Soldier of Fortune - Maximum Tactighoul

[@imthedude2351]

This game is _fascinating_ It spends almost the entire game being a semi-realistic action movie call of duty, only to out of nowhere become _a fucking Metal Gear game_ in the final act

[@disposable_income_andy]

that and the final boss design is Gray Fox/Frank Jaeger (or just Cyborg Ninja) mixed with a Power Rangers villain like Lord Zedd, same with the personality albeit leaning much more into the ladder

[@docbaker3333]

Agreed I mean that whiplash is so potent it could decapitate a man.

[@yourcommander3412]

Perfect template - this is how you make a perfect 80's movie action game.

[@orangeboi3387]

not gay enough to be metal gear but is on the rigth path lmao

[@sparki9085]

Even the dialogue sounds like metal gear

[@norris5754]

Loved this game! Poor Raven, condemned to the Call of Duty mines for eternity.

[@cyborgparrot1996]

Hopefully they'll be free to make their own games again once Microsoft finally buys out Activision and Blizzard.

[@BackwoodSpiritAnimal]

@@cyborgparrot1996 You think MS is going to give the second best performing CoD team freedom to do other things? No, they are going to take that talent and have them make an 8k model for a gun with weed decals on it and sell it for $40.

[@lolmao500]

They could always all quit and form a new studio

[@Mr_LH1980]

He didn't shoot the poop in the Sudan toilet! John says all the money in the world isn't worth this smell.

[@JeronimoStilton14]

@@lolmao500 unlikely and at this point they’re probably under a noncompete

[@Chewberto]

Fun fact: the third game in this series, Soldier of Fortune: Payback, was created by the same studio as Chaser, meaning that if Civvie progresses far enough into the Soldier of Fortune series, he'll get some Slav jank as a reward.

[@randomfaca]

was that the one that Jarek had a meltdown on stream with one of the boss fights bugging out massively? God what a horrendous game that was

[@Madmetalmaniac42069]

@@randomfaca I'd love to see Civvie review that one. I remember way back in the earlier KZbin days Armake21 came out with a review of that. I just remember this one part in the video where he walks into a combat area, and an enemy npc runs around in a circle and basically 360 noscopes him after. That sealed the deal for me.

[@andreasottohansen7338]

As someone who played Payback first, that explains a lot, actually

[@VorpalStorm]

Boy I sure hope he does.

[@cybertruckeralpha]

This game is exactly what Rogue Warrior wanted to be.

[@michaelandreipalon359]

Thought I read Rogue Trooper there.

[@LazyBuddyBan]

Yes and no. I don't think RW ever cared for making a good gameplay, more like "how funny we can make this mess?"

[@ferdinand12390]

@@LazyBuddyBan was it even funny? it was cringe, i love swearing, but when a 4 word sentence has 3 curse words, it becomes tiresome quickly

[@PosthumanHeresy]

​@@ferdinand12390 I think it is hilarious, because that is how Demo Dick actually talked in real life. If it were fictional, it would be a writer's poor execution of the concept. Instead, it's just an accurate representation of the man, and that makes so much better because it doesn't feel out of place since, well, that's a human person.

[@Elkantar_Rostorgh231]

​@@PosthumanHeresy Demo Dick is the living embodiment of "swear like a sailor"

[@RdTrler]

For all the dialogue jank, there's something uniquely refreshing about the non-verbal communication at 28:23. Mullins just scowls in response to Dekker's question, and the conversation naturally flows right through that. You know Raven Software has their shit together when they swap out the voice actor for two seconds of facial art.

[@Mattfromthepast]

Each Raven game Civvie plays brings us one step closer to him playing Elite Force and pressing the self destruct button on Voyager.

[@selectionn]

in 5 years he will have no choice but to play the mainline call of duty franchise campaigns. it will be a cold day in hell.

[@Davvg]

blood for blood. Vengeance for tuvix

[@Mattfromthepast]

@@Davvg Yes, it is time to make them pay.

[@NemesisTWarlock]

Dear god, Civvie playing Elite Force would be... interesting to say the least.

[@adam1984pl]

Just like self destruction on Enterprise in The Search of Spock.

[@InternetHydra]

"I am glad that the gore and dismemberment effects don't extend to the dogs." "Also Vivisector is pretty good guys"

[@lagg1e]

Tigers, bears, gorillas and goatmen are not dogs.

[@michaelandreipalon359]

Will only see if that's the truth if and when Vivisector gets out of abandonware hell for me.

[@SpecShadow]

@@lagg1e and hyenas

[@Thysamithan]

Except they do extend to the dogs.

[@juaja1]

pro-furry comment

[@ZuluRomeo]

In the original release, the Iraq levels actually caused unintentional controversy when the friend/foe indicator labelled civilians as foes due to a bug.

[@jiaan100]

A "bug"

[@Aralaas]

lmao

[@anacronisticcurmudgeonry525]

I remember when this game came out, a remark was made "you can shoot enemies in the crotch, which is the earmark of a truly great game"

[@CallofDutyBlackOps28]

someone i knew would say how when he'd play the original COD's when shooting their helmets off was the best thing of the game.

[@Lucios1995]

Bulletstorm?

[@quint3ssent1a]

In earlier Fallouts you could do that too, and those games were great.

