The Sum of All Fears

List Price: $39.95 Discount Price: $3.25

Features:

• Mission-based campaign with 11 missions that take place in real-world locations.
• Intense, action-oriented story line that parallels and follows the plot of the film and novel.
• Competitive and Cooperative multiplayer support including solo/team adversarial play, last man standing, capture the flag and sharpshooter modes.
• Easy-to-use pre-mission interface that allows players to minimize set up time and detail management while allowing quick access to gameplay action.
• Up to 3 additional AI-controlled teams provide player support throughout each mission.

Accessories:

PC Gamer (1-year)

Customer Reviews:

Another bland movie tie-in. [Posted on 2002-09-15]
It is actually unfortunate that the makers of such great games like Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six decided not to do more with SOAF. Rather it was rushed to release with the movie and feels it.

Basically all of the gameplay elements are barrowed from the Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six games. Anyone who has played those will be right at home here. This is a mixed blessing, since there is nothing new to see or do. The missions got very repetitive. The game is going to appeal more to those who have not had much experience with GR or R6.
That's where it really fails. It is made to attract the casual gamer with the same name as the big budget movie and great book. Many of the things that made GR and R6 good are not to be found since they would require more of the player than just pointing and shooting. Which is what the game really boils down too, hunting down vague villains in vague locations that are supposed to be related to the movie. The characters have no faces or personality, that they have names at all is meaningless. If they die or not doesn't matter, there will be another faceless team member to replace them. There are no skills to increase or unique operatives to pick from here. Nor can you give your troops complex commands and any planning at all has been thrown out altogether. It's grab your gun, find the bad guys, and shoot them. Even this is made rather easy to the effect of being pointless. The AI even on the hard setting is lax compared to Ghost Recon.

Another problem is the graphics. It's the same engine from GR, and while it is not a bad graphics engine, it's not used properly here. What GR does well is rendering large outdoor environments. However SOAF is almost entirely indoors. As a result the textures look bland and sometimes look like they were not meant to support 32bit color. Combine that with the uninspired locations and reparative gameplay, and you get a very mediocre game.

What made it worth playing at all was it was so simple and easy that it was kind of fun to just run around shooting anything that moved. Since there is no preplanning or tactical depth beyond, move, shoot and don't get killed, you have little to worry about. Just find the bad guys and fill'm with enough lead that they won't get back up. It became and an odd run'n gun almost arcade game set in realistic locations with real guns only no real depth. There are some good points to be made. The character models and sound effects are all top notch. Even the music is a new score made for SOAF. The voice over by John Clark is the same one used in the Rainbow Six games and it's good to see, or rather hear, some consistency between Ubi's games and it's done well. I liked the lay out of the menus and the colors used. And a couple of the locations were a little different and offered some interest.

I would recommend this to anyone looking to try out the tactical military shooters, but for the money you might as well use it to buy the much better Rainbow Six or Ghost Recon games. Still, it might be worth a few hours more of pure tango hunting.

Brain dead [Posted on 2002-10-04]
This could have been a great game. I mean it. The mission structures are great, and weapon choices are top notch, and the overall feel is not bad. The thing that annoys me is the team AI. I must say that this game probably has the most stupid team AI I've ever seen on any tactical shooter. They like getting killed, like stunning themselves with flashbangs, ocassionally like shooting their mates AND getting shot by their mates. Very often you'll end up dying because these chums don't know how to cover you, very often they'll walk into your field of fire while you're shooting, and very often you'll turn around to find yourself alone, backtracking to find them stuck behind a door or just playing statue in a hallway. When you do find them, they'll run to you like a lost child who's just found his parent. How stupid is that? Please, AVOID THIS GAME, unless of course you've got too much money. Go play Ghost Recon instead. It's a more worthwhile investment.

ok but not great [Posted on 2002-12-13]
Most video games made from movies are knock offs. This one is better than that, but I was expecting a full blown Tom Clancy style tactical shooter a la Rainbow Six or Ghost Recon.

The biggest departure from Rainbow or Recon is that your path is planned out for you. You simply follow the line and shoot whatever pops into sight. Your team is pre-assembled - you don't need to choose from recon, snipers, assault, electronics etc before a mission as you do in Rainbow Six or Ghost Recon. I beat the game pretty quickly, something I could not do in the other Tom Clancy game.

The weapons and AI are pretty good, all things considered, as you might expect from Red Storm Entertainment.

If your looking for a challenge and are a Tom Clancy fan, buy Ghost Recon or the 2 expansion packs, or wait for Raven Shield to come out this winter.

Could have been so much more [Posted on 2003-02-27]
The one word that probably best decribes this game, "rushed". Red strom were looking for some easy money off the back of the movie. And the game's quality is reflected in it's cheap price.

The single player missions were like a massive case of dija vous back to my Rainbow Six days, probably becuase that is all this game is. Rainbow Six with none of the expansion packs (which are dearly needed as this game took less than 7hours to clock).

Gameplay- Movement is very restricted compared to other games of similar genre. And AI isn't anything special, the guards have a tendancy to stare at walls (or where ever the last shot came from)do not patrol, or scan the room. Therefore they regularly do not notice anyone enter the room (which makes it a little bit of a duck shoot at times). However if by some miracle they are pointing in ur direction and u are spotted, they are not slow at all in putting a few rounds in you or ur team members.

Multiplayer is a joke. Not even worth mentioning.

All in all steer clear of Soaf, stick with Rainbow 6 or Ghost Recon purely becuase they have pretty much the same game play, obviously with slight variations, but have tons of expansions. For excellent multiplayer fun, try Soldier of Fortune 2(Have been playing for 6months and still not bored) Or keep an eye out for Delta Force Black Hawk Down, release date late march.

Hope this helps.

Nice little Sidenote...not quite the movie [Posted on 2003-08-06]
This was the opportunity for a movie to make an awesome selling promotional item...the plot was there...but instead they use the back story. New Years eve and a call comes in. From the White house dinner to the hills of where? Yes thats right West Virginia. What were you thinking oh great programmers? Tom Clancy should smack your hands. Well, none-the-less, it isn't a total flop. I think it is a very good game, although too easy on easy and too hard on hard. If you want a offshot of the movie with no real nuclear threat, and you want to steal some papers and shoot some "terrorists" (remember those west virginians?) then you will have fun... I recommend it...

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