History VideoGame / SoldierOfFortune

* BareYourMidriff:
** The second time you face Sabre's white supremacist gang, there will be blonde female enemies with white tank tops that show their stomachs.
** In Double Helix, there will also be a female interrogator in the Hong Kong levels when John is captured that wears a black midriff revealing tank top.

** Also the more outlandish weapons in the first game, and, at one point, busting into one of Saddam Hussein's fortresses and having in your sniper sight, though unfortunately you can't shoot him.

* ShortRangeShotgun: Eight or nine meters is the max range for a shotgun's pellets. [[ArbitraryMaximumRange After that, they simply vanish]].

%%(ZCE)* DeadSidekick: Hawk. Taylor, not so much.

%%(ZCE)* PsychoForHire: [[spoiler:Wilson]].

%%(ZCE)* RedEyesTakeWarning: Nachrade.

%%(ZCE)* SinisterShades: Nachrade.

%%(ZCE)* SyntheticPlague: The Romulus virus.

* DifficultySpike: The first several levels of ''Payback'' are your standard ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty''-style FPS, with your character possessing regenerating health and the ability to soak more than a dozen assault rifle rounds before croaking. However, in the last 3 levels, the enemy receive a massive increase to their damage level, allowing them to kill you in just 2 or 3 shots from a SMG.

%%(ZCE)* SequelDifficultySpike: ''Soldier of Fortune 2'', thanks to the insanely competent enemy A.I.

* SightedGunsAreLowTech: Inverted. The only sighted weapon that isn't the SniperRifle is the ridiculously hi-tech [[RareGuns OICW]]; the rest are all hip-fired and aimed via a targeting reticle.

* BodyArmorAsHitPoints: Seen in the first two games. In the second game, some weapons do have minor armor-piercing ability, but the effect is so small as to be inconsequential gameplay-wise.

* ConcussionFrags: In ''Double Helix''. Unless you're throwing an M84 flashbang, expect your grenade to work like a concussion model, [[GameplayAndStorySegregation grenade's description be damned]]. Even the incendiary ones will [[InterfaceScrew shake the screen]] if you're close to them, and there is no shrapnel of any kind.

* DamageSpongeBoss: The first and second games' final bosses. See also ThatOneBoss.
* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Soldier of Fortune 2'' is certainly darker than ''1'' or ''Payback''.

* DeadSidekick: Hawk. Taylor, not so much.

** Alas, poor [[DroppedABridgeOnHim Taylor]].

* GoodGunsBadGuns: The player and his allies use the M4 rifle and US SOCOM Mk. 23 pistol, while the bad guys typically use the AK-74, Micro Uzi, and [=M1911A1=]. Averted later in the game when you start fighting mostly [[WesternTerrorists Prometheus operatives]], who primarily use the M4.

* JiveTurkey: Washington, one of the marines accompanying you in the Colombian missions.
* KickTheDog: The mooks in the Subway mission of the first game will commit acts like shooting a hostage for "being annoying" and push another in front of an incoming train, probably so you won't feel guilty about blowing them into LudicrousGibs. Later, the BigBad does this to Hawk.
** Also, in the second game, Colombian rebels do this to the village of Pureza, attacking it with the Romulus virus. [[NightmareFuel The results of the virus attack]] [[BodyHorror are not pretty]]... and neither are their corpses after Mullins storms through their section of the jungle.
* LawEnforcementInc[=/=]PrivateMilitaryContractors: The Shop. They're also a [[UsefulNotes/UnitedNations UN]] organization.
* LimitedLoadout: The first game and ''Payback'' limit the player to a max of three guns and a knife, but the second game had a significantly higher loadout limit, e.g. Mullins may lug around a sidearm, shotgun, assault rifle w/grenade launcher, light machine gun, and sniper rifle at once.
* LudicrousGibs: Expect plenty of this while indulging in the above.
** That said, considering how graphic real gunshot wounds can look in real life, this may also be a case of RealityIsUnrealistic.
* MadeOfIron: Whereas the first two ''Soldier of Fortune'' games featured semi-realistic enemies that could only survive a couple assault rifle bullets (with the exception of the first game's armor-plated final boss), ''Payback'' features several boss fights against enemy mercs who can take a few clips of assault rifle fire before dying. Most of these bosses aren't even wearing body armor.
** The Interrogator and Deviant 1 bosses in the second game are made of iron, too. Specifically, they take 10-20 assault rifle shots to kill, despite not wearing armor (or, heck, even ''clothes''), whereas standard enemies in full body armor go down after a handful of shots.

*** {{Ninja}}: Japan in the first game (see RuleOfCool again).

* NGOSuperpower: Arguably, The Order and Prometheus. The Shop, not so much.
* NintendoHard: ''Soldier of Fortune 2''. Full stop. Especially on the hardest difficulty.