[@Mahrooby]

command and conquer renegade not only kept track of how many enemies you'd killed by shooting in the dick, it even did the same amount of damage as a headshot

[@JunkCCCP]

The moment Decker shows up this turns into a Metal Gear game

[@dext0rb]

Metal Gear ???

[@Flesh_Wizard]

Finally, Metal Gear Liquid

[@-AAA-147]

@@dext0rb Revolver Ocelot???

[@KoylTrane]

Psychomantis? You're that ninja

[@michaelandreipalon359]

A cardboard box?!? (That aside, really hope the Master Collection compilations are shockingly well ported, especially to the PC.)

[@sdsdfdu4437]

Raven: "so John, we're going to make a game based on your escapades as a mercenary." "Yeah that's cool but can you include a level where I fight ninjas on top of a skyscraper?"

[@Jakob_The_Stoic_Norseman]

I guess the only way to counteract against ninjas is to be or have mercenaries- 🤣

[@Mahrooby]

@@Jakob_The_Stoic_Norseman hire a samurai~ (rich important people hired samurai, poor people who could not afford to hire samurai did not hire samurai)

[@Nes_Cartridge]

I have genuinely never seen an image/video of Bobby where he doesn't look like a literal demon wearing human skin

[@asterixobelix20]

Try Kenneth Copeland, that guy makes Bobby look like a saint.

[@calebneuhauser6864]

What was Bobby's crime?

[@sweetpepino1907]

​@@calebneuhauser6864Activision Blizzard CEO

[@KolLolization]

​@@calebneuhauser6864threatened to have his assistant killed, CEO of Actiblizzard and their whole related crimes and scandals

[@themmeatsweats]

"aged like it drank from the wrong grail" is going in the books for me

[@tasertag7513]

It's good.

[@sasha1mama]

Ditto.

[@ThatGhillieGuy]

Friendly reminder: War crimes are only recognized if you lose

[@MentalParadox]

something everyone instinctively knows but no one admits

[@Flesh_Wizard]

Geneva Convention? More like Geneva Bucket List

[@ThatGhillieGuy]

@@Flesh_Wizard I thought they cancelled all the conventions because of Covid

[@oldguy9051]

Or if you can't imprison or kill the journalist that makes them public.

[@lb5818]

they can also be forgiven if you get some useful data out of all those human vivisections see: unit 731

[@RevolverRez]

I only played the demo, but I love knowing that this serious and gory military shooter utterly goes off the rails and randomly gives you a campy GI Joe character as the main villain.

[@disposable_income_andy]

i feel like every character is a GI Joe dude put into the world of classic Doom or Wolfenstein, specifically the more gory parts like killing bosses.

[@ohuckabee]

This game has a ton of attention to detail, but what struck me the most is that- okay, you hold the big pistol (the Desert Eagle) in your right hand, right? But if you lean around a corner to the *left*, he actually tosses it to his left hand and fires it that way. It's things like that, and how you can reload the LMG with five or fewer shots left and see the exact amount of bullets in the belt's model, that really drive home that they cared.

[@alexanderrahl7034]

I'm convinced Raven was bought and send to the COD mines because they were good enough to threaten Activision lol

[@Lauty3590]

There's two keys in the controls menu to trigger this stuff, which if used on other weapons like the 9mm pistol: It changes the stance to a two handed one. Or the shotgun? He just fliptricks the shotgun, with two variations, and the SMG, Mullins centers the weapon. And lastly, if used on the knife, it triggers Mullins cleaning the blade. This game FUCKS.

[@alexanderrahl7034]

@@Lauty3590 this game got me pregnant

[@zbynektrajer2735]

This game also had 2 key on a keyboard solely dedicated for gun twirling animations of every weapon and a button for hand swapping.

[@J.DeLaPoer]

@@zbynektrajer2735 It was a licensed Soldier of Fortune Magazine game; _of course_ it had to have over the top gun porn! As a subscriber of the magazine for years back in this era, I can confirm much of its content was this too.

[@ReverendTed]

Spent a lot of time dedicated to SoF back in the early 2000s; even worked for GameSpy's Planet Soldier of Fortune for a while. Went to QuakeCon 2001 and interviewed Kenn Hoekstra about the soon-to-be-released Soldier of Fortune II for the site. Was on the closed beta for SoF 2, which was a neat experience. Created a couple of custom game modes for SoF2 MP, specifically Kill the Man with the Ball and another that was inspired by my experience in the beta, which would ultimately be called Gunrunner. If you care, the gist of Gunrunner was that one player had a gun (the titular Gunrunner) and everyone else had a grenade they could trigger, but not throw. If you could blow up the Gunrunner, you respawned as the next Gunrunner. Points were only awarded by shooting other grenade-toting players as the Gunrunner. I eventually modded in a radar system, so everyone would know approximately where the Gunrunner was. I envisioned the mode as a fun little diversion between rounds of other objective-based game modes.

[@madperrot]

Oh man, Gamespy??? Dude I loved playing the SoF 2 multiplayer demo on gamespy lol. I also played the demo for C&C Renegade on there I think. Thank you for working on gamespy 🤘🏾

[@brendanhinderliter6627]

GameSpy? A Planet site dedicated to Soldier of Fortune? Man, I miss those days, where a Planet site was the go-to place for a game.

[@thefallofhousedenari]

That gunrunner mod sounds like good fun.

[@OfficeHyena]

Do you ever revisit Sof2 MP?

