Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 69 (click to see context) from:
** Some of the aforementioned intelligence documents you come across even mention a lawsuit lodged against H.A.R.M. by the "Hair Alternative Replacement Club" for trademark infringement. (In ''AgentForHarm'', it means Human Aetiological Relations Machine.)
to:
** Some of the aforementioned intelligence documents you come across even mention a lawsuit lodged against H.A.R.M. by the "Hair Alternative Replacement Club" Membership" for trademark infringement. (In ''AgentForHarm'', it means Human Aetiological Relations Machine.)
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 26 (click to see context) from:
* Boss Bonanza - Basically all of the bosses and mini bosses can fall under this aside from the first boss (which is like a half way boss). You fight Armstrong in "The Indomitable Cate Archer Scene 2". Once this chapter ends and you get to "A Very Large Explosion Scene 1" this is when the frequency of boss fights really starts pick up as you are first put to the test against the 3 elite guard chicks (seen in cut scenes throughout the game mentioning how bored they always are) which are each treated as tough mini bosses. In scene 2 you are forced to fight off several helicopters that all either bring several shots to take down or some luck in surviving long enough to get a shot at the gunner when they open the helicopter doors once close to you to get more precise shots in at you. Immediately after, in the same scene, you are forced to duke it out with Volkov while he starts with an AK-47, and you start with nothing as you are forced to find a gun before he kills you. Once you beat him, you move on to "Such is the Nature of Revenge Scene 1" where you are forced to have a quick fight with Baroness Dumas, and finally in Scene 2, you have to beat Tom Goodman, the final boss of the game.
to:
* Boss Bonanza BossBonanza - Basically all of the bosses and mini bosses can fall under this aside from the first boss (which is like a half way boss). You fight Armstrong in "The Indomitable Cate Archer Scene 2". Once this chapter ends and you get to "A Very Large Explosion Scene 1" this is when the frequency of boss fights really starts pick up as you are first put to the test against the 3 elite guard chicks (seen in cut scenes throughout the game mentioning how bored they always are) which are each treated as tough mini bosses. In scene 2 you are forced to fight off several helicopters that all either bring several shots to take down or some luck in surviving long enough to get a shot at the gunner when they open the helicopter doors once close to you to get more precise shots in at you. Immediately after, in the same scene, you are forced to duke it out with Volkov while he starts with an AK-47, and you start with nothing as you are forced to find a gun before he kills you. Once you beat him, you move on to "Such is the Nature of Revenge Scene 1" where you are forced to have a quick fight with Baroness Dumas, and finally in Scene 2, you have to beat Tom Goodman, the final boss of the game.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Deleted line(s) 108 (click to see context) :
* HeyItsThatSound - The first and second games reused the "objective-updated jingle" from ''Shogo: Mobile Armor Division'', also made by Monolith.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 27 (click to see context) from:
-In the sequel, No One Lives Forever 2, the boss format is very similar, but a little less epic than in the first game. It's got a halfway boss, and then a high frequency of bosses at the end. This includes Pierre the Mime King near the end of Chapter 13, Volkov followed immediately by Isako at the end of Chapter 14, and then, surprisingly a bit anti climatic, a Super Soldier Lieutenant at the end of Chapter 15 who is basically a miniboss, but serves as the final boss of the game. His fighting style is very similar to that of a regular Super Soldier and he doesn't even get a health bar as he only has about 2.5 times as much hp as a regular one (however, if you fail to shoot him with the anti super soldier serum in time he will still recharge to full health just like a regular one). In fact, a Super Soldier Lieutenant is encountered two times in Chapter 10, but just can't be beaten without cheating since you don't yet have the anti super soldier serum to permanently get rid of them.
to:
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Added yet another example of Boss Bonanza from the Sequel
Added DiffLines:
-In the sequel, No One Lives Forever 2, the boss format is very similar, but a little less epic than in the first game. It's got a halfway boss, and then a high frequency of bosses at the end. This includes Pierre the Mime King near the end of Chapter 13, Volkov followed immediately by Isako at the end of Chapter 14, and then, surprisingly a bit anti climatic, a Super Soldier Lieutenant at the end of Chapter 15 who is basically a miniboss, but serves as the final boss of the game. His fighting style is very similar to that of a regular Super Soldier and he doesn't even get a health bar as he only has about 2.5 times as much hp as a regular one (however, if you fail to shoot him with the anti super soldier serum in time he will still recharge to full health just like a regular one). In fact, a Super Soldier Lieutenant is encountered two times in Chapter 10, but just can't be beaten without cheating since you don't yet have the anti super soldier serum to permanently get rid of them.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Added a Boss Bonanza example to this game.
Added DiffLines:
* Boss Bonanza - Basically all of the bosses and mini bosses can fall under this aside from the first boss (which is like a half way boss). You fight Armstrong in "The Indomitable Cate Archer Scene 2". Once this chapter ends and you get to "A Very Large Explosion Scene 1" this is when the frequency of boss fights really starts pick up as you are first put to the test against the 3 elite guard chicks (seen in cut scenes throughout the game mentioning how bored they always are) which are each treated as tough mini bosses. In scene 2 you are forced to fight off several helicopters that all either bring several shots to take down or some luck in surviving long enough to get a shot at the gunner when they open the helicopter doors once close to you to get more precise shots in at you. Immediately after, in the same scene, you are forced to duke it out with Volkov while he starts with an AK-47, and you start with nothing as you are forced to find a gun before he kills you. Once you beat him, you move on to "Such is the Nature of Revenge Scene 1" where you are forced to have a quick fight with Baroness Dumas, and finally in Scene 2, you have to beat Tom Goodman, the final boss of the game.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Deleted line(s) 130 (click to see context) :
* PunchClockVillain - Virtually every enemy character in the series except the ninjas. Magnus Armstrong especially, as he's only a "villain" because he got in so much trouble for fighting, and even then, he only fought with people that wanted a fight or deserved a beating, having never ever bullied anybody and refusing to harm Cate because she's just doing her job and also Scottish.
Added DiffLines:
* PinnedToTheWall: In ''2'', if you kill an enemy next to wall with a crossbow bolt, he will remained pinned to it. If you then search his body, you can almost always recover the bolt, and [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything the body will slump onto the ground]].
Added DiffLines:
* PunchClockVillain - Virtually every enemy character in the series except the ninjas. Magnus Armstrong especially, as he's only a "villain" because he got in so much trouble for fighting, and even then, he only fought with people that wanted a fight or deserved a beating, having never ever bullied anybody and refusing to harm Cate because she's just doing her job and also Scottish.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 51 (click to see context) from:
* EverythingFades - Subverted (or inverted?) in that you have to do the fading yourself using "Body dissolving powder".
to:
* EverythingFades - Subverted (or inverted?) Justified in that you have to do the fading yourself yourself, using "Body dissolving powder".
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Do that without the complaining.
Deleted line(s) 29 (click to see context) :
** Most of the supposedly British accents in the game were very clearly not done by British people. The worst offender was American Kit Harris as the protagonist - her British accent is poor, yes, but when you realize that she was in fact supposed to be ''Scottish'', it was quite a {{Face Palm}}. Occasionally saying "aye" does ''not'' make you a Scot.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 1,2 (click to see context) from:
http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cate_archer_nolf2.jpg
to:
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* KickingAssInAllHerFinery: Cate's wardrobe is often quite fancy for someone in her line of work.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* ActingUnnatural - An early level in a Hamburg nightclub has Cate being followed by a HARM spy. The tail is immediately suspicious with his fedora and raincoat, and Cate mentions that he's so obsessed with following her blindly that he'd probably wander into traffic just to keep up with her. As expected, he follows her right into the women's restroom and gets himself iced.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
This is a wiki. Keep first-person references and namedropping other editors at a minimum.
Changed line(s) 128 (click to see context) from:
* OptionalStealth: For the most part. Technically, you can complete most levels in ''NOLF'' with guns blazing, but stealth is a much better solution. I guess [=JAF1970=] means that breaking stealth is not as heavily penalized as in other {{Stealth Based Game}}s (which the ''NOLF'' series strived to be).
to:
* OptionalStealth: For the most part. Technically, you can complete most levels in ''NOLF'' with guns blazing, but stealth is a much better solution. I guess [=JAF1970=] means that breaking Breaking stealth is not as heavily penalized as in other {{Stealth Based Game}}s (which the ''NOLF'' series strived to be).
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 14 (click to see context) from:
'''Examples of:'''
to:
Deleted line(s) 18 (click to see context) :
* AnticlimaxBoss - The last part of the second game, sadly. Not only there's [[spoiler:Volkov in the wheelchair]] (see VillainDecay), but the very last enemy you have to confront is just a GiantMook, maybe a little more resistant than the others, but he doesn't even get an energy bar. Even [[spoiler:Isako]] may qualify; the second and last encounter with this boss is almost boring, compared to [[spoiler:the battle inside the tornado in Ohio]].
Added DiffLines:
* OptionalStealth: For the most part. Technically, you can complete most levels in ''NOLF'' with guns blazing, but stealth is a much better solution. I guess [=JAF1970=] means that breaking stealth is not as heavily penalized as in other {{Stealth Based Game}}s (which the ''NOLF'' series strived to be).
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
* TheOnlyOne - Justified: Previously to the first game, Cate Archer was only given extremely low-profile assignments. This meant that when H.A.R.M. started picking off top agents, she was the only one capable of investigating without being assassinated herself, as barely anyone had even heard of her.
* ShoePhone - Each mission introduces new gadgets you get to use, including a lockpick disguised as a hairpin, sleeping gas in a perfume bottle, and goes all the way up to ''bombs disguised as poodles and angry cats'' and ''a [[BriefcaseBlaster rocket launcher suitcase]]''. Then averted in that not all of the spy gadgets and weapons you get are disguised as things, which just makes you wonder what the point is of disguising anything at all.