* PacifistRun: Hard to pull off but quite possible (with a few exceptions where you have to kill) on lower difficulty levels in both the 1st and 2nd games thanks to you being able to [[BlastingItOutOfTheirHands shoot the weapons out of your enemies hands]]. It is also possible in the 2nd game to pistol-whip enemies (except bosses), knocking them out for a while.

* PornStache: Mullins packs one.
* PowerArmor: Sergei Dekker wears one throughout the first game.
%%* PsychoForHire: [[spoiler:Wilson]].

%%* RedEyesTakeWarning: Nachrade.

* SceneryGorn: The war-torn town of Gracanica and [[spoiler:The Shop's HQ]] in the first and second games respectively.
* SemperFi: Played straight in ''Soldier of Fortune 2''. Hawk is an ex-Marine himself.
* SequelDifficultySpike: ''Soldier of Fortune 2'', thanks to the insanely competent enemy A.I.

** ShortRangeShotgun: Eight or nine meters is the max range for a shotgun's pellets. [[ArbitraryMaximumRange After that, they simply vanish]].

* SinisterShades: Nachrade.
* StockScream: ''Double Helix'' has them as background ambiance in the airport mission.
* SunglassesAtNight: Nachrade.
* SyntheticPlague: The Romulus virus.
* TakeMeInstead: Used by John in the first game when Hawk is held hostage by Sergei Dekker. It fails.

* UniversalAmmunition: ''Double Helix'' was an early game to identify ammo types by caliber and try to make an effort to have them only be shared by weapons that make sense - the 9mm [=SMGs=] all share ammo, the .45 ACP Grease Gun pulls from the M1911 and Mk 23's ammo pool instead, and the AK-74 is even noted to have been converted to 5.56mm to justify it sharing ammo with the M4 and OICW. Even ignoring the OneBulletClips issues, however, this still has some oddities, such as the Desert Eagle sharing ammo with the other handguns despite not coming in .45 in real life, or the grenade launchers all using separate ammo pools when the M203 and Hawk do, in fact, take the same grenades.

* WholePlotReference: In the second game, the ending of the Colombian jungle part of the game [[spoiler:with the helicopter evacuation while the hero is operating the helicopter's machinegun]] is recreating a scene of ''Creator/TomClancy's Literature/ClearAndPresentDanger''.

* PsychoForHire: [[spoiler:Wilson]].

* ReedRichardsIsUseless: In the first game, Mullins confronts Saddam Hussein face-to-face but is unable to simply shoot him because this was back in the 1990s when the real life Saddam was the guy considered to be in charge of Iraq, for better or worse. May also be considered a FunnyAneurysmMoment.
* RedEyesTakeWarning: Nachrade.

* StockScream: ''Double Helix'' has them as background ambience in the airport mission.

* DummiedOut: Prior to the release of Soldier of Fortune 2 back in 2002, a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK1hPaCLXAU beta version]] of the game has been leaked, which not only saw widespread circulation in Eastern-European territories, but also contained elements in the campaign that have been DummiedOut in the retail version, mostly for pacing and balancing reasons. These included the following:
** Some enemies in the Prague prologue carried AK-74s. Also, the train station level was not a stealth map, but featured open gunfights. Finally, when activating the train departure signal, players actually had to reach the train by jumping on top of it through the fence, and then reaching the carriage doors. This was replaced with a simple cutscene, probably due to the shortcomings of the physics system: the player character was not moving with the train carriages when standing on top of them.
** Originally, the Marine Team was supposed to be present during the entirety of the Colombian jungle missions, instead of linking up with them halfway through the mission at the bridge. Remains of this design are apparent in the retail version as well: both the mission description and the Marine briefing us on the helicopter state that the fireteam will be waiting for us in the camp (while in reality, they depart without us), and there are also various unused lines for the Marine Team in the levels prior to meeting them. This was probably changed for pacing reasons, and due to the [[ObviousBeta very restrictive nature]] of these levels to player movement: the maps with the rescue squad are known to be rather drawn out, and players [[CriticalExistenceFailure simply die]] should they get too far away from the fireteam for a longer period of time (explained with the allies killing us for jeopardizing the mission).
** The Hospital levels with the reception and Sam's room were originally two separate levels, merged in the retail version. Also, in the beta, the security officer guarding Sam's room was already injured by the time we get there, probably to add some drama (and make [[spoiler:Taylor]] look like the mole, who's assigned to the room as protection). He's changed to an active [[NonPlayerCharacter NPC]] in the retail version, probably because it looked off that the guard was shot, while [[spoiler:Taylor]] was not ([[spoiler:until we get to the room, that is]]).
*** In addition, there is an unreachable room near the elevators. If reached using noclip, a paramedic and a patient can be seen.
** During the second visit to the Shop HQ (following [[spoiler:Taylor's death]]), players had to run through the ground floor again to the elevator to reach the third floor, with Mullins telling people all the time to get out of the way, as he's in a hurry. This level was cut entirely from the retail release, probably due to being redundant and a time-waster. In the retail version, we start this chapter on the third floor already.
** The exterior maps of the Kamchatka mission were originally stealth maps. In the retail version, there is (thankfully) no alarm system in place, as Raven probably realized it would be next to impossible to stealth through huge segments of the mission with its [[ObviousBeta broken stealth system]] in place. The immediate gunfight is explained away with the insertion airplane generating enough noise to put the base on alert from the start.
** In the Kamchatka mission, each Romulus lab was a separate level originally. Raven merged them into two maps, probably to avoid drawing out the already long mission even more.
** The radio chatter with Hansen, our Shop radio operator during the airplane mission went a bit differently in the beta: he told us that we could safely parachute from the plane, as it would crash in an uninhabitated area, so the virus aboard would cause no harm to anyone. This piece of the dialogue was changed to Hansen remotely auto-landing the plane, probably because of 9/11 (the game was released in 2002, so having an airliner left behind to crash may have been considered a bit insensitive back then).
** Both the beta and the retail version contains hostile Shop security officer [[NonPlayerCharacter NPCs]], spawnable only via the console. They were probably intended to be enemies during the final mission (being terrorists who infiltrated the Shop posing as guards), but do not appear during normal gameplay.
** In the beta, when going to the windows at the beginning of the last mission, allied Marines could be seen fighting Prometheus soldiers outside the Shop HQ building. They are not present in the retail version, probably because of being out-of-place there. However, there is at least ONE Marine who can be seen fighting alongside a Shop security guard.
** The beta contained a SequelHook post-credits scene which has been cut entirely from the retail version. In that scene, a couple of Shop security officers are guarding the Romulus vial crates salvaged from Prometheus. The guards are however gunned down by unknown shooters, who then proceed to loot the virus crates. They turn out to be Order soldiers - the baddies of the first game.

