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NOLF was one of the greatest games of my childhood, the vibe, the story, the characters, all of it was enticing and wonderfully executed. Will never forget it!
Got here from your r/nolf post. Thank you for covering one of my favourite game series, I love when someone makes a video on it because it deserves so much more exposure. Forever bereft about the legal troubles, I always keep a little bit of hope that a remake will happen one day 🥺
@@Rodger_Phillips and we'll watch the video twice in the impossible hope of somehow maybe somewhere it blows up and someone somewhere actually looks into where the hell the IP is and if there's room to give it a go once again or even better yet for less chance of disappointment, some indie project based off or influenced by it with more soul than a possible actual studio remake. ps. remember the cover of NOLF 2 with Kate in that orange shirt and killer black overcoat? it's one of the many little examples of I think... you know how during teenage years of development one finds little pieces here and there of appreciation of female beaty? that whole cover was one of them. that badass and that sleek at the same time really got me back then and I think to this day it has affected my tastes. ps. let's appreciate the bravery of nocturnal rambler for the bravery on making the video of something that most gamers today would go 'huh?' over, he could've spend the same time over something more popular from any era but went for a cult classic very very close to my heart.
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it! It was a lot of fun for me to go back and replay these games again, and even more fun to give them such thorough coverage in this video.
I watch a lot of retrospectives for games and movie but as far as I know this is the first time I've come across your channel. This was such a great review with a lot of fair points. I borrowed 2 from my best friend a few years after it came out. I love the style and atmosphere, at the time I was still playing a lot of Evil Genius which has the same vibe. The sword fight in the cabin as it is being torn apart by the tornado is still one of my favourite parts in gaming.
Hey man, I really like your content. I especially appreciate how you blurred the spoiler-related documents. Your video made me curious in this game and I'm thankful that I can still do that spoiler free!
No problem, and thanks for the kind words! I actually had to do a fair amount of editing around spoilers in both documents and cutscenes and even random background details because the story is such a big part of these games (especially in NOLF1) with a few notable twists that I felt were worth preserving for anyone who hadn't played these games yet. I hope you'll get the chance to play them and that they'll bring you as much joy as they've brought me over the decades.
Holy cow, what a blast from the past. I remember really liking NOLF and then apparently completely forgot about it. Seeing this makes me want to go back and replay them, although I'm positive I don't have the discs anymore. Good to hear they're available to download even if not officially.
Absolutely loved NOLF and this brought back lots of memories so thanks. I too enjoyed 1 more than 2. I think the variety of maps, the comedy, story, set pieces, and overall feel. Can't confirm but my memory feels like NOLF 2 the areas were smaller, or maybe my character felt bigger within the environment, not sure if anyone else felt that way.
Finally a review that mentions the soundtrack differences! ! I played the 2nd game first, then the first on PS2 as a kid, whenever I played the 1st game later in time I always found it had a different atmosphere and eventually realised it was the music. PC version is better, but sadly with non of the PS2 music ....
I'm guessing the vast majority of people are only familiar with the PC version and thus don't even realize there's such a drastic difference in the music with the PS2 version. I of course already voiced my appreciation for the PS2 soundtrack just as music in general, but the fact that doesn't adapt to the gameplay, like almost at all, does lead to some weird tonal disconnects and jarring transitions that you don't get with the PC version.
In retrospect, Monolith Productions was a fairly consistent factor during my pipsqueak days with gems like F.E.A.R., Condemned I+II, Aliens Versus Predator 2 & for a little bit No One Lives Forever too. Wish I played this title along with it's sequel more during my more prolific gaming days back in the day. Nostalgia (for simpler times).
Yup, I played all of those games as well, including a little bit of Blood 2. Monolith were amazingly prolific back in the late 90s and early 2000s and even into the mid 2000s, but since then they've weirdly fallen off the radar. Shadow of Mordor and its sequel are like the only games they've done in the last 15 years that I'm even remotely familiar with. And they apparently haven't released anything at all in like seven years?
@@TheNocturnalRambler they have been assigned to a Wonder Woman game, but every time it makes a no show at a conference you start to fear that it is suffering from mismanagement and sinking into vaporware, until WB uses the project for tax write off - their track record with this behavior in these last 5 years have been exceedingly alarming
NOLF1 will always be my favorite. I can remember walking through Gamestop waaay back in the early 2000's, and saw the game sitting on the PS2 games rack. There was Cate, in the doorway, gun in hand, sneaking up on some cool looking thug in a brightly lit doorway. I picked up the case, flipped it to read the back, and was not disappointed with the purchase I wanted my mother to buy. ( She chose Klonoa 2 for her game. :) ) I have played it on the PC this past year or two, three tops, but for me the PS2 version will forever be my favorite port/version. The music imo is waaay better than the PC, and I was furious that the online version you can download didn't include the two missions from Cate's past of being a pickpocket. Getting the diamond was hands down my favorite level. Cleaning up and receiving help from the ghost of the maid was so cool, and the fact Cate managed to escape because of her is so awesome. "Yeah I was murdered, I'll help you steal something valuable from those who committed the deed. nwn"
An absolute masterpiece of gaming, with brilliant level design and the most well written dialogue and voice acting in gaming history, Cate Archer (the hero) is a stellar protagonist, and she's some kind of anti-hero that goes against all tired cliches of videogame heroes (like few others like Conker's from Bad Fur Day or Bayonetta)... one of the finest first person shooters that made great use of sound for stealth sections and had a fantastic variety of levels (vertical / horizontal / platforming / driving / sniping) it keeps exciting from beginning to end during its 20 hour lenght (over 40 levels).
In regards to a ranking and a favourite part or moment from the games: 1st place: NOLF2: ASIHW, 2nd: TO: NOLF & 3rd and (justifiably) last: Contract: J.A.C.K. For the second part of the request - actually none in particular, as it's been quite a while since I last played them, but I DO remember and love how the series in general and unapologetically leans into and doesn't shy away from a period-accurate/-authentic depiction (through a tongue-in-cheek lens) of the 60s cold war era, including the portrayal of national/cultural stereotypes, as well as alluding to the social and societal norms, like the role of women at that time.
1:06:53 I would politely disagree on this point. I was in the Marines and a lot of times you'd have to bunk down or catch some sleep in a place with lights still on, when you'd later switch them off, a bunch of people would wake up and notice. Your sleeping brain will take note of both ends of changes in light level.
Fair enough, I just personally don't think I've ever experienced that situation (or noticed it if I have) and so it doesn't seem intuitive to me. Thanks for pointing that out however.
Played both Nolf 1 and 2 and the first level of Contract Jack and immediately knew this wasn't going to live up to the Nolf games. Though I like both 1 and 2 I'm probably going against popular oppinion by saying the second one is my favorite. The thing that I found most funny was the angry kitty proximity mine and the female ninja's having conversations about collague ninjas and saying "I'm so sleepy" when using sedation arrows on them. But there are a lot of humerous moments also in the first game when two goons are talking about beer or one about a collague which was a heavy smoker.
It's been far too long for me to remember any special in game moment. It is all just a vague fond memories of action and laughing my ass off. But I *DO* remember this as one of the core LAN shooters we played whenever people were over and we'd have 4-6 hour marathon sessions of just playing over and over again. And how absolutely craic the PVP was. Great weapon spreads, interesting environments, the often comical events when you got on a snow ski. Love this game.
NOLF 2 and my favorite part that got me to laugh was during the mission in Russia, where you over hear two guards IIRC talking about a fellow guard who recently disappeared shortly after saying something "counter revolutionary" within hear shot of the local KGB officer and one of them says "this is the union of soviet socialist republics people just don't DISAPPEAR" which if you know the history of political dissidence in the soviet union during its existence you know just untrue that statement is and it just struck me. I never sadly played NOLF 1 which is something I hope to fix in the future, Contract JACK was my most regretful purchase ever.
Loving it ,got it from e friend in 2002 , the second one from a classmate , who got it as a gift from her sister who brought it from Italy , loved it then and ever since .
My favorite detail in NOFL and maybe in gaming history, is that if you look at the agency's director desk after a certain debriefing (can't remember which) you notice only 3 glasses of whiskey. There's 4 of you in that room
Loved the first two games - I think I may even have the Contract Jack disk somewhere, but I can't recall playing more than about 30 mins of it. I played them in the wrong order, but though NOLF 2 was graphically prettier than NOLF 1, the humour and gameplay was great in both games. NOLF is a lot funnier than Austin Powers, which had the subtlety of a sledgehammer!
I love Austin Powers for being so completely over-the-top and absurd with the tropes, but in the context of a 15-20 hour video game campaign I think I prefer the more balanced, subtle tone that NOLF1 went with.
