being annoyed with limbs being severed with any weapon too. I think I found the game randomly and got super hyped, then I played it and I thought it was pure garbage. I eventually gave it a shot and found it tolerable, but a shallow experience still.
I remember fixing my brother's computer in exchange for him buying me a copy of the first SoF (for PC, of course). Still have my copy around here somewhere. The best thing Raven can do for SoF, in my opinion, is what id Software did for a lot of its early properties: release the source code and let hobbyists get their hands on it.
I don’t know why but watching UA-cam videos about obscured gaming information and lore and facts and stuff like this long into the night is one of the absolute favorite pastimes of mine and has been since I was a kid and this channel seems like it was made for me I love you guys videos
Thanks for the efforts you put into each of your videos, they're among the most instructive and informative about video games. Keep up the great work !
lol could you imagine a company getting away with developing a game based on a war/merc/weapons magazine? I think there would be even more backlash with the ever present boogeyman of the arms industry/firearms lobbies.
Soldier of Fortune was my favorite FPS growing up! I would play it over and over again. I love the dismemberment graphics!! :D Thank you for making this GVMERS!
SOF 2 is one of my top 10 FPS of all time. A lengthy campaign with a campy but engaging story, plenty of firepower to choose from before each mission starts, tons of gore, and the random mission generator which was a nice (though not essential) diversion...pretty much everything I want in a shooter back then and now.
i’ve always wished rainbow six siege would’ve had this crazy type of gore , just imagine quietly walking through a hallway with your buddy and then you hear ; “LMG MOUNTED AND READY”!! and then all of a sudden the wall comes down next to you as your buddy turns into a piece of swiss cheese, or a frag grenade comes flying in the room and you see a leg , arm and just all kinds of bits and pieces of your operator go everywhere … that would be sick
*My first online shooter* was Soldier of Fortune II and I loved it even though it was a version *without blood,* but we had no idea about that, it still kicked major ass. When you have to cut the internet to call your friend, tell him the server to meet on, then reconnect to internet and join the server with him together... 😂 The first time I saw my friend running besides me was a so amazing moment, I will *never* forget it. Oh the good ol' days as a child 🖤
Soldier of Fortune 2 will always be my favorite FPS! I would love to see a remake of that game. I've made 100's of mods for even the demo version (still got them) great video!
Still remember getting the uncut version back in Switzerland. Majority of the shops either didn't sell it or had only the German censored version. One shop had mostly the US uncut version. Had to pay much more but at least it was original. Buuut, even though I had it, my win version was set to German, preventing it to be uncut. My friend found out that changing the country setting to US would work and it did. We enjoyed the crap out of it that we were excited to get 2. My friend enjoyed it but I did not. It looked cheap and gameplay it self wasn't so thrilling as the first. Part 3 I did not even bother to get.
SOF2 multiplayer was the greatest and most unique fps experiences I've ever had. Played the game for 14 years until it died. It's hard to put into words how the movement felt, it was so smooth. Good times. -viper from xtinct Legacy.
@Starscream91 😇 Thank You, heres the games information page: GOG DOT com Soldier of Fortune: Platinum Edition Reviews: 4.4/5 Game details: Genre: Shooter - FPP - Modern Works on: Windows (7, 8, 10) Release date: August 28, 2001 Company: Raven Software / Activision Size: 472 MB .
you know.. I was going to write about this game. However, this channel is just amazing. You covered a game of my childhood, and you went way more in depth than 12 yr me. Thank you
I remember doing clan scrims on kam-2 map in SoF 2 during summer vacation. Best times ever. It was a simple map so you had to polish every move to perfection, to have an edge over enemy team.