[@tylerrobb]

@@brendanhinderliter6627 Wow, I lived on that site. So many mods and maps!

[@marreco6347]

You can pretty consistently disarm enemies in this game when shooting their hands with the pistol. I love doing it, fits the 80s action movie vibe like a glove.

[@GrubbusHubbus]

Something it sounds like the enemies need.

[@Crybaton]

Civvie sounding genuinely excited and happy about this game really brightens my day. Like hell, he even tolerates the Sewer Level.

[@bahshas]

when the jaded man is excited the whole world smiles with him

[@ronnickels5193]

He forgot the alt fire for the microwave gun. Pop goes the weasel

[@Densiozo]

​@@ronnickels5193He didn't even try to shot at the guys he just killed with the shotgun to see that he can cut all their limbs. He didn't even realized that he can empty a whole charger on a à enemy with the SMH and the guy will keep standing until he stops shooting. He missed a lot of fun stuff

[@metaljay842]

This is the closest we might ever come to playing a 1980s Charles Bronson action movie in a video game. Absolute classic.

[@revenile]

In terms of FPS? Definitely. However back in '87, Gremlin Graphics actually did make a Death Wish 3 game adaptation. It's not too bad when you consider the age of the game and the fact it's on the Commodore 64. You play as Bronson, killing every crooked dirtbag on the streets, saving innocents, and just being Bronson. As far as I know based on my short experience playing it, the game only ends when you, Charles Bronson, get bored enough to turn the game off. There could be a game over if you die, I don't know. Not something to sink hours into mind you, but a fun waste of 20 minutes or so.

[@josephkeen7224]

Idk if this will count, but there’s a doom mod called action doom, although that may not fit due to the contra and metal slug influence.

[@djangofett4879]

if it played like a charles bronson movie, you would just be standing there on a street corner, firing away, shooting unarmed purse snatchers in the back as they run away.

[@SpecShadow]

we almost got Escape from New York too, but they turned it into Dead to Right which nobody remembers now...

[@jamieobrien2090]

If you play this game on higher difficulties, the noise your weapon makes becomes very important. Be too loud for too long, and the game will spawn additional enemies on you. It makes it so you can't just shotgun everything, but kind of falls off as a mechanic once you get the LMG.

[@MostlyPennyCat]

"Ah, my ammo delivery fairies have arrived"

[@NovanByworks]

Having Earl Boen voice the villain is just the cherry on top to make this game the G.I. Joe-ass, Saturday morning cartoon, power-fantasy that it is. Simply amazing.

[@ollymuirs]

I had no idea he voiced the villain that's awesome, I knew he played character in Sof2 though. (Can't remember which one.)

[@hernanreipp5259]

​​@@ollymuirsHe voiced Sam Gladstone the founder of the Shop in the first and second game. Is the man with glasses and bandana that you meet in the magazines shop and informe you about the missions. In the second game you must rescue him while he is recovering in the hospital.

[@WarDogMadness]

The spas 12 has both semi auto and pump action function. Not many games devs at the time knew that. But that didnt stop them from putting the spas 12 in every shooter game after 2000.

[@0lionheart]

Yep, it was intended for police use iirc and some shells (beanbags etc) don't produce enough gas to cycle a semi-auto weapon, hence needing to be able to manually cycle it with the pump. Honestly they did a fairly decent job making recognisable weapons given they didn't have the near infinite reference we have now on the modern internet. You couldn't just find a KZbin video back then and see a gun stripped down to parts

[@WarDogMadness]

@@0lionheart user manual if you were lucky or a trip to the dreaded public library . if you knew a prop guy you had insider knowledge. but yeah we are spoilt by guntube.

[@boomerkobold3943]

@@0lionheartand it’s not even the best shotgun with that feature. Benelli makes a much more durable shotgun that has this feature, but it doesn’t look anywhere near as cool.

[@marcellosilva9286]

​@@boomerkobold3943Cooler? Nuh uh, the SPAS 12 is ugly af man, just because it looks recognizable doesn't mean it's cool, I'll take my Benelli M3 over that any day of the week.

[@wildeyedfirebrand]

Should have been dropping a Benelli M4 instead. Is a reason that it is widely considered one of the best shotguns out there. But I guess since it's not a pointy blocky mess it didn't look cool enough (or was too hard to render polygonally) so they went with the SPAS instead.

[@BlueMK12]

Ohhh man, I have a story with this game. Back in 2001 my parents gifted me Soldier of Fortune, the original game in the box + manual and all that stuff. I had to wait like 1 week because my PC was in the repair shop. I played the hell of it when I got my computer back. About Dekker, I realized instantly they were brothers because their models had the same shape, only different textures. And I didn't understand much because english is not my native language. Nice video as always Civvie, it's always nice to remember the good ol' days.

[@sijonda]

I remember playing this a lot in my early teen years. Severing limbs was wild.

[@christiannoble5549]

Same, Dunno how many times I played it through. Great experience as young teen😁

[@splat20]

How did you find the game though? :P

[@Flesh_Wizard]

I used to gib the dead enemies with grenades lol. I really shouldn't have been playing that at 5😂

[@hhdhpublic]

@@Flesh_Wizard I was like 14 - 15 and back then i spent time cutting the corpses apart with the knife. Also tortured the enemies by throwing knifes on their limbs,

[@vittya4373]

Yeah, this and second episode are one of the best FPS games eva

[@reformedjoe4907]

I had a few copies of SOF magazine from the late 70s/early 80s. It had a classifieds section that was pretty much what you would expect, but in amongst the various dudes selling military equipment of dubious origin, you'd get some cryptic message like "The Spider is now accepting new contracts".