It was only part of the Game of the Year edition that came out a year or so later, so it wasn't in the original release or the PS2 port. I had never played it either until 2016 when I downloaded the NOLF Revival version, which actually includes the bonus mission. It doesn't do anything new or groundbreaking but it's got some more fun, all-new level environments and more of that whimsical, lighthearted tone as Cate's vacation is interrupted by a monkey stealing her gun which leads her down a rabbit hole discovering another branch of HARM operating on this remote tropical island.
I only played the first one. I tried the second one but it just didn't click with me. Two memorable moments stand out from the first one though. The parachute sequence and one random conversation between two guards about jazz (I think) The npc chatter was phenomenal all around in any case! Edit: you even mentioned the jazz bit. As a negative? It stuck with me especially because it wasn't too comedic or absurd. It just humanized the goons in a way I haven't seen anything else do.
Thank you for the comment. That's a good point about the humanizing nature of some of these conversations that I didn't articulate in the review. I'm a musician so naturally I enjoyed that conversation as well, but I didn't intend to highlight it as explicitly negative -- I was just using it as an example of a more mundane subject to illustrate that not all of them are meant to be "laugh-out-loud funny" like the game's reputation is known for.
I remember crying from laughter after hearing a dialog duribg Syberia mission when our pilot is kept prisoner and two russians discuss how to torture him or something like this😂 NOLF1 was actually the very first fps game I was able to comfortably play. Around that same time, my dad was playing Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament, and I was just scared to play them😆 actually more scared to play Unreal. I dont know, even the logo and menu music felt scary. Quake 3 I was able to play but it felt a bit boring just to run, jump and kill everything around. But then, NOLF1 happened and it changed everything. The Marocco mission and „you look like you need a monkey” jokes came to save the day and the fps genre for me. Great game, great review. Thanks!
I played it under windows 7 on superspy just to get the most original experience, it's amazing, the gameplay, atmosphere, humor, the main character Kate Archer, everything is very good, I've only just tasted the second part. But for me, my real favorites are Fear and Tron 2.0.
ah NOLF, I loved this series, which was remarkably hard to get here in Australia at the time, I was able to get them all and was very pleased, Contract JACK was for me, quite enjoyable in the mindless game play way, simply because at times I needed games I did not have to think about while playing and this happens in the NOLF-Verse, so it was a welcome addition, though you are not wrong about the way it really was a major step backwards after NOLF and NOLF2, it deserved better, though if they ever did make a movie from this franchise they should have Jack appear and be played by Henry Cavil if they wanted to make Jack a talking character, or a Henry lookalike if they kept him silent. (just my opinion)
I'm pretty sure a sequel is out of the question, but I'd love to see a spiritual successor to NOLF, especially now with the resurgence of boomer shooters
We can only hope, but it will probably require the tenacity from mid-size developers. I’m interested in what Teyon (Robocop: Rogue City) will tackle next, there might a lot of potential in their approach. Otherwise IO Interactive with 007 is the next possible water mark, but yeah the IP itself will guarantee millions of sales and interest so it won’t be the best eye test for the wider industry
Got this game instead of Ghost Recon. Loved the first game - do not remember the second. Shark scene and funny dialog, music was the best. Might have to download these again.
By writing this as of December 2024, I started to reply Nolf I again, I play both Nolf I & II atleast once a year!! We still got the official discs,, taht we found on amazon. But our very first times goes back to early 2000's. We play the versions of the site nolf revival!
I wish these games were upgraded. In the right way of course, just some higher resolution assets, maybe a few interface tweaks nothing mayor. It was such a great Austin power style spy game.
Awesome review, awesome games. Are you planning on doing the stalker games, I played shadow of chernobyl for the first time because of your website review and it was an unforgettable experience.
It would probably be fun to go back and replay at least Shadow of Chernobyl and maybe Call of Pripyat as well, but I didn't have any plans to do so. I've already got so many other completely unplayed games piling up in my backlog that I don't know when I would actually find the time to go back for STALKER. And I've probably already missed the window where it would've made sense to do so in the months leading up to STALKER 2's release. I may still get back to it one day, however, but it definitely wouldn't be any time soon.
The first game definitely could've been adapted into great movie! I'd worry that general audiences would just see it as a weird knock-off of Austin Powers, but now that we're 20 years past the prime of those movies, people might welcome a fresh take with a Cate Archer movie. That's wishful thinking of course, but would still be interesting to see.
NOLF coming on two CDs, but not using up most of the second CD, so them putting a grooving lounge mini album on it? That's just the labor of love that you don't see anymore. I never did like the sequel. The tone was off, I really didn't like the whole Japan angle (like... why? I like Japan but it felt a bit weeby here) or the supersoldiers (Its contemporary Wolfenstein also way overused them) or the lack of mission variety from the original. And the less said about Contract JACK the better.
Nolf series is probably my favorite FPS title, but I have an unfortunate experience with it. Rember playing the game for the first time at frineds, but was practicaly unplayeble because of chopy framerate and soon forget about it. Several years later I was again introduced with Nolf and immediately fell in love with it. I rushed to get a copy of a game, just to realize it woudln't run on my PC. I got some kind of a strange error, which I didn't know how to fix it, and forget about the game yet again. Then Nolf 2 released and again rushed to get a copy of the game, just to realize I have issues with sound (only sound effects worked, no music and dialog). There seems to be a problem with some codecs, which conflicted with the game. Don't remember the name of the codecs, but I didn't even had them installed so I don't know what the issue was. Many years later I managed to run a game again, this time with no issues, but it wasn't the same since the height of the game hype was way over. Beside that, it still a great game, that doesn't need a remake/remaster. Some things are just better to be left alone as they are and the community project does a job well in presering this masterpeace. No need to ruin it with remake which in case, if it wouldn't meet expectations would be compared to the original, and coudln't do it justice.
I appreciated Nolf 1's commitment to variety; the various 1 level gimmicks and how it changed up the pacing. Nolf 2 gave up on this almost totally and got repetitive for me. Edit: Yeah, you covered this in the vid. I think you hit the nail on the head, they got too ambitious with the sequel, ran out of time, and had to rush it out the door. Shame.
Yeah, I agree. I liked the Siberia mission at first with how much non-combat exploration stuff and preliminary setup was going on, and thought the progressive stages of working through all the maps to get into the heart of the records building and then fight your way out was great. But then none of the subsequent missions had that same level of depth or complexity, and it got kind of annoying seeing some of the same maps over and over again, or having to run back and forth across the same map multiple times for different objectives. I still like the gameplay a lot more in NOLF2, but I feel like the overall variety of the levels, mission types, objectives, and setpieces in NOLF1 make it the overall more-rounded and enjoyable game experience.
It would be amazing if they did, but sadly I have little faith it'll actually happen. It sounds like the paperwork for NOLF is literally buried in a box in a basement somewhere that has been described by NightDive as being like the vault at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, and none of the potential copyright holders are actually interested in digging through mountains of boxes to find it. Maybe one day there'll be enough incentive for them, but it just seems unrealistic at this point.
@@TheNocturnalRambler Yet GOG somehow managed to convince one of the most prolific Japanese developers/publishers - who are notoriously protective of their IPs and franchises, especially when gaijins come a-knocking - to re-release the PC ports of the first 3 games in their arguably single most important franchise.
Oh god, I've only played the first one, and I did have a lot of fun as I really like this type of setting (its why I found out about it in the first place, along with XIII), but I feel like I played on way too high of a difficulty level when I should've just had fun and played on recruit or whatever the easiest setting is called. Anyway, on hard (and probably higher) difficulty this turns into a quicksave-quickload spam type of game imo, especially how that was my first playthrough. But yeah, I should've not expected it to be like Perfect Dark where I usually just play on the highest difficulty. I remember cracking up when I stood on a train on one level and it showed me traveling across a map so far, I was like "oh god no, I wanna come back". Really so many parts were great.
The first one of these I played was Contract JACK and I wasn't even aware that it was actually just some spin off of a bigger series for like a decade. I only found out about NOLF like 10 years ago.
@@TheNocturnalRambler yeah I played them. But I didn't hate Contract JACK, I played it as a kid and you don't really care how good a game is supposed to be compared to others as a kid, you just enjoy whatever you have. In the same way, Unreal 2 was my introduction to the Unreal series and I really liked that one too.
Hoping one day Aliens Vs Predator 2 and the NOLF games get rereleased for both current consoles and pc. AVP2 has been stuck in licensing hell and it is the best AVP game. :( Miss the Monolith Productions that made awesome FPS games like these now. FEAR and Condemned were great and was hoping for a remake for Shogo Mobile Armor Division.
I didn't realize AVP2 was going through a similar issue. I too remember liking that one best of Rebellion's 1999 and 2010 versions. I'm guessing my old discs aren't going to work well with Windows 10 so I'll have to see if there's a similar community patch as the NOLF modernizer/revival to get AVP2 working.