I dedicated my life to SoF2 ... I lived and breathed this game for almost 10 years. I even made maps for it with Radiant 1.4 - and if u knew what u were doing, u could use assets from a number of games like Q3A, Jedi Academy, RTCW, to name a few. But what this video fails to acknowledge is the ACTUAL down fall of SoF2 was the cheating. I was a die hard Q3A/Unreal Tournament player before I got into SoF2, so my reflexes and accuracy was off the chart. I dominated in nearly every game I played. But when the cheating started (wall hacks, auto aim, time shift, etc, etc) within a matter of months every server in the SoF2 community was corrupted by these cheating arseholes. I *_EARNT_* my skill thru dedication and putting the time in but within a short period of time I was relegated to mid/low table positions at the end of the game. When I started playing there were over 100,000 players on at any given time. The 2 biggest clans were UPS (United Pot Smokers) and Heretic - but both were known to be lead and controlled by hackers and so there was a lot of banning and/or bullshit if u spoke out against them. Raven absolutely _nailed_ this game (SoF2) - and when Activision came along everyone knew it was not going to end well. When Payback was released, the entire community reacted the same way: *_WTF is this???_* - and the effects were immediate. People refused to have anything to do with it. Jump forward to present time and look what Activision have now done to Blizzard. No one ever learns the lesson that all should adhere to: *_LISTEN TO THE COMMUNITY_*
@@zockerdaddel3321 Sorry, Bud, but my interest in SoF2 ended a very long time ago. But, also, I am not entirely sure what u mean. A product in alpha stage is usually considered to be early in development, while a product in beta stage is considered to be closer to completion. What use (assuming u could even find them) would they be to u?
Makes me so sad how Raven is just slaving away in the COD mines. They are still able to create great experiences, since they made the Cold War campaign.
God damn I miss this series, the first 2 games were awesome. Nowadays they would have so many sensitive snowflakes crying that the games to violent and try and trash it.
In my long history of video games, the first Soldier of Fortune is one of the ones thats in the top 10 of memories or my life at that time. Thick with nostaglia for me, I could describe the room I was in while playing it and where I was at that point in my life. Video games help tell my autobiography,
Everyone in high school in Germany had a pirated copy of this game. They definitely missed out on a lot of sales due to the censorship.
We are a fucked up country with leaders living in the stone age simply so we had to get special treatment, blame the fucks up there. Oh, dont you dare mention by the way that in the meanwhile 10x more extreme gore titles like Dead Space are on all shelves in every major store all over the place.
Now cause everything got digitalized and we have far more games nobody cares about censorship anymore but yeah, that was a nightmarish time.
It wouldn't have made a big difference if they didn't censor. Not being publicly available is pretty much the death of something.
@dustisdeadbodies85 Yeah, red blood=bad. It was madness back then, but it got better quickly. The original Time Crisis was on the "index" (no advertisements, no display in stores, you had to ask for it, and be 18 of course), the successor Project Titan, featuring the same gameplay was rated 16+...
censorship doesn't work, in fact it creates the opposite. More attention
@dustisdeadbodies85 I remember playing Tomb Raider 3 with purple(!) blood. It looked ridiculous.
"feared their new owner's corporate culture would gradually consume their sense of identity"
and what do you know..
last developed original ip would be Singularity. These poor devs have spent the last 10 years doing nothing but call of duty ports and a remaster.
Singularity was cool too.
Yes. The reward for success was basically being sent down to the mines for hard labour until they were worn out and quit.
People would call me naive, but I wish the artists could somehow take their industry back.
I know you think is cool to hate big companies and all that but the truth is Raven's best games were made under the Activision brand. Jedi Knight & Academy, X-Men Legends series, Singularity, Wolfenstein 2009, Star Trek: Voyager...
They're now slaves it's so tragic
At least activision didn’t shut them down like EA does to its studios...
4:38 I hate how they predicted their own demise...
Not-so subtle foreshadowing
Spot on
If only they trusted their gut and made a play for more control of things. Maybe that wasn't possible, I don't know.
Saw that logo and just went 💀
Activision and EA are just great at killing creativity and art.
The staff's concern about being sold to activision came true years later.
That's pretty much why id Software decided not to join them.
It's horrific
@@gamzillio Is not like Bethesda is any good either.
@@Argoon1981 Bethesda is waaaay better.
@@Argoon1981 Bethesda literally just brought back doom. and its having a sequel.
Somewhere, a copy of Soldier of Fortune for Dreamcast is still loading...
Gabriele Riva 😂 too true
sof1.org
That was my first experience with sof and i loved it. The guy pissing in the train station..i blew his legs off LOL
THOSE LOAD TIMES THOUGH
Peasant
I remember being a kid and playing this game. The gore was unlike any other game! And surprise, surprise... I didn't turn out to be a serial killer, or violent at all. Shocker... the media was wrong... again.
I also played it as a Kid, to early to be onest, on the other hand it was one of the best shooters of it´s time :D
That's what a serial killer would say your not fooling me
Ugh. I can't stand the media. Haha.
