Sequels: The lifeblood of both movies and computer games. Sadly, most movie sequels really suck, except of course for Godfather II, Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan, Aliens, The Empire Strikes Back, and Toy Story 2 (and arguably Superman II and Babe: Pig in the City).

Happily for us gamers, game sequels are frequently better than their predecessors. Why is this? I think it’s because technology moves so quickly, and because many game studios do such a good job of listening to criticism (movies adopt new technology very slowly, and moviemakers are notoriously lame at figuring out what the public wants).

A happy example of this dynamic is the sequel No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.’s Way (NOLF2) from Sierra, Monolith and Fox Interactive. The first game, The Operative: No One Lives Forever, was a critics’ darling when it was released in November 2000. Its imaginative swinging-60s setting, hilarious writing and creative gadgets and level design breathed new life into the First Person Shooter genre. However, the game did have some problems. Cutscenes, while amusing, seemed to go on forever. More seriously, while the game suggested a stealth approach on many missions, it was brutally unforgiving to even the smallest sneaking error, which led to much player frustration.

Happily, NOLF2 has all the virtues and none of the flaws of the first game. The cool, beautiful and deadly superspy Cate Archer is back (albeit voiced by a different actress – WHY?). The hilarious 60s spy setting is as daffy and funny as ever.

Futhermore, powered by the Lithtech Jupiter engine, the game is beautiful to behold -- and requires some serious juice under your CPU’s hood.

Technically, the game is a First-Person Shooter, but it’s got to be the Sta-Puft Marshmallow Man of First-Person Shooters. This is not a criticism. In fact, the story and script elements are so strong as to virtually make the distinction between action and action/adventure meaningless. The entire experience, in fact, feels lighter than air.

Let’s get to the improvements. First of foremost, the stealth elements of the game are both much more important and much improved. Unlike in the first game, when a single false move would nerf the entire mission, this time around if you trip an alarm or alert a guard, it’s often just a temporary setback. Alarms are local, rather than general, and you can frequently find a good hiding place and lay low until the guards calm down again. The importance of this single area of improvement cannot be overstated.

In the first game, the dialog in the cutscenes was amusing, but they just . . . seemed . . . to go on . . . and on . . .and on. This time around they are just as funny, but much snappier and to the point.

The mission structure this time around is also tighter than in the original. Even on large maps, you don’t lose your sense of purpose, even if it takes a bit of exploration to find your goals.

In the first game there were many optional “intelligence items” that you could discover if you searched all of the environments carefully. Other than a pat on the back at the end of a mission and any amusement value the individual pieces had, there was little incentive to go out of your way hunting these extraneous bits. This time around, every single objective you accomplish, both required and optional, result in points that you can eventually spend on skills to further develop your character.

Am I saying NOLF2 is an RPG? Not really, but throwing in this RPG element was a brilliant way to enrich an already potent game experience. The points you accumulate can be used to increase Cate’s abilities in many different areas, such as stealth skills, marksmanship, stamina, armor use, gadget expertise, etc. Not only does this make exploring every last corner of the maps fun and rewarding, but it allows you to develop Cate in such a way as to fit your playing style. For example, I enjoyed the stealth aspects of the game, so I beefed up Cate’s marksmanship and stealth abilities so that by the end of the game she had become a deadly ghost of an assassin. If you prefer a more in-your-face guns a-blazin’ style, you could improve Cate’s stamina, carrying ability (more ammo!) and armor skill.

The minions of H.A.R.M. include a host of hilarious enemies, including squads of deadly French mimes – yep, that’s not a misprint, I said mimes. And, yes, deadly French mimes are as funny as they sound. And yes, filling a bunch of mimes with hot lead is deeply satisfying.

One of the chief pleasures of the game consists of sneaking up on a pair of bad guys and stopping to overhear their rioutously funny conversations. My favorite exhange was between two very young female ninjas: “Want to go shopping tomorrow?” “I can’t, I have an assassination.” Other great bits include discussions of mime theory, critiquing an appropriately evil laugh, and many others.

The game’s story takes you to an entertaining variety of locales: Japan, Siberia, Antarctica, India, and most hilariously, Akron, Ohio. Yes, that’s right game fans, you’ve not lived until you’ve fought a herd of Japanese girl ninjas in a trailer park in Akron Ohio during a tornado. In perhaps the game’s most brilliant moment (easily equal to the first game’s daring skydiving sequence) is the climax of the Akron sequence: a boss battle that takes place inside a trailer that’s been picked up by a tornado.

The developers have include a fairly modest multiplay cooperative mode, which serves more as a supplement to the main story than its own game. NOLF2 won’t steal any prizes from Return to Castle Wolfenstein in the multiplayer department.

The game is so slickly produced, so player-friendly and such breezy fun that some fans of the first game might find it all to be a bit too easy and over-packaged. But no such complaints from me. I don’t need this game to be Half-Life or even Max Payne. It’s a funny, nifty, cotton-candy confection of a game and I enjoyed every single minute of it.

Final Grade: A

System Requirements:

• PIII 500 or equivalent
• 128 MB RAM
• 3D Accelerator
• 32MB VRAM
• 1400 MB disk space
• mouse
• sound card
• DirectX v8.1

This review is copyright Ray Ivey and Just Adventure and may not be republished elsewhere without the express written consent of the author. Republication of said review must also contain a link back to Just Adventure.