NOLF series replay...things to know

[Daehawk]

So Im considering a replay of both No One Lives Forever games. Had a lot of fun with them in the past. Think Ive completed them both 3 times but Ive already forgotten most of it other than set pieces like falling out of the plane or the tornado in the trailer park map.

Has anyone ran them lately and if so are there any problems? As far as I recall I dont own them on any digital service so maybe I should do that first? I would have to look for my boxes otherwise and those would be hell to run Im assuming. Heck will they run?

i7 2600k
16 gig Gskill ripjaws
GTX 770
2560x1080.

Maybe its a lost cause before even starting.

[Isgrimnur]

You look like you need a monkey.

[Smoove_B]

Maybe its a lost cause before even starting

I want to say I remember reading in the last 5 years it was a lost cause trying to get it to work. I think it was around the same time people were lamenting the loss of the license and the fact that it's seemingly unlikely we'll ever see a re-release or continuation of the series. Read more here.

[killbot737]

NOLF2 has insanely annoying enemy respawns. Not fun if you're doing stealth.

[Blackhawk]

I've played NOLF in the last year or two on a Windows 7 system. I remember that it was a pain to set up, but didn't have any issues running it.

[Victoria Raverna]

As far as I recall I dont own them on any digital service so maybe I should do that first?

The Sad Story Behind A Dead PC Game That Can't Come Back

But there is this (not sure how legal or illegal this is):

No One Lives Forever Revival Edition

[Anonymous Bosch]

I'd suggest simply grabbing the games from NOLFrevival.tk:

Download a fully functional version of No One Lives Forever (NOLF) and No One Lives Forever 2 (NOLF 2) with the latest community patches for free. Download the full game for PC now. Play single-player and multiplayer NOLF games for free!

You cannot buy a functional version of No One Lives Forever any more. As a result, in an attempt to keep the community alive and attract new players, No One Lives Forever Revival Edition is available to all for free and is a breeze to install and play on all modern operating systems. Double click on the installer, pick a directory to extract the files, and then double click on the desktop shortcuts to play. It's that easy.

Given the ownership situation is such a convoluted mess that Night Dive Studios' attempts to revive it sadly ended up being memory-holed, it seems like the very definition of abandonware. And short of Steam or GOG versions ever appearing (which seems highly unlikely), the NOLF Revival versions are the simplest and easiest way of getting the games running on modern hardware.

[Madmarcus]

More for the backlog.

[Jag]

Such a fantastic game.

[Giles Habibula]

Deleted my post. I see Victoria Raverna and Anonymous Bosch posted the link a while ago already.

I had just seen the RPS article which also supplied the link, and got all excited. Nevermind.

[Daehawk]

Thanks . Its nice to be able to download them. that music takes me back. They were really great games and as I recall very popular. Surprised we never got a 3rd.

[Giles Habibula]

Well, I just downloaded and installed NOLF 1.
Pleased to report that it seems to run perfectly in Win10 at 2560 x 1440.
Completed the training section with no problem.
Also, the graphics are much better than I remember.

[Daehawk]

Always liked pt1 more than 2 though it had its moments.

[Rumpy]

Man, this is one series that I feel needs a remaster. Too bad the rights are up in the air.

[jztemple2]

I've started playing NOLF 1 again. It's odd that I can't remember the names of my relatives, but I remember a lot about the gameplay of something I haven't seen in over 15 years

[Daehawk]

Is there some secret Im missing to download the 2nd game from them? it says I need to use their extension or download manager. I see no extension and when I try to use their service nothing ever downloads. I dont want to create an account but do I have to?

EDIT: made my account and gave them my email and all but it wont confirm it when i try to log in ....some spam site I guess....I still need game 2

[Victoria Raverna]

Is there some secret Im missing to download the 2nd game from them? it says I need to use their extension or download manager. I see no extension and when I try to use their service nothing ever downloads. I dont want to create an account but do I have to?

EDIT: made my account and gave them my email and all but it wont confirm it when i try to log in ....some spam site I guess....I still need game 2

You're not using the torrent option?

[Daehawk]

No torrent app....finally got it through their downloader.

Never liked torrents.

[Daehawk]

Game freaked me out. When I exited after playing for a bit there were NO icons on my desktop....all gone. Had to reboot to get them to reappear.

[MonkeyFinger]

Game freaked me out. When I exited after playing for a bit there were NO icons on my desktop....all gone. Had to reboot to get them to reappear.

Yay, the joys of older games. I remember when some would change your resolution and then fail to change it back. Did you try right-clicking on the desktop and selecting 'Refresh'?

