Soldier of Fortune: Payback honestly doesn’t make a great first impression, with an opening level set in a nondescript Middle Eastern environment that compares unfavourably to similar sections in other titles. The pacing is awkwardly scripted, the number of characters on screen never reaches double figures and the whole affair plays out like a by-the-numbers shooter. It feels tired, dated and frankly unfinished as the player ambles around on a rigid, arbitrary course through such an uninspiring environment. The game also uses the most horrific, forced first-person zooming perspective for its cut scenes, which is both jarring and disorientating. Once you struggle past this utterly disparaging opening level, however, the game starts to get its act together.
The one potential problem with Payback, depending on your viewpoint, is that it is an old-school corridor-shooter in the strictest sense, and nowhere is this more apparent than in this first section. There are only one or two points in each level where the player is given any significant freedom in choosing how to approach a situation. Even then such areas still remain quite enclosed and restrictive for the most part. The result of which is a game where the player is funnelled down a tight passage for the majority of its duration.
This in itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing, however, and the later levels do a much better job of hiding it through their inventive use of outdoor locales. This is achieved by looping the level paths back on themselves and throwing enemies at the player from different vertical levels, giving the environments the illusion of greater depth. Graphically, these areas are very impressive, particularly the jungle levels which feature a wealth of vegetation all over the show. In terms of realistic-looking plant life this is definitely one of the better shooters out there. The game also has a pleasingly soft, high dynamic range lighting system, which applies a subtle brightness correction as you move in and out of the darker areas. There are some superb backdrops with nicely textured mountainsides rising off into the distance and particularly impressive water effects, with rivers and waterfalls glinting in the bright sunlight.
A perfect example of all these elements working together can be seen in the cavern complex players get to explore mid-way through the game. These areas are always difficult to keep entertaining in shooters, but here the organic modelling of the rock walls, combined with the water effects make what would typically be quite a dull sequence quite visually appealing. The frame rate remains rock solid throughout and the highly detailed explosion effects don’t cause any problems, throwing up dust and debris all around. If there’s one fly in the ointment, it's the degree of pop-in that occurs with the environment objects in some of the more densely populated areas, and at times this can become really quite noticeable.
Playing Payback is an unusual experience: it has, rather boldly, completely ignored what other shooters are doing today. Enemy AI is pretty redundant, they either stand there, stationary, shooting at you or run straight for the player, with little regard for their own lives. The action is entirely scripted, in a couple of places it is actually possible to see an area completely devoid of enemies only for you to pass round a narrow obstruction and find it populated with half a dozen, well armed foes. And while there are a large number of guns and attachments, there‘s never any need to change what you are using, short of running out of ammunition. It would be so easy to dismiss the game out of hand as being a simplistic, crude, embarrassment in this day and age, and, indeed, for many it will be just another bargain-bin shooter. Cauldron have, however, understood that a low-budget title can successfully be aimed at a niche market, and this has clearly been kept in mind throughout development.
This is a game all about learning the enemy positions, rehearsing your movements and taking out each adversary on cue from the developer's script. It‘s not about the spectacle or the frankly awful storyline, based as it is around a mercenary‘s utterly bizarre quest for his own imagined moral justice; all the while assaulting the player with some appallingly awkward dialogue deliveredwith the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Instead, the enjoyment is derived from the satisfaction of feeling yourself seamlessly moving from checkpoint to checkpoint, delivering practised quick-shots to the pre-ordained rhythm. This is interspersed with those delicious moments where the enemy decide simply to rush you en masse, allowing the player to really open up on full auto. Yes, a modern regenerating health system is featured, but the player takes damage at such a fast rate it’s really only there to give you a single chance to realise your error and dive for cover.
Payback harkens back to a very much simpler time and there’s the feeling that it was created as a chance to relive that style, rather than a hackneyed attempt at trying to reinvent the franchise. The game still features the over the top gore levels SoF was always known for, but today they’re rather tame compared to the darker game worlds of some of the competition. This aside, it still provides enough visceral feedback to make each kill feel satisfying.
The game, however, is certainly not a holy grail for old-school gamers – it does have its flaws. Towards the end, the title lets itself down again in the level designdepartment byturning out a couple of rather dreary indoor settings, riddled with cookie-cutter design and layout. The boss battles vary significantly in quality, from the likes of an exciting multi-stage, underground car park shoot-out, to far duller sequences featuring enemies who are effectively static bullet-sponges. In addition to this, the multiplayer maps, while well designed with plenty of routes, are few in number and let down by a paltry collection of uninspired game modes. There’s little to no flow in matches thanks to a combination of poor spawn placement and a lack of overall focal points for the carnage.
Soldier of Fortune: Payback is not a bad game, it's just not one with universal appeal. Crucially, it offers its own unique experience rather than trying to emulate others and it is because of this that it can be recommended to people who are perhaps looking for a simpler, less bombastic shooter experience. Ultimately, for fans of the genre, it is the equivalent of a side dish, not entirely filling but a perfectly enjoyable diversion nonetheless.