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No One Lives Forever
 What the game lacks graphics wise is made up for in the creativity of the gameplay and interaction of enemy units. Even if the models of the characters are somewhat below par, their movements are quite impressive. The game combines a Weighted Skeletal Animation System with Animation Blending to simulate hundreds of realistic movements such as enemies getting in and out of chairs, picking up weapons, or opening doors. Watch the enemy take cover behind a barrel or knock over a table in front of them. They can even do a forward roll, or run for cover after being hit. Enemy units will also react to any audio effects such as gunfire or yells for help from friends, while your footprints or the sight of a dead comrade will set the enemy into panic. Even stepping into visual range or leaving a dead body of a monitoring camera will set off a base wide alarm and cause every enemy to switch to full alert mode. A death from a balcony will see your target crashing down to the floor below, while death from atop a flight of stairs will have him tumbling all the way down. Some enemy teamwork is also evident with enemies taking offensive/defensive roles such as taking turns for cover fire or rushing out to support each other in firefights.
Even civilians will react to the surrounding actions, if you carry a gun in a public area they may freak out, while gunfights will send them on their knees cowering to protect themselves.
The game strongly promotes the idea of stealth, and going in guns blazing is most likely to get you killed. Unfortunately the enemy sometimes seems to have the hearing ability of a guard dog. Your crouch/walk footsteps from several meters away, or silenced automatic shots can set an enemy off. Health is metered by a red bar indicator, while you can also wear body amour to take some or all of the punishment from the bullets until it wears out. Certain ammunition types, such as phosphorus or cyanide tipped bullets will cause damage to health in addition to reducing armor.
There many other impressive examples of enemy reactions. Damage is taken based on where you shoot - a headshot will kill in one shot, while it may take several shots to the feet to take them down. A shot in the foot will send them crashing from beneath themselves, while a chest shot has the same effect has having a heavyweight wrestler charge into them at full speed. A shot to the back will make them recoil backwards while sinking to their knees, while a shot to the stomach will have them folding over on their way down.
 While moving or changing your aim rapidly your crosshair will become significantly larger and you will become less accurate. Those familiar with the Counter-strike will recognize the effects as similar to that of the "spray and pray" fire causing an increase in crosshair size and decrease in accuracy. Even holding a sniper gun in zoomed mode will have a crosshair that is not totally still, but with slight swaying (ever tried looking through a telescope and keeping it totally steady?)
Other considerations, such as weapons power and the ability to shoot through objects such as a crate or metal gate have an effect on the power an accuracy of your weapons.
The creativity of the levels will also keep you hooked, with a great variety of inventive and original scenes including outer-space laser gun duels, or running over an enemy on your motorbike. Yes, in NOLF you can take control of motorbikes and snowmobiles to escape the enemy or better yet take them on directly by ramming into them :). Be warned - if you miss your first attempt to run them down, you will rarely get a second chance.
No One Lives Forever breathes a fresh new perspective into the FPS gaming scene with witty and creative presentation and gameplay. The LithTech 2.5 Engine shows some of the best character animations and AI reactions around, and is only hampered by mediocre graphics rendering. The amusing comments of the characters, and "memos" in the intelligence items along with a variety of scenes unlike any other existing FPS games will keep you looking out for more throughout the game.
Final score: 88%
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