The Operative: No One Lives Forever

The Operative: No One Lives Forever
"Cause no one lives forever... but evil never dies."
Protagonist(s): Cate Archer Genre(s): First-person shooter Stealth Platform(s): Microsoft Windows PlayStation 2 MacOS X Release Date: Microsoft Windows NA: November 10, 2000 EU: December 7, 2000 PlayStation 2 NA: April 29, 2002 EU: May 24, 2002 Mac OS X NA: November 21, 2002 Game of the Year Edition WW: October 4, 2001 Engine: Lithtech 2.2 Developer(s): Monolith Productions Publisher(s): Fox Interactive (Microsoft Windows) Sierra Entertainment (PlayStation 2 and Game of the Year Edition) MacPlay (Mac OS X) Series: No One Lives Forever Successor: No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way (By release date) Contract J.A.C.K (Chronologically)

The Operative: No One Lives Forever (abbreviated as NOLF) is a first-person shooter video game with stealth gameplay elements, developed by Monolith Productions and published by Fox Interactive, released for Windows in 2000. The game was ported later to the PlayStation 2 and Mac OS X in 2002.

A story-driven game set in the 1960s, No One Lives Forever has been critically acclaimed for its stylistic representation of the era in the spirit of many spy films and television series of that decade, as well as for its humor. Players control the female protagonist Cate Archer, who works for a secret organization that watches over world peace. In addition to a range of firearms, the game contains several gadgets disguised as ordinary female fashion items.

At the time of its release, many reviewers felt that No One Lives Forever was the best first-person shooter since 1998's Half-Life. After receiving several Game of the Year awards in the press, a special Game of the Year Edition was released in 2001, which included an additional mission chapter titled "Rest and Relaxation".

A re-release of the game has been hampered by the complicated state of the series' intellectual property (IP) rights, with even parties assumed to be in possession of the IP having publicly admitted not knowing the precise legal situation of the series.

Plot

UNITY is a secret international organization headquartered somewhere in England that protects humanity from outsiders who want to take over the world. In 1967, over half of the UNITY's elite agents are murdered by an unknown assassin within a week, leaving UNITY with a critical manpower shortage. They are forced to send UNITY agent Cate Archer and her mentor, Bruno Lawrie, on a series of high-profile missions. Cate is an ex-cat burglar, and is UNITY's first female spy operative. UNITY's leaders, Jones and Smith, are skeptical of Cate working as a field agent, and have previously relegated her to more mundane assignments. Intelligence reveals that a Russian assassin named Dmitrij Volkov and a new terrorist organization named H.A.R.M. are responsible for the murders of UNITY's former agents. Cate and Bruno embark on a dangerous assignment in Morocco, which later turns out to be an ambush set up by Volkov and his men. Cate manages to escape Morocco whilst Bruno is shot by Volkov. In the UNITY headquarters, Jones and Smith reveal that Volkov killed Bruno simply because he was the traitor, to which Cate reacts with disbelief.

