Highest rated reviews for Soldier of Fortune: Payback (2007)

i believe this leg is yours?

KORNdog , 16/11/2007

Ok, right off the bat I’m going to say there are far better first person shooters out there, especially now the likes of orange box and call of duty 4 have been released. Yet I still believe this game deserves a 4/5...the reason being simple....GORE...and lots of it.

If you’re looking for an immersive, high quality, highly polished game look elsewhere, this is not it. This is a budget title through and through, it has a few performance issues, massive AI problems and just a general lack of polish. But if you like violence and gore with no extra “fluff” to get in your way, then this is definitely the game for you.

First off, let’s start out with the story....well, what story there is. Basically you've been double crossed and your out for revenge, and if that means tearing off the limbs of countless terrorists then so be it, there is no moral high ground here. Your story is essentially to shoot guys in the face.

Now sound is a mixed bag, on the one hand the guns all feel adequately powerful and menacing, the terrorists all speak in their native tongue and overall the game sounds fine in terms of gameplay. Story wise it’s terrible, a half assed script delivered by half assed voice actors. But again, who cares when you’re making a guys skull explode with a single bullet.

gameplay is a pretty standard affair with its only saving grace being, yep, you guessed it, the gore....remove the decapitations, the dismemberment and the general violence and your left with a very bellow average game, but considering very few games give you this level of gore, your willing to let it slide.

The length while short isn’t much of an issue, the 6-ish hour campaign is perfect for this sort of mindless violence and so it doesn’t have time to truly get repetitive or old. that’s not to say it doesn’t start to however, once you’ve seen a guy lose a leg and crawl away to bleed out in a corner a few hundred times, the effect starts to wear off. Although seeing a group of enemies’ arms and legs fly around a room after an explosion always seems to raise a smile.

The one main stand out-ish area of the game besides the gore is the visuals, while there are better, and more consistent games out there, few budget titles look this good. And if it wasn’t for the odd framerate stutter and screen tearing it'd be perfect for what it does.

unlike others who will rate this game based on and in comparison to the likes of cod 4 I’m reviewing it based on what it is, a mindless, fun, gory, BUDGET title. If your expecting production values of half life episode 2 then your expectations are set far too high. But in comparison to games of similar price from similar budget ranges, soldier of fortune: payback offers some great, albeit cheap thrills. There’s a certain satisfaction that only a soldier of fortune game can give a player. Those that have played the past games will know what I’m talking about, and for those that haven’t, now’s a great time to start.

Yet Another First Person Shooter

A customer from Scotland , 21/02/2008

With games like Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, Medal of Honor and Orange Box amongst other FPS already out there there are better looking and more challenging shooters out there. The game in itself is not bad, the graphics and sound are what you would expect of a next gen shooter and the gameplay will be fairly familiar - which is the problem since I felt I've played this game before. The xbox 360 market is becoming overcrowded with FPS which offer nothing new or original to the genre. If you like FPS get Halo 3 or Call of duty before considering this.

SOF Payback

mtype101 from Warrington [Highly rated reviewer] , 21/01/2008

For Xbox 360 title this game is not so good the graphics are spot on but the gameplay is repative (also its too easy)

not that good

nipper from Telford , 12/02/2008

i did not like it at all

a poor mans game

kcpshaggydoo from gloucester , 06/07/2008

this game is awful the graphics are sub standard ps2,the gameplay is a sham your enemy are stupid and the game decides o i know what will be fun lets spawn enemys behind you just afta you killed them! the draw distance is a joke the gore is rubbish as you can only take the same parts of the body off,this is just a good game and a let down to the other games with its name.avoid

soldier of fortune

danqrl from Sandy , 02/07/2008

OK for a rental but nothing special. Try it but dont expect too much

One good thing about this...

BobSyko from Runcorn [Highly rated reviewer] , 09/03/2008

...and that's that the gorehounds will love it thanks to the fact you can blow bits off people. Pretty much everything else is terrible.

It controls...not bad, it's easy enough to get a shot on the stupid bad guys that will run out into the street that you have just gunned down a load of their mates in. That's pretty much where anything nice you can say about the game stops.

Like I said, enemies are stupid. They will run out in front of you where you will blow off both of his legs. Then his mate will think, 'Wow, that looks fun!' He'll run out, bam, no legs and so on. Sometimes they will just decide to go legging it past you of course, running to...somewhere.

There are also a load of glitches which will try to prevent you from completing the game. The worst of which involves a slave you have to escort to a mine. He will disappear, stop moving, die for no reason and to top it all off he seems to have had his brain removed so will constantly run forwards even if there is a bad guy with a AK and an angry face standing right in front of him. Once he gets to these people he will, of course, stop.