[Daehawk]

Nah just rebooted. Will remember that next time. The next time I played they were there then weren't then were there.

[Daehawk]

It just did it again. There is no right click menu..nothing. So cant refresh.

[killbot737]

It just did it again. There is no right click menu..nothing. So cant refresh.

Three finger salute? Ctrl-Alt-Del. Bring up task manager. That might refresh the desktop for you.

[MonkeyFinger]

Usually means Windows Explorer has died so you can also try pressing the Windows/Start Menu key and entering "windows explorer" in the run box. Should start right back up. That or reboot.

[Daehawk]

I used the ctrl-alt-del and theres nothing running and a lot I could turn off in the other areas.

I have my win keys disabled for gaming

[Kasey Chang]

Remember playing both fondly. The "chase scene" in NOLF2 was hilarious and exhilarating at the same time.

[Dave Allen]

You look like you need a monkey.

No. I need to lay off the hallucinogens.

[Daehawk]

I remember loving both the NOLF games. I considered them some of the best shooters ever made. I played and finished both of them twice. But I started this replay of the first game last June and I dont remember much any of it and the worst thing is Im hating it. I LOATH it at a lot of points. I just now got stuck in a bad quick save and had to use a lvl pass cheat code. I mean Im really hating this game and just dont like playing it. I cant figure out why I loved them so much. Im guessing part of it was the times. Back then it was a great set of games. Not now. And the other part is rose colored glasses effect. All I want to do it finish it and delete it. I dont want to not finish it though. Gotta slog through.

[Blackhawk]

It is also likely that your tastes have changed after all these years. I know that I've lost of lot of my patience for frustrating games over the years, making some games I used to love into irritating headaches.

[Carpet_pissr]

It is also likely that your tastes have changed after all these years. I know that I've lost of lot of my patience for frustrating games over the years, making some games I used to love into irritating headaches.

Amen to that. Full Throttle, I'm looking at you!

[Smoove_B]

I dont want to not finish it though. Gotta slog through.

Yeah, you show those good memories who is the boss! Replace all your happy thoughts about the series with your frustrated, let-down angry impressions from 2018!

[Carpet_pissr]

I dont want to not finish it though. Gotta slog through.

Yeah, you show those good memories who is the boss! Replace all your happy thoughts about the series with your frustrated, let-down angry impressions from 2018!

You jest, but I should really stop playing all these remastered titles from what I consider the Golden Years of gaming. I can't think of one case where I went back and played a classic (remastered or not), where I thought, "damn, this is as good or better than I remember it!"

Titles off the top of my head that I've tried recently:

Baldur's Gates
Full Throttle
Secret(s) Monkey Islands
Day of the Tentacle
X-Com
Fallouts (though these came really close)
Jagged Alliances
Gabriel Knight 1
The Longest Journey

Note that in only a couple cases did I just stop playing due to....ugh. The others were OK to mildly enjoyable, but none approached the godlike status I had placed upon them in my long term memory.

[Pyperkub]

Went to see a band called Bond Girl (in the who are you seeing concert thread) - they play "Spy Rock" - a bunch of James Bond theme songs, and some other spy oriented songs - Mission Impossible/Avengers themes, Secret Agent Man, etc.

I was inspired to listen to the NOLF soundtrack the past few days, and am thinking about digging up my old physical media to maybe finish this finally. Looks like it runs pretty well on Windows 10/11, and there is a mod to make it look better! Mod from 2021, so apparently worthy of a thread necro, IMHO.

[Blackhawk]

Looks like it runs pretty well on Windows 10/11, and there is a mod to make it look better! Mod from 2021, so apparently worthy of a thread necro, IMHO.

FWIW, that's a ReShade preset, not an actual mod or texture enhancement. ReShade (if you don't know) is a collection of dozens of filters that can be applied to most games, allowing you to do anything from tweaking the brightness to turning into a black and white/sepia game with film grain to tweaking all of the visuals. It's similar to what Nvidia's Freestyle does (included with GeForce Experience for those who use it.) It's a good way to make older games look a little better, but it's still the same textures (although in this guy's case, he seems to have cranked to sharpness up to about 10,000, which is a bit too much, which is why it looks oddly grainy - like everything is covered with. )

[Rumpy]

I used to be big into first-person shooters back in the day, and hardly play them now. I've seen a lot of people complain that modern FPSes are too slow in their pacing, but I tend to feel the inverse is true. If one's lived through Wolf3D and the early eras of these games, you definitely see an evolution into something faster, no-doubt in part to having access to better framerates, and I find modern ones to be a bit too hectic for my liking. They also seem for the most part to have a lesser degree of freedom than their earlier counterparts. Nowadays, it seems that general feeling is duplicated in the exploration-based fpses, which are oddly termed as 'immersive sims', but that's usually where I get my fix these days. I've both enjoyed Arkane's Prey and Obsidian's Outer Worlds.