* ShoutOut
** In both games, Cate uses the codename ''[[Franchise/MetalGear Foxhound]]'' at some point.
** H.A.R.M. probably takes name from the bad 1966 JamesBond ripoff movie AgentForHARM, although it is an American secret agency there. Monolith must have a large culture on the ''whole'' spy genre (or maybe they're just ''MysteryScienceTheater3000'' fans).
** One enemy conversation you can overhear features one guard discussing virtually every 60's spy show ever made--if he's that big of a fan, it's a sure bet that Monolith is too.
** One of the random items that ninjas drop is a ticket for ''[[Film/DestroyAllMonsters Kaiju Soshingeki]]'', which was indeed released in 1968.
* TheSixties - Even the ''space station'' you visit has a ''go-go lounge''.
** PoliticallyCorrectHistory - is Averted. Cate has to deal with a lot of sexism.
*** Played a bit straighter in the sequel, featuring a black guy as a liaison from the American branch of UNITY
* ShoutOut
** In both games, Cate uses the codename ''[[Franchise/MetalGear Foxhound]]'' at some point.
** H.A.R.M. probably takes name from the bad 1966 JamesBond ripoff movie AgentForHARM, although it is an American secret agency there. Monolith must have a large culture on the ''whole'' spy genre (or maybe they're just ''MysteryScienceTheater3000'' fans).
** One enemy conversation you can overhear features one guard discussing virtually every 60's spy show ever made--if he's that big of a fan, it's a sure bet that Monolith is too.
** One of the random items that ninjas drop is a ticket for ''[[Film/DestroyAllMonsters Kaiju Soshingeki]]'', which was indeed released in 1968.
* TheSixties - Even the ''space station'' you visit has a ''go-go lounge''.
** PoliticallyCorrectHistory - is Averted. Cate has to deal with a lot of sexism.
*** Played a bit straighter in the sequel, featuring a black guy as a liaison from the American branch of UNITY
* SniperScopeSway - In the second game, you can level up your sniper skill to get rid of it.
* SpellMyNameWithAnS - That's '''Cate''' Archer, not Kate.
* SpyCatsuit - In the first game, Cate's outfit for some levels is incredibly tight leather spy outfit. Played with in that it's bright orange and has a little leather miniskirt. She later trades it in for incognito clothes, winter outfit, and for the second game a short leather trenchcoat/jacket.
* SpyCatsuit - In the first game, Cate's outfit for some levels is incredibly tight leather spy outfit. Played with in that it's bright orange and has a little leather miniskirt. She later trades it in for incognito clothes, winter outfit, and for the second game a short leather trenchcoat/jacket.
Deleted line(s) 151,152 (click to see context) :
* StealthBasedMission - Not so much an UnexpectedGameplayChange given that Cate's supposed to be a ''spy'', except the unforgiving nature of them (i.e. in some missions you fail if you're so much as ''seen'') in the first game turned them almost into puzzles, and the closest thing the games had to a ScrappyLevel.
* SpyCatsuit - In the first game, Cate's outfit for some levels is incredibly tight leather spy outfit. Played with in that it's bright orange and has a little leather miniskirt. She later trades it in for incognito clothes, winter outfit, and for the second game a short leather trenchcoat/jacket.
* SpyCatsuit - In the first game, Cate's outfit for some levels is incredibly tight leather spy outfit. Played with in that it's bright orange and has a little leather miniskirt. She later trades it in for incognito clothes, winter outfit, and for the second game a short leather trenchcoat/jacket.
Changed line(s) 154,155 (click to see context) from:
* ShoePhone - Each mission introduces new gadgets you get to use, including a lockpick disguised as a hairpin, sleeping gas in a perfume bottle, and goes all the way up to ''bombs disguised as poodles and angry cats'' and ''a [[BriefcaseBlaster rocket launcher suitcase]]''. Then averted in that not all of the spy gadgets and weapons you get are disguised as things, which just makes you wonder what the point is of disguising anything at all.
* SniperScopeSway - In the second game, you can level up your sniper skill to get rid of it.
* SniperScopeSway - In the second game, you can level up your sniper skill to get rid of it.
to:
* ShoePhone StayInTheKitchen - Each mission introduces new gadgets It is 1960's Britain. The SpySpeak and lady-themed {{Shoe Phone}}s are the attempts to haze the girl.
** Not so much in the sequel, since she proved herself in the original, but you do get the American general talking down touse, including a lockpick disguised as a hairpin, sleeping gas in a perfume bottle, her and goes all the way up to ''bombs disguised as poodles and angry cats'' and ''a [[BriefcaseBlaster rocket launcher suitcase]]''. Then averted in making clumsy passes.
* StealthBasedMission - Not so much an UnexpectedGameplayChange given thatnot all of Cate's supposed to be a ''spy'', except the spy gadgets unforgiving nature of them (i.e. in some missions you fail if you're so much as ''seen'') in the first game turned them almost into puzzles, and weapons you get are disguised as things, which just makes you wonder what the point is of disguising anything at all.
* SniperScopeSway - Inclosest thing the second game, you can level up your sniper skill games had to get rid of it.a ScrappyLevel.
** Not so much in the sequel, since she proved herself in the original, but you do get the American general talking down to
* StealthBasedMission - Not so much an UnexpectedGameplayChange given that
* SniperScopeSway - In
Deleted line(s) 157,167 (click to see context) :
* TheSixties - Even the ''space station'' you visit has a ''go-go lounge''.
** PoliticallyCorrectHistory - is Averted. Cate has to deal with a lot of sexism.
*** Played a bit straighter in the sequel, featuring a black guy as a liaison from the American branch of UNITY.
* ShoutOut
** In both games, Cate uses the codename [[Franchise/MetalGear ''Foxhound'']] at some point.
** H.A.R.M. probably takes name from the bad 1966 JamesBond ripoff movie AgentForHARM, although it is an American secret agency there. Monolith must have a large culture on the ''whole'' spy genre (or maybe they're just ''MysteryScienceTheater3000'' fans).
** One enemy conversation you can overhear features one guard discussing virtually every 60's spy show ever made--if he's that big of a fan, it's a sure bet that Monolith is too.
** One of the random items that ninjas drop is a ticket for ''[[Film/DestroyAllMonsters Kaiju Soshingeki]]'', which was indeed released in 1968.
* SpellMyNameWithAnS - That's '''Cate''' Archer, not Kate.
* StayInTheKitchen - It is 1960's Britain. The SpySpeak and lady-themed {{Shoe Phone}}s are the attempts to haze the girl.
** Not so much in the sequel, since she proved herself in the original, but you do get the American general talking down to her and making clumsy passes.
** PoliticallyCorrectHistory - is Averted. Cate has to deal with a lot of sexism.
*** Played a bit straighter in the sequel, featuring a black guy as a liaison from the American branch of UNITY.
* ShoutOut
** In both games, Cate uses the codename [[Franchise/MetalGear ''Foxhound'']] at some point.
** H.A.R.M. probably takes name from the bad 1966 JamesBond ripoff movie AgentForHARM, although it is an American secret agency there. Monolith must have a large culture on the ''whole'' spy genre (or maybe they're just ''MysteryScienceTheater3000'' fans).
** One enemy conversation you can overhear features one guard discussing virtually every 60's spy show ever made--if he's that big of a fan, it's a sure bet that Monolith is too.
** One of the random items that ninjas drop is a ticket for ''[[Film/DestroyAllMonsters Kaiju Soshingeki]]'', which was indeed released in 1968.
* SpellMyNameWithAnS - That's '''Cate''' Archer, not Kate.
* StayInTheKitchen - It is 1960's Britain. The SpySpeak and lady-themed {{Shoe Phone}}s are the attempts to haze the girl.
** Not so much in the sequel, since she proved herself in the original, but you do get the American general talking down to her and making clumsy passes.
Deleted line(s) 175 (click to see context) :
* TheOnlyOne - Justified: Previously to the first game, Cate Archer was only given extremely low-profile assignments. This meant that when H.A.R.M. started picking off top agents, she was the only one capable of investigating without being assassinated herself, as barely anyone had even heard of her.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* SkillScore - The second game introduced upgradable skills that improved Cate's in-game performance.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 21 (click to see context) from:
* BananaPeel - Played rather hilariously in the multiplayer part of NOLF 2. If you walk over a banana, you slip and are helpless for some seconds before getting up. This makes for some very entertaining encounters.
to:
* BananaPeel - Played rather hilariously in the multiplayer part of NOLF [=NOLF=] 2. If you walk over a banana, you slip and are helpless for some seconds before getting up. This makes for some very entertaining encounters.
Changed line(s) 24 (click to see context) from:
* BlatantLies - in NOLF2, you can overhear a Red Army soldier saying "This is the [[SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn Union of Soviet Socialist Republics]] - people don't just disappear in the middle of the night!"
to:
* BlatantLies - in NOLF2, [=NOLF2=], you can overhear a Red Army soldier saying "This is the [[SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn Union of Soviet Socialist Republics]] - people don't just disappear in the middle of the night!"
Changed line(s) 42 (click to see context) from:
* DuelBoss - NOLF ends with an ItsPersonal gunfight between Cate and [[spoiler: Tom Goodman]] inside a cemetery. You and [[spoiler: Tom]] are both armed with the same weapon (a revolver) and can take roughly the same amount of damage, so it's an even fight (although he cheats a bit by using poison-laced bullets).
to:
* DuelBoss - NOLF [=NOLF=] ends with an ItsPersonal gunfight between Cate and [[spoiler: Tom Goodman]] inside a cemetery. You and [[spoiler: Tom]] are both armed with the same weapon (a revolver) and can take roughly the same amount of damage, so it's an even fight (although he cheats a bit by using poison-laced bullets).
Changed line(s) 121 (click to see context) from:
** In NOLF2, you get Santa talking to you through a robotic Myna bird
to:
** In NOLF2, [=NOLF2=], you get Santa talking to you through a robotic Myna bird
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* TrailerParkTornadoMagnet: The second game has a trailer park hit by a tornado; you have to fight off ninjas inside one of the trailers as its picked up by the twister and beginning to disintegrate.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
* MeaningfulName - Baron Archibald and Baroness Felicity's surname, Dumas, although pronounced "Doo-mar" is an obvious contraction of "Dumbass", because Baron Dumas is an incredibly stupid man-child who only got by because of his wealth inherited from his family.