[@Oldass_Deadass_dumbass_channel]

Yeah, soldier of fortune unironically was used as a way for contract killers and mercenaries to advertise their services. And the people running the magazine definitely knew about it

[@alexanderrahl7034]

That's wild lol. Really cool, but also wild 😂

[@Oldass_Deadass_dumbass_channel]

@@alexanderrahl7034 less cool when you read about the victims

[@wehraboohunterssvu316]

in case you're wondering what kind of contracts spider might have been accepting, they were the subject of several major lawsuits in US courts because people used those classifieds to recruit for at least 3 straight up contract murders. and that was just the cases where people were dumb enough to get caught!

[@alexanderrahl7034]

@wehraboohunterssvu316 oh jeeeeeez, I figured it was some kind of hired muscle or secret merc group lol. I suppose I also assumed it was a hit man too actually. That's insane

[@rashadnagi7531]

"Aged like it drank from the wrong grail" is absolutely getting worked into my collection of analogies.

[@berdnord]

I really like how this constantly switches from "This action shlock is awesome!" to "My God, why did we do all that to Iraq"

[@Web720]

Wish he didn't skip the segment/level all-together.

[@Hamun002]

we know why

[@tartrazine5]

@@Hamun002 Because Iraq tried to eat their cake and have it too by dismantling their WMD programs *but* also making it seem to Iran that maybe they hadn't really.

[@tac6557]

@@tartrazine5 BRO I was there, THERE WAS NO WMD's. They didn't have the launchers or capacity at all. No structure from province to province. Edit Former army and marine infantry, deployed 2x to iraq. That place was a mess. There was worse stuff than "IED's" there.

[@ahmedkj9923]

i'm iraqi and i had fun playing this game back in 2011 most iraqi gamers don't get offended by games where it take place in iraq

[@asteroidrules]

I feel like this was a detail that kind of got skimmed over because Civvie doesn't seem to be using it a lot in footage, that LMG's underbarrel grenade launcher is shooting white phosphorus. Absolutely brutal weapon that was made infamous in Vietnam, so of course this game recreates it surprisingly well for 2000.

[@DPCP-h9u]

If he told that we shoot White Phosphorus to enemies, a lot of Spec Ops: The Line vets would've had PTSD the moment the sentence was over. The mother still haunts me.

[@aegis6485]

​@@DPCP-h9uDo you feel like a hero, yet?

[@johnfreeman7444]

suprised that you didnt mention the best feature of the SMG. When you shoot an enemy their body starts juggling from getting riddled with bullets. You can keep shooting and they stand there juggling until you stop or run out of ammo. amazing. every game needs that.

[@hernanreipp5259]

Literally, you can made them "dance" with bullets.

[@Claymann71]

_Robocop Jibbs & Squibbs intensifies_

[@NightShadowReal]

also no indepth study of the gore system. you could shoot the corpses on the ground limb by limb and see the detail in the gore system at work

[@activevertex4475]

1:11 I love the part in that Good Housekeeping issue that talks about how nothing good ever comes from a house fire

[@PSpencer]

"14 Tips to Help You Fight For Your Happiness!"

[@0v_x0]

"Closet Labyrinths: The Ins and Outs"

[@Calculon1712]

Im looking forward to the day Civvie does Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force, my favourite Raven game, it has to happen.

[@andrewmalcolm5972]

This needs to happen!

[@bucknasty69]

Elite Force is so underrated! One of my favorite pc shooters from when I was a kid.

[@Calculon1712]

@@bucknasty69 its among my favourite Star Trek games

[@dtbjason]

I was thinking more like Klingon Honor Guard lol!

[@Calculon1712]

@@dtbjason he should do that too

[@Aaron_Bleu]

When I was an early teenager I watched my uncle play this game and was completely blown away that games could look like this. He let me play a few levels and its truly what got me into gaming. SoF is absolutely incredible and one of the most underrated "hidden gems" of FPS gaming. Great video

[@chris92945]

The game that showed a whole generation just how much fun gibbing people in video games can be. God Bless you Raven.

[@MikeL13]

Unless you're German. Then you'll just have heard the stories how much fun it was for others. *colors the country on Civvies map for him*

[@eatpoopoo]

@@MikeL13 *cough* blood and gore patch was a thing

[@lordmontymord8701]

@@eatpoopoo The good old times when we needed shit like that ...

[@ghoulbuster1]

@@MikeL13 Literally 1984

[@BeatmasterAC]

@@MikeL13 Blood Patch via Dirty little Helper site.

[@Hasshodo]

Hey Civvie, there is a documentary on KZbin called "Shadow Company" that is about the rise of Private Military Companies in todays modern battlefields - John Mullins is one of the people they interviewed, and he talks about his consulting for this game. He kinda laughs it off, and says that the most unrealistic aspect of the game is that he's never been in a situation where, by himself, he'd have to kill 500 people. Worth a watch, its an interesting documentary

[@cubescihist6737]

Hey, thanks a lot! I'll check it out!

