The quintessence of a shagadelical experience!
The story revolves around a spy agency in the 60s, UNITY whose agents are being murdered at an alarming rate. Considering the lack of man operatives, Cate Archer (you) is called upon in a desperate situation. Hey, after all it's a man's world.
During the course of your investigations you will encounter many items of mass destruction including a massive array of arsenals and gadgets. Considering the learning curve would one be high, fear not as the game cleverly uses the 'advance field tactics' sequence (similar to any Bond films) to use these items in a controlled environment.
As typical in a FPS, you shoot enemies to achieve your goals. However as the saying states 'there are many ways to skin a cat' the game encourages alternatives like sneaking; however there are some parts that an all-out shooting spree is needed so to satisfy even blood-thirsty players. Try set off an alarm and what the guards rush towards you!
There is massive replay value as you have your typical easy, medium hard and super spy modes however you can get awards for collecting 'intelligence items' throughout the adventure. Some awards can be 'thank you for not hurting me' (zero damage), reputation, stealth, more armour etc. It really depends on what you have achieved during the missions. Also by collecting more intelligence items the better spy ranking you'll have which equates to a better ego (and gloating)! Even though the game officially ends, you can reply any scene to grab that better rating with your newly obtained equipment/s. Want to use that Gordon 9mm SMG (which incidentally is my favourite weapon) using poison tipped bullets in mission two? Go ahead!
The finer points of NOLF are the cinematic approach to the story hence the superior voice acting. No more just listening in conversations (however some conversations are dead-set hilarious). There are parts where you need to select an appropriate response which of course can add another intelligence item. The acting and story is the best I have seen so far (which lacks quite often in other FPS).
The sounds and music score is by far simply superb! The sound of guns firing, explosions, walking etc wants you to invest a better soundcard. And the music...the music mends well in the game. I really enjoyed listening to the music as it has a 60s feel to it (funny that). Also if you can, get your hands on the GOTY edition as there is a soundtrack to listen to. Well worth it!
The game graphics and collision detection even though are good and very colourful (as I feel animating humans will be an extremely hard job to do) the Lithtech 2.0 really doesn't stand out as the Unreal/Quake 3 engines does. You will get that odd 'getting stuck in the corner' that only a serious array of jumping can get you out or that 'How do I climb down that ladder instead of falling to my death?' moments. However it's definitely not enough to distract the game play!
Overall, No One Lives Forever is absolutely one of the superior FPS shooter in the market today. Its tremendous game play, storyline (which is extremely rare in FPS), music score and wonderful humour put the colour back in this genre and of course the 60s! Yeah baby!!!