The one good thing about the game is that when you get to a point where you think you can't carry on anymore it will finish. I killed a guy, nabbed his briefcase and thought to myself, sod it, I've had enough, then, all of a sudden the game ends. That made me laugh about as much as the rest made me cry.

Still, you can blow bits off people so if that's how you roll then go for it. It will be fun for at least ten minutes. Achievements are crap as well, mainly online....where no one plays.

Surprisingly good, give it a rent

Christopher Dunning from Slough , 27/01/2009

Was attracted to the game originally because i enjoyed Double Helix on the PC.

I used to love the over the top gore and this SOF: Payback did not let me down, blow limbs off in a shower of blood and get happy whilst dancing in their spewing blood.

The graphics are very good, i was surprised, very similar to the graphics of Rainbow 6 Vegas' campaign mode, very nice.

The difficulty is not too bad, easy is fun, normal is enjoyable with a challenge and hard is pretty difficult at points.

Weapon customisation is very good as well, stick everything you want on a weapon from telescopic sights to silencers and foregrips.

Finally the multiplyer section is very good as well, which again surprised me for a game that went almost completely under the radar, the multiplyer is amazing, if you can get a full room... which doesn't happen much because you will no doubt only find two rooms online at a time.

Overall however the game is very good, great graphics, good sound, great weapons and a solid multiplayer. I advise a rent, or if you like it buy it, it's around £10 in the shops :)

Average but fun

A customer from Carterton , 10/11/2008

SOF: Payback is an average short easy game there is nothing new, nothing thats not been done before, the graphics are what you would expect from a next gen game, enemy AI is too good annoyingly so for those attemptedly stealthy approaches but all in all its a fun game, multiplayer is a little lacking as the game was banned in a few countrys and is sub par to the standard set by bad company and cod4 but still a fun game worth a rent for a wasted weekend as it is VERY short.

WTF

kopite0989 from Chester , 07/07/2009

This is the worst game i have ever played. The story is too short, easy and repetative. The shooting system is terrible and the enemy is awful. The only good points about this game is the disemberment and the graphics. Other than that don't even rent it. utterly abismal

A bit of a let down

lirical from ROTHERHAM , 06/03/2009

Just ok.Yes body parts fly off when shot but the graphics arnt all that so it doesent even look that good.The graphics ae a bit shoddyto say the least and the cover system is none existent.But the ememy ai is quite good so it does put up a bit of a challange.

STAY AWAY!!!!

DayDay from Glasgow , 03/03/2009

I can't even bring myself to give this game any more of my time by writing a review. It is hideously bad. I am a big FPS fan and I just had to try this as I loved the old gory SOF games on the PC but this just makes you want to eat your own ammo and beat the game developers to death with the box. AVOID AT ALL COSTS EVEN IF YOU ARE A HARDCORE FPS'R (- IN FACT ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE A HARDCORE FPS'R) = YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!

Makes your eyes bleed

A customer from Mansfield , 18/01/2009

I played this game for about 30 mins and didn't like it at all. I think it's trying to copy too much from Rainbow Six but failed misserably. The graphics aren't too good and the gameplay is pretty poor. I couldn't get used to the controls of the game either but this is just my opinion and it's each to their own.

poor excuse for a game

A customer from Colchester , 17/12/2008

The graphics are poor the story line is poor , even the online multiplayer is poor, sof 2 is better than this, i wouldnt waste your time or rentals renting this game.

decent war game

A customer from Hyde , 08/11/2008

enjoyed this on same road as cod but not bad if u like shooting foreign speaking enemies quite fun worth renting

very good but missing something.

A customer from Bury St. Edmunds , 02/11/2008

this game is brilliant.good animations,fun to play,controlls well (although down on the D-pad is a crap crouch button) and the gun customisation is good too.

but sometimes,lines of dialogue don't get played.limbs get stuck in scenery and flail about,though it's funny.

online is a bit...strange. it's fun blowing that smug prat who thinks he is 'teh 1337 pro n00b killa' into a limbless torso then laughing in his face.

very much worth renting. and if you like it,worth buying too.

What Did I Do To Deserve This? Oh, I Rented It Out.