Why It Lives Forever

1. The story is interesting, An once cat burglar Cate Archer joins the secret organization UNITY to protect the city from the criminal terrorist organization H.A.R.M runned by a Russian assassin named Dimitrij Volkov.
2. The graphics look beautiful for 2000 standards and still looks visually good even today, it helps that it runs on Lithtech Engine 2.0, the same engine used for Blood II: The Chosen.
3. Hundreds of weapons and gadgets to use, each with its own usefulness such as: Belt Buckle (useful for reaching secret areas), Barrete (useful for pick locking doors and can be used as an melee weapon), Sunglasses (useful for photographing intelligence notes, avoiding mines and more), etc.
   • In addition, there are also hundreds of useful weapons for stealth missions such as: Silenced pistols, Crossbow, Speargun, Sniper Rifles, Submachine Guns, etc.
   • Each of the weapons have different ammo types such as: Dum Dum Rounds, FMJ Rounds, Phosphorus Rounds, Cyanide-Tipped Rounds and HE Rounds.
   • There are also different gas types to choose such as, stun gas, poison gas and sleep gas.
   • There are also gears that can be used to avoid damages such as: Bandage (protects against dum dum rounds), Antitoxin (protects against cyanide-tipped rounds), Fire Extingusher (protects against phosphorous rounds), Fuzzy Slippers (useful for stealth) and Earplugs (protects against explosion).
   • There is a weapon selection at the start of each mission where you can select which weapons, gadgets and gears you want to use.
4. The Game of the Year Edition includes one new exclusive chapter consisting in 4 new levels and new multiplayer maps
   • The PlayStation 2 version includes a different soundtrack by a different composer and three new levels titled "Nine Years Ago which is about Cate being a cat burglar before joining the UNITY and stealing stuff such as handbags and money, there is even a unique level taking place in a Haunted Castle. There is also a new lockpick gadget for one of the these missions.
5. Interesting locations to explore such as: Morroco, Airplane, Hamburg nightclub, An underwater crashed submarine, England, Scotland, the aforementioned Haunted Castle (exclusive to the PS2 version), a Space Station with laser weapons (which is later revisited in Contract J.A.C.K), etc.
6. There is a cheat code that lets you enable more blood, just type in: mpexorbitantamounts.
7. Good and satisfying boss fights.
8. The voice acting is amazing, especially by Kit Harris, who voiced two characters in this game. (Cate Archer and Inge Wagner).
9. The 60s settings is incredibly interesting: There are NPC's dressed in proper 60s clothing, hundreds of references to 60s media such as: The Beatles and different 60s Spy movies and tv shows.
   • There are also certain references to Austin Power and James Bond, such as the famous Judo Chop attack being used as a stealth takedown (a famous fighting move from certain 60s spy themed movies/tv shows).
10. The stealth is encouraging as there is a different rank system telling how good you did in certain missions in a similar vain to the Hitman series games.
    • The rank system is improved depending on how many intelligence notes you find, takedowns without killing enemies, not being hurt, and how stealthy you were.
    • Speaking of the intelligence notes, finding enough of it will increase how many armor and health you have.
11. The protagonist Cate Archer is an well known, attractive and lovable protagonist, it later on became a fan-favorite/fan service among people.
12. Threatning villains such as, Magnus Armstrong (who later on became an ally in the sequel), Igne Wagner (a terrible singer), Barones Dumas (real name being Felicity) and Dimtrij Volkov (The H.A.R.M leader).
13. Lots of replay value thanks to the ability to choose different loadout before each mission and finding missing intelligence notes.
14. There are lots of NPC's you can talk to which results in funny dialogues and sometimes they try to flirt with the protagonist.
15. Amazing soundtrack that gives huge 60s vibes, the PlayStation 2 soundtrack is also good.
    • The theme song specifically is iconic.
16. The humor is funny and creative as it is inspired by Austin Powers.
17. It overall feels like a true spiritual successor to Perfect Dark (2000)

Qualities That Don't Live Forever

1. Despite the new additions the PlayStation 2 version has, it also suffers from worse graphics and audio quality, lacks a quicksave option and runs on a worse framerate.
   • This version is also censored as it removes blood.
   • The exclusive levels also replaced the voice actress for Cate Archer, who doesn't sound as good as the original voice actress.
2. The game isn't easy to run on modern systems, unless using fan-made patches.
3. The Karate Chop attack only works from behind, which is weird since Goldeneye 007 (1997 video game) worked everytime, it was also a powerful attack in that game.

Reception

No One Lives Forever received critical acclaim upon its release, and has an 88.34% ranking on the aggregate site GameRankings (based on 28 reviews), and a score of 91 out of 100 on Metacritic (32 reviews). Many reviewers said at the time that No One Lives Forever was among the best first-person shooters since the influential and critically acclaimed 1998 title Half-Life.

Critical reception of the PlayStation 2 port of No One Lives Forever was much less positive than the original version. It has a 70.12% ranking on GameRankings (42 reviews), and a score of 67 out of 100 on Metacritic (23 reviews). IGN gave the PlayStation 2 version an overall rating of 6.9 ("Passable") out of 10. The PlayStation 2 port received a 4.6 score ("Poor") out of 10 from GameSpot, and was panned mainly for the lack of the quicksave feature available in the PC version. The Mac OS X version of the game was given a 9.1 rating overall ("Outstanding") by IGN, and was called "a fabulous Mac version of this top notch game."

Trivia

• The game remains unavailable for purchase due to licensing issues between Activision Blizzard (as successors of Sierra Entertainment) and WB Games (as current owners of developer Monolith Productions).

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