Soldier Of Fortune: Payback the third installment in the popular Soldier Of Fortune game series was released in the U.S for PC, Xbox 360 & Playstation 3 in November Of 2007

My Gaming Community & I have been playing the full pc version of Soldier Of Fortune Payback (SOF) this week. We have put most first person shooters to the test over the past 5 years, including yet not limited to Day of Defeat, Counter Strike, Battlefield 2,Battlefield 2142, Call of Duty 4, F.E.A.R, Frontlines Fuel Of War, Crysis, and Team Fortress 2. As with most violent games containing blood and combat situations this game is rated for a Mature audience over the age of 18.

SOF payback was released by Activision, the same company that produced Call of Duty 4, It was however designed by Cauldron rather than Infinity Ward. As Call Of Duty was such a fantastic game we evaluated SOF Payback as a budget title much like we would with a new mod.

Soldier Of Fortune Payback is most similar in game play and appearance to Call of Duty 4 in comparison to other first person shooters. It is built on the Quake 3 engine which allows for stunning graphics. The main difference is the "gore factor" in SOF. There is blood everywhere, so much so that it was banned in Australia. The models are created with 36 separation points, which means you can blow the limbs off of the enemy with stunning results. A clean head shot for instance will produce a geyser of blood, a throat shot causes the model to grip his throat, groin, arm, etc. This gore content is really the largest appeal of the game. We found ourselves shouting with glee upon first playing the game.

The included single player mode of this game makes up the majority of content in this release. It offers real world combat locations, over 30 real world weapons, and a good mercenary based story line. The single player mode offers around 8-10 hours of entertaining game play on normal mode. The single player mode is not only addictive it is packed with thrilling moments and surprises.

I am currently running an AMD x64 dual core rig with 2 gigs of ram and an 8800 GTS (640mb) graphics card and was able to run with graphic settings on 1920x1200 (high), with no problems in both single and multiplayer modes.

After playing Call of Duty 4 over the past several months, I still miss the squad based play of the Battlefield series or Crysis, however the multiplayer aspects of Soldier Of Fortune are not meant to be it's selling point.

The online multiplayer game mode is the greatest complaint we have. For the following reasons. There is NO in game text or voice chat!? This is great if you get tired of complaining players however we would like the option of turning it on or off. We play on ventrilo so communicating is not a total deal breaker. The multiplayer game modes included are Death Match, Team Death Match, Elimination, Team Elimination, Capture the Flag and Demolition.The largest number of players per game are 12 which keeps lag low and lends to the 5 small maps available. Having run servers for many years I like to run my own dedicated servers, with Soldier Of Fortune Payback this is not possible as all games are created via the in game browser. There are generally less than 40 servers available currently during peak hours, however with few options there is little "server hunting" needed. On a scale of one to ten I would give SOF payback a 7 for single player and a 4 for multiplayer due to lack of options. I've never rated a game 10 however I rank Battlefield 2142, or Call of Duty 4 an 8 or 9.

The game is offered from $19.99 to $49.99 US . After playing the game both in single player to completion and online in multiplayer both with friends and strangers we feel the $20-$30 price point is closest to fair value. I am happy I purchased the game and plan to play through single player on the "hardest" level. We are enjoying the multiplayer to pass time in spite of it's defects however in the scope of longevity we feel it is probably a passing craze within our group.

If you have some extra cash and want a blood filled, exciting, single player game with stunning graphics and fantastic sounds, you might consider picking up a copy of SOF payback.

Side Note : There are no additional patches expected for this game.

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