Midnight from Croydon [Highly rated reviewer] , 17/09/2008

If this is Payback then I must have done something very bad in a previous life. In fact I would go as far as saying that the game is about as soulless as an exorcised corpse. The creators of this game, and I use the term ‘creators’ very loosely here, obviously had a tick list of what a first person shooter game should contain and have gone through it very methodically. Guns, tick. Weapons upgrades, tick. Background story, tick. Man on a mission, tick. Personality, errr. Depth, errr…….hang on I know they must be around here somewhere. Sadly, they are not, the game has all the atmosphere of the moon and lacks that spark that makes a truly great FPS game, like Call Of Duty 2 & 4, for example. The game just seems so sterile for something that involves the raw and heady feeling of being a gun-toting warrior laying down carnage in the world’s toughest war-torn countries. You simply feel isolated from the experience on screen where other games immerse you in the action that is onscreen.

As for achievement points, these are primarily multiplayer based and require you to try and find the four other people who are playing the game online at any one time. Even then you need to play for a fairly long period of time to be able to get them. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can play the multiplayer game locally either to try and get around this, there is no split-screen option, its online only.

If you are a FPS fanboy then nothing I will say will prevent you from at least renting this game, so I’ll just say ‘I told you so’ in advance. For everyone else who just wants to play a decent involving game, invest in something else, COD 2 or 4 for realism, BioShock for the sci-fi/horror fans.

good but got repetitive

jonnytash from Berwick-upon-Tweed [Highly rated reviewer] , 03/09/2008

Good game great action and plot!

Bleh!

Pete14 [Highly rated reviewer] , 22/08/2008

Although it's not the worst game I've played ever, even this year infact, it is such a disapointment!

I loved the first and second installment of this series and even the reviews warned me I got kinda happy when I heard this game had been released. However, although games have moved on since the second game, this hasn't.

Just a very basic FPS that adds nothing to the gaming world. Play it at the risk of your own boredom

What a highly underrated game.

Chris Hoskins from Devon, England [Highly rated reviewer] , 13/08/2008

Now i'm not going to pretend for one second that this is anything other then a budget run and gun shooter with the depth of a spoon, but this is probably the best budget run and gun shooter you'll ever play!! Graphically its in the same league as all the big players like COD4, The game play is surprising good too. Of course the voice acting is piss poor and the plot is one big yawn fest but who cares when your going around blowing off heads left right and center. Normally i'm the first to criticize these types of mindless gun ho games but this is different to the rest, this is Solider of Fortune!! it's just fun to play and that's about it, no strings attached, sure you can play the hard difficulty to make it a bit of a challenge but really you just want to do the normal or easy settings and go round with a smile on your face from ear to ear caused by the joy only dismembering a terrorist brings. Despite what others might say it does never get old as the game is relatively short so its all over before the whole thing becomes repetitive. The shooting mechanics are great, the amount of guns there is and how you can customize them is really shocking in how much effort they put in and makes you wonder why other games don't do similar things, and all the guns just feel so powerful its really some of the most satisfying killing you'll ever do. Another big surprise was the online multi player, i didn't think anybody would be on it but there were quite a few games going on and whats more it was actually pretty fun to play as once again the high level of customization is present as is the gore when you kill some one online they don't just die fall down and respawn, they'll lose an arm or their head will explode theres hardly anything else out there that does this......I think my main message i want to put across here is that you should give this game a chance, No there's not a lot going on with it but its fun and the short time you spend with it will be enjoyable, After all where else are you going to be able to blow all a guys limbs off before he hits the floor??

not bad

sarah beeby-smith from uk [Highly rated reviewer] , 15/07/2008

an average shooter in an already over crowded FPS market. some nice touches but nothing new.

Soldier Of Fortune

Entilzha from WAKEFIELD [Highly rated reviewer] , 22/05/2008

I Have the old PC versions and they are better, I Agree with the other reviews for this game!! There is other far better first person shooters than this one!! RENT call of duty 4 or orange box for better thrills, gore doesn't make a game good.

ERRRGGH SO DATED

BRUC from Portsmouth [Highly rated reviewer] , 24/04/2008

If you have played any of the previous titles you know what to expect!! Gratuitous bloody murder and lots of gore, but this novelty wears off after 20 minutes. Slowdown, frame-rate issues, dated graphics, and to top it all off you can easily finish it in one sitting.

Not to say there is no enjoyment to be had, but only worth playing for a quick 20 minute blast at a time.

gorein

cruelbean from Haltwhistle , 18/04/2008

This game sucks big time the only thing its got goin 4 it is the gore and lets face it its been done better in the last gen so avoid u have been warned

loved the first one but this is better.

bigsy123 from Huddersfield , 13/02/2008

I was really looking foward to this game as I loved the original on my ps2 !!! and couldnt wait to see what it looked like in hd on my 360 elite !.

it did not disappoint the graphics are brill and the gameplay is truly enthralling I loved every minute of it.Only one disappointment in my opinion the solo campaign is very short !

but the online/multiplayer options more than make up for this !!!.