**7. No One Lives Forever 2 (PC - FPS) **
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i like shooters. Not my favorite genre, but it’s probably the one that I am most forgiving with. After all, there’s tons of ways to make a shooter that are all fun in different ways – You might have to do nothing more than blast your way to the end of the level trying to survive, like in Doom. You might have to shoot someone only as a last resort as you attempt to use stealth to accomplish your goals, like in Thief. You might not be in a real level at all but instead in an arena doing nothing more than killing everyone in sight, like in Unreal Tournament. You might not be able to just charge in blasting but instead must cooperate and plan with your pals, like in Counter Strike. You might spend more time chatting it up with people than actually shooting, like in Deus Ex.
Point is – there’s a lot of different sub-categories in the FPS genre. Second point is, you can find pretty much anything you could want in a FPS in game of the year winning No One Lives Forever 2 – the game is best played playing through levels methodically, generally trying to nail the baddies without being seen – If you do get seen and need to engage in a firefight though, your character is built tough enough to not die in two shots – Nothing wrong with some realism in games, but i think it can get really old playing the games where you make one mistake and it’s time to press quick load button. There’s also a fantastic storyline to follow and boatloads of ridiculously witty dialogue to keep you entertained. It’s good enough I’d consider the game one of the very few worth watching over someone’s shoulder.
For those who know nothing about the game, imagine playing a typical secret agent quest seen through the eyes of an Austin Powers movie – You play as the only female agent in a top secret government agency in the swinging sixties, fighting against an evil worldwide terror organization known only as HARM. Your missions take you everywhere from an ancient Japanese village to a hidden underwater laboratory to a trailer park in Ohio – and the quality graphics really make everything come alive.
This game is still readily available – and couldn’t possibly cost more than twenty bucks – Unless you flat out hate FPS games or you are the type who ignores a single player campaign and jumps right into multiplayer (this game has it, but it’s an add on and not the focus), you are doing yourself a disservice by not playing No One Lives Forever 2…
…and no, I was not exaggerating on those game of the year awards.