The Operative: No One Lives Forever – Lipstick, Nail Polish And a Big Fat Kalashnikov [RETRO – 2000]

In this game, players take on the role of a female operative who must fight her way through hordes of enemies and tough missions in order to save humanity. The game has been praised for its intense cinematics and high production values.

The “No One Lives Forever” is a third-person stealth action game that was released in 2000. It was developed by Monolith Productions and published by Activision for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and Microsoft Windows. The protagonist of the game is an operative named Cate Archer who has been assigned to infiltrate a secret laboratory in Paris, France.

RETRO – Isn’t it true that no one lives forever? What a tired cliche! However, it’s a quite different sentence coming from the lips of the lovely green-eyed and desirably full-lipped Cate Archer, a captivating and lively woman.

At first appearance, the action game’s protagonist seems to have walked out of the pages of a 1960s fashion magazine such as Life or Paris Match. With the exception of the modeling industry, the period is correct: Miss Archer is a top-secret spy in the vein of James Bond. You know, the sort that is so’secret’ that she has almost the whole male population of the planet prostrate at her feet? Whether it’s out of adoration or because he’s just dead.

You only have one chance to live.

The year is 1967. The James Bond film You only have one chance to live., starring Sean Connery, is released in Western cinemas. It was also the year chosen by Fox Interactive for the story of their game No One Lives Forever. The date and the similarity in the title are, of course, not coincidental: NOLF is most reminiscent of the adventures of Agent 007. There are also many nods to TV series such as The Man from Uncle or The Avengers. A remake of the latter was also made starring Uma Thurman, who bears a striking resemblance to the aristocratic Miss Archer.

Archer is my given name. Cate Archer is a British actress.

Cate had two choices: work as an undercover agent or go to prison. Of course, her decision was obvious, and we were given to another another spy-action film theme, this time set after the French Nikita. This attractive but resolute girl wasn’t always a secret agent in the chippy-chippy business of rescuing the world: she used to be a skilled burglar by profession, but she was once discovered and only escaped prison because to UNITY agent Bruno Lawrie’s intervention. Her aristocratic look is no accident: Cate’s father was a genuine English lord who was shot in the head in a scandal when she was only 13 years old. Her mother had died, so she was placed in an orphanage, from which she escaped a few weeks later. There is no information regarding the time between her escape and her adult arrest…

Snobbery, aristocracy, sadism, and caustic English humour…

…has been a characteristic of Ian Fleming’s James Bond books and film adaptations, and No One Lives Forever, the Cate Archer adventure, is no exception. Except for the female protagonist, the game resembles Soldiers of Fortune, Sint, or other ‘human-centric’ (i.e. not monster/dinosaur/alien-killing), special-agent-style first-person shooters at first appearance. Despite the fact that the game is not as bloody as its illustrious forerunners due to its ironic nature, fans of the genre will not be disappointed with NOLF: completing a single map will leave behind neat little mountains of corpses (which, moreover, do not “evaporate” in the same idiotic and disbelieving manner as most shooters).

Thankfully, the game isn’t entirely about murdering: apart from the action moments, NOLF is heavily influenced by tactical games like Thief or Codename Hitman 47, with their “stealth,” “deliberate,” cold-blooded killing. Because you’re playing a secret agent with a penchant for covert operations rather than Duke Nukem, it’s best to sneak into most areas and assassinate your targets as silently as possible so that their partners don’t fall for us. On certain tracks (Morocco, for example), this technique isn’t essential yet, but sneaking into a research facility in East Berlin, for example, may be a big issue if half the garrison is warned…

Isn’t it true that the cameras have been shot? (Nope…)

Speaking of alarms, I’m sure many of you remember the two episodes of “Crusader” (“No Remorse” and “No Regret”) or other action games set in enemy bases where all you have to do is shoot out the security cameras to eliminate the danger of an alarm. So, say your goodbyes! You’ll be notified not just if the small gadget detects you, but also if you blast it to bits in No One Lives Forever! When I began playing with the demo, I was irritated by this constraint. Still, I realized how much more realistic it is: when a camera explodes on his display, the security officer isn’t simply scratching his ears!

Because the device’s motion sensor is fairly sensitive, you may escape a tiny army of HARM agents rushing at your neck and setting off the alarm while you finish the remainder of the course by just sneaking by it at breakneck speed.

To earn the “super-spy” rating instead of the “amateur” rating, you must employ several identical tactics to finish the tasks with enough elegance throughout the game!

Tuesday in Morocco, Wednesday in East Berlin, and Thursday at the ocean’s bottom…

When it comes to missions, we can’t complain about the diversity! The majority of them take place in settings and scenarios that are recognizable to James Bond fans: We’ll have to fight a HARM agent in a Moroccan hotel, rescue a German scientist from a military base on the more dangerous side of the “wall” in Celtic Berlin, and even dive into the belly of a sunken ship to retrieve the captain’s logbook while fighting ravenous sharks and enemy diving agents in diving suits. You’ll sometimes encounter famous James Bond movie hair-raising sequences — in much more difficult circumstances! Remember the scene in Moonraker when our super-agent has to grab the adversary as he falls, pull off his parachute, and push it down before he reaches the ground? Now we’ll do the same thing, but we’ll also have to shoot the floating opponent in the ether who is rushing towards us! So, what more can I say? During this stage, I was cursing like a sailor…

For the sake of Queen and Country!

Beyond the gameplay, arguably the most notable distinction from basic shooters like Soldier of Fortune is the plot, which is much more intricate and vital to the game as a whole. Finally, briefing mosaics explaining operations and a continuously developing scenario on the ground are presented: we lose friends, allies, secret meetings, and so on. Cate’s 3D model, made up of 1700 polygons, not only makes her movement more realistic than Lara Croft’s rubber ladies, but her face has been given a really human beauty. Throughout the discourse, Miss Archer’s charm and grace are always admirable.

-BadSector-(2000)

Pro:

+ Clever blend of Thief-style stealth and Soldier of Fortune-style killing gameplay + Professional visuals + James Bond-like but unique tale

Against:

–… with small problems – a few bothersome issues here and there – too tough in certain areas

FOX Interactive is the publisher.

Monolith Productions is the creator of this game.

FPS is the game style.

Year of publication: 2000

RETRO – Isn’t it true that no one lives forever? What a tired cliche! However, it’s a quite different sentence coming from the lips of the lovely green-eyed and desirably full-lipped Cate Archer, a captivating and lively woman. At first appearance, the action game’s protagonist seems to have walked out of the pages of a 1960s fashion magazine such as Life or Paris Match. Miss Archer is a James Bond-style top-secret spy, with the exception of her modeling career. You know, the sort that is so’secret’ that she has the attention of virtually the whole male population of the planet…

Lipstick, Nail Polish, and a Big Fat Kalashnikov for the Operative: No One Lives Forever [RETRO – YESTERDAY]

2022-01-10

Gergely Herpai (BadSector)

Cate Archer would be a fantastic show for male chauvinists with Duke Nukem brains who loathe women if her aristocratic background didn’t get in the way…

9.5 for gameplay

9 – Graphics

Story – 9

8.5 for music and audio

9 out of 10 for atmosphere

9

AWESOME

Cate Archer would be a fantastic show for male chauvinists with Duke Nukem brains who loathe women if her aristocratic background didn’t get in the way…

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