Soldier of Fortune: Payback

Ho-hum

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2007 has been a banner year for console gamers. As I type this, there are a lot of triple-A titles sitting on store shelves. The bar has been set incredibly high and mediocre titles look that much worse in comparison.

Pros

  • Decent enough graphics, some missions are mildly engrossing.

Cons

  • Slow down and pop-ups galore, a generally unpolished gaming experience

Bottom Line

In the end, Payback is a decent enough game that won't leave much of a lasting impression. It's good if you just want some mindless fun but don't go in expecting anything more because the only payback you'll get is a shot in the foot.

Would you buy this?

  • Price

    $ 79.95 (AUD)

This is definitely the case with Soldier of Fortune: Payback. Had the title been released during a slow year, it may have caught a brief moment in the spotlight, but as it stands, the game doesn't do anything interesting or memorable aside from treating your eyes to some mindless violence.

Pop-up blocker

One probable reason Payback is so poor might lay in the fact that Raven Software, which handled the previous versions, wasn't involved. The game definitely lacks the usual polish that gamers have come to expect from the veteran development house; Payback is riddled with awful textures that seem to appear out of nowhere. While the graphics are decent, the framerate chokes along at points, which kills most of the fun.

The game will please gore-addicts, as you can perform some brutal amputations and cause great bodily harm to your foes but it gets boring after a while and bodies always evaporate into thin air upon death, which cuts down on the realism.

FPSuck

There really is nothing compelling about Payback. The single-player campaign, which can be completed in a handful of hours, is nothing memorable and the story abounds with cliches; if you've played Call of Duty 4 or Bioshock, you'll find yourself unimpressed by what Payback has to offer. There is hope for the game's multiplayer, where the hyper-gruesome battles might translate into an interesting experience but overall, the game is rather mediocre.

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