@TheNocturnalRambler, AVP2 is the only one not available on Steam and it never received a console port. If you install off the disc, probably won't work well. Luckily, there is a hardcore AVP2 fan who has pretty much remastered the game himself to get working on modern pcs. So, until the publishers get their stuff together? Likely best way to play AVP2 at the moment. As for NOLF, I used to own NOLF 2 and Contract Jack lol. Didn't know there was a PS2 port of NOLF 1. Shame they never ported them to the original Xbox. The Og Xbox had decent pc ports like Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Delta Force Black Hawk Down.
The fact that No One Lives Forever hasn't been remade yet, or even been made available to purchase anywhere digitally, is one of the biggest travesties in all of gaming. It's utterly sad that we have to rely on fans to keep these games alive and that the potential rights holders are actively impeding NightDive's attempts to make it happen. What I wouldn't give to play the first one again with modern gameplay mechanics, and the sequel with a more properly fleshed out campaign. I could live with never seeing or hearing from Contract JACK again.
Different ammo types do different kind of damage in multiplayer. I don't remember exactly but DumDum causes bleed which directly rapidly damages health for a short time. Cyanide makes goats and maybe something else. Idk. It's supposed to be somewhat different.
It's fairly evident what the different ammo types actually do based on seeing their effects applied to you when enemies are using them, but I was just never clear on whether they served a specific utility in the game. Like usually in games with different ammunition types, they're intended to be used in particular situations, like hollow-point against unarmored targets, FMJ against armored targets, slugs for long-range sniping and shot for close-range spread, etc. In NOLF, it's not clear if the different ammo types are better suited for particular targets or situations, so it seems like the decision is ultimately just "do I want to do extra damage, or save this special ammo for a potential boss or difficult sequence." You can likewise choose to bring one specific defensive item into each mission that grants resistance to one of the special ammunition effects like burning, poison, or bleeding, but you can't really predict what types of ammo the enemies are going to be using in a given level to make a strategic choice with your selection. It's also unclear if enemies can also use these types of items for their own defensive benefits, in which case it would make sense to use cyanide over phosphorous rounds if you know the enemy has the antitoxin item, but you don't know any of this so it just seems like a purely random guess. Consequently, the whole ammo system comes off as One Big Question Mark to me, like it was something they brainstormed early in the development process and came up with a functional prototype for what different types of ammunition could do, but then never properly followed through to make sure there was a specific purpose to their implementation.
@@TheNocturnalRambler I actually forgot that enemies use special ammo too. I think Cyanide is a very rare damage type that Kate can suffer. I feel like it was used only in two missions against her. But it is been a long time since I played it. Even then I didn't pay much attention to what was going on.
oh and I think I remember a 4th game, not part of the universe but for some reason in the back of my head there's this memory of playing some kind of italian mafia FPS on the same engine as the NOLF and contract jack which I think the game itself was very mediocre but the feel of the same engine was one of the earliest times I think where I noticed game engines.
You made me curious, so I looked up games developed on the LithTech engine: could you be thinking of Mob Enforcer from 2004? That's on the same version as NOLF2 and Contract JACK, developed by Touchdown Entertainment, and looks strikingly similar in a lot of ways.
@@TheNocturnalRambler YES! Exactly. The game itself was nothing memorable but the feeling of 'oh this feels familiar' and that sense of exploring why and how leading to me to look at game engines is a memory that is seared into my head in the same way when I first discovered to get similar movies it wasn't the actors I had to chase but the directors or how the smazing spiderman duology and the track 'so much anger' made me take a closer look at soundtrack as part of the expertience of a media in a closer way even though I've been chasing good soundtracks since years back. I mean you can't experience Yoko Kanno and not get interested in soundtracks. Oh and loved the whole vid. I think it's probably gothic vids that got me to your channels, that jankfest has such a special place in my heart and I thank every channel that puts the hard work of keeping the memories of it alive.
Cate Archer definitely deserves to be in the conversation of best female protagonists of all time. She's easily better than many/most characters you see frequently appearing on those lists, but is seemingly overlooked purely due to NOLF not being anywhere near as popular or mainstream so most people sadly just don't know about her.
Great retrospective. Played both main entries three times and I got to say, I liked the sequel less and less with each playthrough. Besides ditching so many things that made the first one great (gadgets, dialogues, environments and most importantly - original Cate), the skill system it added was just awful and unnecessary in my opinion. Repeating this stupid idea where experienced super spy cannot even aim at the beginning of the campaing and crowned by the tedious search mechanics which was especially painful in the early areas (Siberia) with dozens of drawers of cabinets artificially prolonging gametime forcing player to just hold the button...
I kind of feel the same way, where I think my appreciation for the first game has only grown over time while I've found the sequel a little less enjoyable each time. Although I don't mind the logical disconnect of Cate suddenly being less proficient with her skills in NOLF2, since that's just part of typical RPG gameplay. There's maybe also some justifiable argument that she's a bit rusty after almost dying in Japan and spending a few weeks in bed recovering, however that doesn't explain her low stats during the tutorial in Japan. I wonder if they should've pulled a Metroid and had all her stats much higher for that mission and then drop everything down at the start of Siberia.
So long as you're playing the PC version, and not the PS2 port! Lack of "save anywhere, anytime" in the PS2 version makes it borderline unplayable, to the point that I set the difficulty down to easy and turned on auto-aim just to lessen the chance of having to replay entire scenes from the beginning when I died. That doesn't help during the mandatory stealth levels, or situations where you can get killed by the environment, unfortunately.
2024 games might have better technology, they have zero level design and zero art direction. NOLF games are masterpieces in comparison. And I love how they're "immersive sim LITE", with basic stealth mechanics, SOME open levels, gadgets and stuff that allow you to neutralize people without killing them... Man, the late 90s-early 2000s will always be for me the ultimate PC gaming era. (although the indie booming era in the 2010s was quite something too) Game designers need to be humble and learn from old games. Recently, we've got Fallen Aces, which is a new "immersive sim lite". Enjoyed every second of the early access version. Still, not as much interaction (for example, you can't remove light bulbs - yet) as NOLF 2.
I disagree about the cutscenes dragging on too long... the dialogue is well written , the text is excellent...and the voice acting is superb...you can also skip the cutscenes and just read the briefing for every mission... its not a negative but a positive ... the 6 characters that appears in the briefing room are all very good and interesting ... plus theres a big surprise in one of these meetings ...totally worth watching the cutscenes in the briefing room to get to this point knowing all that happened before. The only bad character in the game is Inge Wagner, but she was meant to be disliked
I agree with you in principle (I think I even expressed all of that in my review), but I think it's still fair and accurate to say that some of the briefing scenes drag and could've benefited from a tighter script and/or better visual presentation. For instance, when they're introducing new characters via those lengthy monologues, they could've been done over a slideshow presentation of photographs, newspaper articles, and other bits of intelligence to literally SHOW instead of simply TELLING. This would give your eyes something to actually engage with and also help demonstrate how the characters actually know all this stuff. And then when Jones/Smith are explaining every single step of your next mission objectives, it's not contributing anything to the actual Story, it's just laying out the Plot of the gameplay, which doesn't necessarily benefit from being so long or detailed if you're just going to be experiencing it for yourself anyway. Basic explanations are helpful to establish the context of your mission, but you don't need all the minutia presented all at once, up front, to appreciate it or understand that stuff. Mind you, I enjoy the cutscenes but I just think there's clear ways they could've been handled better.
@@TheNocturnalRambler the game is a 2000 release, you can count in 1 hand the number of games released in 2000 and before that had well animated cutscenes with real time graphics... I can think of only two: Shenmue and Resident Evil Code Veronica... both from some of the biggest studios (SEGA and Capcom).... NOLF was an indie project that was picked by FOX Interactive (the publisher) in the middle of its development... they provided the voice casting for Monolith as well Mitzi Martin (Cate's face model) was provided from their casting of actresses... if you dig into the development youll learn the game was in development hell and NOLF was their swan song before closure, which didnt happened because they were fortunate to find a publisher before the worst happened (EON and MGM even threatened to sue them for the rights of the 007 franchise, as the game looked very similar to Bond when it was revealed with a male protagonist, and this had to be changed)... NOLF saved Monolith from closure, Thief 2 developers didnt had the same lucky...