How do we know tho
I did. The media was right.
Pretty sure i have ran over many innocents pedestrians in Gta since then.
Soldier of Fortune 1 has some of the most fun gunplay ever. The shotgun was a treaure to behold.
@Necramonium
I think Max Payne 2 does this aswell.
@FM LR
It has the most beast sound for an SMG ever.
@@civilwarfare101 And shotgun, and magnum pistol aaand ... the rest as well! Sound in the environment and the characters are all very good. It had such a cool atmosphere. Just great over the top action.
Loved the attention to detail the gore had in it, shoot a guy with a shotgun in the gut and his intestince would pop out, all we get these days is red face
@@civilwarfare101 it is 3rd person...
SoF2 multiplayer was one of the greatest FPS experiences I've ever had. Still wish I could go back to those days.
MRU?
I played it for over ten years after it's release. Sof2 was a big part of my childhood
Best close combat mp ever, cs has nothing on sof2 mp
Me and my buddies made land tornaments of soft2... It was school and soft2. What a godd life it as back then... Limburguer was my name tag...
DRAGON clan member here. We sniped in the server smoke lounge.
Nobody has done an MP random map generator as good as SOF2 did to this day. Pushing the Q3 engine to the limit.
Wolfenstein 2009 is a good game ^^
It need an another look
@@Lemmy31 Are you referring to the game called "Return to Castle Wolfenstein"?
@@nerychristian No, that's the previous game in the franchise. He clearly referred to Wolf 2009
I actually preferred the SOF2 Demo that used just the one map. All players new every last detail of that map and could run it in their sleep, including all the little glitches like squatting your way inside of a barrel. Made it like a royal rumble of vets, and a lot of fun.
"its willingness to sell its content mater to children" .... More like the willingness for parents to buy there underage kids this content..
@ or accept the blame for their own faults
Can't remember how I got it, but it definitely wasn't my parents. Probably my brother. It was an amazing game - the first I ever completed. I was 12 or something and I turned out fine (this far).
Everyone in the 90s watched action movies, live police pursuits, and gory 80s horror flicks...of which came the teeny-slasher horror wave of the 90s. So raising hell about red splashes in shitty 3d graphics on 14' monitors was obviously sanctimonious and hypocritical, even back then. GenX in the 80s was addicted to TV and pop consumerism, and along came these youngsters, with a developing culture of their own. Not caring about TV, blockbuster movies, not into buying cars, fancy clothes and big concerts anymore. Yet another artificial moral panic generated by the entertainment industry, by corporations, religious nut jobs, and political nobodies. All of whom saw a way to advance their own agenda...
@@NightFlash24 "Not caring about TV, blockbuster movies, not into buying cars, fancy clothes and big concerts anymore." sounds like you weren't alive in the 90s.
Panics he was talking about the emerging video game culture. Not the culture in general.
I miss Ravens own Ip’s. They made some great and interesting shooters. Wolfenstein 2009 is a highly underrated game. It’s still an absolute blast to play. They need to add it back on Steam.
now where is my like button at Ö
far to underrated
Wolfenstein 2009 was an amalgamation of Activision's,Id's and Raven's formulas,but it somehow worked quite well,truly underrated.
I thought the reason was that wolfenstein 2009 was in legal limbo since technically both Activision and Id own that game
Wolfenstein 09 is still my favorite Wolfenstein.
It is still a good game. Pretty glitchy at some parts on modern hardware though.
dude i used to play this game with my dad when i was in elementary school, we had pcs side by side and would play all the time. i didn’t really play sports as a kid and my dad was big into war games so this is what i got to do. wouldn’t trade it for the world some of my best memories
This is literally the best gaming related channel on youtube. Honestly they deserver millions of subscribers with the effort they put into these documentaries.
Search Ahoy. That's good as well.
@@Jolgeable nah
Finally,the FPS of my childhood is getting some attention,SOF 1 and 2 (especially 2 for me) is one of the best FPS out there,and until Doom Eternal comes out with it's "Destructible Demons" system,it will remain the goriest and most brutal FPS out there.
Raven Software,before becoming a slave to Activision,used to have such a good formula for FPS games,those long,well paced campaigns of varied missions,with sweet trips to a hub area from time to time,great variety in weapons and actually well written stories,it's amazing,I wish they'd go back to making games that aren't COD one day .