Changed line(s) 127 (click to see context) from:
* PunchClockVillain - Virtually every enemy character in the series except the ninjas.
to:
* PunchClockVillain - Virtually every enemy character in the series except the ninjas. Magnus Armstrong especially, as he's only a "villain" because he got in so much trouble for fighting, and even then, he only fought with people that wanted a fight or deserved a beating, having never ever bullied anybody and refusing to harm Cate because she's just doing her job and also Scottish.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Deleted line(s) 35 (click to see context) :
* CareerKillers - Volkov, H.A.R.M.'s "Vice President of Executive Action" (a.k.a. chief assassin). John Jack in his game, with Volkov as the employer. Also Pierre, the Mime King and the whole ninja clan.
Added DiffLines:
* ProfessionalKiller - Volkov, H.A.R.M.'s "Vice President of Executive Action" (a.k.a. chief assassin). John Jack in his game, with Volkov as the employer. Also Pierre, the Mime King and the whole ninja clan.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* CombatHaircomb: With a poisoned blade no less.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
That\'s not what a justified trope is.
Changed line(s) 156 (click to see context) from:
*** Played a bit straighter in the sequel, featuring a black guy as a liaison from the American branch of UNITY. [[JustifiedTrope But hey, maybe UNITY is more forward-thinking than other government organizations...]]
to:
*** Played a bit straighter in the sequel, featuring a black guy as a liaison from the American branch of UNITY. [[JustifiedTrope But hey, maybe UNITY is more forward-thinking than other government organizations...]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 151 (click to see context) from:
* ShoePhone - Each mission introduces new gadgets you get to use, including a lockpick disguised as a hairpin, sleeping gas in a perfume bottle, and goes all the way up to ''bombs disguised as poodles and angry cats'' and ''a [[BriefcaseBlaster rocket launcher suitcase]]''. Somewhat subverted in that not all of the spy gadgets and weapons you get are disguised as things, which just makes you wonder what the point is of disguising anything at all.
to:
* ShoePhone - Each mission introduces new gadgets you get to use, including a lockpick disguised as a hairpin, sleeping gas in a perfume bottle, and goes all the way up to ''bombs disguised as poodles and angry cats'' and ''a [[BriefcaseBlaster rocket launcher suitcase]]''. Somewhat subverted Then averted in that not all of the spy gadgets and weapons you get are disguised as things, which just makes you wonder what the point is of disguising anything at all.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 149 (click to see context) from:
* SpyCatsuit - In the first game, Cate's outfit for some levels is incredibly tight leather spy outfit. Downplayed in that it's bright orange and has a little leather miniskirt. She later trades it in for incognito clothes, winter outfit, and for the second game a short leather trenchcoat/jacket.
to:
* SpyCatsuit - In the first game, Cate's outfit for some levels is incredibly tight leather spy outfit. Downplayed Played with in that it's bright orange and has a little leather miniskirt. She later trades it in for incognito clothes, winter outfit, and for the second game a short leather trenchcoat/jacket.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 149 (click to see context) from:
* SpyCatsuit - In the first game, Cate's outfit for some levels is incredibly tight leather spy outfit. Subverted in that it's bright orange and has a little leather miniskirt. She later trades it in for incognito clothes, winter outfit, and for the second game a short leather trenchcoat/jacket.
to:
* SpyCatsuit - In the first game, Cate's outfit for some levels is incredibly tight leather spy outfit. Subverted Downplayed in that it's bright orange and has a little leather miniskirt. She later trades it in for incognito clothes, winter outfit, and for the second game a short leather trenchcoat/jacket.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 158 (click to see context) from:
** In both games, Cate uses the codename [[MetalGear ''Foxhound'']] at some point.
to:
** In both games, Cate uses the codename [[MetalGear [[Franchise/MetalGear ''Foxhound'']] at some point.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
* BilingualBonus - In Contract J.A.C.K., Il Pazzo throws in a lot of gratuitous Italian swearing, as well as a few other phrases that make you realize that yes, he really is as crazy as his name suggests.
---> "Bring his testicoli to me."
---> "Bring his testicoli to me."
Changed line(s) 101 (click to see context) from:
* GratuitousItalian - Il Pazzo ("The Crazy"), the main enemy in Contract J.A.C.K., speaks with a lot of Italian swear words thrown in.
to:
* GratuitousItalian - Il Pazzo ("The Crazy"), Crazy One"), the main enemy BigBad in Contract J.A.C.K., speaks with a lot of Italian swear words thrown in.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
** That conversation becomes a [[BrickJoke Brick Joke]] later when you find a letter that announces anyone who skips the "motivational concert" is automatically volunteered to be a test subject for HARM's next project.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
* GiftedlyBad - Inge Wagner, and ''how''.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' You okay? You look terrible.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' I have a really bad headache. I went to this club last night? It took me two hours to get in.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' Popular, eh?
-->'''Sailor 2:''' I guess so, although I don't know why. The music, it was the most horrible thing I've ever heard.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' Hey, I've been to places like that.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' No, you don't understand. I thought I understood what bad music was. This place... imagine that bad music is its own art form. The woman who was singing would be the Beethoven of bad music.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' Come on.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' First of all, it was operetta, which is bad enough.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' Ugh.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' What made it truly painful wasn't that it was completely out of key, although that was certainly unpleasant. It was that it was so... vicious. Like she was trying to kill the audience with her voice.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' Maybe she was.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' No, if you'd seen her you would know. She didn't realize how bad she was.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' What did she look like, anyway?
-->'''Sailor 2:''' Very large with bright, rosy cheeks. Dressed kind of like a milk maid.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' You're kidding.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' No, I'm not kidding.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' Was her name Inge Wagner?
-->'''Sailor 2:''' How did you know?
-->'''Sailor 1:''' She came aboard an hour ago.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' What?!
-->'''Sailor 1:''' It's true! Didn't you read the memo in the galley?
-->'''Sailor 2:''' I never read those!
-->'''Sailor 1:''' We're supposed to assemble on deck after breakfast tomorrow. For a motivational concert.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' I get it. Very funny! You really had me going for a moment there.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' I'm not joking.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' Please tell me that you are... I have to get off this ship. Maybe I can hide somewhere? Do you think they'll notice if I'm not there?
-->'''Sailor 1:''' I doubt it. Hell, I'll join you.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' You okay? You look terrible.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' I have a really bad headache. I went to this club last night? It took me two hours to get in.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' Popular, eh?
-->'''Sailor 2:''' I guess so, although I don't know why. The music, it was the most horrible thing I've ever heard.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' Hey, I've been to places like that.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' No, you don't understand. I thought I understood what bad music was. This place... imagine that bad music is its own art form. The woman who was singing would be the Beethoven of bad music.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' Come on.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' First of all, it was operetta, which is bad enough.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' Ugh.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' What made it truly painful wasn't that it was completely out of key, although that was certainly unpleasant. It was that it was so... vicious. Like she was trying to kill the audience with her voice.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' Maybe she was.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' No, if you'd seen her you would know. She didn't realize how bad she was.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' What did she look like, anyway?
-->'''Sailor 2:''' Very large with bright, rosy cheeks. Dressed kind of like a milk maid.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' You're kidding.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' No, I'm not kidding.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' Was her name Inge Wagner?
-->'''Sailor 2:''' How did you know?
-->'''Sailor 1:''' She came aboard an hour ago.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' What?!
-->'''Sailor 1:''' It's true! Didn't you read the memo in the galley?
-->'''Sailor 2:''' I never read those!
-->'''Sailor 1:''' We're supposed to assemble on deck after breakfast tomorrow. For a motivational concert.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' I get it. Very funny! You really had me going for a moment there.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' I'm not joking.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' Please tell me that you are... I have to get off this ship. Maybe I can hide somewhere? Do you think they'll notice if I'm not there?
-->'''Sailor 1:''' I doubt it. Hell, I'll join you.
Deleted line(s) 135,162 (click to see context) :
* TheTedBaxter - Inge Wagner, and ''how''.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' You okay? You look terrible.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' I have a really bad headache. I went to this club last night? It took me two hours to get in.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' Popular, eh?
-->'''Sailor 2:''' I guess so, although I don't know why. The music, it was the most horrible thing I've ever heard.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' Hey, I've been to places like that.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' No, you don't understand. I thought I understood what bad music was. This place... imagine that bad music is its own art form. The woman who was singing would be the Beethoven of bad music.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' Come on.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' First of all, it was operetta, which is bad enough.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' Ugh.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' What made it truly painful wasn't that it was completely out of key, although that was certainly unpleasant. It was that it was so... vicious. Like she was trying to kill the audience with her voice.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' Maybe she was.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' No, if you'd seen her you would know. She didn't realize how bad she was.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' What did she look like, anyway?
-->'''Sailor 2:''' Very large with bright, rosy cheeks. Dressed kind of like a milk maid.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' You're kidding.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' No, I'm not kidding.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' Was her name Inge Wagner?
-->'''Sailor 2:''' How did you know?
-->'''Sailor 1:''' She came aboard an hour ago.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' What?!
-->'''Sailor 1:''' It's true! Didn't you read the memo in the galley?
-->'''Sailor 2:''' I never read those!
-->'''Sailor 1:''' We're supposed to assemble on deck after breakfast tomorrow. For a motivational concert.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' I get it. Very funny! You really had me going for a moment there.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' I'm not joking.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' Please tell me that you are... I have to get off this ship. Maybe I can hide somewhere? Do you think they'll notice if I'm not there?
-->'''Sailor 1:''' I doubt it. Hell, I'll join you.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' You okay? You look terrible.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' I have a really bad headache. I went to this club last night? It took me two hours to get in.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' Popular, eh?