@@TheNocturnalRambler The game was heavily inspired by secret agent tv shows of the 60's, like Our Man Flint, thats why the briefing room dialogue exists
Believe me, I'm already aware of and understand all of that. I realize the limitations of the time and am not necessarily asking for every cutscene to be fully animated with real time graphics. That's just wishful thinking in an ideal world. While discussing NOLF2 I actually point out how that can be a bad thing in taking production time away from everything else and reduce the amount of cutscenes overall, which I lamented as a major negative in NOLF2 because it had so many fewer cutscenes in total that the game went into less depth on the characters and situations. In my previous response I wasn't even asking for animation -- just literally still images on a slideshow background that they could display on the screen behind Jones and Smith. They already do that at a few times during a few briefing scenes, and it doesn't seem overly complicated to just put an image or two of the character they're discussing on the projector, and at most type up a headline or two from a newspaper, police report, or intelligence briefing to splice in-between the photographs so that we have something else to look at during those long monologues besides just the same 3-4 people standing around talking the whole time.
@@TheNocturnalRambler I think NOLF is an old school fps, it came out right after SHOGO MOBILE ARMOR DIVISION and BLOOD 2 THE CHOSEN (their previous projects in the genre), its pretty straight into being objective based because it took inspiration from the massive success of Goldeneye 007, theres a cutscene here and there with some dialogue across the levels to keep it interesting and audio plays a major role in alerting the player about enemy locations and surveillance cameras... its all about brilliant level design that goes from sniping levels to swimming, flying, vertical, horizontal, riding a bike or a snowmobile, running away using a gondola, and stealth sections (heavily relying on the use of sounds so the hero can be guided by the player,and many players dont even understand that)....... back then Monolith developers did an interview about how hard it was to implement animations using keyframe , even making the character pick up a gun was hard for them without motion capture...... I got what you said but NOLF is what it is because its old school with story telling , Metal Gear Solid also had long conversations with other characters through radio frequencyand you only look at their portraits, I dont see anybody complaining on how long they are, and NOLF dialogue is just as good if not better.... so I reinforce my statement, its not a negative in NOLF and it was not a negative in the original Metal Gear Solid, because what the characters says in the briefing room is actually interesting stuff and very good text with superp voice acting from all actors involved. NOLF has a lot of heart and this is what Im trying to tell you when I say the ammount of dialogue is not a negative. About NOLF2 I can point out several negatives that for me and a lot of fans made this game campaign inferior to the original in many ways, starting for the change in the main character voice actress . I still love NOLF2 but for its stellar multiplayer mode and the memories I had from it at the time, and its modding tools / level editor and the small community build around this. NOLF is a masterpiece on its single player content as it is, and NOLF2 was good enough to show its technology and improve on the multiplayer mode that was lackluster in NOLF1.
Не знаю. По моему игра скучная и особо с гаджетиками поиграться не получается. И музыка всё время одинаковая. Как будто игра слегка не доделанная. Я её кстати так и не прошёл после того как Катю отправляют на отпуск. В любой нормальной игре это было бы платным длс. И ведь мне теперь, если я захочу пройти эту часть игры, придётся всю игру заново проходить. А, это и было длс. Прикольно. А ловко они это придумали. Я даже вначале не понял, молодецы!
(I'm reading your comment through a translator so forgive me if I'm misinterpreting anything.) You're kind of right about the gadgets. They're a fun concept but in practical terms there's little real incentive to use them over the more conventional weaponry. Like unless a mission specifically forces you to not kill anyone (like when infiltrating the Dumas Offices), there's just no real reason to choose the perfume sprays over just shooting an enemy in the head with a silenced pistol, since the perfume sprays have significantly shorter range and only a limited number of uses before it runs out. The robot dog is of course completely useless, and I never found a compelling situation to use the camera disablers because they were usually always easy enough to dodge around; and usually by the time you got close enough to put the disabler on it, you were already halfway past it and wouldn't need to worry about it anymore, anyway, so I was just always like "why bother?" Still, I give the game points for creativity and doing something outside of the norm, which is commendable. As for the music, there's actually a ton of music in NOLF1 but it SEEMS very similar because so much of it is just different versions of a handful of main themes. There are 11 different versions of the "BaDeDum" theme, for instance (one version of which is playing in my video at the start of the NOLF1 section, at 6:25), which play at different tempos, with different instruments, different dynamics, and different tonal arrangements to depict different types of situations in the game. I like the way that works with the adaptive score and it's great for giving so much variety to the soundstage while presenting a cohesive unifying sort of musical motif, but at the end of the day you are still listening to that same motif over and over and over again. So I can understand how it can feel like the same thing all the time. I definitely think NOLF1 did the music better than NOLF2 however with more total variety, since NOLF2 is basically just 1 ambient song, 1 warning song, and 1 action song for each location, which means you get stuck listening to the exact same song loop for HOURS at a time in some of the levels. Like the Siberia music just drove me insane while listening to that same 90-second loop for 15 scenes across 5 chapters. As for the bonus mission at the end of the game, if you wanted to replay just that mission you could use cheats to skip all the preceding missions. On the PC version, I believe typing "mpbeenthere" will unlock all the missions. If not, you could use "mpmaphole" to instantly complete each scene until you got to the end of the original campaign. For the PS2 version, you can press-and-hold L3+R3 (aka, click the sticks) before clicking on the "Load Game" option with the X button, which will bring up a full mission select screen so you can skip right to whatever mission you want.
@@TheNocturnalRambler Thank you for the replies. And thank you for the advise. I'll play through the bonus mission some time later. I enjoyed this video a lot. Sorry for wasting your time trying to translate what I said. I was a bit frustrated today. Speaking of Russian language. It is funny how butchered it is on NOLF2 textures. With those documents that use Cyrilic for English words and nonsense name of the plane.
Two of my top ten games of all time. I'd love a new entry into the series... but not in the current gaming environment. I don't want Cate to weigh 300 pounds and be gay and suddenly black.
Played these not that long ago when they were abandonware, and don't remember enjoying it all at. I dont think I beat either and can remember finding it rather bland and boring.
I'm sorry to hear that. Can you remember any particular reason why they didn't work for you? Was is the gameplay, or general disinterest in the story and humor?
@@TheNocturnalRambler I think the story/jokes just did not work for me. And like you pointed out, the gameplay is a little watered down and not as enjoyable as the games it copied. I think level design might of played a part. I think in general games of that area are only fun for me now if they had good map design and good shooting feedback. Which I think are NOLF's weakest elements. The games sound and look fun as you show them, but I just found it rather bland. It felt like the game that was good for its time, but Half Life came before it and is just a better shooter in all aspects by a wide margin. The one specific issue I remember is getting lost. I remember running around that empty (after I had killed everyone) syberia building for hours looking for where I was supposed to go next. And I believe I had a similar but shorter experience in the space station. Maybe I would reconsider if I tried the games again, but I remember playing for a long time and really wanting to like the games.
That's all fair, and stuff I can't really argue against. The story, setting, atmosphere, and humor are the main selling points as far as I'm concerned (and the level variety and major setpieces of course), so if those things aren't resonating for you then there's not much else to fall back on since none of the core gameplay mechanics are strong enough to really carry the experience all by themselves. They work well enough to support those other elements, but this is not a series you play solely for the gameplay, especially not in 2024 and beyond.
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NOLF was one of the greatest games of my childhood, the vibe, the story, the characters, all of it was enticing and wonderfully executed. Will never forget it!
Got here from your r/nolf post. Thank you for covering one of my favourite game series, I love when someone makes a video on it because it deserves so much more exposure. Forever bereft about the legal troubles, I always keep a little bit of hope that a remake will happen one day 🥺
sweet! someone else remember NOLF, fear the NOLF fandom, there are literally tens and tens and tens of us somewhere.
I think we are all here watching this video.
@@Rodger_Phillips and we'll watch the video twice in the impossible hope of somehow maybe somewhere it blows up and someone somewhere actually looks into where the hell the IP is and if there's room to give it a go once again or even better yet for less chance of disappointment, some indie project based off or influenced by it with more soul than a possible actual studio remake.
ps. remember the cover of NOLF 2 with Kate in that orange shirt and killer black overcoat? it's one of the many little examples of I think... you know how during teenage years of development one finds little pieces here and there of appreciation of female beaty? that whole cover was one of them. that badass and that sleek at the same time really got me back then and I think to this day it has affected my tastes.
ps. let's appreciate the bravery of nocturnal rambler for the bravery on making the video of something that most gamers today would go 'huh?' over, he could've spend the same time over something more popular from any era but went for a cult classic very very close to my heart.
That's a treat to see video like this one in this day and age. Love the series, thank you for covering it in full. Brought back some fun memories
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it! It was a lot of fun for me to go back and replay these games again, and even more fun to give them such thorough coverage in this video.
I watch a lot of retrospectives for games and movie but as far as I know this is the first time I've come across your channel. This was such a great review with a lot of fair points. I borrowed 2 from my best friend a few years after it came out. I love the style and atmosphere, at the time I was still playing a lot of Evil Genius which has the same vibe. The sword fight in the cabin as it is being torn apart by the tornado is still one of my favourite parts in gaming.
