Soldier of Fortune 2: Double Helix - On This Day

Long before Call of Duty was controversial with terrorist topics and violence against civilians, players on PC and Xbox had the Soldier of Fortune series. Its second part, and the last one worth mentioning, was launched on this very day exactly 20 years ago.

Soldier of Fortune 2: Double Helix sought to move away from its predecessor. While the first part was modeled by Quake, this first-person shooter was closer to Rainbow Six and Operation Flashpoint, with more tactics and realistic shooting. The enemies themselves were more inclined to use shelter than to run towards the enemy as in the first part.

But the basis of the gameplay was still a very violent rescuing of the opponent. Unlike the first part, in Double Helix, the enemies had even more points on the body, which made them react differently depending on where they received the shot.

The story of Soldier of Fortune 2 took us to Colombia, where we investigated the spread of the biological virus Romulus, but also the computer virus Remus. The lead role was again by special John Mullins, but this time he also had a partner Madeline Taylor. The sequel expanded his arsenal of weapons and offered some accessories such as a laser sight, bayonet, and the like.

In addition to the single-player campaign, the game also provided online multiplayer with five modes. However, at the time, the scene was dominated by faster shooters like Quake and Unreal, so Soldier of Fortune 2 failed to impose itself as an alternative no matter how good the multiplayer was. The game eventually garnered good ratings, at least in the PC version, but did not achieve notable financial success (read: not even a million copies sold).

This was the last part of the SOF series that Raven Software, today's developer of Call of Duty games, worked on. In 2007, we got Soldier of Fortune: Payback directed by another studio, and that game was remembered as a big failure and the last nail in the coffin of a once-promising series.