-->'''Sailor 2:''' I guess so, although I don't know why. The music, it was the most horrible thing I've ever heard.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' Hey, I've been to places like that.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' No, you don't understand. I thought I understood what bad music was. This place... imagine that bad music is its own art form. The woman who was singing would be the Beethoven of bad music.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' Come on.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' First of all, it was operetta, which is bad enough.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' Ugh.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' What made it truly painful wasn't that it was completely out of key, although that was certainly unpleasant. It was that it was so... vicious. Like she was trying to kill the audience with her voice.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' Maybe she was.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' No, if you'd seen her you would know. She didn't realize how bad she was.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' What did she look like, anyway?
-->'''Sailor 2:''' Very large with bright, rosy cheeks. Dressed kind of like a milk maid.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' You're kidding.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' No, I'm not kidding.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' Was her name Inge Wagner?
-->'''Sailor 2:''' How did you know?
-->'''Sailor 1:''' She came aboard an hour ago.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' What?!
-->'''Sailor 1:''' It's true! Didn't you read the memo in the galley?
-->'''Sailor 2:''' I never read those!
-->'''Sailor 1:''' We're supposed to assemble on deck after breakfast tomorrow. For a motivational concert.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' I get it. Very funny! You really had me going for a moment there.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' I'm not joking.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' Please tell me that you are... I have to get off this ship. Maybe I can hide somewhere? Do you think they'll notice if I'm not there?
-->'''Sailor 1:''' I doubt it. Hell, I'll join you.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cate_archer_nolf2.jpg
--> ''"'Cause No One Lives Forever... but evil never dies."''
[=UNITY=], a British international spy organization, is having a bit of a problem: someone is killing their operatives. What better solution then to hire an ex-cat burglar as a new operative that the enemy don't know about yet in order to find the culprit. Enter Cate Archer, also known as "The Operative" in: ''The Operative In: No One Lives Forever''.
''No One Lives Forever'' is a FirstPersonShooter series developed by Creator/MonolithProductions and published by {{Sierra}}. A spoof of 1960s spy movies, it was followed by a Sequel, ''No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy In H.A.R.M.'s Way'' (which involved ''fighting ninjas in a trailer park in Ohio during a tornado'' and an ''evil assassin French mime'', among other things), and a MissionPackSequel called ''Contract J.A.C.K.''.
Some of the other noteworthy elements include the use of gadgets -- introduced at the beginning of each mission much like the Q scene in every Bond movie, the outrageous action set-pieces, and the hundreds of miscellaneous documents to read, including ''purchase orders for death traps''.
Both games involve vehicles in the snow at some point, which is also just like most Bond movies.
-----
'''Examples of:'''
* ActionBomb - The plot of the first game involves a chemical which, when injected into [[strike: humans]] any mammal, turns them into living time bombs that explode after a period of time. The only warning signs are being very gassy and burpy before you go boom.
* ActionGirl - Cate Archer.
* AliensInCardiff - In this case, Ninjas in Akron, Ohio.
* AnticlimaxBoss - The last part of the second game, sadly. Not only there's [[spoiler:Volkov in the wheelchair]] (see VillainDecay), but the very last enemy you have to confront is just a GiantMook, maybe a little more resistant than the others, but he doesn't even get an energy bar. Even [[spoiler:Isako]] may qualify; the second and last encounter with this boss is almost boring, compared to [[spoiler:the battle inside the tornado in Ohio]].
* BatmanGambit - In the first game, [[spoiler: Bruno feigns his demise to draw out the real traitor in U.N.I.T.Y.'s organization.]] As far as Need To Know, Cate didn't[[spoiler:; her reaction needed to be genuine]].
** [[spoiler:And when Bruno reveals all at the end, after the fight with the Goodman imposter]], Cate's understandably upset by this and ''very much pissed off'' about [[spoiler:being kept in the dark]].
* BananaPeel - Played rather hilariously in the multiplayer part of NOLF 2. If you walk over a banana, you slip and are helpless for some seconds before getting up. This makes for some very entertaining encounters.
* BlatantLies - in NOLF2, you can overhear a Red Army soldier saying "This is the [[SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn Union of Soviet Socialist Republics]] - people don't just disappear in the middle of the night!"
* BonusMaterial - The Game Of The Year edition of the first episode has a long extra mission which starts after the ending credits. The PS2 version adds yet another mission, a flashback on Cate's past activities.
* BrawnHilda - Inge Wangner, one of the antagonists in the original game is this.
* BritishAccents - They really don't want you forgetting that UNITY is a ''British'' spy organization.
** And contrasted with Tom Goodman's very American accent.
** Most of the supposedly British accents in the game were very clearly not done by British people. The worst offender was American Kit Harris as the protagonist - her British accent is poor, yes, but when you realize that she was in fact supposed to be ''Scottish'', it was quite a {{Face Palm}}. Occasionally saying "aye" does ''not'' make you a Scot.
* BusmansHoliday - The aforementioned [[BonusMaterial extra mission]] of the first episode, called ''Rest and Relaxation''. After the events of the main game, Cate is taking a well-deserved vacation, but involuntarily stumbles into trouble and cannot keep herself out of H.A.R.M.'s way.
* ChekhovsGun - Throughout the first game, Cate will find pieces of an item simply referred to as the CT-180, without any clue as to what it actually is beyond that it's a brand new, experimental device of some kind. She may also occasionally find a note referring to it. In the second game, [[spoiler:Cate is given the CT-180 Utility Launcher, one of the most useful pieces of equipment ever created for a first person shooter, capable of launching everything from camera disablers, to sleeping darts, to tracking beacons.]]
* ChekhovsGunman / ObfuscatingStupidity / TheDogWasTheMastermind - The Evil Mastermind behind H.A.R.M., the Director, turns out to be [[spoiler:a middle-aged drunk who appeared in almost every level of the first game as a civilian background character.]]
* CallingCard - Volkov's rose in the first game.
* TheCameo - In Contract J.A.C.K., Cate is briefly visible at the beginning of the Czechoslovakia mission (no clue if it was just thrown in or if there was a reason for her to be there), and once or twice in "Wanted" posters.
* CareerKillers - Volkov, H.A.R.M.'s "Vice President of Executive Action" (a.k.a. chief assassin). John Jack in his game, with Volkov as the employer. Also Pierre, the Mime King and the whole ninja clan.
* ClassyCatBurglar - Cate's backstory.
* CoolAndUnusualPunishment - The "Man-Handler", which smashes henchmen into "man-crates".
* CoolBike - In some sections of the last levels of Contract J.A.C.K. you get to drive a Vespa scooter ''with twin guns''.
* DefeatMeansFriendship - [[spoiler: After Cate kicks Magnus Armstrong's arse in the first game, he (reluctantly at first) helps her out in the sequel.]]
* DefectorFromCommieLand - Dr. Schenker, an East German scientist.
** Also Misha, the pilot who gets you in and out of Siberia (though he may just be a sympathizer or a factionless hireling and not a full-out defector).
* DuelBoss - NOLF ends with an ItsPersonal gunfight between Cate and [[spoiler: Tom Goodman]] inside a cemetery. You and [[spoiler: Tom]] are both armed with the same weapon (a revolver) and can take roughly the same amount of damage, so it's an even fight (although he cheats a bit by using poison-laced bullets).
* {{Elaborate Underground Base}}s - Of course. Could it be a spy story without them? [[JustifiedTrope Explained]] in the second game when two mooks talk about how expensive and inconvenient it is to build elaborate bases as compared to leasing office space, but notes the necessity of it in that potential clients expect to see such lairs or they won't believe that an evil organization is evil enough for high-profile jobs.
* EnemyChatter - Stealthy players will catch hundreds of different conversations between civilians, guards and various henchmen, ''even'' the mimes.
** Most of which are [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3LS3vWlg0c utterly hilarious.]]
* EnemyMime - The Mime King. At one point there's a tricycle chase.
* EscortMission - Never aggravating ones, luckily. During the first game, you'll have to bring Dr. Schenker with you twice, but when a firefight ensues, he stays put until you go and recall him. In the second game, you'll have to protect Armstrong for a little time, while he tries to force a door open. You also have to escort your kidnapped Russian pilot to safety in a brief rescue mission. Like Schenker, he takes cover until you tell him it's safe to move.
** Though the "evacuate the civilians" missions (thankfully only one per game) can get a bit annoying after having to reload the game several times because the sheeple have no sense of self-preservation and keep getting themselves killed.
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas / MamaDidntRaiseNoCriminal - Both averted: The Director reacts to his mother's frequent phone calls with utter disdain and the latter at one point expresses her utter shame at her son's criminal actions, going so far as claiming a relative jailed for arson was a "saint" in comparison.
* EvilCounterpart - The Baroness points out the similarities between her own life and Cate's when the two of them finally meet face-to-face.
** Cate also points out several similarities to her superiors, but also points out where their paths had diverged.
* EverythingFades - Subverted (or inverted?) in that you have to do the fading yourself using "Body dissolving powder".
** Within the first game, it's stated that Cate, as a woman, lacks the upper-body strength to move the bodies, thereby requiring the body dissolving powder (or arranging to kill everyone before they can find the bodies). In the second game, she not only gains the ability to move the bodies on her own, but the villains within game do the body dissolving if you don't with hilarious dialogue.
--> "Sorry, comrade, but there's less paperwork this way."
* EverythingsEvenWorseWithSharks - At one point in #1, you must scuba dive to a sunken ship which is now, you guessed it, filled with sharks.
** And again later on, while you're crossing a bridge in [[SupervillainLair the BigBad's secret lair]], [[spoiler: a HaveANiceDeath sign (complete with smiley face!) pops up in front of you and the bridge drops out from under you, dumping you into a shark tank.]]
* EvilVersusEvil - Many conversations between henchmen mention rival organizations, some even previously worked for them. In Contract J.A.C.K. you fight against Danger Danger on behalf of H.A.R.M.
* ExposedToTheElements - Avoided - She wears coats in the snow levels.
* {{Expy}} - Bruno is an Expy of a retired JamesBond.
** The fez-wearing mooks in the first game strongly resemble and sound like Will Farrell's character in ''AustinPowers: International Man of Mystery''.
** Inge Wagner is an {{Expy}} and ShoutOut to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Foster_Jenkins Florence Foster Jenkins]].