* BareYourMidriff: The second time you face Sabre's white supremacist gang, there will be blonde female enemies with white tank tops that show their stomachs.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Despite the series' reputation and having the most brutal and detailed gore in the series; [=SOF2=]'s ESRB description lists only "Blood" and "Violence" (as opposed to "Blood and Gore").

** The security guard standing outside Sam Gladstone's room in the Hospital mission of the 2nd game. Players will think "[[{{Redshirt}} he's toast!]]", but he is actually quite capable of defending himself against the attacking mooks despite only being armed with a regular 1911 handgun. He may still die, but it's not unlikely that he'll survive either.

->"''[[PrivateMilitaryContractors The Shop]] is dedicated to the preservation of peaceful society and a staunch enemy of terrorism. While they know no allegiance to any government, they hire themselves out to countries that have need of their unique services. Some would say they're in the business of solving problems: the kind of problems that just don't seem to go away...''"

A series of {{First Person Shooter}}s from Creator/{{Activision}}, most of which were developed by Raven Software. What happens when you take VideoGameCrueltyPotential and LudicrousGibs to their [[RefugeInAudacity extreme]]. The main selling point of the series is the extremely detailed damage system that simulates many areas of bodily damage (and gruesome deaths to go along with it). You are given many tools to play with said damage system, from Shotguns for full limb chopping action to Pistols and other such weapons for those precision groin shots, along with extras like Flamethrowers and Microwave guns (pretty much as insane as it sounds). The game apparently had the real-life mercenary John Mullins (who also starred in the game) make sure the game was as realistic as possible. The storyline and weapons like the microwave gun puts the extent of his guidance under serious dispute, but [[RuleOfFun nobody cared]]. It also stood out for being a surprisingly decent FPS even without the gore system, as well as having some interesting ideas like the possibility to customise your difficulty setting ("stock" options were provided that scaled up, but you could also have stuff like very limited inventory space but easy enemies, or vice versa, along with other options like the save system).

''Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix'' (2002) attempted to build on everything from the first game, with more detail to the gore system, a longer game, more weapons (but with the crazier ones removed) and a very advanced graphics engine for its time. Some say further focus on realism makes the gore system less amusing (despite the higher detail level) and that the weapons and locations being less OTT (despite there being more of both) causes the game to be nowhere near as enjoyable as the first. On the other hand, the multiplayer is said to be incredibly good and suffer from none of the issues the single-player side does. The detail of the damage system in both games still beats the majority of games made today. It also has a random mission generator which worked quite well.

''Soldier of Fortune: Payback'' (2007), unlike the previous two games, it has nothing to with John Mullins' story, and was developed not by Raven Software but by budget-price developer Cauldron using what appear suspiciously like Game Maker Studio assets. The results are pretty much [[{{Sequelitis}} what you'd expect]].