[@RdTrler]

The way Mullins put it, makes it sound like the ninjas and the microwave gun and the rooftop helicopter fight were *marginally more realistic.* Think on that.

[@Monkeynuts502]

Omg this unlocked a core memory for me. I remember years and years ago watching a friend play a game where he was knifing people apart in some medieval setting and seeing this I realized as a kid I was misinterpreting the bunker as a castle and the low poly models as medieval armor. Holy shit, thank you for a huge nostalgia trip.

[@alexanderrahl7034]

"Did you guys know about DaiKatana?" Okay this is a big lore hint. We all need to autistically comb through his videos and figure out when exactly they swapped our civvie

[@israelhexen8851]

Must've been somewhere in the demon arc. It was definitely in this timeline :V

[@jinxmclastname9212]

There's lore?? Oh no

[@alexanderrahl7034]

@jinxmclastname9212 hey, how's it going, you must be new. 👋 I personally think it happened in the clown room. Civvie hasn't been the same since the clown room...

[@SCWRMComms]

Maybe he's still stuck in the clown room and this one is a replacement clone. -Teo

[@michaelihnen4384]

was it when he bloomed?

[@rolandkatsuragi]

7:46 That's certainly a technical achievement, given the Quake 2 engine still lacked skeleton rigging.

[@RolandTheJabberwocky]

Shit I didn't even think of that.

[@olioelnacho8935]

I like to imagine john mullins was the one at raven going "please add cool ninjas and rocket lauchers and me running on trains and shit that would be cool" lol

[@DinkyGollier]

I like the mention of Dekker being Saber's brother because it implies that they both played Metal Gear Solid and that's why Dekker dresses like a straight Psycho Mantis while Saber's running around shirtless everywhere like Liquid Snake

[@oz_jones]

BRÖTHER!

[@UrosStankovic-xf9uq]

Dekker looks like Jason X the most for me

[@geoffreyprecht2410]

"Dresses like a straight Psycho Mantis" has me absolutely rolling lmfao

[@Lucios1995]

Saber reminds me more of Vulcan Raven

[@PosthumanHeresy]

Dekker looks more like Grey Fox to me, tbh.

[@ChrisAnonymous]

The sequel was just as amazing, probably even more than the first. I remember the online multiplayer being so fun

[@KaoticReach1999]

The sequel wasn't as well-received and I can't remember why, but always heard the multiplayer was great

[@GyprockGypsy]

You can keep shooting enemies and make them do the AK dance like in Goldeneye. But unlike in Goldeneye, their bodies slowly disintegrate while you do it.

[@pravkdey]

I love the eccentric reloads. I'd think a long time veteran/mercenary would do stuff like that

[@hdoomguy9661]

I've been describing this game to people as "a really gory 80's Cannon Pictures action movie in FPS form" for a few years now, it kicks so much ass dude even has the Charles Bronson mustache (edit: i wrote this near the start of the vid, I hadn't even seen the Death Wish 3 mention that says the same thing later in the video lmao)

[@valentinom.4292]

Now do a hentai mod for it

[@ChaseMC215]

Soldier of Fortune was not the first game to be adapted from a Magazine, but it was the first game to be adapted from a gun magazine. Technically, the first game to be adapted from a magazine would be Car & Driver on MS-DOS, and maybe Road & Track Presents: The Need For Speed.

[@UnderCoverPotato789]

The sound of that machine gun hits every nostalgic dopamine receptor in my brain, 11/10 best belt fed video game machine gun ever

[@killroy123]

I seriously can't believe Civvie NEVER played this game. I remember this so well. So great!

[@Iymarra]

Yeah the sequel wasn't quite as good.

[@wullahblack6452]

@@Iymarra SOF2 was incredible! GHOUL 2 ljksdafhsdakfljhksdalf Now, Payback was the shitty one but Raven didn't do that.

[@Iymarra]

@@wullahblack6452 Oh aye - SOF2 was the one with the 'nam levels wasnt it, and the grease gun?

[@wullahblack6452]

@Iymarra grease gun yes. Nam levels, I admit I don't specifically recall. But I do remember a jungle.

[@Iymarra]

@@wullahblack6452 Oh yeah, it was colombia.

[@kaz211111]

I first played a demo of this game on one of those old demo disks that came with magazines. It included the entire first two levels and I must've played it like a dozen times before I got the full game. Loved this game so much - the gore, the guns, everything was so satisfying. Got crazy nostalgia watching this video.

[@EnclaveSOC-102]

Getting sent back to the clown room for making an among us joke was definitely not undeserved, Civvie.

[@labrat810]

Does the clown room just force-educate you on trivial knowledge? Fugg. Sign me up!

[@mikeberg6407]

"Until this video, I had never played Soldier of Fortune." The true curse of the studios demise has finally be revealed, Hallowed be they name.

[@funybirbman3813]

Fun fact: soldier of fortune (the magazine) has been linked to several murders and also induced people to fight as a mercenary in the Rhodesian Bush war.

[@IronSalamander8]

I love the AI saying 'thunderclap' Civvie, damn your stuff is great! I couldn't defend Bobby Kotick if I wanted to. He's the personification of all of what's wrong with modern video games.

[@thecandlemaker1329]

It's fun to make fun of Bobby Kotick because he looks like he walked off a Nazi propaganda poster, but please don't fall into the trap of scapegoating. All video game execs are cunts. Riccitiello is an even bigger piece of shit, and I don't think I've ever seen anyone make fun of him.

