No One Lives Forever: Review + Full Series Retrospective (Replay)

Note: I had previously reviewed the full series back in 2016; you can read the original review here. This review is an updated version that's been largely re-written with updated and expanded thoughts, along with a full video version, seen here. 

The Operative: No One Lives Forever and its sequel, No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in HARM's Way, are a series of first-person shooters developed by Monolith Productions in 2000 and 2002, in which players take the role of 1960s secret agent Cate Archer trying to stop a villainous criminal organization from taking over the world. Typical gameplay involves combinations of run-and-gun action as you fight off hordes of enemy henchmen; sneaky stealth action as you try to infiltrate facilities undetected; exploring varied level environments to find hidden intelligence and bonus equipment upgrades; going undercover and mingling with civilians to meet with informants or interview suspects, occasionally even picking dialogue choices; riding vehicles through exotic locations; and watching cutscenes that progressively tell the game's lengthy story as Cate trots the globe to diverse and exotic locations to complete a variety of different objectives en route to saving the day. Both games also feature a strong humorous component with lots of genre-spoofing dialogue and jokes, thus lending them a much more whimsical and lighthearted tone than your typical shooter. Oh, and there's also Contract JACK, a stand-alone spinoff from 2003 that's loosely connected to the series, but uh, there's a reason it's not discussed much when it comes to the NOLF series and is perhaps better forgotten about, but don't worry -- I'll explain why in due time. 

 

Originally PC exclusives before seeing the first game ported to the PlayStation 2, the NOLF series received critical praise at the time but only ever achieved moderate financial success, having been overshadowed by so many other major releases in the surrounding years, and was soon abandoned by Monolith in favor of new series like FEAR and Condemned a few years later. A series of publisher acquisitions and mergers subsequently allowed the copyright to fall into no man's land, with none of the companies who MIGHT own it actually knowing for sure if they do or not, and none of them having any apparent interest in finding out, despite developer Nightdive Studios' best efforts in recent years while attempting to file for the license in order to do a remake. The games have therefore never been re-released beyond their initial run, nor made available for digital download on modern distribution platforms like Steam or GOG, while any attempt at a remake or legacy sequel has been shut down due to all the legal uncertainty, thus cementing the series legacy in the annals of video game history as lost, forgotten gems. 

Slay the Spire - Review 2025 | Why is this game so addicting?

Slay the Spire is a deck-building roguelike card game in the style of a turn-based dungeon-crawler, in which you choose one of four characters and try to ascend through a series of increasingly difficult combat encounters and random events so you can defeat the heart at the end and slay the titular spire. As a roguelike game, you will go through a different path every time, with randomized encounters therein, while also gaining different upgrades along the way, thus making each run feel totally unique, but with permanent progress being gained each time towards unlocking new types of content. As a deck-building game, you will always begin with the same starting deck of basic cards, and then progressively add new cards from a wide selection to hone that deck's advanced specialization for that one run. The challenge stems from seeing a bunch of different variables thrown at you each game, figuring out how best to adapt your current strategy to fit the current situation, and trying to play your cards just right, literally, to survive long enough to stand a chance at defeating the final boss. Win or lose, you will still earn some kind of reward for your efforts, perhaps the most important being lessons learned about strategies, tactics, and mechanics that you can apply to future runs so that you can hope to do better next time. 

To better understand the context for everything else I'm going to say in this review, let's start with an overview of how the game works and what you actually do in it. If you're already familiar with the basic gameplay concepts, then you can skip ahead to just get more of my thoughts on the game as a whole.