A first-person shooter (FPS) game developed by Monolith Productions has sunk into the soul of many old-school players.

Released in September 2002, the game became a sequel to The Operative: No One Lives Forever, known as a sip of something new in the gaming industry of those years, for its specific humor, spy motif, as well as for simply insanely interesting locations for those years.

So why exactly did the second part get to the analysis? The answer is simple, the game has become widespread in the CIS and already in the second part the humor was already aimed at the vast masses, which disposed most players to the new part without even getting acquainted with the old one.

What is the catchy game about spies? to begin with, let's go back to the time when the millennium was held in the yard. You have already learned the series of games Wolfenstein, Serious Sam, Red Alert, GTA, Civilization III.

And then on the store shelf you came across that very bright cover with a charming beauty on the cover. When you come home and install it, you plunge into the world of Kate Archer.

The game about the confrontation of the Unity spy organization against the universal evil H.A.R.M. (harm literally) makes it possible to go through it both through a large arsenal of weapons and with Stealth elements using super-technological spy gadgets. Whichever path you choose, one thing awaits you ahead - "FUN".

An insanely gorgeous number of bright locations like a Japanese village, a winter hut, an underwater base, and even a space station. And when you go to each one, be prepared, you will not leave there without a smile.

Location: Japanese Village

Location: Hut in the forest

Underwater base

The core-loop in the game is presented in a chic way - Go to the location- Kill enemies- get part of the plot-get a dose of humor / gadget, go to a new location. All this stimulates the player to ask the question "lol, what's next?" and this fact forces the player to stay in the game! And what about gadgets and weapons? A gun that can put enemies to sleep, or a grenade that poisons enemies, and not by banal withdrawal of HP, but by causing hallucinations, and the most beautiful thing is that the player can also have them. Attention to detail at a chic level.

Take a look at the mechanics - the game has a clear stealth and also a clear shooter, well, at the same time there is a distinct "Fun once, fun always" repetition of any funny actions due to weapons or gadgets caused an influx of endorphins! Put an enemy in a cube? Just spit it out!

One of the comical situations in the game, while observing all the rules of good morality, the enemy did not die, the player is like Batman, mutilates but does not kill.

And the characters, you could already estimate the scale of the disparity earlier from the screenshots! Just look at these opponents, this is for you and the Soviet military (where without them in a spy thriller), harsh ninja henchmen, "oompa loompas" of the evil genius Volkov! mimes and other riffraff just won't let your eye and perception get tired.

Definitely, this game once captured the minds of many, and remained in fond memories, at the moment the game is not available on more than one site. But only on discs and illegal copies. Well, thank you very much for the idea of the game to its game designer Craig Hubbard!

The team described its success as follows - "The game was developed within 18 months and met the budget" (commendable), and also the most important thing is that the team laid down longer Alpha-Beta tests, the product passed a qualitative assessment and testing stage before release, the team took into account past experience with problematic PR, and this time focused on E3 and PR companies. The developers also thought out a prefab system in the game, for example, the team cites the recording department as an example, adding only one file, they applied it to all the doors, trivially optimizing the development time.

How much did the game bring in? Unfortunately, I couldn't find such metrics for you. But considering that everyone was satisfied there, it is definitely enough to produce endorphins!

P.S. we wanted to re-release the game, but unfortunately we did not see the re-release due to the complexity of who lost the rights to the game.

P.S.S. the game has multiplayer, but it did not become a competitor to someone.