It’s been a long while since we stepped into the combat boots of the mercenary that first lit up computer monitors and then released a sequel on a console like the original Xbox. The Soldier of Fortune franchise stopped dead in its tracks after the release of Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix - a flawed yet strangely entertaining first-person shooter that displayed some truly grisly carnage with limbs flying off bodies and heads popping like champaign corks. Now, on the PlayStation 3, the mercenary returns with Soldier of Fortune: Payback, a game that brings back the ultra violence but adds very little substance worthy of the next-generation console.

Payback doesn’t take place directly after Double Helix but rather we find gun-for-hire John Mullins still working for the same agency that has sent him on a number of dangerous missions. This time around Mullins finds himself in Al Qa’im on an escort mission with a fellow mercenary named Colonel Miller when things turn sour quickly. Suddenly, what was supposed to be a difficult but doable escort mission turns into a fight for survival as Miller betrays Mullins and the agency. At the end of the first mission, the client is dead and Mullins is pissed off. Why did Miller betray them? What does the Chinese have to do with said betrayal? Is the betray mentioned above a real reason to go on a bloody killing spree that leaves a trail of dismembered bodies?

This gun for hire

If you’re looking for a compelling story, you certainly won’t find it here and many fans of the genre would argue that we don’t really need a reason to fire guns and blow things up but we should at least have a credible reason for taking on the enemy. This is the reason we love games like Half-Life 2 or even The Darkness … these games not only have good stories but they immerse you in its universe. Mullins goes on a quest to discover a connection to the botched mission but seldom does it feel like his intentions are admirable.

Forgetting the weak and forgettable plot, Payback will place you in some pretty hairy situations where your only alternative is to shoot your way out of an area. Whether you’re shooting at hired thugs in the jungles of Mogaung, securing a diamond mine in another part of the world or trying to survive a vicious attack in a Donetsk brothel, you’re in for one seriously bloody and repetitive ride. This is too bad; really, since there is an assortment of great weapons you can actually customize to meet your needs depending on the mission. You can change your boring default weapons and add everything from scopes to laser sights to give them a better edge in combat.

Like past Soldier of Fortune games, Payback handles the level of violence in an almost cartoon-like fashion. It is here where a mere pistol can blow off an arm or leg as your enemy drops to the ground clutching a stump that spurts blood all over the ground. Shotgun blasts just don’t send enemies flying back but rather they make heads explode. Body parts will fly (and twitch on the ground thanks to a number of glitches in the game) and so will the blood so this isn’t a game intended for younger gamers even though you can tone down the level or gore in the Options menu. The fact is that instead of seeming sickening, the violence is almost comical.

How sweet it is to be shot by you

What’s also comical and frustrating is the fact that the majority of the game’s enemies are really dumb. It’s funny the first few times you toss a grenade only to find the enemies running towards it rather than away from it but this gets old quickly. The enemy can also be great shots but many of them will actually run towards your line of fire, not caring if their comrade in front of them gets shot to pieces. You know this is an easy game when an enemy decides to hide behind an explosive barrel or take cover behind a clay pot. Just about the only challenging enemies you’ll find in this game is when you play the game online with real players.

Still, there are a few moments of fun in the game but these moments are very fleeting. Clearing snipers off the roof is fun but then the game falls back to the same repetitive pattern. It’s hard to enjoy the side objectives when you’ll have to go through mindless enemies in the same fashion over and over again. Payback is also a very short game and one you can zip through in one sitting; don’t expect much from this game that adds little variety and a number of first-person shooter clichés like manning a gun turret that automatically attracts enemies (that seem to materialize of thin air). Even the controls, which are responsive enough, just don’t seem comfortable.

Look ma, no hands

Graphically, the game looks decent for a Soldier of Fortune game and there are moments when everything seems to look just right. Then again, there are more times when the character models don’t look as good as they should on the PS3. We’re talking bulky torsos and hands with fingers that don’t look like fingers. Speaking of body parts, arms and legs get blown off but why do most of the dismembered limbs twitch like a fish out of water? There are some solid visual effects and there are times when the environments (whether you’re moving through the jungle or visiting the dusty Arabic villages) look good. Still, there’s nothing here that really looks like the PS3 graphics were pushed to its limits.

The game’s sound doesn’t exactly make up for the so-so visuals but at least the sound effects are done decently enough. Sure, you won’t hear any background noises like wildlife or even the wind blowing through the desert canyons but at least the gunfire and explosions sound right. The voice acting is very straight-to-DVD-action-flick quality and the music just isn’t very dramatic or lovely. 

Soldier of Fortune: Payback for the PlayStation 3 does not strive to be unique or interesting and what fun you will have is interrupted by its recycled gameplay mechanics and repetitive action. As a fan of the genre, it’s hard for me to recommend Payback seeing as the PS3 has a few stellar FPS already available; and with the upcoming Half-Life: The Orange Box for the PS3, I would seriously recommend skipping this one and buying a much better game than this.

Gameplay: 6.0
Mullins is back and he’s angry enough to tear through a number of missions in order to serve up a hot dish of payback. The problem is that what he’s serving up feels way too familiar to Soldier of Fortune fans and, with not much of a story or interesting mission scenarios, it’s hard to get into this repetitive action game with very little to offer fans of the genre.

Graphics: 7.5
Visually, this is the best-looking Soldier of Fortune game you’ll play and even on the PS3 the game looks good. Still, there are some unsightly character models and certain locales and objects look rather bland in different places. The pop-in is frequent and the flying limbs and extreme gore is more comical than gruesome. Just in case, you have the option to tone down the violence in the Options menu.

Sound: 6.0
The game’s music is not bad but it’s not particularly great either. There are some great sound effects in the game, including the gunfire and explosions but when it comes to the voice acting this is definitely not where the game’s sound comes off as good.

Difficulty: Easy/Medium
Most of the enemies you’ll face are accurate shots and a few of them will actually take cover and toss grenades your way. Then again, the majority of them will gladly run into your line of fire and a few others will not even bother hiding behind cover.

Concept: 6.0
Mullin’s shoot-first-forget-the-questions attitude makes him a one-man army of the Rambo variety but his quest for bloody revenge just seems like an excuse for him to blow things (and people) up. The game allows you to disarm your enemy by, well, shooting off their arms. There’s also an online multiplayer mode but it’s just as uninspiring as the single-player game.

Multiplayer: 6.0
Another weak aspect of the game is its lackluster multiplayer mode that allows up to 12 players to take each other on in typical Deathmatch and Capture the Flag game types. There’s no mode that really stands out here.

Overall: 6.0
Too flawed and riddled with every first-person shooter cliché out there, Soldier of Fortune: Payback might look good but this is a crude and uninventive shooter hardly worth playing. Its few moments of fun are rare events scattered throughout a sea of uneventful mission scenarios that we have seen and done before. This is certainly one first-person shooter you should seriously consider skipping altogether.