As the final installement to the Nolf series, Contract Jack comes as a bit of a disappointment. Not only is the game too short to be really any fun, but the kill off the prime character way to easily. He's the best contract killer for heavens sake! Surely his death should have been at the hands of the one and only spy: Cate Archer.

Graphics are good, not so that you need an alienware to run it, but decent enough to truly be enjoyable without having the computer lock up even on the highest options. So for those of us that don't have hundreds to spend on new computers and graphics card, you would not be amiss in trying out this game.

Rather than come out with a new Kate Archer game, the folks at Fox/Sierra/Monolith pushed out this overly short, ultimately senseless game to capitalize on the No One Lives Forever franchise.

The gameplay itself isn't bad and at times rather fun; I really enjoyed a few of the levels, but ultimately, it all fell rather flat. It lacked the enjoyment, humor and fun factor of the other No One Lives Forever games. It didn't help that the main character was a dud.

If you can get this for free and you have extra time on your hands, it's worth a spin; otherwise avoid it.

This game completely fails to measure up to the rest of the NOLF series. For one thing, this game is way too linear (even the original Castle Wolfenstein gave players more choice). Throughout every level you are herded in one direction. There is absolutely no possibility of strategically using alternate approaches. For example, you'll be following a hallway filled with barrels and other junk. As soon as you reach a specific point, a certain number of enemies will suddenly rush around the corner knowing exactly where you are, then it is just a matter of engaging in a shoot out.

Like NOLF 2, there is a button for sneaking, but it is absolutely useless. Since baddies know exactly where you are once you reach the magic point in the hallway/street/etc., any attempt at sneaking doesn't matter. Since you can't sneak up on baddies or eavesdrop, there are very few conversations to listen in on (all but one take place over announcement systems). As a result, much of the humour (except for a few in-jokes) which made the previous games so much fun are missing.

The only plusses are that the graphics are stunning and the AI is quite good. But considering how short and repetitious it all is (basically holding down the firing key as you run down halls, shooting at loads of interchangeable badies), I cannot give it a good rating. Those more into shoot-em-up games with no stealth or strategy might enjoy it a bit more, but I doubt very much more.

This game had the potential to be really great. For anyone who enjoyed the NOLF series but got tired of the stealth aspect, this SHOULD have been the game for you. Instead, what you got was a dull, lifeless, repetitive FPS with none of the humor of the rest of the NOLF series.

Let's go back to the repetitive aspect of this game. Let's go back to the repetitive aspect of this game. Let's go back to the repetitive aspect of this game. Let's go back to the repetitive aspect of this game. Let's go back to the repetitive aspect of this game.

See...that's annoying and dull isn't it? The same thing happens in a game where you know that each time you open a door or round a corner that 8 guys are going to come out, take cover, and shoot at you. The only thing that changes is the scenery (and sometimes not too much).

I agree with the other review that said to buy it used. It can still be fun if you want to just run-n-gun, but don't pay full price.

This game at full price new is a waste of money. First, there's a real lack of a good plot line to it. It consists mostly of shooting endless streams of enemies with only a meager plot line to each mission.
The graphics are pretty good. The major drawback is that the environment isn't distructable like other FPS games. So you can't shoot crates or other things to discover hidden items. IMO, this is a real drawback. You also can only interact with certain items in the environment that are integral to your mission.
The plot line in the game really doesn't make a whole lot of sense either. You never really know *why* Jack is going after the guy he's after except for money and there's no real good explaination why Jack's client wants the guy found.
I was absolutely shocked when this game ended after around 10 missions. Not only is that way too short, it ends in a particularly unsatisfying abrupt way.
This game did deserve its M rating though, it's perhaps one of the most graphic games I've ever seen in terms of blood as well as some of the language. The dialogue in the game is rather good IMO. Some of it is wry humor that I found amusing, although it really doesn't add anything to the game at all.
As other reviewers have said, this game just has an expansion pack feel to it. There's also a limited amount of environments that the entire game takes place which I think is a drawback. There's even one level where all you do is shoot enemies, you can't move around because there's no place to go in the environment. That reminded me of old arcade games, not modern FPS.
If you like NOLF, you'll probably want to play this game, but don't expect it to be near as good. As for Sierra's contention that it's a "prequel" to NOLF2, prequels usually have some explaination included in them that clears something up in games that have already been released. This game doesn't do that at all.
Overall, I was dissapointed.