Hey man, I really like your content. I especially appreciate how you blurred the spoiler-related documents. Your video made me curious in this game and I'm thankful that I can still do that spoiler free!
No problem, and thanks for the kind words! I actually had to do a fair amount of editing around spoilers in both documents and cutscenes and even random background details because the story is such a big part of these games (especially in NOLF1) with a few notable twists that I felt were worth preserving for anyone who hadn't played these games yet. I hope you'll get the chance to play them and that they'll bring you as much joy as they've brought me over the decades.
Holy cow, what a blast from the past. I remember really liking NOLF and then apparently completely forgot about it. Seeing this makes me want to go back and replay them, although I'm positive I don't have the discs anymore. Good to hear they're available to download even if not officially.
Absolutely loved NOLF and this brought back lots of memories so thanks. I too enjoyed 1 more than 2. I think the variety of maps, the comedy, story, set pieces, and overall feel. Can't confirm but my memory feels like NOLF 2 the areas were smaller, or maybe my character felt bigger within the environment, not sure if anyone else felt that way.
Damn, your video got my hopes up because I thought it was a remake announcement. Glad you're bringing more awareness to this hidden gem though.
We're all still eagerly waiting for such an announcement. Hopefully one day it'll happen.
Making guards slip on banana peels on stairs was so fucking funny.
NOLF 2 is probably one of my all time favourite games. I wish the legal stuff would get sorted out so we can enjoy the first two of this series.
Loved the video, and loved your use of the word 'rubbish'
NOLF2 - Shooting mimes on the back of a tricycle. Ridiculous and completely awesome!
Finally a review that mentions the soundtrack differences! ! I played the 2nd game first, then the first on PS2 as a kid, whenever I played the 1st game later in time I always found it had a different atmosphere and eventually realised it was the music. PC version is better, but sadly with non of the PS2 music ....
I'm guessing the vast majority of people are only familiar with the PC version and thus don't even realize there's such a drastic difference in the music with the PS2 version. I of course already voiced my appreciation for the PS2 soundtrack just as music in general, but the fact that doesn't adapt to the gameplay, like almost at all, does lead to some weird tonal disconnects and jarring transitions that you don't get with the PC version.
In retrospect, Monolith Productions was a fairly consistent factor during my pipsqueak days with gems like F.E.A.R., Condemned I+II, Aliens Versus Predator 2 & for a little bit No One Lives Forever too.
Wish I played this title along with it's sequel more during my more prolific gaming days back in the day.
Nostalgia (for simpler times).
Yup, I played all of those games as well, including a little bit of Blood 2. Monolith were amazingly prolific back in the late 90s and early 2000s and even into the mid 2000s, but since then they've weirdly fallen off the radar. Shadow of Mordor and its sequel are like the only games they've done in the last 15 years that I'm even remotely familiar with. And they apparently haven't released anything at all in like seven years?
@@TheNocturnalRambler they have been assigned to a Wonder Woman game, but every time it makes a no show at a conference you start to fear that it is suffering from mismanagement and sinking into vaporware, until WB uses the project for tax write off - their track record with this behavior in these last 5 years have been exceedingly alarming
NOLF1 will always be my favorite.
I can remember walking through Gamestop waaay back in the early 2000's, and saw the game sitting on the PS2 games rack. There was Cate, in the doorway, gun in hand, sneaking up on some cool looking thug in a brightly lit doorway. I picked up the case, flipped it to read the back, and was not disappointed with the purchase I wanted my mother to buy. ( She chose Klonoa 2 for her game. :) )
I have played it on the PC this past year or two, three tops, but for me the PS2 version will forever be my favorite port/version. The music imo is waaay better than the PC, and I was furious that the online version you can download didn't include the two missions from Cate's past of being a pickpocket. Getting the diamond was hands down my favorite level. Cleaning up and receiving help from the ghost of the maid was so cool, and the fact Cate managed to escape because of her is so awesome.
"Yeah I was murdered, I'll help you steal something valuable from those who committed the deed. nwn"
An absolute masterpiece of gaming, with brilliant level design and the most well written dialogue and voice acting in gaming history, Cate Archer (the hero) is a stellar protagonist, and she's some kind of anti-hero that goes against all tired cliches of videogame heroes (like few others like Conker's from Bad Fur Day or Bayonetta)... one of the finest first person shooters that made great use of sound for stealth sections and had a fantastic variety of levels (vertical / horizontal / platforming / driving / sniping) it keeps exciting from beginning to end during its 20 hour lenght (over 40 levels).
In regards to a ranking and a favourite part or moment from the games: 1st place: NOLF2: ASIHW, 2nd: TO: NOLF & 3rd and (justifiably) last: Contract: J.A.C.K. For the second part of the request - actually none in particular, as it's been quite a while since I last played them, but I DO remember and love how the series in general and unapologetically leans into and doesn't shy away from a period-accurate/-authentic depiction (through a tongue-in-cheek lens) of the 60s cold war era, including the portrayal of national/cultural stereotypes, as well as alluding to the social and societal norms, like the role of women at that time.
1:06:53 I would politely disagree on this point. I was in the Marines and a lot of times you'd have to bunk down or catch some sleep in a place with lights still on, when you'd later switch them off, a bunch of people would wake up and notice. Your sleeping brain will take note of both ends of changes in light level.
Fair enough, I just personally don't think I've ever experienced that situation (or noticed it if I have) and so it doesn't seem intuitive to me. Thanks for pointing that out however.
If there ever was a series deserving of a remaster, this is the one
Played both Nolf 1 and 2 and the first level of Contract Jack and immediately knew this wasn't going to live up to the Nolf games.
Though I like both 1 and 2 I'm probably going against popular oppinion by saying the second one is my favorite.
The thing that I found most funny was the angry kitty proximity mine and the female ninja's having conversations about collague ninjas and saying "I'm so sleepy" when using sedation arrows on them. But there are a lot of humerous moments also in the first game when two goons are talking about beer or one about a collague which was a heavy smoker.
It's been far too long for me to remember any special in game moment. It is all just a vague fond memories of action and laughing my ass off.
But I *DO* remember this as one of the core LAN shooters we played whenever people were over and we'd have 4-6 hour marathon sessions of just playing over and over again. And how absolutely craic the PVP was. Great weapon spreads, interesting environments, the often comical events when you got on a snow ski. Love this game.
NOLF 2 and my favorite part that got me to laugh was during the mission in Russia, where you over hear two guards IIRC talking about a fellow guard who recently disappeared shortly after saying something "counter revolutionary" within hear shot of the local KGB officer and one of them says "this is the union of soviet socialist republics people just don't DISAPPEAR" which if you know the history of political dissidence in the soviet union during its existence you know just untrue that statement is and it just struck me. I never sadly played NOLF 1 which is something I hope to fix in the future, Contract JACK was my most regretful purchase ever.
"ALL BAD GUYS LOVE BEER" XD always be stuck in my head that line
Loving it ,got it from e friend in 2002 , the second one from a classmate , who got it as a gift from her sister who brought it from Italy , loved it then and ever since .
Still one of my favorites of all time, I wish the studio cared enough to actually figure out the copyright mess that happened.
My favorite detail in NOFL and maybe in gaming history, is that if you look at the agency's director desk after a certain debriefing (can't remember which) you notice only 3 glasses of whiskey. There's 4 of you in that room
Was pleasantly surprised to find out that Jen Taylor (Zoey - L4D) and John Patrick Lowrie (Sniper - TF2) were casted in this game series.
NOLF remains one of the greatest games ever made. I consider it up there with the likes of Thief and Deus Ex, although for different reasons.
Loved the first two games - I think I may even have the Contract Jack disk somewhere, but I can't recall playing more than about 30 mins of it.
I played them in the wrong order, but though NOLF 2 was graphically prettier than NOLF 1, the humour and gameplay was great in both games.
NOLF is a lot funnier than Austin Powers, which had the subtlety of a sledgehammer!
I love Austin Powers for being so completely over-the-top and absurd with the tropes, but in the context of a 15-20 hour video game campaign I think I prefer the more balanced, subtle tone that NOLF1 went with.
Sassy Cate influenced my whole life and my choices of women. Unbelievable
I've never realized there's a bonus mission at the end! After so many years. I havo to watch it rn.
It was only part of the Game of the Year edition that came out a year or so later, so it wasn't in the original release or the PS2 port. I had never played it either until 2016 when I downloaded the NOLF Revival version, which actually includes the bonus mission. It doesn't do anything new or groundbreaking but it's got some more fun, all-new level environments and more of that whimsical, lighthearted tone as Cate's vacation is interrupted by a monkey stealing her gun which leads her down a rabbit hole discovering another branch of HARM operating on this remote tropical island.
