But it did, sorta.
In 2007 Cauldron HQ were working on their own AA FPS title Mercenaries Wanted for PC, Xbox360 and PS3 using similar graphic gore and dismemberment mechanics not really seen since Soldier of Fortune. Publishers Activision saw the potential to elevate the game to AAA status (well AAA pricing) by permitting Cauldron to use the now dormant Soldier of Fortune licence and shoehorn in some cut scenes to tell a story of a betrayed mercenary out for revenge; and so Soldier of Fortune: Payback was born.
Initially when I started the game I couldn't hit anything when shooting. Apparently this is a known issue when playing with hardware that's generations ahead of the tech. I had to artificially cap the frame-rate before bullets would register. Once that bug was worked around things went mainly downhill from there.
While the game did have some graphic dismemberment probably more than most it was nowhere near the visceral orgy of gore Raven's games had. To be fair there were some some quality graphics for the era, it was let down by a totally ridiculous and disjointed plot even for 'dumb' FPS standards, that just finished half way through the plot as if they intended a sequel which is now the most blatant arrogance I've ever witnessed. It was like a fever dream from someone who watched several straight-to-video movies and fell asleep reading the lowest common denominator of Tom Clancy knock-off novels.
There are many tropes one can look past because it moves along the narrative, but when something is so stupid that you snap out of your immersion, you writing or game design have failed. For example, high security key-cards required to advance a level should be (a) on dead guard, that's either killed by you or not or (b) in a crackable safe in the base-commander's office. The place for a high security key-card is not under the bed of a slave being kept in a prison.
The combat itself was passable, if nowhere near any true AAA FPS. For the most part you're shooting humans with no body armour, and even less intelligence that drop after a realistic amount of bullets - except for the half-dozen or so end of level bosses which were still standing after an assault rifle magazine was emptied into their centre mass and they seemed to increase in sponginess with every boss. I rage-quit at the final boss, not because he was a badly voiced Irish terrorist, but because I emptied an entire belt of 400 rounds from my M249 SAW into him and he kept laughing. I watched a YouTube video of a guy use the same ammo but also about 8x30-round clips of 5.56mm from a H&K G36 and about 7 fragmentation grenades before the otherwise "human" Irish terrorist would fall. If this super-soldier was around for the troubles we'd have a 32 county nation and probably would have invaded the UK by now too.
Final Verdict: If Cauldron had been allowed to develop and publish their original game, it probably would have been regarded as an ordinary AA FPS without much fanfare or regard. However with the marketing force of the Soldier of Fortune label brought expectations and shoes that Cauldron could simply not have filled. This was a bad lacklustre AA FPS but it was excrement as a Soldier of Fortune branded game, a blight on the franchise best ignored forever.
Technicals: 4 hrs playtime though GOG Galaxy in 2560x1440 @ 60FPS (artifical cap) on RTX4070Ti in Windows 11. No HDR.
Bugs: Without an artificially capped frame rate, your bullets won't hit enemies.
Availability: Soldier of Fortune: Payback is only available from GOG. Normal Retail price €9.19. Review copy purchased in a bundle of of all three SoF games for €13.49 in June 2019.
Soldier of Fortune franchise:
- Soldier of Fortune (2000)
- Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix (2002)
- Soldier of Fortune: Payback (2007)
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