[@PikkaBird]

Modern video games and indeed the modern world.

[@Marmagon]

I loved the weird energy gun. The alternate fire would give you a unique kill animation on enemies. They would inflate and blow up in gibs.

[@alexshenton]

I remember this so well, even 23 years after playing. Also the weird reflection effect on shiny surfaces took me right back.

[@pnastysavage5510]

Its amazing !

[@onan1195]

Finally we get a Solider of Fortune video from Civvie. I hope he covers the 2nd game.

[@Darkreaper1982]

What a game this was! Just remember the dismemberment mechanicals and pretty much every gun sounding like artillery.

[@Emu0181]

Nice editing for the cold open, Katie. The rainbows were a nice touch.

[@LonelySpaceDetective]

it reminds me of that one episode of aqua teen hunger force, particularly the thumbnail with the rainbow spouting out of a decapitated guy's neck

[@Akalithe]

Got this game for free with a graphics card back in the day, and replayed it a number of times. Game absolutely rules.

[@JohnGaltAustria]

From General Lotz "This shotgun sounds like the hammer of the Gods" to Civvie "The soundeffect for the shotgun trumps everything they'll use for the bomb in Oppenheimer", everybody loves it.

[@Andy-ef2on]

The first subway level is just iconic

[@FartoTheClown]

I was so happy when I replayed this a few months ago. It's so rare when a game is actually as good as you remember.

[@Vathek_the_Red]

What better way to cap off my Birthday than watching a new Civvie 11 video 🎉.

[@dandylionwine]

HBD 🎂🎊

[@Gatorade69]

Happy berfday

[@Lucios1995]

Happy birthday!

[@kingcaesar3693]

Okay. Blowing limbs off is one thing, but the fact there are exit wounds, in a game from 2000, is mindblowing.

[@J.DeLaPoer]

Kingpin did it back in 1999 a year before Soldier of Fortune (also on a highly modded Q2 engine). Not so spectacular as SOF, but it had locational damage, realistic guns; you could blow off sections of or entire limbs and heads; blood sprayed, wounded enemies left blood trails... and the KPQ2 "Pain" system where enemies showed increasing amounts of bullet holes, blood-soaked clothes, etc by progressively seamlessly swapping enemy model textures/skins out in real-time as you unloaded on them. So for example keep shooting an enemy in the arm and their arm would first show some blood on their clothes, then multiple bullet holes, and eventually the arm would be blown off by the section -- or stronger weapons like point blank shotgun could remove limbs and heads in one hit. It was really impressive looking with far more detail than SOF (Xatrix had all the KP enemy and NPC skins done by the famous Corky, if anyone remembers his work back in the day). KP's Pain system was a bit more detailed and "realistically" implemented than Ghoul, but SOF's was just over-the-top ridiculous.

[@wullahblack6452]

@@J.DeLaPoer Kingpin was one of the first that showed locational damage, but like you said it was far more primative. Shot a guy in the chest with a pistol once and you get the same 3 impact spots on their chests every time. Still, I look forward to the remaster that's still in the works.

[@J.DeLaPoer]

@@wullahblack6452 Certainly technically inferior, but it wasn't as bad as that. I spent _many_ hours with KP and unless I'm seriously misremembering there was multiple levels of "pain" before gibbing for each location hitbox area. Eg; 2 or 3 sets of progressively more damaged and bloody textures would be swapped out for each body segment if you continue shooting at it. *You're right the actual bullet holes didn't match location because it wasn't truly dynamic and KP only used 10 location hitbox segments on the enemy models.* In a nutshell, SOF's ghoul was exactly the same technique and engine trick as KP's pain, just better implemented by having 17 locational hitbox segments plus total polygonal-model swapping. That's how they fake blowing holes through chests and having intestines pop out. SOF's enemies are no more dynamic or destructable than KP's, Raven just spent the time to take the same trick to the max level (that's the instant where the enemy seems to disappear or "deflate" in Civvie's slowmo footage during a shotgun kill, as the engine swaps 3D models and textures). *True locational damage and destructable models are beyond Quake 2's limits period.* Also KP was meant to be kind of similar to Deus Ex, with a hub world map system, vehicles, more weapons and items, more quests and NPCs, skill system, etc etc, but executive meddling and publisher assholery forced Xatrix to release unfinished and over a year early. Hence KP's balancing issues and the way the game goes from having RPG elements and exploration in the early episode, to pure action and ever more linear maps as it progresses. You can still see a ton of the stuff they didn't have to time for or had to outright remove in the game code and files; also why later maps feel so oddly laid out with so many locked doors and blocked roads. I wrote articles on this stuff for PlanetKingpin and PlanetQuake way back in the day lol, so forgive my nerding out over the details. I also look forward to the official KP remaster, but I have the suspicion that the project's been cancelled with the lack of progress/updates...

[@wullahblack6452]

@J.DeLaPoer It's fine, it's nice getting insight from others as old as I am. As far as the Kingpin remake, the 3drealms discord assures us that it is still being worked on. It's taking longer due to them having to reverse engineer the entire thing since nobody had the source code. And something is preventing them from updating the steam store page for it.

