History VideoGame / NoOneLivesForever

The game is today not on sale anywhere and is considered semi-lost to time. Creator/NightdiveStudios has expressed interest in securing the rights to put out a remastered re-release of both game, but so far their attempts have been caught up in a particularly nasty bit of legal deadlock, due to the fact that Sierra has gone defunct and Monolith was acquired by Warner in 2004, making it so that no one is entirely sure who actually owns the rights to the ''No One Lives Forever'' IP. Fans have kept the game alive, however, Main/KeepCirculatingTheTapes style.

The game is today not on sale anywhere. Creator/NightdiveStudios has expressed interest in securing the rights to put out a remastered re-release, but so far their attempts have been caught up in a legal deadlock, due to the fact that Sierra has gone defunct and Monolith was acquired by Warner in 2004, making it so that no one is entirely sure who actually owns the rights to the ''No One Lives Forever'' IP. Fans have kept the game alive, however, Main/KeepCirculatingTheTapes style.

* NotSoDifferent: Cate and Baroness Dumas, which is acknowledged and discussed upon their first face-to-face meeting.

The game is today considered semi-lost to time. Creator/NightdiveStudios has expressed interest in securing the rights to put out a remastered re-release, but so far their investigation to the possibility have been caught up in deadlock, due into the fact that with both Sierra and Monolith Productions have gone defunct, no one is entirely sure who actually owns the rights to the ''No One Lives Forever'' IP.

''No One Lives Forever'' is a FirstPersonShooter game from 2000, developed by Creator/MonolithProductions and published by {{Creator/Sierra}}. A spoof of 1960s spy movies, it was followed by a 2002 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 in 2003 called ''Contract J.A.C.K.''.

* PuzzleBoss: Inge Wagner, who's completely invulnerable to bullets and melee due to her [[{{Valkyries}} Valkyrie]] armor. But she apparently insisted that her fight has appropriate background music, so she has a cassette player blaring operatic music where she's fighting Cate. The the solution is to turn the player off, which causes Inge to drop everything to turn it back on, and then turn on an electrical box in the area since that player is sitting on a barrel in a puddle of water...

** And when you fall into a frozen lake, your immediate objective is to [[RealityEnsues find a place to warm up before you freeze to death.]]

* RealityEnsues: Attempting to disable security cameras by shooting them will disable the cameras, sure, and also raise an alarm, as the guards on monitor duty ''will'' notice cameras suddenly malfunctioning. Same goes for searchlights.

** Two scientists can be heard discussing the dangers of dehydrating a human body and then rehydrating the remains with "heavy water", which happens in ''Film/BatmanTheMovie''

* NoWomansLand: The entire theme of the first game revolves around Smith and later Tom Goodman doubting her abilities because she's a woman. [[spoiler:Turns out both Smith and Goodman take her ''very'' seriously, and try to get her killed, and play up her mission failures to get her discouraged or removed from the case.]]

** In both games, Cate refers to UNITY via the codename ''[[Franchise/MetalGear Foxhound]]'' at some point.
** H.A.R.M. probably takes name from the bad 1966 ''Film/JamesBond'' ripoff movie ''Film/AgentForHARM'', although it is an American secret agency there. Monolith must have a large culture on the ''whole'' spy genre.

** Two scientists can be heard discussing the dangers of dehyrdating a human body and then rehydrating the remains with "heavy water", which happens in ''Film/BatmanTheMovie''

* StealthEscortMission: In the very first mission in the original game, you have to snipe numerous assassins targeting a VIP without the VIP noticing you or them. The latter requirement is made quite easy by the fact that he is an American self-important UpperClassTwit with zero awareness of anything that doesn't serve his immediate satisfaction, not helped by the fact he's practically stone deaf.

* 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.
* TranquillizerDart: A stock weapon in the series, essential in the levels where "no casualties" is the requirement.

** 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]].

-->'''Indian Police:''' "What horrible agony!"

* ActionBomb: The plot of the first game involves a chemical which, when injected into any mammal, turns them into living time bombs that explode after a period of time, with the power of the explosion correlating to the size of the subject (a grown human male can blow up an ''entire town''). The only warning signs is the victim being very gassy and burpy before they go boom.
* ActionGirl: Cate Archer, before and after being hired on as a secret agent. A good chunk of the first game is her proving that she's this to her organization.

* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: The "Man-Handler", which smashes henchmen into "man-crates".

* 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.

* CoolBike: In some sections of the last levels of Contract J.A.C.K. you get to drive a Vespa scooter ''with twin guns''.

* ElaborateUndergroundBase: 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.

* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: 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.