SOF2
Quake 4
Woflenstein 2009
Singularity
All great games,all a reminder to Raven's wasted potential.
Yes I played this and counter strike the most
@@korn2040 I played IGI as well,at least that one is coming back.
Same man, the truly great days of gaming in hindsight. I spent probably years of my life playing SOF2 online, and Wolfenstein, but less online, I apparently was into speedrunning before it was a thing, I used to run the first 10 missions so much that I had every path memorized and was super consistent with my time. SOF2 was the shit tho, I still remember being a 10 year old trying to join clans and eventually convincing one clan that I was 16 so they let me in lol
But I got a question for you, since you played the same games as myself growing up, what's your opinion of the new Wolfenstein games?
@@chickenpotpie4045 YoB clan represent, 64 player matches on shop were the shit, i miss that badly
@@THExRISER wow youre like the only person i found that plays that in 16 years. I am 31 now. I used to love Project IGI
Raven was a solid developer, i still miss them.
pronstorestiffi I put raven in the same category as “Looking glass studios” and “Pandemic” .......all groundbreaking developers that were destroyed out of envy, by larger soulless corporations.
@@Dj.MODÆO Agree, Looking Glass was high on my list as one of the best developer houses at that point in time. So many great studios gone.
right up there with blizzard north IMO
@@Dj.MODÆO visceral
pronstorestiffi stuck in call of duty hell
Why most of the game franchises covered in "The rise and fall" series are either from EA or Activision ?
I mean, it's common sense is it not...
I think Blizzard can contribute with Warcraft and Diablo now as well
The story of Activision is the story of a hero fallen from grace when it stood up against Atari, only to become the very Vilian it fought against.
Because they're big companies and the acquired a lot of assets due to capital. The simplest answer is usually the correct one.
Activision has a massive arsenal of dead franchises/IP's especially in recent years. EA isn't any different, just hasn't killed as many IP's as Activision.
Really wish Soldier of Fortune 1 & 2 were remastered and on Steam.
Too bad what happened to Raven Software.
truth. I wish GOG didn't exist so they could come to Steam
.. or just get them on gog...
and if you are german(considering the name), to buy it without vpn/keyseller:
get a cookie editor.
open gog in a browser, log in.
open second tab, google the game you want, now look for a cookie in the gog tab that contains something like with DE-eu... edit every DE to AT and save.
now be quick, click google link to the game, and put it in the cart, and check out. if the cookie gets refreshed, its gone from cart/cant be viewed and you have to repeat it.
once you are in the payment process its safe. can be downloaded without further issues via galaxy aswell.
Now, how is GOG being gone a good thing?
The first four, five years of competitive Soldier of Fortune 2 (especially in Europe) were incredible, will never forget those times. Shoutout to everyone who was there 🤜
The good old Clanbase days! Hell, even the later years were awesome. Hard game to put down, just kept drawing me back in.
I remember you, you were one of the greatest players. :)
Clanplay, xdt league, xf2 europs servers, TCL, Wax anti cheats. My best days on my life was on game tbh i really loved this game.
SoF2 still has some the most responsive characters out there, even almost 2 decades after it was released
If it isn't my favorite Slav.
I love the game. I had very fun LAN parties with it.
SOF looked beautiful when it launched. Textures had amazing detail, that Glock is something you can never forget as well as SPAS shotgun and armored enemies. No joke it looked really modern at that time.
SOF2 I remember because of it's amazingly fluid multiplayer with corner peaking and fast time to kill. I have switched to it after CS and Q2-3 and switched SOF2 for COD2 (hello bolt rifle servers) and later CSS.
RIP.
It sounds dorky but I can't express my gratitude for this channel enough. I don't know half the games they talk about but everything seems so thorough and professional. I respect the hell out of that.
Agreed. It's what G4 was like in 2002.
Oh man, someone *finally* remembers Conflict: Desert Storm.
Off topic but I'm just glad it got some footage or reference.
I played the crap out of that game.
Miss my boy Paul Foley.
My dad and I used to play that game together, i miss couch coop military strategy games like the conflict series or the socom series
Raven made some of my favorite games of the early 2000s I spent countless hours playing elite force 1 and 2 as well as Jedi knight 2 and 3 back in high school and college. I also really enjoyed soldier of fortune 2 for what it was. they generally made really good FPS games over the years. It is really sad they are now relegated to working on nothing but call of duty.