* FaceHeelTurn - [[spoiler: Tom Goodman, who is actually an imposter.]]
* FisticuffsBoss - Magnus Armstrong in the first game.
* FlyoverCountry - One of the very few videogame levels ever set in Ohio.
* FunWithAcronyms - Parodied. Nobody outside of H.A.R.M. knows what H.A.R.M. means. They rub it in your face by ending a lot of the various memos you find sitting about with what appears to be one of their slogans: "Remember what H.A.R.M. stands for".
** There's possible implications that almost nobody within H.A.R.M. knows what it stands for either.
** Monolith appears to like this. H.A.R.M., Contract J.A.C.K., [[VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon F.E.A.R.]]...
** Some of the aforementioned intelligence documents you come across even mention a lawsuit lodged against H.A.R.M. by the "Hair Alternative Replacement Club" for trademark infringement. (In ''AgentForHarm'', it means Human Aetiological Relations Machine.)
*** A special bullet you get in the last mission of [=NOLF2=] is called [[spoiler:Anti Super Soldier Serum]]. Try to spell the initials only.
** One of the rival criminal organizations mentioned is Evil Alliance, whose initials coincidentally happen to be the same as a competitor video-game company...
* GeneralRipper - Hawkins in [=NOLF2=]. A pea-brained, trigger-happy, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking ugly]] idiot who's a bit too happy about the idea of starting a third world war. And he's a ''five star general''. There may be some TakeThat on American militarism.
* GilliganCut: Armstrong gets one in the second game when Cate asks him to assist in providing information on H.A.R.M. "Well... I suppose I could make a few calls, but DON'T EXPECT ME to get involved! *cut* "Jamal? Magnus... I'm coming to India."
* {{Gonk}} - [[BrawnHilda Inge.]]
* GratuitousItalian - Il Pazzo ("The Crazy"), the main enemy in Contract J.A.C.K., speaks with a lot of Italian swear words thrown in.
* HeelFaceTurn - One of your partners in the second game was a major antagonist in the first.
* HeelRealization - [[spoiler:Kemal, Cate's contact in the Indian branch of H.A.R.M.]] You can find a letter where he explains why he got sick of being among [[GenreSavvy "cartoon villains"]].
* HeroicSacrifice - Cate's mentor Bruno (an OlderAndWiser {{Expy}} of James Bond) takes a bullet for Cate near the beginning of the first game ([[spoiler: He gets better.]]). Armstrong attempts one of these in the second game when he stays behind to jettison an underwater base's escape dome before the base itself explodes ([[spoiler: again, he gets better]]). Finally, Super Soldier Lieutenant Anders [[spoiler: shoots down the nuclear missile at the end of the game, saving Cate and preventing World War III, an act which causes him to overheat and die.]]
* HeyItsThatSound - The first and second games reused the "objective-updated jingle" from ''Shogo: Mobile Armor Division'', also made by Monolith.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice - Isako does this to Cate at the end of the first level in [=NOLF2=]. Fortunately, UNITY agents were able to retrieve Cate and save her life, even though she was supposedly stabbed through her heart. Oh, well.
* ImplacableMan - H.A.R.M.'s Super Soldiers in [=NOLF2=] are like this, being essentially unkillable until you finally acquire specially treated chemical bullets that make them overheat and explode in the game's last mission. Lieutenant Anders in particular follows you halfway across the world (by walking on the ocean floor!) because Cate reminds him of his own daughter.
* InsecurityCamera - One of the items you get is a ''Camera Disabler''
** Before that, you're partially saved by the cameras giving an audible (and visible warning) when they spotted you and only sounding an alarm if you didn't immediately hide.
* IOweYouMyLife - The only reason competent and honorable AntiVillain Isako works for abusive CardCarryingVillain The Director is because he saved her life after a botched assignment. Isako remains loyal to the Director even after learning he set the whole thing up in order to recruit her. Only after the Director tries to kill Isako and Cate rescues her does she consider her life debt paid, at which point she promptly defends Cate from the Director.
** When does this last thing happen? The last we see of Isako is after Cate saves her from [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness being shot by the Director]].
* LaserHallway - Played straight when you try to crack a high security safe. The first two hallways have mobile lasers that you must dodge normally. The third has a truly ridiculous amount of lasers and [[spoiler: you can just pull up a nearby airvent and go underneath them.]]
* LavaPit and ConvectionSchmonvection - Subverted. At one point, one villain is showing another around his underground base. The villain remarks "Ah, lava. Very nice." At one point you drop the first villain into the lava, and find out afterwards it was actually a glowing lava-like substance designed to ''look like lava at room temperature'' because real lava is just annoying to deal with.
** Both the "Ah, Lava." line and the revelation of it being fake lava can also be considered a LampshadeHanging on how [[SpecialEffectsFailure badly the lava is rendered]] (it's just a plain orange bump mapped undulating texture).
** Also lampshaded by a conversation stating that lava made to look [[RuleofCool cool]] is better than realistic lava.
* LowerDeckEpisode - The Co-Op campaign is based around generic U.N.I.T.Y. agents filling in the gaps around whatever Cate was doing.
* MissionControl - Volkov during part of Contract J.A.C.K.
** In NOLF2, you get Santa talking to you through a robotic Myna bird
* NebulousEvilOrganization - H.A.R.M.
* NoOneCouldSurviveThat - Subverted and lampshaded. A character who was 'killed' with no body found returns, only it turns out later he is an evil impostor. This comes as a surprise to everyone because it's generally assumed by the characters that no body means no death.
* NotSoDifferent - Cate and Baroness Dumas.
* ObfuscatingStupidity - [[spoiler: Tom Goodman, or at least his imposter. "Tom" pretends to be a JerkAss unable to believe a woman could be a successful agent, but he's actually pushing Cate into danger. He may have underestimated her skills, but his estimation of her skills were much higher than he betrayed.]]
* OddlyNamedSequel - An unexpected aversion, in that the original game was setting up a Bond-like title sequence, but when they actually released a sequel they called it No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy In HARM's Way instead of The Operative In: A Spy In HARM's Way.
* OneManArmy - Subverted (plot-wise at least). Rather than not finding anything unusual about Cate mowing down hundreds of enemy Mooks per mission, her superiors find it so unbelievable that they mistakenly assume she's making the whole thing up on her mission reports.
* PunchClockVillain - Virtually every enemy character in the series except the ninjas.
* ParasolOfPain - The plot of the first game involves these being used to turn people into living bombs.
** And the sequel has Isako pull a katana out of a secret compartment in hers.
* PrettyInMink - Cate wears a fur-trimmed coat in each game.
* PuzzleBoss - Inge Wagner.
* RailingKill - Any enemy near some railing will inevitably fall from there when killed. Similarly, if near stairs or some sloping surface, he'll tumble.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech - Cate lays a big one on the Baroness. The Baroness shoots back, "[[ShutUpKirk Well, aren't you an arrogant little]] [[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch bitch?]]"
* RunningGag - The continuous phone calls from the Director's mother.
* SnipingMission - the first part of the first level of the first game is a sniping shooting gallery.
* SpySpeak - One mission involves doing these. They all turn out to be crass come on/rejection exchanges, and the spies are apologetic.
-->'''Contact:''' Guten Abend Fraulein, do you make love to strangers?
-->'''Cate Archer:''' Certainly not!
-->'''Contact:''' Then allow me to introduce myself.
-->'''Cate Archer:''' Why not just introduce yourself to a police officer and spare me the trouble?
-->'''Contact:''' Who makes up these ghastly code phrases anyway?
-->'''Cate Archer:''' Someone in the cryptography department -- someone in need of a girlfriend, apparently.
** Later:
--->'''Contact:''' Want to come in for a game of Twister?
--->'''Cate Archer:''' I'd rather run over you with my car.
--->'''Contact:''' These code phrases have a somewhat confessional tone to them, don't you think?
--->'''Cate Archer:''' Yeah, now that you mention it...
* StealthBasedMission - Not so much an UnexpectedGameplayChange given that Cate's supposed to be a ''spy'', except the unforgiving nature of them (i.e. in some missions you fail if you're so much as ''seen'') in the first game turned them almost into puzzles, and the closest thing the games had to a ScrappyLevel.
* SpyCatsuit - In the first game, Cate's outfit for some levels is incredibly tight leather spy outfit. Subverted in that it's bright orange and has a little leather miniskirt. She later trades it in for incognito clothes, winter outfit, and for the second game a short leather trenchcoat/jacket.
* SpyVersusSpy - UNITY vs H.A.R.M.
* ShoePhone - Each mission introduces new gadgets you get to use, including a lockpick disguised as a hairpin, sleeping gas in a perfume bottle, and goes all the way up to ''bombs disguised as poodles and angry cats'' and ''a [[BriefcaseBlaster rocket launcher suitcase]]''. Somewhat subverted in that not all of the spy gadgets and weapons you get are disguised as things, which just makes you wonder what the point is of disguising anything at all.
* SniperScopeSway - In the second game, you can level up your sniper skill to get rid of it.
* SuperSoldier - The plot of the second game involves these.
* TheSixties - Even the ''space station'' you visit has a ''go-go lounge''.
** PoliticallyCorrectHistory - is Averted. Cate has to deal with a lot of sexism.
*** Played a bit straighter in the sequel, featuring a black guy as a liaison from the American branch of UNITY. [[JustifiedTrope But hey, maybe UNITY is more forward-thinking than other government organizations...]]
* ShoutOut
** In both games, Cate uses the codename [[MetalGear ''Foxhound'']] at some point.
** H.A.R.M. probably takes name from the bad 1966 JamesBond ripoff movie AgentForHARM, although it is an American secret agency there. Monolith must have a large culture on the ''whole'' spy genre (or maybe they're just ''MysteryScienceTheater3000'' fans).
** One enemy conversation you can overhear features one guard discussing virtually every 60's spy show ever made--if he's that big of a fan, it's a sure bet that Monolith is too.