** Cate also points out several similarities to her superiors, but also points out where their paths had diverged.

* 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.

** Monolith appears to like this. H.A.R.M., Contract J.A.C.K., [[VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon F.E.A.R.]]...

* GratuitousItalian: Il Pazzo ("The Crazy One"), the BigBad in "Contract J.A.C.K.", speaks with a lot of Italian swear words thrown in.

** Volkov during part of "Contract J.A.C.K."
** In ''[=NOLF2=]'', you get Santa talking to you through a robotic Myna bird

** One of the rival criminal organizations mentioned is Evil Alliance, whose initials coincidentally happen to be the same as a [[Creator/ElectronicArts 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.

* GiantMook: The [[SuperSoldier Super Soldiers]] in the second game are essentially this; huge, slow brutes armed with a repeating rocket launcher and have enough [[HeavilyArmoredMook armor]] to be capable of soaking 2 to 3 mags of automatic weapons fire before going down. They also won't ''stay'' down unless you shoot them with anti-supersoldier serum while they're disabled. Design-wise they seem to be a precursor to the Heavy Armor soldiers from ''VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon''.

** Inge Wagner and her singing, and ''how''. She's so bad at it due to being complete tone-deaf that she's regarded in-universe as the worst singer around, but she's somehow attracted a fanbase of people who think she's ''doing it on purpose''. And in her fight against Cate, she's able to weaponize it and actually drain Cate's health.

* PuzzleBoss: Inge Wagner, who's completely invulnerable to bullets and melee due to her [[{{Valkyries}} Valkyrie]] armor. But she apparently insisted that her fight has appropriate background music, so she has a cassette player blaring operatic music where she's fighting Cate. The player has to turn the player off, which causes Inge to drop everything to turn it back on, and then turn on an electrical box in the area since that player is sitting on a barrel in a puddle of water...

* {{Gonk}}: [[BrawnHilda Inge.]]

* ObviouslyEvil: [[spoiler:Mr. Smith, who's the traitor getting agents killed. Considering that he spends the entire game either belittling Cate and trying to get her pulled from duty, insulting the head of UNITY ''to his face'', and constantly trying to drive a wedge between Cate and the rest of U.N.I.T.Y., its amazing that he maintained his cover for as long as he did.]]

* TheOnlyOne: Justified in-universe. Prior to the first game's start, 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 remaining and still capable of investigating without being assassinated in the initial flurry of deaths, as barely anyone had even heard of her.

** Mr. Smith notes that U.N.I.T.Y. has several other pressing matters happening during the first game, and Mr. Jones apologizes for sending Cate on multiple time-sensitive, highly-dangerous missions back-to-back but notes that with the previously mentioned assassinations, they really don't have anyone else available. It's noted that more than half of the active roster of agents has been killed.

* PuzzleBoss: Inge Wagner.

* RealityEnsues: Attempting to disable security cameras by shooting will disable the cameras, and raise an alarm, as the guards on monitor duty ''will'' notice cameras suddenly malfunctioning. Same goes for searchlights.

* ShootTheDog: You can shoot the [[spoiler:monkey]] in Morocco [[spoiler:but that will lead to a game over for "Unacceptable Simean Casualties"]].

** One mission involves doing these. They all turn out to be crass come on/rejection exchanges, and the spies are apologetic.

** It is 1960s Britain. The SpySpeak and lady-themed {{Shoe Phone}}s are the attempts to haze the girl ([[InsultBackfire although they wind up embarrassing the informants more than Cate]]).

* StealthEscortMission: In the very first mission in the original game, you have to snipe numerous assassins targeting a VIP without the VIP noticing you or them. The latter requirement is made quite easy by the fact that he is a self-important UpperClassTwit with zero awareness of anything that doesn't serve his immediate satisfaction.

* [[WhyDontYaJustShootHim Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Her?]] - Frequently played with.

* ActionBomb: The plot of the first game involves a chemical which, when injected into 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.

* 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. 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]].

* CallingCard: Volkov's rose in the first game.

* 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.]]

* 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.

* EveryoneHasStandards: Despite the game being set in a far less progressive time, pretty much ''all'' the contacts in the second mission are horrendously embarrassed by the horrific sexism of the SpySpeak exchanges, with one even telling Cate to tell whoever wrote them to "grow up".

** At one point in #1, you must scuba dive to a sunken ship which is now, you guessed it, filled with sharks.

** Avoided -- She wears coats in the snow levels.
** And when you go through a frozen lake, your immediate objective is to [[RealityEnsues find a place to warm up before you freeze to death.]]

* FisticuffsBoss: Magnus Armstrong in the first game.