The guy at the desk at 4:52 is my friend Bobby. Worked with him for years.
Give him a slap on the ass from me.
Other cheek from me.
Right in the crack from me
Sack tap from me
I loved "Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix's" MP. It was my first online FPS. Such fun times! Its main rival at the time was Counter-Strike. So, if you were playing an online FPS, it was either that, or whatever the competition threw at it e.g. Quake III, Unreal Tournament, Soldier of Fortune, etc. Like most pre-millennium properties, Soldier of Fortune (games and magazine) represents a different time. I don't think the franchise should be brought back, but it should be cited as a main contributor to moving video games (as a medium) forward, both technologically and artistically.
I love the game too. Probably the most fun multiplayer, next to COD4 and Time Splitters.
Yep. Infiltration mode was so good. Very fond memories of that.
Yeah this was an amazing game for it's time.
I loved fragging it up and skinning my own models for this game.
loved throwing knives on it
@@tomfurstyfield Oh man I forgot about those. no better way to win a round
4:38 I guess current or formor employees shouted "CALLED IT" after they became a CoD-factory
SoF2 was one of a kind. The gore in the game was very disturbing, my dad didn't allow me to play it lol the story was great as well, and the missons very different.
SOF was savage. I remember playing it nonstop when it came out.
No! The hand of praise, please!
"Activision pushing a game before the license runs out"
Im getting massive deja vu here
The first two Soldier of Fortune games are some of my favorite games of all time, friends used to come over just to play the first level and abuse the Ghoul engine by dismembering enemies with the knife and shotgun. Still keep both installed on my PC never to be uninstalled due to the effort it took getting both working on modern hardware (still use Windows 7 as both don't work on Windows 10 at all from prior experience both crash on startup with modern Windows). Now I'm tempted to go back on my PC and play through both games again, another great documentary of one of my favorite series!
GOG has the games available now.
@@cheater87 I noticed them for cheap on gog but haven't needed the gog versions at least not yet the physical copies I have still work just fine. Whenever the day comes that I do upgrade to Windows 10 then yeah that's when ill need the gog versions because my physical copies won't work anymore.
SOF 1 & 2 were *absolute classics.*
*I have been waiting so long for this episode.*
5:16 - Underwater knife fighting techniques... ah yes what a perfect skill set to go along with my acrobatic skydiving jujitsu
I really miss when each weapon had an alt fire
Gainstrup i only ever played the campaign for it and just really liked how it just gave you different ways to fuck shit up. if your looking for something with a high skill cap, spelling is a good place to start. Dident? Cmon brah.
Soldier of fortune 2 was one of my all time favorites while growing up
The days that MP was still fun
In high school 2004 roughly we were able to get admin privileges and hid the install files for SOF2 on probably a 3rd of the schools computers. Study that year in the Computer lab quickly turned into 16 player Lan games. It was great.
I remember my parents bought this game for me when I was way to young lol i never remembered the name but I recognized the gameplay. I only ever did the one beginning mission in the subway and was terrified. Life long hunt for the name of this game has been completed! I’m so happy
Thank you so much for making a video on this series. I use to spend hours playing SOF2 on the devil's clan server. It was my first online FPS game and still remains my favorite. The overpowered shotgun, extremely accurate rifles, accidentally killing yourself with an overcooked grenade and the loads of custom maps/skins- game was just an awesome experience.
Sadly the community is pretty dead. I blame the choke hold on the IP not getting migrated to services like steam. Think of all the custom content players developed for the game that people will never get to experience again.
SOF was one of my favorite FPS. None of my friends played. But I remember trying to get them into SOF especially when the newer gore system came!
Oh man, the memories... I played the shit out of SOF2 online, mostly the Wasteland (desert) maps. It was my first online experience, I loved it so much. I still have so many in-game screenshots. My next 'love' was Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, funnily enough, also made by Raven Software. Thanks for being such a huge part of my childhood!
Wow! I played Jedy Academy, now I'm playing Jedi Outcast for the first time, in 2020! (finally got that lightsaber) XD
@@Jolgeable Haha, and I was looking into buying Jedi Academy to try it out... :p
I LOVED this game sooooo much!!!!