I only played the first one. I tried the second one but it just didn't click with me.
Two memorable moments stand out from the first one though.
The parachute sequence and one random conversation between two guards about jazz (I think)
The npc chatter was phenomenal all around in any case!
Edit: you even mentioned the jazz bit. As a negative? It stuck with me especially because it wasn't too comedic or absurd. It just humanized the goons in a way I haven't seen anything else do.
Thank you for the comment. That's a good point about the humanizing nature of some of these conversations that I didn't articulate in the review. I'm a musician so naturally I enjoyed that conversation as well, but I didn't intend to highlight it as explicitly negative -- I was just using it as an example of a more mundane subject to illustrate that not all of them are meant to be "laugh-out-loud funny" like the game's reputation is known for.
I remember crying from laughter after hearing a dialog duribg Syberia mission when our pilot is kept prisoner and two russians discuss how to torture him or something like this😂
NOLF1 was actually the very first fps game I was able to comfortably play. Around that same time, my dad was playing Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament, and I was just scared to play them😆 actually more scared to play Unreal. I dont know, even the logo and menu music felt scary. Quake 3 I was able to play but it felt a bit boring just to run, jump and kill everything around.
But then, NOLF1 happened and it changed everything. The Marocco mission and „you look like you need a monkey” jokes came to save the day and the fps genre for me.
Great game, great review. Thanks!
Every once in a while I like to pop my disc in and then remember that it's a 2 disc game and I've only got the one lol
I played it under windows 7 on superspy just to get the most original experience, it's amazing, the gameplay, atmosphere, humor, the main character Kate Archer, everything is very good, I've only just tasted the second part. But for me, my real favorites are Fear and Tron 2.0.
ah NOLF, I loved this series, which was remarkably hard to get here in Australia at the time, I was able to get them all and was very pleased,
Contract JACK was for me, quite enjoyable in the mindless game play way, simply because at times I needed games I did not have to think about while playing and this happens in the NOLF-Verse, so it was a welcome addition, though you are not wrong about the way it really was a major step backwards after NOLF and NOLF2, it deserved better,
though if they ever did make a movie from this franchise they should have Jack appear and be played by Henry Cavil if they wanted to make Jack a talking character, or a Henry lookalike if they kept him silent. (just my opinion)
I'm pretty sure a sequel is out of the question, but I'd love to see a spiritual successor to NOLF, especially now with the resurgence of boomer shooters
We can only hope, but it will probably require the tenacity from mid-size developers.
I’m interested in what Teyon (Robocop: Rogue City) will tackle next, there might a lot of potential in their approach.
Otherwise IO Interactive with 007 is the next possible water mark, but yeah the IP itself will guarantee millions of sales and interest so it won’t be the best eye test for the wider industry
Got this game instead of Ghost Recon. Loved the first game - do not remember the second. Shark scene and funny dialog, music was the best. Might have to download these again.
By writing this as of December 2024, I started to reply Nolf I again, I play both Nolf I & II atleast once a year!! We still got the official discs,, taht we found on amazon. But our very first times goes back to early 2000's. We play the versions of the site nolf revival!
Just finished this. Truly a timelss classic.
I wish these games were upgraded.
In the right way of course, just some higher resolution assets, maybe a few interface tweaks nothing mayor.
It was such a great Austin power style spy game.
Awesome review, awesome games.
Are you planning on doing the stalker games, I played shadow of chernobyl for the first time because of your website review and it was an unforgettable experience.
It would probably be fun to go back and replay at least Shadow of Chernobyl and maybe Call of Pripyat as well, but I didn't have any plans to do so. I've already got so many other completely unplayed games piling up in my backlog that I don't know when I would actually find the time to go back for STALKER. And I've probably already missed the window where it would've made sense to do so in the months leading up to STALKER 2's release. I may still get back to it one day, however, but it definitely wouldn't be any time soon.
I consider it a crime against humanity that NOLF isn't more well known and was never adapted into a movie series.
The first game definitely could've been adapted into great movie! I'd worry that general audiences would just see it as a weird knock-off of Austin Powers, but now that we're 20 years past the prime of those movies, people might welcome a fresh take with a Cate Archer movie. That's wishful thinking of course, but would still be interesting to see.
NOLF coming on two CDs, but not using up most of the second CD, so them putting a grooving lounge mini album on it? That's just the labor of love that you don't see anymore.
I never did like the sequel. The tone was off, I really didn't like the whole Japan angle (like... why? I like Japan but it felt a bit weeby here) or the supersoldiers (Its contemporary Wolfenstein also way overused them) or the lack of mission variety from the original. And the less said about Contract JACK the better.
Nolf series is probably my favorite FPS title, but I have an unfortunate experience with it. Rember playing the game for the first time at frineds, but was practicaly unplayeble because of chopy framerate and soon forget about it. Several years later I was again introduced with Nolf and immediately fell in love with it.
I rushed to get a copy of a game, just to realize it woudln't run on my PC. I got some kind of a strange error, which I didn't know how to fix it, and forget about the game yet again.
Then Nolf 2 released and again rushed to get a copy of the game, just to realize I have issues with sound (only sound effects worked, no music and dialog). There seems to be a problem with some codecs, which conflicted with the game. Don't remember the name of the codecs, but I didn't even had them installed so I don't know what the issue was.
Many years later I managed to run a game again, this time with no issues, but it wasn't the same since the height of the game hype was way over.
Beside that, it still a great game, that doesn't need a remake/remaster. Some things are just better to be left alone as they are and the community project does a job well in presering this masterpeace. No need to ruin it with remake which in case, if it wouldn't meet expectations would be compared to the original, and coudln't do it justice.
these need a new entry or remake these with the same quirkiness, NOLF & NOLF 2, love them both, still great games despite the shortcomings
I appreciated Nolf 1's commitment to variety; the various 1 level gimmicks and how it changed up the pacing. Nolf 2 gave up on this almost totally and got repetitive for me. Edit: Yeah, you covered this in the vid. I think you hit the nail on the head, they got too ambitious with the sequel, ran out of time, and had to rush it out the door. Shame.
Yeah, I agree. I liked the Siberia mission at first with how much non-combat exploration stuff and preliminary setup was going on, and thought the progressive stages of working through all the maps to get into the heart of the records building and then fight your way out was great. But then none of the subsequent missions had that same level of depth or complexity, and it got kind of annoying seeing some of the same maps over and over again, or having to run back and forth across the same map multiple times for different objectives. I still like the gameplay a lot more in NOLF2, but I feel like the overall variety of the levels, mission types, objectives, and setpieces in NOLF1 make it the overall more-rounded and enjoyable game experience.
Loved all three
Agent Archer? Huh, any inspirational relation to adult cartoon called ”archer”? Great show that.
I still believe these - like the OG Diablo, Blood Omen: LoK or just recently the original Resident Evil trilogy - will just pop up one day on GOG.
It would be amazing if they did, but sadly I have little faith it'll actually happen. It sounds like the paperwork for NOLF is literally buried in a box in a basement somewhere that has been described by NightDive as being like the vault at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, and none of the potential copyright holders are actually interested in digging through mountains of boxes to find it. Maybe one day there'll be enough incentive for them, but it just seems unrealistic at this point.
@@TheNocturnalRambler Yet GOG somehow managed to convince one of the most prolific Japanese developers/publishers - who are notoriously protective of their IPs and franchises, especially when gaijins come a-knocking - to re-release the PC ports of the first 3 games in their arguably single most important franchise.
Oh god, I've only played the first one, and I did have a lot of fun as I really like this type of setting (its why I found out about it in the first place, along with XIII), but I feel like I played on way too high of a difficulty level when I should've just had fun and played on recruit or whatever the easiest setting is called. Anyway, on hard (and probably higher) difficulty this turns into a quicksave-quickload spam type of game imo, especially how that was my first playthrough. But yeah, I should've not expected it to be like Perfect Dark where I usually just play on the highest difficulty.
I remember cracking up when I stood on a train on one level and it showed me traveling across a map so far, I was like "oh god no, I wanna come back". Really so many parts were great.
The first one of these I played was Contract JACK and I wasn't even aware that it was actually just some spin off of a bigger series for like a decade. I only found out about NOLF like 10 years ago.
Oof, that's a pretty rough introduction to the series. Did you at least get a chance to play the other two once you learned about them?
@@TheNocturnalRambler yeah I played them. But I didn't hate Contract JACK, I played it as a kid and you don't really care how good a game is supposed to be compared to others as a kid, you just enjoy whatever you have. In the same way, Unreal 2 was my introduction to the Unreal series and I really liked that one too.
