Humor Gives New Life to Familiar Spy Game

By AARON CURTISS

Jan. 25, 2001 12 AM PT

aaron.curtiss@latimes.com

Although it treads where dozens of PC games have gone before, “No One Lives Forever” still manages to feel fresh and new. Maybe it’s because the first-person shooter set in the 1960s spy culture refuses to take itself too seriously.

Its heroine is a smug Scot whose career as a thief trained her well to be a secret agent. Its bad guys are a comic collection of out-of-work academics and poorly trained slobs just trying to pay the bills. And its missions unfold with a gentle sense of humor between the wryness of James Bond and the crassness of Austin Powers.

Cate Archer finally gets her chance in the field for UNITY--the super-secret organization that employs her--but only because someone has killed off most of the other operatives. So she heads off to solve the mystery. Her companion, of course, quickly gets whacked, and players end up helping a solo Archer find her way through some beautiful and complex levels as she roots out the agents of HARM.

These agents are, frankly, the best feature of the game. Players overhear them arguing and talking about working conditions. When they get shot at, they shout helpful warnings such as “Look out for the bullets!” One almost feels sad whacking them. Almost.

As pathetic as they are, the bad guys also possess some wicked artificial intelligence, which makes them wily and hard to hit. Add to that the fact that “No One Lives Forever” features levels with all sorts of nooks and crannies to hide in. You learn early on that gunning and running won’t get you very far.

“No One Lives Forever” borrows play elements from scads of other games--from sneaking around to distracting guards--and combines them in a creative way that makes dozens of old tricks seem new.

‘Pod Speedzone’

It’s finally starting to mean something that Sega Dreamcast is the only video game console with the ability to play online games. From “Quake III Arena” to “NFL 2K1,” Dreamcast hosts some top-quality titles that deliver the sort of play possible on no other console.

In that upper tier is “Pod Speedzone,” a futuristic racer that pits players against each other on some hostile off-world courses. The story, such as it is, unfolds in a mining colony where a virus has attacked all life forms--including, it seems, cars, which are turned into lethal racing machines.

Whatever. The point is that “Speedzone” serves up half a dozen twisting and turning tracks full of shortcuts, power-ups and booby traps. In addition to the standard turbo boost, players can collect mines to scatter on the track with the hope of blowing apart competitors or they can deploy a beam called the Wave that immobilizes drivers up ahead.

“Speedzone” also features some Darwinian race modes that bring out the merciless thug in everybody and weed out weak players quickly. For instance, in Thriller mode, the driver in last place loses shield strength until his or her car stops working altogether. Only by overtaking someone else does the degeneration stop. And you guessed it--that driver then begins to lose shield strength.

Clearly, the only way to play “Speedzone” is against other humans. Although the two-player, split-screen mode works just fine, the game is optimized for online play against as many as three other players. The tracks never slow down or break apart, giving players a seamless experience.

Sega’s broadband adapter--available online for $60--positions Dreamcast as a screaming online arcade machine at a time Sony and Nintendo offer no ability to connect to any kind of network. Sega understood early on that gaming can be social. Microsoft gets it too--Xbox comes with a broadband adapter. Sony still has no Internet option for PlayStation 2.

‘Breakout’

Can someone explain how one of the classic titles of home video gaming could be allowed to be desecrated in the way “Breakout” has been? In a new incarnation for Sony PlayStation, the classic Atari 2600 game has been updated to, as the case promises, provide “addictive fun for the whole family.”

If your whole family ends at a slow cousin and an idiot brother-in-law then, yeah, I guess “Breakout” could offer hours of fun. But if there’s a single firing synapse among your kin, steer clear. This update is saccharin sacrilege.

In an effort to make the venerable game of smashing bricks more attractive to the younger generation, designers turned a game of skill into a schlocky adventure starring a bunch of bendable paddles. They’re basically rectangles with eyes. One of them, Bouncer, is imprisoned by a thug who wants his girlfriend, Daisy.

So players control Bouncer as he knocks balls against all sorts of obstructions--from bricks and crates to sheep and chickens. The goal is to smash holes that allow Bouncer to escape and save his girlfriend. Between some levels, Bouncer takes part in some mindless mini-games, such as running from a stampeding bull.

The interludes detract from play that could be quite challenging and enjoyable. In fact, play seems to take a back seat to the story--which makes no sense, considering the story is about a bunch of rectangles with eyes.

Visually, the game creates some nice environments, giving “Breakout” a three-dimensional look unimaginable in the days of Atari 2600. Had designers stopped there and just given the game a new visual design, “Breakout” might have been a great game.

Instead, it’s a crummy game with a great game’s name.

Aaron Curtiss is editor of Tech Times.

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The Skinny

Title: “No One Lives Forever”

Genre: First-person shooter

Price: $40

Platform: PC

Publisher: Fox Interactive

ESRB* rating: Teen

The good: Stylish

The bad: Very derivative