Soldier of Fortune
- See Soldier of Fortune magazine for the publication by that name
Soldier of Fortune is a first-person shooter game created by Raven Software and published by Activision on March 27 2000 for personal computers. It uses a modified Quake II engine. It was later released on the Sony Playstation 2 as well as the Sega Dreamcast
Soldier of Fortune was a very controversial video game. It detailed realistic, extreme graphic violence, in which character models were based on body parts that could each independently sustain damage (gore zones). There were 26 zones in total, and the makers called this the GHOUL system. A shot to the head with a powerful gun would often make the enemy's head explode, leaving nothing but a bloody stump of a spine remaining. A close-range shot to the stomach with a shotgun would leave an enemy's bowels in a bloody mess with his or her intestines oozing out. It was possible to shoot off an enemy's limbs (head, arms, legs) leaving nothing left but a bloody torso.
The story was the basic action movie plot. At the beginning of the game, Terrorists steal 4 nuclear weapons from a storage facility in Russia, and proceed to sell them to 3rd world nations around the world. This is a prelude to the aquisition of advanced Weapons of Mass Desruction by this terrorist group.
John Mullins, working as a Soldier of Fortune for a Mercenary Organization known only has "The Shop", and his partner, Hawk, are assigned to prevent the nukes from falling into the wrong hands, and stop the terrorists in their plans.
The first level featured skinheads who had taken people hostage in a New York City subway system. It also included levels in Iraq (featuring Saddam Hussein), Kosovo, and Sudan.
Based on its success, Raven Software later published Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix.