Hoping one day Aliens Vs Predator 2 and the NOLF games get rereleased for both current consoles and pc. AVP2 has been stuck in licensing hell and it is the best AVP game. :(
Miss the Monolith Productions that made awesome FPS games like these now. FEAR and Condemned were great and was hoping for a remake for Shogo Mobile Armor Division.
I didn't realize AVP2 was going through a similar issue. I too remember liking that one best of Rebellion's 1999 and 2010 versions. I'm guessing my old discs aren't going to work well with Windows 10 so I'll have to see if there's a similar community patch as the NOLF modernizer/revival to get AVP2 working.
@TheNocturnalRambler, AVP2 is the only one not available on Steam and it never received a console port. If you install off the disc, probably won't work well. Luckily, there is a hardcore AVP2 fan who has pretty much remastered the game himself to get working on modern pcs. So, until the publishers get their stuff together? Likely best way to play AVP2 at the moment.
As for NOLF, I used to own NOLF 2 and Contract Jack lol. Didn't know there was a PS2 port of NOLF 1. Shame they never ported them to the original Xbox. The Og Xbox had decent pc ports like Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Delta Force Black Hawk Down.
The fact that No One Lives Forever hasn't been remade yet, or even been made available to purchase anywhere digitally, is one of the biggest travesties in all of gaming. It's utterly sad that we have to rely on fans to keep these games alive and that the potential rights holders are actively impeding NightDive's attempts to make it happen. What I wouldn't give to play the first one again with modern gameplay mechanics, and the sequel with a more properly fleshed out campaign. I could live with never seeing or hearing from Contract JACK again.
Different ammo types do different kind of damage in multiplayer.
I don't remember exactly but DumDum causes bleed which directly rapidly damages health for a short time.
Cyanide makes goats and maybe something else. Idk. It's supposed to be somewhat different.
It's fairly evident what the different ammo types actually do based on seeing their effects applied to you when enemies are using them, but I was just never clear on whether they served a specific utility in the game. Like usually in games with different ammunition types, they're intended to be used in particular situations, like hollow-point against unarmored targets, FMJ against armored targets, slugs for long-range sniping and shot for close-range spread, etc. In NOLF, it's not clear if the different ammo types are better suited for particular targets or situations, so it seems like the decision is ultimately just "do I want to do extra damage, or save this special ammo for a potential boss or difficult sequence."
You can likewise choose to bring one specific defensive item into each mission that grants resistance to one of the special ammunition effects like burning, poison, or bleeding, but you can't really predict what types of ammo the enemies are going to be using in a given level to make a strategic choice with your selection. It's also unclear if enemies can also use these types of items for their own defensive benefits, in which case it would make sense to use cyanide over phosphorous rounds if you know the enemy has the antitoxin item, but you don't know any of this so it just seems like a purely random guess.
Consequently, the whole ammo system comes off as One Big Question Mark to me, like it was something they brainstormed early in the development process and came up with a functional prototype for what different types of ammunition could do, but then never properly followed through to make sure there was a specific purpose to their implementation.
@@TheNocturnalRambler I actually forgot that enemies use special ammo too.
I think Cyanide is a very rare damage type that Kate can suffer. I feel like it was used only in two missions against her. But it is been a long time since I played it. Even then I didn't pay much attention to what was going on.
24:17 this hits home so hard its creepy
oh and I think I remember a 4th game, not part of the universe but for some reason in the back of my head there's this memory of playing some kind of italian mafia FPS on the same engine as the NOLF and contract jack which I think the game itself was very mediocre but the feel of the same engine was one of the earliest times I think where I noticed game engines.
You made me curious, so I looked up games developed on the LithTech engine: could you be thinking of Mob Enforcer from 2004? That's on the same version as NOLF2 and Contract JACK, developed by Touchdown Entertainment, and looks strikingly similar in a lot of ways.
@@TheNocturnalRambler YES! Exactly. The game itself was nothing memorable but the feeling of 'oh this feels familiar' and that sense of exploring why and how leading to me to look at game engines is a memory that is seared into my head in the same way when I first discovered to get similar movies it wasn't the actors I had to chase but the directors or how the smazing spiderman duology and the track 'so much anger' made me take a closer look at soundtrack as part of the expertience of a media in a closer way even though I've been chasing good soundtracks since years back. I mean you can't experience Yoko Kanno and not get interested in soundtracks.
Oh and loved the whole vid. I think it's probably gothic vids that got me to your channels, that jankfest has such a special place in my heart and I thank every channel that puts the hard work of keeping the memories of it alive.
Top tier humour 😄 my all time favorite female protagonist 👍
Cate Archer definitely deserves to be in the conversation of best female protagonists of all time. She's easily better than many/most characters you see frequently appearing on those lists, but is seemingly overlooked purely due to NOLF not being anywhere near as popular or mainstream so most people sadly just don't know about her.
Great retrospective. Played both main entries three times and I got to say, I liked the sequel less and less with each playthrough. Besides ditching so many things that made the first one great (gadgets, dialogues, environments and most importantly - original Cate), the skill system it added was just awful and unnecessary in my opinion. Repeating this stupid idea where experienced super spy cannot even aim at the beginning of the campaing and crowned by the tedious search mechanics which was especially painful in the early areas (Siberia) with dozens of drawers of cabinets artificially prolonging gametime forcing player to just hold the button...
I kind of feel the same way, where I think my appreciation for the first game has only grown over time while I've found the sequel a little less enjoyable each time. Although I don't mind the logical disconnect of Cate suddenly being less proficient with her skills in NOLF2, since that's just part of typical RPG gameplay. There's maybe also some justifiable argument that she's a bit rusty after almost dying in Japan and spending a few weeks in bed recovering, however that doesn't explain her low stats during the tutorial in Japan. I wonder if they should've pulled a Metroid and had all her stats much higher for that mission and then drop everything down at the start of Siberia.
One thing i miss about these games are the saves being allowed all the time.
You have quicksaving in the recent FPS Fallen Aces!
So long as you're playing the PC version, and not the PS2 port! Lack of "save anywhere, anytime" in the PS2 version makes it borderline unplayable, to the point that I set the difficulty down to easy and turned on auto-aim just to lessen the chance of having to replay entire scenes from the beginning when I died. That doesn't help during the mandatory stealth levels, or situations where you can get killed by the environment, unfortunately.
Thank God for Monolith, piracy, the NOLF community and... UA-camrs, shining a light every once in a while on these forgotten gems. 😇💎😈
2024 games might have better technology, they have zero level design and zero art direction.
NOLF games are masterpieces in comparison.
And I love how they're "immersive sim LITE", with basic stealth mechanics, SOME open levels, gadgets and stuff that allow you to neutralize people without killing them...
Man, the late 90s-early 2000s will always be for me the ultimate PC gaming era. (although the indie booming era in the 2010s was quite something too)
Game designers need to be humble and learn from old games.
Recently, we've got Fallen Aces, which is a new "immersive sim lite". Enjoyed every second of the early access version.
Still, not as much interaction (for example, you can't remove light bulbs - yet) as NOLF 2.
I hadn't heard of Fallen Aces before, so I'll have to put that one on my radar now. Thanks for the suggestion!
deserves an hd remaster similar to the halo 1 remaster
Oh my god yes!
45:14 What? Duckstation supports PS2 now?
I don't know about Duckstation, but I was using PCSX2 for this playthrough.
Love this series. To bad there is only 2 games
Let's all laugh at an industry that never learns anything particularly with copyright and IP laws
Wow, I did not know this part of Chronicles Of Myrtana: Archolos. Must be some hidden content. ;)
I disagree about the cutscenes dragging on too long... the dialogue is well written , the text is excellent...and the voice acting is superb...you can also skip the cutscenes and just read the briefing for every mission... its not a negative but a positive ... the 6 characters that appears in the briefing room are all very good and interesting ... plus theres a big surprise in one of these meetings ...totally worth watching the cutscenes in the briefing room to get to this point knowing all that happened before. The only bad character in the game is Inge Wagner, but she was meant to be disliked
I agree with you in principle (I think I even expressed all of that in my review), but I think it's still fair and accurate to say that some of the briefing scenes drag and could've benefited from a tighter script and/or better visual presentation. For instance, when they're introducing new characters via those lengthy monologues, they could've been done over a slideshow presentation of photographs, newspaper articles, and other bits of intelligence to literally SHOW instead of simply TELLING. This would give your eyes something to actually engage with and also help demonstrate how the characters actually know all this stuff. And then when Jones/Smith are explaining every single step of your next mission objectives, it's not contributing anything to the actual Story, it's just laying out the Plot of the gameplay, which doesn't necessarily benefit from being so long or detailed if you're just going to be experiencing it for yourself anyway. Basic explanations are helpful to establish the context of your mission, but you don't need all the minutia presented all at once, up front, to appreciate it or understand that stuff. Mind you, I enjoy the cutscenes but I just think there's clear ways they could've been handled better.