** One of the random items that ninjas drop is a ticket for ''[[Film/DestroyAllMonsters Kaiju Soshingeki]]'', which was indeed released in 1968.
* SpellMyNameWithAnS - That's '''Cate''' Archer, not Kate.
* StayInTheKitchen - It is 1960's Britain. The SpySpeak and lady-themed {{Shoe Phone}}s are the attempts to haze the girl.
** Not so much in the sequel, since she proved herself in the original, but you do get the American general talking down to her and making clumsy passes.
* [[TalkingToHimself Talking to Herself]]: Averted, despite Kit Harris voicing both Cate Archer and Inge Wagner: they never actually talk to each other.
* TheTedBaxter - Inge Wagner, and ''how''.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' You okay? You look terrible.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' I have a really bad headache. I went to this club last night? It took me two hours to get in.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' Popular, eh?
-->'''Sailor 2:''' I guess so, although I don't know why. The music, it was the most horrible thing I've ever heard.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' Hey, I've been to places like that.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' No, you don't understand. I thought I understood what bad music was. This place... imagine that bad music is its own art form. The woman who was singing would be the Beethoven of bad music.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' Come on.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' First of all, it was operetta, which is bad enough.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' Ugh.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' What made it truly painful wasn't that it was completely out of key, although that was certainly unpleasant. It was that it was so... vicious. Like she was trying to kill the audience with her voice.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' Maybe she was.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' No, if you'd seen her you would know. She didn't realize how bad she was.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' What did she look like, anyway?
-->'''Sailor 2:''' Very large with bright, rosy cheeks. Dressed kind of like a milk maid.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' You're kidding.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' No, I'm not kidding.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' Was her name Inge Wagner?
-->'''Sailor 2:''' How did you know?
-->'''Sailor 1:''' She came aboard an hour ago.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' What?!
-->'''Sailor 1:''' It's true! Didn't you read the memo in the galley?
-->'''Sailor 2:''' I never read those!
-->'''Sailor 1:''' We're supposed to assemble on deck after breakfast tomorrow. For a motivational concert.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' I get it. Very funny! You really had me going for a moment there.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' I'm not joking.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' Please tell me that you are... I have to get off this ship. Maybe I can hide somewhere? Do you think they'll notice if I'm not there?
-->'''Sailor 1:''' I doubt it. Hell, I'll join you.
* [[FiveManBand Three Girl Band]] - A trio of multiracial go-go girls who were actually a QuirkyMinibossSquad with sniper rifles. Before you encountered them, they lounged around their dressing room moaning about how ''so very bored'' they were.
* TitleThemeTune - Quoted above, complete with dancing silhouettes. See it [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7JI1_lKdPc here]]
* TragicMonster - The first Super Soldier you meet, Lieutenant Anders, a U.S. soldier and family man kidnapped and experimented on by H.A.R.M. Although, other than your first meeting (where he chases you around the Arctic Base), you never actually fight him in the game.
** ''"Abigail! Abigail!"''
* TranquillizerDart - A stock weapon in the series, essential in the levels where "no casualties" is the requirement.
* TheOnlyOne - Justified: Previously to the first game, Cate Archer was only given extremely low-profile assignments. This meant that when H.A.R.M. started picking off top agents, she was the only one capable of investigating without being assassinated herself, as barely anyone had even heard of her.
* UnexpectedGenreChange - The second game subtly does this twice, with the comedy action/stealth most of the game is centered around shifting to a horror-based atmosphere for two levels; [[spoiler: The Tom Goodman imposter's house and Antarctica]].
** Just before the spooky level in [[spoiler:the Antarctic base]] you get the most ridiculous situation: [[spoiler:Cate and Armstrong, riding a kid's tricycle, chasing an ''evil dwarf mime on a monocycle'' in the streets of Calcutta]]. Here the game momentarily changes to a RailShooter, complete with unlimited ammo (you just have to reload every 50 bullets). Contract J.A.C.K. has a RailShooter level too, one of the few genuinely good parts of the game.
* ViolentGlaswegian - Magnus Armstrong.
** ManInAKilt - As befits someone so incredibly Scottish.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen - the entire reason the main character is female is that MGM/UA warned they would sue with the JamesBond-like male secret agent Monolith had initially planned. The game was to be a straight spy thriller set in the 60's, with no humor involved.
* WhatMeasureIsAMook - probably taking a cue from the first AustinPowers movie, both games sometimes evoke this sentiment in the player, if you overhear the conversations among common enemies or read their letters: many of them are just {{PunchClockVillain}}s with friends, family and hobbies. Sometimes you'll feel compelled to sneak past them even if it's difficult, or just neutralize instead of killing them. An example bordering on the TearJerker happens in the second game: [[spoiler:you are escaping the collapsing underwater base and there's a blocked door with two men. One is trying to open it while the other cries remembering his brother who died in the space station - the one Cate blew up in the first game. Ouch.]]
** Technically though, [[spoiler:the space station was destroyed by a meteor storm which the crew (or rather the "scientific" part of it) failed to detect. You can overhear two scientists arguing about the computer unable to calculate the meteor storm probability, and then finding out it wasn't plugged in. "Right, let's proceed to the escape pods in a calm, collected manner so as to not arouse suspicion." So, it wasn't Cate.]]
* [[WhyDontYaJustShootHim Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Her?]] - Frequently played with.
** Several times during the first game Magnus Armstrong refuses to shoot Cate because they're both Scottish, and he won't slay a fellow Scot without a fair fight or a specific grudge.
** Towards the end of the second game, Cate hangs the lampshade on the trope as she's about to be forced into an elaborate torture machine and deathtrap, asking, "Why didn't you [shoot me]?" to which [[BigBad The Director]] replies, "Too easy- for you!"
----
--> ''"'Cause No One Lives Forever... but evil never dies."''
[=UNITY=], a British international spy organization, is having a bit of a problem: someone is killing their operatives. What better solution then to hire an ex-cat burglar as a new operative that the enemy don't know about yet in order to find the culprit. Enter Cate Archer, also known as "The Operative" in: ''The Operative In: No One Lives Forever''.
''No One Lives Forever'' is a FirstPersonShooter series developed by Creator/MonolithProductions and published by {{Sierra}}. A spoof of 1960s spy movies, it was followed by a Sequel, ''No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy In H.A.R.M.'s Way'' (which involved ''fighting ninjas in a trailer park in Ohio during a tornado'' and an ''evil assassin French mime'', among other things), and a MissionPackSequel called ''Contract J.A.C.K.''.
Some of the other noteworthy elements include the use of gadgets -- introduced at the beginning of each mission much like the Q scene in every Bond movie, the outrageous action set-pieces, and the hundreds of miscellaneous documents to read, including ''purchase orders for death traps''.
Both games involve vehicles in the snow at some point, which is also just like most Bond movies.
-----
'''Examples of:'''
* ActionBomb - The plot of the first game involves a chemical which, when injected into [[strike: humans]] any mammal, turns them into living time bombs that explode after a period of time. The only warning signs are being very gassy and burpy before you go boom.
* ActionGirl - Cate Archer.
* AliensInCardiff - In this case, Ninjas in Akron, Ohio.
* AnticlimaxBoss - The last part of the second game, sadly. Not only there's [[spoiler:Volkov in the wheelchair]] (see VillainDecay), but the very last enemy you have to confront is just a GiantMook, maybe a little more resistant than the others, but he doesn't even get an energy bar. Even [[spoiler:Isako]] may qualify; the second and last encounter with this boss is almost boring, compared to [[spoiler:the battle inside the tornado in Ohio]].
* BatmanGambit - In the first game, [[spoiler: Bruno feigns his demise to draw out the real traitor in U.N.I.T.Y.'s organization.]] As far as Need To Know, Cate didn't[[spoiler:; her reaction needed to be genuine]].
** [[spoiler:And when Bruno reveals all at the end, after the fight with the Goodman imposter]], Cate's understandably upset by this and ''very much pissed off'' about [[spoiler:being kept in the dark]].
* BananaPeel - Played rather hilariously in the multiplayer part of NOLF 2. If you walk over a banana, you slip and are helpless for some seconds before getting up. This makes for some very entertaining encounters.
* BlatantLies - in NOLF2, you can overhear a Red Army soldier saying "This is the [[SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn Union of Soviet Socialist Republics]] - people don't just disappear in the middle of the night!"
* BonusMaterial - The Game Of The Year edition of the first episode has a long extra mission which starts after the ending credits. The PS2 version adds yet another mission, a flashback on Cate's past activities.
* BrawnHilda - Inge Wangner, one of the antagonists in the original game is this.
* BritishAccents - They really don't want you forgetting that UNITY is a ''British'' spy organization.
** And contrasted with Tom Goodman's very American accent.
** Most of the supposedly British accents in the game were very clearly not done by British people. The worst offender was American Kit Harris as the protagonist - her British accent is poor, yes, but when you realize that she was in fact supposed to be ''Scottish'', it was quite a {{Face Palm}}. Occasionally saying "aye" does ''not'' make you a Scot.
* BusmansHoliday - The aforementioned [[BonusMaterial extra mission]] of the first episode, called ''Rest and Relaxation''. After the events of the main game, Cate is taking a well-deserved vacation, but involuntarily stumbles into trouble and cannot keep herself out of H.A.R.M.'s way.
* ChekhovsGun - Throughout the first game, Cate will find pieces of an item simply referred to as the CT-180, without any clue as to what it actually is beyond that it's a brand new, experimental device of some kind. She may also occasionally find a note referring to it. In the second game, [[spoiler:Cate is given the CT-180 Utility Launcher, one of the most useful pieces of equipment ever created for a first person shooter, capable of launching everything from camera disablers, to sleeping darts, to tracking beacons.]]
* ChekhovsGunman / ObfuscatingStupidity / TheDogWasTheMastermind - The Evil Mastermind behind H.A.R.M., the Director, turns out to be [[spoiler:a middle-aged drunk who appeared in almost every level of the first game as a civilian background character.]]
* CallingCard - Volkov's rose in the first game.