After spending much of the following decade in licensing limbo, the entire series was released on Website/GOGDotCom as part of the site's 10th Anniversary celebration.

* AKA47: In the first game. Subsequent entries use real-life gun names[[note]]though sometimes it flubs them, such as calling the fulll-auto [=M4A1=] simply "[=M4=]"[[/note]].

* AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: In ''Double Helix'', Prometheus takes over [[spoiler:the Shop's HQ at Lockhart, the very place you always go to for briefings]]. After [[spoiler:killing Nachrade and disposing of the Romulus cargo headed to the WTO meeting]], Mullines immediately storms the place.

* BadassGrandpa:
** Mullins doesn't quite look like one, but his description in the first game list him as being 51 years old, which allegedly places his birth date somewhere between the end of 1948 and the start of 1950 (as SoF1 is set between September 2000 and January 2001). Considering the sheer amount of gun-fighting he gets into over the course of both the first and second games, he's certainly aged extraordinarily well to be able to accomplish what he does with no signs of tiring out.

* EvilAlbino: Alexei Nachrade in the second game.

* GoodGunsBadGuns: The player and his allies use the M4 and US SOCOM, while the bad guys typically use the AK-74, Micro Uzi, and [=M1911A1=].
** Averted later in the game when you start fighting Prometheus terrorists, who primarily use the M4.

* GoodGunsBadGuns: The player and his allies use the M4 and US SOCOM, while the bad guys typically use the AK-74, Micro Uzi, and M1911A1.

* DiscOneFinalBoss: BigBad Alexei Nachrade is killed [[CutsceneBoss in a cutscene]] before the game's climax. [[spoiler:The mole turns out to be Assistant Director Wilson]].

** The beta contained a SequelHook post-credits scene which has been cut entirely from the retail version. In that scene, a couple of Shop security officers are guarding the Romulus vial crates salvaged from Prometheus. The guards are however gunned down by unknown shooters, who then proceed looting the virus crates. They turn out to be Order soldiers - the baddies of the first episode.

** Originally, the Marine Team was supposed to be present during the entirety of the Colombian jungle missions, instead of linking up with them halfway through the mission at the bridge. Remains of this design are apparent in the retail version as well: both the mission description and the Marine briefing us on the helicopter state that the fireteam will be waiting for us in the camp (while in reality, they depart without us). This was probably changed for pacing reasons, and due to the [[ObviousBeta very restrictive nature]] of these levels to player movement: the maps with the rescue squad are known to be rather drawn out, and players [[CriticalExistenceFailure simply die]] should they get too far away from the fireteam for a longer period of time (explained with the allies killing us for jeopardizing the mission).

* {{Gorn}}: One of the most notorious examples in gaming.

* HandCannon: The Silver Talon.
* HarderThanHard: Unfair difficulty. Noise meter goes up very quickly, leading to tons of Respawning Enemies, which can get you overwhelmed, killing one wave of enemies only to cause more noise and summon more enemies. Not as unfair as it sounds, though.
** ''Soldier of Fortune II'''s "Soldier of Fortune" difficulty setting; ''seriously'' limited saves, enemies do significantly more damage with their weapons, etc. in a game which is already NintendoHard on the ''normal'' difficulty setting.
* HaveANiceDeath: If you jeopardize the mission or accidentally hit one of your allies, they yell "execute him" and you die instantly (they don't even actually shoot you).
* HeroicBystander: Due to how the A.I. works, the civilians in the Hong Kong levels may occasionally pick up fallen weapons and use them to fight the gangsters attacking you. They're not exactly the best combatants, but they can still kill a gangster or two if favored by the Random Numbers God.

** The only variety of Kalash rifles in the game is the AK-74 converted to five-five-six NATO. Which is downright absurd, considering how the original [=5.45mm and 7.62mm=] were (and still are) much easier to lay hands, and terrorists, to put it lightly, aren't known for gun modding.

* KickTheDog: The mooks in the Subway mission of the 1st game will commit acts like shooting a hostage for "being annoying" and push another in front of an incoming train, probably so you won't feel guilty about blowing them into LudicrousGibs. Later, the BigBad does this to Hawk.

* PunchPackingPistol: Both the Mk. 23 and the 1911 are very accurate and powerful, killing with one or two headshots on the highest difficulty. It's surprising how easy it is to win firefights with them, even late in the game, as long as you [[BoomHeadshot aim for the head]]. In the levels where there's no power like Kamchatka after you mess up the grid and [[spoiler:the Shop]], a SOCOM with a tactical light is your best friend.

** Mullins doesn't quite look like one, but his description in the first game list him as being 51 years old, which allegedly places his birth date somewhere between the end of 1948 and the start of 1950 (as SoF1 is set between September 2000 and January 2001). Considering the sheer amount of gun-fighting he gets into over the course of both the first and second games, he's certainly aged extraordinarily well to be able to accomplish what he does.