@@TheNocturnalRambler the game is a 2000 release, you can count in 1 hand the number of games released in 2000 and before that had well animated cutscenes with real time graphics... I can think of only two: Shenmue and Resident Evil Code Veronica... both from some of the biggest studios (SEGA and Capcom).... NOLF was an indie project that was picked by FOX Interactive (the publisher) in the middle of its development... they provided the voice casting for Monolith as well Mitzi Martin (Cate's face model) was provided from their casting of actresses... if you dig into the development youll learn the game was in development hell and NOLF was their swan song before closure, which didnt happened because they were fortunate to find a publisher before the worst happened (EON and MGM even threatened to sue them for the rights of the 007 franchise, as the game looked very similar to Bond when it was revealed with a male protagonist, and this had to be changed)... NOLF saved Monolith from closure, Thief 2 developers didnt had the same lucky...
@@TheNocturnalRambler The game was heavily inspired by secret agent tv shows of the 60's, like Our Man Flint, thats why the briefing room dialogue exists
Believe me, I'm already aware of and understand all of that. I realize the limitations of the time and am not necessarily asking for every cutscene to be fully animated with real time graphics. That's just wishful thinking in an ideal world. While discussing NOLF2 I actually point out how that can be a bad thing in taking production time away from everything else and reduce the amount of cutscenes overall, which I lamented as a major negative in NOLF2 because it had so many fewer cutscenes in total that the game went into less depth on the characters and situations.
In my previous response I wasn't even asking for animation -- just literally still images on a slideshow background that they could display on the screen behind Jones and Smith. They already do that at a few times during a few briefing scenes, and it doesn't seem overly complicated to just put an image or two of the character they're discussing on the projector, and at most type up a headline or two from a newspaper, police report, or intelligence briefing to splice in-between the photographs so that we have something else to look at during those long monologues besides just the same 3-4 people standing around talking the whole time.
@@TheNocturnalRambler I think NOLF is an old school fps, it came out right after SHOGO MOBILE ARMOR DIVISION and BLOOD 2 THE CHOSEN (their previous projects in the genre), its pretty straight into being objective based because it took inspiration from the massive success of Goldeneye 007, theres a cutscene here and there with some dialogue across the levels to keep it interesting and audio plays a major role in alerting the player about enemy locations and surveillance cameras... its all about brilliant level design that goes from sniping levels to swimming, flying, vertical, horizontal, riding a bike or a snowmobile, running away using a gondola, and stealth sections (heavily relying on the use of sounds so the hero can be guided by the player,and many players dont even understand that)....... back then Monolith developers did an interview about how hard it was to implement animations using keyframe , even making the character pick up a gun was hard for them without motion capture...... I got what you said but NOLF is what it is because its old school with story telling , Metal Gear Solid also had long conversations with other characters through radio frequencyand you only look at their portraits, I dont see anybody complaining on how long they are, and NOLF dialogue is just as good if not better.... so I reinforce my statement, its not a negative in NOLF and it was not a negative in the original Metal Gear Solid, because what the characters says in the briefing room is actually interesting stuff and very good text with superp voice acting from all actors involved.
NOLF has a lot of heart and this is what Im trying to tell you when I say the ammount of dialogue is not a negative.
About NOLF2 I can point out several negatives that for me and a lot of fans made this game campaign inferior to the original in many ways, starting for the change in the main character voice actress . I still love NOLF2 but for its stellar multiplayer mode and the memories I had from it at the time, and its modding tools / level editor and the small community build around this.
NOLF is a masterpiece on its single player content as it is, and NOLF2 was good enough to show its technology and improve on the multiplayer mode that was lackluster in NOLF1.
Не знаю. По моему игра скучная и особо с гаджетиками поиграться не получается.
И музыка всё время одинаковая. Как будто игра слегка не доделанная.
Я её кстати так и не прошёл после того как Катю отправляют на отпуск.
В любой нормальной игре это было бы платным длс. И ведь мне теперь, если я захочу пройти эту часть игры, придётся всю игру заново проходить.
А, это и было длс. Прикольно. А ловко они это придумали. Я даже вначале не понял, молодецы!
(I'm reading your comment through a translator so forgive me if I'm misinterpreting anything.) You're kind of right about the gadgets. They're a fun concept but in practical terms there's little real incentive to use them over the more conventional weaponry. Like unless a mission specifically forces you to not kill anyone (like when infiltrating the Dumas Offices), there's just no real reason to choose the perfume sprays over just shooting an enemy in the head with a silenced pistol, since the perfume sprays have significantly shorter range and only a limited number of uses before it runs out. The robot dog is of course completely useless, and I never found a compelling situation to use the camera disablers because they were usually always easy enough to dodge around; and usually by the time you got close enough to put the disabler on it, you were already halfway past it and wouldn't need to worry about it anymore, anyway, so I was just always like "why bother?" Still, I give the game points for creativity and doing something outside of the norm, which is commendable.
As for the music, there's actually a ton of music in NOLF1 but it SEEMS very similar because so much of it is just different versions of a handful of main themes. There are 11 different versions of the "BaDeDum" theme, for instance (one version of which is playing in my video at the start of the NOLF1 section, at 6:25), which play at different tempos, with different instruments, different dynamics, and different tonal arrangements to depict different types of situations in the game. I like the way that works with the adaptive score and it's great for giving so much variety to the soundstage while presenting a cohesive unifying sort of musical motif, but at the end of the day you are still listening to that same motif over and over and over again. So I can understand how it can feel like the same thing all the time. I definitely think NOLF1 did the music better than NOLF2 however with more total variety, since NOLF2 is basically just 1 ambient song, 1 warning song, and 1 action song for each location, which means you get stuck listening to the exact same song loop for HOURS at a time in some of the levels. Like the Siberia music just drove me insane while listening to that same 90-second loop for 15 scenes across 5 chapters.
As for the bonus mission at the end of the game, if you wanted to replay just that mission you could use cheats to skip all the preceding missions. On the PC version, I believe typing "mpbeenthere" will unlock all the missions. If not, you could use "mpmaphole" to instantly complete each scene until you got to the end of the original campaign. For the PS2 version, you can press-and-hold L3+R3 (aka, click the sticks) before clicking on the "Load Game" option with the X button, which will bring up a full mission select screen so you can skip right to whatever mission you want.
@@TheNocturnalRambler Thank you for the replies. And thank you for the advise. I'll play through the bonus mission some time later.
I enjoyed this video a lot. Sorry for wasting your time trying to translate what I said. I was a bit frustrated today.
Speaking of Russian language. It is funny how butchered it is on NOLF2 textures. With those documents that use Cyrilic for English words and nonsense name of the plane.
Two of my top ten games of all time. I'd love a new entry into the series... but not in the current gaming environment. I don't want Cate to weigh 300 pounds and be gay and suddenly black.
And thanks for the heads up since I own both games as box versions I'm going to download them now, forget contract jack however, that game was ass.
Played these not that long ago when they were abandonware, and don't remember enjoying it all at. I dont think I beat either and can remember finding it rather bland and boring.
I'm sorry to hear that. Can you remember any particular reason why they didn't work for you? Was is the gameplay, or general disinterest in the story and humor?
@@TheNocturnalRambler I think the story/jokes just did not work for me. And like you pointed out, the gameplay is a little watered down and not as enjoyable as the games it copied. I think level design might of played a part. I think in general games of that area are only fun for me now if they had good map design and good shooting feedback. Which I think are NOLF's weakest elements.
The games sound and look fun as you show them, but I just found it rather bland. It felt like the game that was good for its time, but Half Life came before it and is just a better shooter in all aspects by a wide margin.
The one specific issue I remember is getting lost. I remember running around that empty (after I had killed everyone) syberia building for hours looking for where I was supposed to go next. And I believe I had a similar but shorter experience in the space station.
Maybe I would reconsider if I tried the games again, but I remember playing for a long time and really wanting to like the games.
That's all fair, and stuff I can't really argue against. The story, setting, atmosphere, and humor are the main selling points as far as I'm concerned (and the level variety and major setpieces of course), so if those things aren't resonating for you then there's not much else to fall back on since none of the core gameplay mechanics are strong enough to really carry the experience all by themselves. They work well enough to support those other elements, but this is not a series you play solely for the gameplay, especially not in 2024 and beyond.
This game looks amazingly mediocre
NOFL1 was and still is the Best by far , the second one was almost a flop and we dont talk about contract jack
You're alive!
I may be for now, but remember: no one lives forever (and evil never dies; so learn to laugh at danger; never surrender; cause no one lives forever!)