* TheCameo - In Contract J.A.C.K., Cate is briefly visible at the beginning of the Czechoslovakia mission (no clue if it was just thrown in or if there was a reason for her to be there), and once or twice in "Wanted" posters.
* CareerKillers - Volkov, H.A.R.M.'s "Vice President of Executive Action" (a.k.a. chief assassin). John Jack in his game, with Volkov as the employer. Also Pierre, the Mime King and the whole ninja clan.
* ClassyCatBurglar - Cate's backstory.
* CoolAndUnusualPunishment - The "Man-Handler", which smashes henchmen into "man-crates".
* CoolBike - In some sections of the last levels of Contract J.A.C.K. you get to drive a Vespa scooter ''with twin guns''.
* DefeatMeansFriendship - [[spoiler: After Cate kicks Magnus Armstrong's arse in the first game, he (reluctantly at first) helps her out in the sequel.]]
* DefectorFromCommieLand - Dr. Schenker, an East German scientist.
** Also Misha, the pilot who gets you in and out of Siberia (though he may just be a sympathizer or a factionless hireling and not a full-out defector).
* DuelBoss - NOLF ends with an ItsPersonal gunfight between Cate and [[spoiler: Tom Goodman]] inside a cemetery. You and [[spoiler: Tom]] are both armed with the same weapon (a revolver) and can take roughly the same amount of damage, so it's an even fight (although he cheats a bit by using poison-laced bullets).
* {{Elaborate Underground Base}}s - Of course. Could it be a spy story without them? [[JustifiedTrope Explained]] in the second game when two mooks talk about how expensive and inconvenient it is to build elaborate bases as compared to leasing office space, but notes the necessity of it in that potential clients expect to see such lairs or they won't believe that an evil organization is evil enough for high-profile jobs.
* EnemyChatter - Stealthy players will catch hundreds of different conversations between civilians, guards and various henchmen, ''even'' the mimes.
** Most of which are [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3LS3vWlg0c utterly hilarious.]]
* EnemyMime - The Mime King. At one point there's a tricycle chase.
* EscortMission - Never aggravating ones, luckily. During the first game, you'll have to bring Dr. Schenker with you twice, but when a firefight ensues, he stays put until you go and recall him. In the second game, you'll have to protect Armstrong for a little time, while he tries to force a door open. You also have to escort your kidnapped Russian pilot to safety in a brief rescue mission. Like Schenker, he takes cover until you tell him it's safe to move.
** Though the "evacuate the civilians" missions (thankfully only one per game) can get a bit annoying after having to reload the game several times because the sheeple have no sense of self-preservation and keep getting themselves killed.
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas / MamaDidntRaiseNoCriminal - Both averted: The Director reacts to his mother's frequent phone calls with utter disdain and the latter at one point expresses her utter shame at her son's criminal actions, going so far as claiming a relative jailed for arson was a "saint" in comparison.
* EvilCounterpart - The Baroness points out the similarities between her own life and Cate's when the two of them finally meet face-to-face.
** Cate also points out several similarities to her superiors, but also points out where their paths had diverged.
* EverythingFades - Subverted (or inverted?) in that you have to do the fading yourself using "Body dissolving powder".
** Within the first game, it's stated that Cate, as a woman, lacks the upper-body strength to move the bodies, thereby requiring the body dissolving powder (or arranging to kill everyone before they can find the bodies). In the second game, she not only gains the ability to move the bodies on her own, but the villains within game do the body dissolving if you don't with hilarious dialogue.
--> "Sorry, comrade, but there's less paperwork this way."
* EverythingsEvenWorseWithSharks - At one point in #1, you must scuba dive to a sunken ship which is now, you guessed it, filled with sharks.
** And again later on, while you're crossing a bridge in [[SupervillainLair the BigBad's secret lair]], [[spoiler: a HaveANiceDeath sign (complete with smiley face!) pops up in front of you and the bridge drops out from under you, dumping you into a shark tank.]]
* EvilVersusEvil - Many conversations between henchmen mention rival organizations, some even previously worked for them. In Contract J.A.C.K. you fight against Danger Danger on behalf of H.A.R.M.
* ExposedToTheElements - Avoided - She wears coats in the snow levels.
* {{Expy}} - Bruno is an Expy of a retired JamesBond.
** The fez-wearing mooks in the first game strongly resemble and sound like Will Farrell's character in ''AustinPowers: International Man of Mystery''.
** Inge Wagner is an {{Expy}} and ShoutOut to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Foster_Jenkins Florence Foster Jenkins]].
* FaceHeelTurn - [[spoiler: Tom Goodman, who is actually an imposter.]]
* FisticuffsBoss - Magnus Armstrong in the first game.
* FlyoverCountry - One of the very few videogame levels ever set in Ohio.
* FunWithAcronyms - Parodied. Nobody outside of H.A.R.M. knows what H.A.R.M. means. They rub it in your face by ending a lot of the various memos you find sitting about with what appears to be one of their slogans: "Remember what H.A.R.M. stands for".
** There's possible implications that almost nobody within H.A.R.M. knows what it stands for either.
** Monolith appears to like this. H.A.R.M., Contract J.A.C.K., [[VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon F.E.A.R.]]...
** Some of the aforementioned intelligence documents you come across even mention a lawsuit lodged against H.A.R.M. by the "Hair Alternative Replacement Club" for trademark infringement. (In ''AgentForHarm'', it means Human Aetiological Relations Machine.)
*** A special bullet you get in the last mission of [=NOLF2=] is called [[spoiler:Anti Super Soldier Serum]]. Try to spell the initials only.
** One of the rival criminal organizations mentioned is Evil Alliance, whose initials coincidentally happen to be the same as a competitor video-game company...
* GeneralRipper - Hawkins in [=NOLF2=]. A pea-brained, trigger-happy, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking ugly]] idiot who's a bit too happy about the idea of starting a third world war. And he's a ''five star general''. There may be some TakeThat on American militarism.
* GilliganCut: Armstrong gets one in the second game when Cate asks him to assist in providing information on H.A.R.M. "Well... I suppose I could make a few calls, but DON'T EXPECT ME to get involved! *cut* "Jamal? Magnus... I'm coming to India."
* {{Gonk}} - [[BrawnHilda Inge.]]
* GratuitousItalian - Il Pazzo ("The Crazy"), the main enemy in Contract J.A.C.K., speaks with a lot of Italian swear words thrown in.
* HeelFaceTurn - One of your partners in the second game was a major antagonist in the first.
* HeelRealization - [[spoiler:Kemal, Cate's contact in the Indian branch of H.A.R.M.]] You can find a letter where he explains why he got sick of being among [[GenreSavvy "cartoon villains"]].
* HeroicSacrifice - Cate's mentor Bruno (an OlderAndWiser {{Expy}} of James Bond) takes a bullet for Cate near the beginning of the first game ([[spoiler: He gets better.]]). Armstrong attempts one of these in the second game when he stays behind to jettison an underwater base's escape dome before the base itself explodes ([[spoiler: again, he gets better]]). Finally, Super Soldier Lieutenant Anders [[spoiler: shoots down the nuclear missile at the end of the game, saving Cate and preventing World War III, an act which causes him to overheat and die.]]
* HeyItsThatSound - The first and second games reused the "objective-updated jingle" from ''Shogo: Mobile Armor Division'', also made by Monolith.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice - Isako does this to Cate at the end of the first level in [=NOLF2=]. Fortunately, UNITY agents were able to retrieve Cate and save her life, even though she was supposedly stabbed through her heart. Oh, well.
* ImplacableMan - H.A.R.M.'s Super Soldiers in [=NOLF2=] are like this, being essentially unkillable until you finally acquire specially treated chemical bullets that make them overheat and explode in the game's last mission. Lieutenant Anders in particular follows you halfway across the world (by walking on the ocean floor!) because Cate reminds him of his own daughter.
* InsecurityCamera - One of the items you get is a ''Camera Disabler''
** Before that, you're partially saved by the cameras giving an audible (and visible warning) when they spotted you and only sounding an alarm if you didn't immediately hide.
* IOweYouMyLife - The only reason competent and honorable AntiVillain Isako works for abusive CardCarryingVillain The Director is because he saved her life after a botched assignment. Isako remains loyal to the Director even after learning he set the whole thing up in order to recruit her. Only after the Director tries to kill Isako and Cate rescues her does she consider her life debt paid, at which point she promptly defends Cate from the Director.
** When does this last thing happen? The last we see of Isako is after Cate saves her from [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness being shot by the Director]].
* LaserHallway - Played straight when you try to crack a high security safe. The first two hallways have mobile lasers that you must dodge normally. The third has a truly ridiculous amount of lasers and [[spoiler: you can just pull up a nearby airvent and go underneath them.]]
* LavaPit and ConvectionSchmonvection - Subverted. At one point, one villain is showing another around his underground base. The villain remarks "Ah, lava. Very nice." At one point you drop the first villain into the lava, and find out afterwards it was actually a glowing lava-like substance designed to ''look like lava at room temperature'' because real lava is just annoying to deal with.
** Both the "Ah, Lava." line and the revelation of it being fake lava can also be considered a LampshadeHanging on how [[SpecialEffectsFailure badly the lava is rendered]] (it's just a plain orange bump mapped undulating texture).
** Also lampshaded by a conversation stating that lava made to look [[RuleofCool cool]] is better than realistic lava.
* LowerDeckEpisode - The Co-Op campaign is based around generic U.N.I.T.Y. agents filling in the gaps around whatever Cate was doing.
* MissionControl - Volkov during part of Contract J.A.C.K.
** In NOLF2, you get Santa talking to you through a robotic Myna bird
* NebulousEvilOrganization - H.A.R.M.
* NoOneCouldSurviveThat - Subverted and lampshaded. A character who was 'killed' with no body found returns, only it turns out later he is an evil impostor. This comes as a surprise to everyone because it's generally assumed by the characters that no body means no death.
* NotSoDifferent - Cate and Baroness Dumas.
