Raven is known for their attention to detail and it certainly shows through in this title. The voice acting is well done, as are the satisfyingly loud and realistic weapons sounds, accompanied by the convincing sounds of the oil refinery around you or the chants of a crowd of fanatics nearby. The character models are very detailed and well done indeed, particularly the foreign characters that look very much like their real life counterparts. You can almost smell the vodka on the Soviet soldiers breath, they look so convincing.
Of course this being a first person shooter, Raven couldn't possibly avoid including a multiplayer section. After a bit of fiddling with the system (this time 'round we won't rant on about how much we hate WON and other such systems, tempting as it is) we got down to some serious deathmatching and were rather surprised.
Soldier of Fortune plays really well in multiplayer thanks to a number of amusing gameplay modes. Standard deathmatch involves running around welldesigned, if visually bland, deathmatch levels. Almost all weapons hit instantly which is definitely a good thing and picking up the meatiest of weapons doesn't stop you from getting blasted by a well aimed pistol round which is also something we like. This especially hints at time spent by Raven balancing the weapons in multiplayer.
On top of deathmatch, you get the now ubiquitous 'Capture the Flag' type gameplay with a few new and interesting levels and three game types called Arsenal, Assassin and Realistic.
In Assassins you have to hunt down one or two players designated by an on screen message and an icon above their heads. Of course, you are being hunted too which can lead to some very interesting firefights with people running past potential frags in favour of their assigned victim.