** There's also UNITY, but nobody mentions the acronym, or what it means.

* GiantMook[=/=]HeavilyArmoredMook: The [[SuperSoldier Super Soldiers]] in the second game are essentially this; huge, slow brutes armed with a repeating rocket launcher and capable of soaking 2 to 3 mags of automatic weapons fire before going down. They also won't ''stay'' down unless you shoot them with anti-supersoldier serum while they're disabled. Design-wise they seem to be a precursor to the Heavy Armor soldiers from ''VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon''.

** Inge Wagner, and ''how''.

* HiddenDepths: On several occasions the EnemyChatter shows average mooks to have a number of interests outside their work, and sometimes surprisingly thought-out insights on the world around them.

* LowSpeedChase: The second game features a secquence in which Cate and Armstrong use a tricycle to pursue a mime on a unicycle.

* 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.]]
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: While not containing any bureaucrats, but still in the same sense why Bureaucracy is hated, in the Underwater Base mission, one of the objectives has you on a wild goose chase looking for a requisition form for a computer manual to hack into a H.A.R.M. supercomputer, only to find the first manual you get does not work with the supercomputer.
* ObviouslyEvil: [[spoiler:Mr. Smith. Considering that he spends the entire game either belittling Cate, insulting the head of UNITY ''to his face'', and constantly trying to drive a wedge between Cate and the rest of Unity, its amazing that he maintained his cover for as long as he did.]]
** [[spoiler:Another huge (and possibly the most foreshadowing) example of this is in Such is the Nature of Revenge - Scene 1. When Cate Archer finishes phoning in her report on obtaining the list, Mr, Jones says: "She's got the list!", and how does Mr. Smith respond? A simple "Unbelievable.", in a rather monotone, unenthusiastic, and very uncaring tone of voice. For Cate's superior, you'd think he'd show even a ''hint'' of being proud of her after all that she's been through. If that wasn't enough yet again, he just rubs the back of his head in a seemingly [[Main/ButForMeItWasTuesday very casual manner]] after that comment. To add irony to this, Mr. Smith says in Scene 2: "I am overjoyed to be proven wrong.", which ''very clearly'' contradicts his earlier attitude in Scene 1, and shows he really truly wasn't. All of this further shows how evil and sociopathic he truly is.]]

* 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.
* 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.
** Mr. Smith notes that UNITY has several other pressing matters happening during the first game, and Mr. Jones apologizes for sending Cate on multiple time-sensitive, highly-dangerous missions back-to-back but notes that with the previously mentioned assassinations, they really don't have anyone else available.

* PoliticallyCorrectHistory: Averted. Cate has to deal with ''a lot'' of sexism. Despite her obvious ability, her gender keeps her out of field work until Volkov's assassinations reach the point where UNITY is literally running out of field agents. And even then Bruno, a respected veteran operative has to keep pushing and vouching for her.

** Some of the aforementioned intelligence documents you come across even mention a lawsuit lodged against H.A.R.M. by the "Hair Alternative Replacement Membership" for trademark infringement. (In ''Film/AgentForHarm'', it means Human Aetiological Relations Machine.)

* 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.

* 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.
* 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.

* AlliterativeName: John Jack.

* 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]].

** 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.

[=UNITY=], a British international spy organization, is having a bit of a problem: someone is killing their operatives. What better solution than to hire an ex-cat burglar as a new operative that the enemy doesn'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 game from 2000, developed by Creator/MonolithProductions and published by {{Creator/Sierra}}. A spoof of 1960s spy movies, it was followed by a 2002 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.

** Dr. Schenker, an East German scientist.

* {{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.

* TheSixties: Even the ''space station'' you visit has a ''go-go lounge''. PoliticallyCorrectHistory is Averted. Cate has to deal with a lot of sexism, downplayed in the sequel which features a black guy as a liaison from the American branch of UNITY.

'''Cate Archer:''' Someone in the cryptography department -- someone in need of a girlfriend, apparently.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: In ''[=NOLF2=]'', [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE6df_tCfPU one conversation]] between the {{Enemy Mime}}s concerns the reasons why not many women find employment in the criminal industry. In it, the same points are brought up that often appear in arguments about why not many women find employment in the ''games'' industry.

* EveryoneHasStandards: Despite the game being set in a far less progressive time, pretty much ''all'' the contacts in the second mission are horrendously embarrassed by the horrific sexism of the SpySpeak exchanges.

** Inge Wagner is cleary based on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Foster_Jenkins Florence Foster Jenkins]].

** Inge Wagner is an {{Expy}} and ShoutOut to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Foster_Jenkins Florence Foster Jenkins]].

** Baroness Dumas is based on Katherine Hepburn.