[@J.DeLaPoer]

@@wullahblack6452 Always nice to see another oldster around here. I get the feeling we're in the minority. I'm no longer in the gaming scene even semi-professionally and have too much work and other interests now so I don't monitor the forums and discords. Thanks for the update, I really hope it's not vaporware or another DNF.

[@SafemilkGames]

Right at 13:58, when he says, "Forget the captured stealth bomber you're going after," he accidently dips into a New York accent. This was my younger brother's and my favorite thing when we used to play this and from release to this day, one of us will randomly say it, playing up the Russian to New York accent change. Still kills me every time.

[@oz_jones]

Serbian

[@SafemilkGames]

@@oz_jones Good point! Could also be Albanian accent I guess. Isn't that the more commonly spoken of the two officials in Kosovo? I'm not super familiar with the region!

[@SinaelDOverom]

Harder difficulty settings make enemies infinitely spawning as soon as you trigger the alarm by making too much noise. The harder the difficulty the lower the noise that attracts them and the more of them spawn, which is why silenced weapons exist.

[@tictac311]

This was my first FPS game i ever played as a kid. One hell of a way to get introduced to the genre

[@jaredmorton6546]

Turok 2 seeds of evil

[@salaciouscreations4323]

I always wanted a game to have a ghoul and geomod type mechanism. Having both would create the most insane firefights.

[@pieminator6969]

Ahh... one of my favorite first person shooters: 'Pre 9/11 Simulator'

[@danrothman6129]

I love fps games and I couldn't finish the game as a kid. Those jagged edges after every head shot was too brutal for me.

[@AB0BA_69]

Same, but with original Doom. Those monster sounds, the darkness, and the ambushes? It was just too stressful and scary as a kid 😅

[@daedalus5070]

I never finished either but thats because I stopped to blast almost every body into a thousand pieces

[@nerddotcom5817]

@@AB0BA_69 Bruh, the pinkies in dark room terrified me. Still do probably.

[@danrothman6129]

@@nerddotcom5817 😂

[@AB0BA_69]

@@nerddotcom5817 Specters who actually are hard to spot because you are using a CRT? That's why I liked the chaingun and plasma gun. Just shoot shoot shoot to get them off me! 😅

[@Meatman8089]

Blows my mind though that until this video you hadn't played this.

[@GeisKing1]

I freakin' loved this game as a kid. Absurd load times on console but always a good time. I still walk around saying "I'm looking for a back issue of Soldier Of Fortune Magazine. July 89" in my gruff soldier voice.

[@DorkLord54]

Very fun game. Finally played it a few years ago. So funny that the villain is an Afrikaner nationalist while the magazine ran ads by the Rhodesian govt to serve in the Bush War.

[@ashuggtube]

This is marvellous! I love how much you enjoyed this game Civvie. Watching this video has been an absolute joy.

[@tithund]

I replayed this so much. My favorite custom difficulty is with insane enemy spawning, but having them be very stupid, it makes it so loud weapon noises spawn in extra enemies, turning the game into either a sniper stealth game or a shotgun gauntlet.

[@jamesoglover]

Loved SoF1 and SoF2. Ghoul with it's 13 gore zones was the stuff back in the day! Hope you feature the second one as Raven's Ghoul and Chimera systems were the at their peak in the sequel. SoF2 grounded the modern shooter theme with less sci-fi and better cinematic scenes, even if the jungle level was unforgiving. And the procedural multiplayer maps were something no one else was doing.

[@Nihilvale]

This was basically the first FPS game I ever played & it took me years to realize just how much that spoiled me & made so many other games in the genre feel cheap in comparison in... so, so many aspects. This vid was a really cool surprise & it makes me happy to know that even to this day a new player can appreciate just how hard this game fucks, lol. Keep up the cool work, Civvie!

[@chinaski6593]

Hands down one of the Best Civvie vids ever. What a gem of a gem SOF is and i'm SO happy he finally covered.

[@thewraithwriter22]

I love this game, it's just plain, good, ultra violent fun

[@Tmjhxhdjsjdj]

I have to say SOF 2: Double Helix was my favorite of all these. It took everything that was great about the original SOF, and multiplied it by 20. If you can find the platinum edition, get it, and regret nothing. I probably spent more time with SOF 2 than just about everything I’ve played. The hit detection is better, and the animations when you blow an enemy’s leg, hand, or arm off is insane.

[@GamingKick]

My favorite game as an edgy 15 year old! This game was like a wild fever dream with a shotgun!

[@Cousin_Uli]

dekker also voiced by the psychiatrist from the terminator movies, dude has a shockingly prolific career in video games

[@ZuluRomeo]

LeChuck!

[@OKNewman]

"*Model* citizen..."

[@misster490]

He also voiced one of the main villains in SoF2

[@Svecke80]

So many memories.... All the sounds of this game is burned into my brain. I hope he does the entire SoF series

[@kalashnikovdevil]

The sequels similar quality?

[@michaelfishman6082]

@@kalashnikovdevil the sequel is great and has even better gore, the 3rd one is dogshit.

[@ririswan6352]

​@@kalashnikovdevilgreat but not a run and gun game like the first game, it's more tactical and less power fantasy.

[@atifarshad7624]

Unfortunately SoF2 and Payback are nowhere as good as the first game

[@Svecke80]

@@atifarshad7624 Yeah, so it'll be great content/torture for civvie :D

[@tobiyoarcangel]

Imagine Civvie when he finds out that SoF 2 is even more visceral, considerably harder (or at least I got my ass handed back to me above Normal) and had less sci-fi stuff.