I know. one of my friends had it on ps2 when we were kids and he used to bring it over. Almost certain it was his dads and it always felt like something we shouldn't have been playing. it was akin to sneakily looking at your pops playboys. I remember staring at the guts and being like. "NOOO WAAAY"
Saame the intense violence and attention to detail suprises me still for its agem
SoF2 is my all time favourite Game and was my Gateway to Pro Gaming, thank you guys so much for making this Video!!!
Being Raven & id Software are my favorite development studios this "Soldier of Fortune" profile is extremely welcome & most enjoyable, thank you!
Ah yes, another victim to Activision's greed and haste to grow
Yup. They're doing a wonderful job killing Blizzard as well.
@@37Kilo2 Blizzard is doing a great job killing themselves actually. Activision doesn't control Blizzard games, even though they both are in co-operation. Just like how Modern Warfare isn't a Blizzard game despite being on the BattleNet launcher. All Activision really have control over is their games, which is probably just CoD.
@@37Kilo2 Blizzard is doing a great job on their own . 'Don't you guys have phones' and 'Don't you guys have free speech' . They make EA fucking Electronic Arts look like saints.
I love your channel. The rise and fall series is some of the best.
I remember the first time I sprayed someone with a machine gun and they just stood there twitching while taking the bullets Hollywood style until I was done shooting. I was mind blown
I spent so many hrs playing and replaying SoF back in the day. I remember it so clearly. Crazy it's been 20 yrs.
As someone who had the Dreamcast Port I only recognize the opening subway level...
I love these documentaries
Do rise and fall of Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction and World in Flames
And part 3 got cancelled sadly.
@bigevilworldwide1 What? The first was groundbreaking. The 2nd was god awful.
both games were wicked
@bigevilworldwide1 The first Mercenaries is certainly not mediocre at best, it was a quality game.
@@ashleythomas4112 the second one was tits. fuckin hook an APC full of rebels up under your helicopter and drop it into a base then crash the chopper and come out guns blazing!
HOLY SHIT this was my most favorite game EVER at the time. Wow. You brought back some memories
Ah, yes. I remember how much we german kids frequented sites providing uncut patches for games.
SoF 1 and 2 were two of my favorites back then. The government tried so hard to protect our little purity from violent games and it was all for naught. We all played and enjoyed them. All they managed to do was costing the devs and publishers sales, because we pirated those titles like crazy.
und online nachlesen auf schnittberichte was in welchem spiel wieder rausgenommen wurde haha
@@rdmptn3828 So isses.
Mach ich teilweise heute noch. Ich hasse diese dämliche Bevormundung, zumal ich den 18. Geburtstag schon lange hinter mir hab.
i remember when my dad bought a computer for everyone, and i just really really diverse into the technology. my first game on computer was bookworm
then plant's vs zombies and more childish pc games, then i go to the fun stuff where i can control the character, jump, dodge, shoot, everyone know's the basic
lesson. Soldier of Fortune was my favourite game, aside from half life, counter strike, and some other fps games, this one always put me on being aggressive
head are popping, limbs go kaboom. and i really miss raven software.
Thanks guys for covering this game! I remember sneaking onto my mates older brothers PC to play this when he was out at work when I was a kid (the original one). We were blown away by the gore and the second one was even better! Years later the third came out and I played it on Xbox 360, what a joke of a game. A real pity.
The gore could be super advanced on current hardware and a great selling point. Add an okay story and you got yourself a winner. Oh well.
SF3 has a very advanced gore system (played the PC version) more so then the past games, even tho a pistol can rip a harm on this game... but the real problem with it, is the IP is based on and the expectations people add for it, people were expecting more, they were expecting a better SF2 and got one more low budget Call of Duty clone, if it was not called Soldier of Fortune, i'm sure it would had gotten better reviews. IMO If you make a effort to forget what SF3 should have been, and look at it for what it is, the game can still give you some hours of fun shooting. Is like Code of Honor 3, even tho is a pretty obvious low budget game copying fear (is even made with fear engine) and call of duty, is still a very nice game to play.
@@Argoon1981 As far as I remember the gore was way less detailed and realistic, I may be wrong though. I do remember being annoyed with limbs being severed with any weapon too. I think I found the game randomly and got super hyped, then I played it and I thought it was pure garbage. I eventually gave it a shot and found it tolerable, but a shallow experience still.
