So how is the new FPS “Soldier of Fortune Payback” for the Xbox 360 and Sony Playstation 3? Let me put is simple… Stay away… Stay very far away from this one. I usually talk deep and detailed about a videogame in my reviews. But after playing Soldier of Fortune Payback for the last 2 days on my Playstation 3, I feel like the developers owe me something back (besides 2 days of my life). So I am just going to cut to the chase about Soldier of Fortune Payback for the Sony Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.
Look, I love a good gore-soaked game. I can name so many great gore-soaked games... Resident Evil 0-4, Silent Hill 1-4, Dead Rising... I also have a great love for first-person shooters. I have been addicted to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare since it’s release. So when you can blend over-the-top gore and FPS then I am there. And I had my hopes pretty high for Soldier of Fortune Payback. I saw a kick-ass video on youtube of this game, set to the theme for Delta Force. It was a cool video that showed Soldier of Fortune Payback’s bloody kills and deaths. I got the Playstation 3 version from a local video store just to check it out. But after playing this game for a good day or two, I can’t believe how bad it is. And how good it could have been. Soldier of Fortune Payback could be a victim of the developers rushing this game out the door to meet the holiday sales season. The end result is very bad.
Soldier of Fortune Payback looks good... but plays bad!
First off the story is very boring in Soldier of Fortune Payback. You are basically a mercinary out to kill. Not only that but the game looks like a 1st generation Xbox 360 game. And as far as first-person shooters are concerned, there is no bloody way in hell that Soldier of Fortune Payback can compete with another Activision game, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Comparing the two games would be a complete joke. The only comparison that is even close if that they are both first-person shooters and they have to do with war. Other then that these two games are so far apart in terms of good and bad that it is not even funny!
Everything about Soldier of Fortune Payback is just wrong. From the top to the very bottom it reeks of vanilla. The gameplay is all over the place as well. It just feels off in every single aspect. You can only choose from a limited control scheme as well. So you cannot change everything around. Shooting becomes a hassle as well. Everything is just like a bad nightmare, a $60 nightmare. The graphics in Soldier of Fortune Payback and not that bad, but they look dated next to other games. The frame-rate is also pretty bad. It dips and drops like there is no tomorrow. The only good thing about Soldier of Fortune Payback are the deaths. They are pretty cool, legs and arms fly off, heads explode. But that is not enough to merrit a $60 purchase.
Online Mode is also pretty vanilla (”very plain” to those who do not know what vanilla means). I logged on and found about 15-20 other poor souls who actually paid for this terd. Luckily I just rented the game, but still… I even feel ripped off for spending $8 on this rental. As for playing online, I could not even tell who my enemy was! The red/green icons above each players heads had a tendency to just disappear. So you will find yourself shooting your own teammates. Plain and simple, Soldier of Fortune Payback is just as bad online as it is offline. Everything is so basic that after a while I just got bored, turned it off and popped Call of Duty 4:Modern Warfare into my Playstation 3.
So should you buy Soldier of Fortune Payback? HELL NO! There is no way in hell this game is worth 60 of your hard-earned dollars. Stay away from Soldier of Fortune Payback, no matter what system it is for… Xbox 360… Sony Playstation 3… just stay very far away from it. Avoid it like it is the friggin plague.
Spend your hard earned $60 on something better (like 90% of the other FPS out there). If you are one of the very few who do not own Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, buy that game instead. Do not waste your time or hard-earned money with Soldier of Fortune Payback.