[@TheJallu]

now this brings back some memories, the location based dmg was so cool and new :)

[@SomeKindaSpy]

@@Elatenl that's something that particularly infuriates me about the new Halo games (among many MANY other things). My favorite part of mowing down covies was seeing the aftermath splattered on the walls and floor; and just about every alien had a unique blood color, texture, and a couple even glowed. The most recent game the aliens don't even really bleed, or if there is a splatter it disappears after about ten seconds. I get *why* that is for that game in particular, but come on. Seeing the rainbow blood paint from the aliens was half the fun.

[@J.DeLaPoer]

Kingpin did it back in 1999 a year before Soldier of Fortune (also on a highly modded Q2 engine). Not so spectacular as SOF, but it had locational damage, realistic guns; you could blow off sections of or entire limbs and heads; blood sprayed, wounded enemies left blood trails... and the KPQ2 "Pain" system where enemies showed increasing amounts of bullet holes, blood-soaked clothes, etc by progressively _seamlessly_ swapping enemy model textures out in real-time as you unloaded on them. So for example keep shooting an enemy in the arm and their arm would first show some blood on their clothes, then multiple bullet holes, and eventually the arm would be blown off by the section -- or stronger weapons like point blank shotgun could remove limbs and heads in one hit. They actually had hundreds of progressive damage textures for every body location on every single one of the several dozen different enemies, and they were synced to location hits really well implemented. Insane for the Q2 engine in '99. KP's Pain system was a bit more detailed and "realistically" implemented than Ghoul, but SOF's was just over-the-top ridiculous. Also KP remains sadly obscure and is only remembered for saying fuck a lot, while everyone recalls SOF's gore. Those two games were the height of realistically modelled gunshot damage and gore in videogames. They also got a hell of a lot of backlash as this was the era of video game court cases and Columbine... So with all the horrible press we've seen less and less gore ever since. Many new FPS, even the realistic ones, are lucky to show any sort of blood at all -- let alone realistic damage on the enemy models and limb removal. Treyarch's CoD: World At War is the last one I can think of that did a half decent of realistic gore modelling and even that was nothing compared to KP and SOF.

[@reisb1441]

I played this game when I was wayyyy too young to do so but it was an absolute blast. Thank you Civvie for covering this gem of a game!

[@Reven338]

Fun and useless fact, when Taylor was introduced my game froze so I had Taylor saying in monotone "Mullins" over and over and over again to the point that they only real memory I have of this game to this day is "MullinsMullinsMullinsMullinsMullinsMullinsMullinsMullins"

[@RyuAzuku]

How this guy doesnt have more subs I will NEVER understand, even though I've only found him 3 or so weeks ago his content is worth it. And that sub-plot he has in his videos is fuckin great

[@Mantis47]

26:40 Having a villain named Wilhelm and have him fall to his death but not use THE scream feels like a wasted opportunity.

[@RipOffProductionsLLC]

Because the game isn't trying to be a joke wrapped in 14 layers of irony, it's trying to take itself seriously.... I think... Anyway...

[@59.9fps]

10 hours of pure pwnage this game is. For middle-aged gamers, it is not too easy at the higher difficulty levels, and actually allows to customize the difficulty too, like unlimited saves with hardest enemies - which was the mode I played so that no time was wasted going back to the beginning of a level. It is a classic which should be preserved. I dont think the current society will allow a remake that sticks to its soul.

[@JimsMusicDungeon]

Classic game, still fun to play after all those years :)

[@DigiSpaceProductions]

fun fact, this isnt the first game based off a magazine, that'd be Need for Speed in 1994; aka, Road & Track: The Need for Speed.

[@jcdenton7564]

Civvie is slowly going insane day by day and I love it. I wonder if he'll ever play Brigand Oaxaca because that's what will make him snap

[@phatphlanks5651]

Unfortunately Soldier of Fortune is not the first magazine to be adapted into a video game. It was beaten by ‘Road and Track presents: The Need For Speed’ 6 years prior

[@matt_r.2510]

I was completely enthralled with the zanny storyline. I would love to see this made into a movie. With a better ending of course.

[@curtisclark7550]

This was the first FPS i can remember putting a lot of time in. Love this game!

[@genuinesaucy]

Holy shit, how have I never played this? "Excuse me Mr. Hussein" is the first time I've laughed out loud at video game dialogue since the last Grand Theft Auto.

[@YizzTheEunuch]

Great episode Civ, keep up the great work!

[@issahumps]

Such a cool game at the time lol the limbs coming off was actually shocking 😂 blew my mind as a kid and thought all games would use that in the future.

[@halsaufschneider1446]

And here we are, having Lightsaber Star Wars games, where you can't chop off $hit....

[@0v_x0]

@@halsaufschneider1446 We all miss Raven.

[@maxjohn6012]

This game and AVP were my childhood (and I came here from the AVP video). Thank you.

[@maxjohn6012]

Also, bro, you didn't try the alt fire on the microwave gun?! You missed the coolest thing in the game!

[@tbxvividos]

The death animations in this game are literally still better than most games released today. I loved this game so much when it came out. It was definitely a technical showcase in its time. Oh, and that lean mechanic is absolutely crucial to playing on the hardest difficulties. This game doesn't mess around when you crank it up.