I remember fixing my brother's computer in exchange for him buying me a copy of the first SoF (for PC, of course). Still have my copy around here somewhere. The best thing Raven can do for SoF, in my opinion, is what id Software did for a lot of its early properties: release the source code and let hobbyists get their hands on it.
This game used to be THE war gore game. Loved it.
I don’t know why but watching UA-cam videos about obscured gaming information and lore and facts and stuff like this long into the night is one of the absolute favorite pastimes of mine and has been since I was a kid and this channel seems like it was made for me I love you guys videos
Now that Warcraft 3 "reforged" is out, make a "Rise and Fall of Warcraft"
Warcraft hasn't fallen though? A History Of is probably more fitting
Thanks for the efforts you put into each of your videos, they're among the most instructive and informative about video games. Keep up the great work !
lol could you imagine a company getting away with developing a game based on a war/merc/weapons magazine? I think there would be even more backlash with the ever present boogeyman of the arms industry/firearms lobbies.
Soldier of Fortune was my favorite FPS growing up! I would play it over and over again. I love the dismemberment graphics!! :D Thank you for making this GVMERS!
I’d love to see a video about Full Spectrum Warrior.
Did FSW really had a 'downfall' though? It just came and went like most non-series games, didn't it?
Mr. Pilgrim not sure, maybe just a history video or something.
Or the Conflict games
@@agp11001 It did have a sequel in Ten Hammers 2 years later.
SOF 2 is one of my top 10 FPS of all time. A lengthy campaign with a campy but engaging story, plenty of firepower to choose from before each mission starts, tons of gore, and the random mission generator which was a nice (though not essential) diversion...pretty much everything I want in a shooter back then and now.
Soldier of Fortune 2 Multiplayer. Best online game ever.
i’ve always wished rainbow six siege would’ve had this crazy type of gore , just imagine quietly walking through a hallway with your buddy and then you hear ; “LMG MOUNTED AND READY”!! and then all of a sudden the wall comes down next to you as your buddy turns into a piece of swiss cheese, or a frag grenade comes flying in the room and you see a leg , arm and just all kinds of bits and pieces of your operator go everywhere … that would be sick
We done a Rise and Fall on the 007 games? Any time I get to see/hear more about Nightfire is a _good_ time.
007: Legends drama could be an entire documentary by itself.
Nightfire is the GOAT
Nightfire and N64 World is Not Enough are great!
@@Book-noob Everything or Nothing my friend. Pun intended.
Double O7 everything or nothing. The multiplayer Co-op was only thing I could never beat
*My first online shooter* was Soldier of Fortune II and I loved it even though it was a version *without blood,* but we had no idea about that, it still kicked major ass.
When you have to cut the internet to call your friend, tell him the server to meet on, then reconnect to internet and join the server with him together... 😂 The first time I saw my friend running besides me was a so amazing moment, I will *never* forget it. Oh the good ol' days as a child 🖤
Damn I love this game. I still play it's multiplayer,and it's still really fun. 100% recomended
Soldier of Fortune 2 will always be my favorite FPS!
I would love to see a remake of that game. I've made 100's of mods for even the demo version (still got them) great video!
Damn I forgot about this game. This shit was my childhood.
Still remember getting the uncut version back in Switzerland. Majority of the shops either didn't sell it or had only the German censored version. One shop had mostly the US uncut version. Had to pay much more but at least it was original. Buuut, even though I had it, my win version was set to German, preventing it to be uncut. My friend found out that changing the country setting to US would work and it did.
We enjoyed the crap out of it that we were excited to get 2. My friend enjoyed it but I did not. It looked cheap and gameplay it self wasn't so thrilling as the first. Part 3 I did not even bother to get.
Next: The Rise and Fall of Delta Force🙏
OH HELLLLLLL YEAH!!!! The multiplayer for Soldier of Fortune II was what brought me into online gaming. It was so damn impressive back then.
Mike Watkinson getcha
27:42 No, thank you producing this video. Another home run. Keep up the good work
SoF2 was the best multiplayer FPS experience of my life.
Likewise man!
Oh dear, the good old days when Activision was a gaming company.
SOF2 multiplayer was the greatest and most unique fps experiences I've ever had. Played the game for 14 years until it died. It's hard to put into words how the movement felt, it was so smooth. Good times.