* ObfuscatingStupidity - [[spoiler: Tom Goodman, or at least his imposter. "Tom" pretends to be a JerkAss unable to believe a woman could be a successful agent, but he's actually pushing Cate into danger. He may have underestimated her skills, but his estimation of her skills were much higher than he betrayed.]]
* OddlyNamedSequel - An unexpected aversion, in that the original game was setting up a Bond-like title sequence, but when they actually released a sequel they called it No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy In HARM's Way instead of The Operative In: A Spy In HARM's Way.
* OneManArmy - Subverted (plot-wise at least). Rather than not finding anything unusual about Cate mowing down hundreds of enemy Mooks per mission, her superiors find it so unbelievable that they mistakenly assume she's making the whole thing up on her mission reports.
* PunchClockVillain - Virtually every enemy character in the series except the ninjas.
* ParasolOfPain - The plot of the first game involves these being used to turn people into living bombs.
** And the sequel has Isako pull a katana out of a secret compartment in hers.
* PrettyInMink - Cate wears a fur-trimmed coat in each game.
* PuzzleBoss - Inge Wagner.
* RailingKill - Any enemy near some railing will inevitably fall from there when killed. Similarly, if near stairs or some sloping surface, he'll tumble.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech - Cate lays a big one on the Baroness. The Baroness shoots back, "[[ShutUpKirk Well, aren't you an arrogant little]] [[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch bitch?]]"
* RunningGag - The continuous phone calls from the Director's mother.
* SnipingMission - the first part of the first level of the first game is a sniping shooting gallery.
* SpySpeak - One mission involves doing these. They all turn out to be crass come on/rejection exchanges, and the spies are apologetic.
-->'''Contact:''' Guten Abend Fraulein, do you make love to strangers?
-->'''Cate Archer:''' Certainly not!
-->'''Contact:''' Then allow me to introduce myself.
-->'''Cate Archer:''' Why not just introduce yourself to a police officer and spare me the trouble?
-->'''Contact:''' Who makes up these ghastly code phrases anyway?
-->'''Cate Archer:''' Someone in the cryptography department -- someone in need of a girlfriend, apparently.
** Later:
--->'''Contact:''' Want to come in for a game of Twister?
--->'''Cate Archer:''' I'd rather run over you with my car.
--->'''Contact:''' These code phrases have a somewhat confessional tone to them, don't you think?
--->'''Cate Archer:''' Yeah, now that you mention it...
* StealthBasedMission - Not so much an UnexpectedGameplayChange given that Cate's supposed to be a ''spy'', except the unforgiving nature of them (i.e. in some missions you fail if you're so much as ''seen'') in the first game turned them almost into puzzles, and the closest thing the games had to a ScrappyLevel.
* SpyCatsuit - In the first game, Cate's outfit for some levels is incredibly tight leather spy outfit. Subverted in that it's bright orange and has a little leather miniskirt. She later trades it in for incognito clothes, winter outfit, and for the second game a short leather trenchcoat/jacket.
* SpyVersusSpy - UNITY vs H.A.R.M.
* ShoePhone - Each mission introduces new gadgets you get to use, including a lockpick disguised as a hairpin, sleeping gas in a perfume bottle, and goes all the way up to ''bombs disguised as poodles and angry cats'' and ''a [[BriefcaseBlaster rocket launcher suitcase]]''. Somewhat subverted in that not all of the spy gadgets and weapons you get are disguised as things, which just makes you wonder what the point is of disguising anything at all.
* SniperScopeSway - In the second game, you can level up your sniper skill to get rid of it.
* SuperSoldier - The plot of the second game involves these.
* TheSixties - Even the ''space station'' you visit has a ''go-go lounge''.
** PoliticallyCorrectHistory - is Averted. Cate has to deal with a lot of sexism.
*** Played a bit straighter in the sequel, featuring a black guy as a liaison from the American branch of UNITY. [[JustifiedTrope But hey, maybe UNITY is more forward-thinking than other government organizations...]]
* ShoutOut
** In both games, Cate uses the codename [[MetalGear ''Foxhound'']] at some point.
** H.A.R.M. probably takes name from the bad 1966 JamesBond ripoff movie AgentForHARM, although it is an American secret agency there. Monolith must have a large culture on the ''whole'' spy genre (or maybe they're just ''MysteryScienceTheater3000'' fans).
** One enemy conversation you can overhear features one guard discussing virtually every 60's spy show ever made--if he's that big of a fan, it's a sure bet that Monolith is too.
** One of the random items that ninjas drop is a ticket for ''[[Film/DestroyAllMonsters Kaiju Soshingeki]]'', which was indeed released in 1968.
* SpellMyNameWithAnS - That's '''Cate''' Archer, not Kate.
* StayInTheKitchen - It is 1960's Britain. The SpySpeak and lady-themed {{Shoe Phone}}s are the attempts to haze the girl.
** Not so much in the sequel, since she proved herself in the original, but you do get the American general talking down to her and making clumsy passes.
* [[TalkingToHimself Talking to Herself]]: Averted, despite Kit Harris voicing both Cate Archer and Inge Wagner: they never actually talk to each other.
* TheTedBaxter - Inge Wagner, and ''how''.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' You okay? You look terrible.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' I have a really bad headache. I went to this club last night? It took me two hours to get in.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' Popular, eh?
-->'''Sailor 2:''' I guess so, although I don't know why. The music, it was the most horrible thing I've ever heard.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' Hey, I've been to places like that.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' No, you don't understand. I thought I understood what bad music was. This place... imagine that bad music is its own art form. The woman who was singing would be the Beethoven of bad music.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' Come on.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' First of all, it was operetta, which is bad enough.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' Ugh.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' What made it truly painful wasn't that it was completely out of key, although that was certainly unpleasant. It was that it was so... vicious. Like she was trying to kill the audience with her voice.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' Maybe she was.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' No, if you'd seen her you would know. She didn't realize how bad she was.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' What did she look like, anyway?
-->'''Sailor 2:''' Very large with bright, rosy cheeks. Dressed kind of like a milk maid.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' You're kidding.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' No, I'm not kidding.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' Was her name Inge Wagner?
-->'''Sailor 2:''' How did you know?
-->'''Sailor 1:''' She came aboard an hour ago.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' What?!
-->'''Sailor 1:''' It's true! Didn't you read the memo in the galley?
-->'''Sailor 2:''' I never read those!
-->'''Sailor 1:''' We're supposed to assemble on deck after breakfast tomorrow. For a motivational concert.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' I get it. Very funny! You really had me going for a moment there.
-->'''Sailor 1:''' I'm not joking.
-->'''Sailor 2:''' Please tell me that you are... I have to get off this ship. Maybe I can hide somewhere? Do you think they'll notice if I'm not there?
-->'''Sailor 1:''' I doubt it. Hell, I'll join you.
* [[FiveManBand Three Girl Band]] - A trio of multiracial go-go girls who were actually a QuirkyMinibossSquad with sniper rifles. Before you encountered them, they lounged around their dressing room moaning about how ''so very bored'' they were.
* TitleThemeTune - Quoted above, complete with dancing silhouettes. See it [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7JI1_lKdPc here]]
* TragicMonster - The first Super Soldier you meet, Lieutenant Anders, a U.S. soldier and family man kidnapped and experimented on by H.A.R.M. Although, other than your first meeting (where he chases you around the Arctic Base), you never actually fight him in the game.
** ''"Abigail! Abigail!"''
* TranquillizerDart - A stock weapon in the series, essential in the levels where "no casualties" is the requirement.
* TheOnlyOne - Justified: Previously to the first game, Cate Archer was only given extremely low-profile assignments. This meant that when H.A.R.M. started picking off top agents, she was the only one capable of investigating without being assassinated herself, as barely anyone had even heard of her.
* UnexpectedGenreChange - The second game subtly does this twice, with the comedy action/stealth most of the game is centered around shifting to a horror-based atmosphere for two levels; [[spoiler: The Tom Goodman imposter's house and Antarctica]].
** Just before the spooky level in [[spoiler:the Antarctic base]] you get the most ridiculous situation: [[spoiler:Cate and Armstrong, riding a kid's tricycle, chasing an ''evil dwarf mime on a monocycle'' in the streets of Calcutta]]. Here the game momentarily changes to a RailShooter, complete with unlimited ammo (you just have to reload every 50 bullets). Contract J.A.C.K. has a RailShooter level too, one of the few genuinely good parts of the game.
* ViolentGlaswegian - Magnus Armstrong.
** ManInAKilt - As befits someone so incredibly Scottish.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen - the entire reason the main character is female is that MGM/UA warned they would sue with the JamesBond-like male secret agent Monolith had initially planned. The game was to be a straight spy thriller set in the 60's, with no humor involved.
* WhatMeasureIsAMook - probably taking a cue from the first AustinPowers movie, both games sometimes evoke this sentiment in the player, if you overhear the conversations among common enemies or read their letters: many of them are just {{PunchClockVillain}}s with friends, family and hobbies. Sometimes you'll feel compelled to sneak past them even if it's difficult, or just neutralize instead of killing them. An example bordering on the TearJerker happens in the second game: [[spoiler:you are escaping the collapsing underwater base and there's a blocked door with two men. One is trying to open it while the other cries remembering his brother who died in the space station - the one Cate blew up in the first game. Ouch.]]
** Technically though, [[spoiler:the space station was destroyed by a meteor storm which the crew (or rather the "scientific" part of it) failed to detect. You can overhear two scientists arguing about the computer unable to calculate the meteor storm probability, and then finding out it wasn't plugged in. "Right, let's proceed to the escape pods in a calm, collected manner so as to not arouse suspicion." So, it wasn't Cate.]]
* [[WhyDontYaJustShootHim Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Her?]] - Frequently played with.
** Several times during the first game Magnus Armstrong refuses to shoot Cate because they're both Scottish, and he won't slay a fellow Scot without a fair fight or a specific grudge.
** Towards the end of the second game, Cate hangs the lampshade on the trope as she's about to be forced into an elaborate torture machine and deathtrap, asking, "Why didn't you [shoot me]?" to which [[BigBad The Director]] replies, "Too easy- for you!"
----