[Blackhawk]

I used to be big into first-person shooters back in the day, and hardly play them now. I've seen a lot of people complain that modern FPSes are too slow in their pacing, but I tend to feel the inverse is true. If one's lived through Wolf3D and the early eras of these games, you definitely see an evolution into something faster, no-doubt in part to having access to better framerates, and I find modern ones to be a bit too hectic for my liking. They also seem for the most part to have a lesser degree of freedom than their earlier counterparts. Nowadays, it seems that general feeling is duplicated in the exploration-based fpses, which are oddly termed as 'immersive sims', but that's usually where I get my fix these days. I've both enjoyed Arkane's Prey and Obsidian's Outer Worlds.

The biggest things that hold me back from shooters these days is that the vast majority of them are either multiplayer focused, or else they're RPGs (usually open-world) with guns. It's rare to get a true, crafted FPS experience anymore.

And 'immersive sims' have always been my favorite subgenre of shooter, ever since System Shock 2/Deus Ex/Thief. They're few and far between these days, though (Prey was the last great one, although I haven't played Deathloop yet.)

[Rumpy]

Yeah, I think I'm pretty much the same way as you when it comes to first-person shooters, and you're right that most of them end up being multiplayer focused. Although I'm quite perplexed as to how the term 'immersive sim' got its name because it's actually not very good description for what kind of game it is. It's quite a misnomer as they're neither realistic nor are they simulating anything.

[Blackhawk]

Yeah, I think I'm pretty much the same way as you when it comes to first-person shooters, and you're right that most of them end up being multiplayer focused. Although I'm quite perplexed as to how the term 'immersive sim' got its name because it's actually not very good description for what kind of game it is. It's quite a misnomer as they're neither realistic nor are they simulating anything.

They're simulating an environment/setting (assuming that we're both talking about the same thing.)

Immersive sims got their name because they 'simulate' the rules of that world (to a greater or lesser degree), and then leave it to the player to decide how they use those rules. In them there olden days, those rules might be things like stacking crates, hacking various systems, different type of arrows in Thief, etc. Prey added the mimicry ability. They then create a level without a specific way of achieving the goal, and give the player the freedom to use those tools however they want to in order to achieve their goal. For example (and I'm continuing to pull on old school games here - there were just a lot more then), Half-Life (not an immersive sim) might have you stack crates, but it was only useful in specific, pre-planned locations, and those locations probably didn't have any other way of solving that particular problem (IE - it was planned.) In Deus Ex (immersive sim), however, you could use those crates to provide cover, to block access points, to bypass sections of the map, etc. Immersive sims might give you a tool like a remote hacking device. Other games might give you the same thing, but only let you use it when they planned for it (usually with a big, brightly colored indicator to let you know it was time.)

Non-IS: There is a key to open the door, or a computer to hack the door.
IS: There is a key to open the door, a computer to hack the door, an explosive crate clear back near the beginning that would blow the door up if you thought of it, you could stack crates and just bypass the well entirely, hack a robot and have them open it, wait for a guard to wander through and get in before the door closed, fake an ID to get in, and so on.

So, they're immersive in that they put you in that place, and they're simulations in how they simulate the rules of that place.

NOLF 1&2 were actually sort of a blend. A lot of levels were straight shooter, but a few levels gave you a ton of freedom (although there weren't a ton of mechanics to exploit.)

[Rumpy]

Yeah, I think I'm pretty much the same way as you when it comes to first-person shooters, and you're right that most of them end up being multiplayer focused. Although I'm quite perplexed as to how the term 'immersive sim' got its name because it's actually not very good description for what kind of game it is. It's quite a misnomer as they're neither realistic nor are they simulating anything.

They're simulating an environment/setting (assuming that we're both talking about the same thing.)

Immersive sims got their name because they 'simulate' the rules of that world (to a greater or lesser degree), and then leave it to the player to decide how they use those rules.

Ok, but it's still fairly nondescript, as you could follow with similar design initiatives in pretty much anything else. But I guess nowadays it's more in the open-ended approaches that the game gives you. I still don't think it's really a great descriptor for the type of game though.

[Blackhawk]

You'll have to blame the father of the immersive sim himself - Warren Spector. He's the one who coined the term in reference to the original Deus Ex.

Also: I just discovered that he wrote the Send in the Clones for Paranoia, and that he was one of the people responsible for Spelljammer. I did not know this.