-viper from xtinct Legacy.
*I remember Sof Payback.. it was decent for its time* ✅😀
Hey acidglow I see you everywhere brother
Content of this Quality deserves millions of views, man why you so underrated.
Theres three titles available on GOG, i picked up the oldest one on sale 75% off, its the one with the highest reviews =)
@Starscream91 😇 Thank You, heres the games information page:
GOG DOT com
Soldier of Fortune: Platinum Edition
Reviews: 4.4/5
Game details:
Genre: Shooter - FPP - Modern
Works on: Windows (7, 8, 10)
Release date: August 28, 2001
Company: Raven Software / Activision
Size: 472 MB
.
Yes!!! I have been waiting for this one for so long!
I see a GVMERS video I like it.
you know.. I was going to write about this game. However, this channel is just amazing. You covered a game of my childhood, and you went way more in depth than 12 yr me. Thank you
Damn, man, this brings back memories.
I remember doing clan scrims on kam-2 map in SoF 2 during summer vacation. Best times ever. It was a simple map so you had to polish every move to perfection, to have an edge over enemy team.
I can't believe they released a version "for families" lmao. It's a game where you slaughter hundreds of People
History of The Sims maybe? Another awesome documentary.
i remember just blowing peoples heads off in Soldier of Fortune 2: Double Helix, do i need help?
One of the best games I've ever played! God I miss this series.
Funny, I just reinstalled SOF2 earlier this week.
The narrator for this video has to be one of the best I have heard in a UA-cam documentary in a long time.
I dedicated my life to SoF2 ... I lived and breathed this game for almost 10 years. I even made maps for it with Radiant 1.4 - and if u knew what u were doing, u could use assets from a number of games like Q3A, Jedi Academy, RTCW, to name a few. But what this video fails to acknowledge is the ACTUAL down fall of SoF2 was the cheating. I was a die hard Q3A/Unreal Tournament player before I got into SoF2, so my reflexes and accuracy was off the chart. I dominated in nearly every game I played. But when the cheating started (wall hacks, auto aim, time shift, etc, etc) within a matter of months every server in the SoF2 community was corrupted by these cheating arseholes.
I *_EARNT_* my skill thru dedication and putting the time in but within a short period of time I was relegated to mid/low table positions at the end of the game. When I started playing there were over 100,000 players on at any given time. The 2 biggest clans were UPS (United Pot Smokers) and Heretic - but both were known to be lead and controlled by hackers and so there was a lot of banning and/or bullshit if u spoke out against them.
Raven absolutely _nailed_ this game (SoF2) - and when Activision came along everyone knew it was not going to end well. When Payback was released, the entire community reacted the same way: *_WTF is this???_* - and the effects were immediate. People refused to have anything to do with it.
Jump forward to present time and look what Activision have now done to Blizzard.
No one ever learns the lesson that all should adhere to: *_LISTEN TO THE COMMUNITY_*
@@zockerdaddel3321 Sorry, Bud, but my interest in SoF2 ended a very long time ago. But, also, I am not entirely sure what u mean. A product in alpha stage is usually considered to be early in development, while a product in beta stage is considered to be closer to completion. What use (assuming u could even find them) would they be to u?
Makes me so sad how Raven is just slaving away in the COD mines. They are still able to create great experiences, since they made the Cold War campaign.
4:34
I know how the story ends now, thanks
God the recoil patterns of SoF 2 make me fucking seasick. Same as the crouching that's like stomping on the ground with every step you take. My eyes!
God damn I miss this series, the first 2 games were awesome. Nowadays they would have so many sensitive snowflakes crying that the games to violent and try and trash it.
People did the same back then. SoF would still have its audience regardless.
Honstley i would agrue you barely see that nowdays to be considered a consistent problem but it is a possibility none the less.
In my long history of video games, the first Soldier of Fortune is one of the ones thats in the top 10 of memories or my life at that time. Thick with nostaglia for me, I could describe the room I was in while playing it and where I was at that point in my life. Video games help tell my autobiography,
No one cares if you are first...
No one commented that
Being first comments are so 2012...
Old Stars. Sof2 was one of the best mp games I've ever played.
Bless you guys for taking the time to do professional video game documentaries
This is fascinating! Thank you! Soldier of Fortune was my first foray into PC gaming. Rarely is it ever mentioned these days.