One word for Activision, "FAIL". They have irrepairibly damaged the SOF name with this monstrositiy that is SoF: Payback.

The gore is horrible. It doesn't even come close to the original Soldier of Fortune's GHOUL gore engine thing. This game is barley playable because of the health system. It's like Call of Duty's, but the levels dont have any cover. The multiplayer is a joke. you shoot from spawn point to spawn point on some of the maps, and you can't even tell the other players to stop spawn killing because there is text based team chat, let alone voice chat. the original games were way better then this garbage.… Expand

The gore system isn't even anything superior to it's predecessors. And considering that's what people are picking up the game for, they've lost their best selling point from the word go. Where Soldier of Fortune 2, had dynamic entry/exit wounds and smash away skull sections, in SoF:Payback were treated to a few very average decapitations, and lame blood splatter decals everywhere else. In fact, I would go as far to say that the gore system in Bioshock was better, and that speaks for itself. As for the storyline, short and tacky, absolutely no cover anywhere in the levels, it's pretty much you getting shot at constantly, trying to work out where the enemies are behind the lame 2d esque scenery. How Activision could have even released this, thinking it was a complete game is beyond me, if you want the full on gory experience just pick up a copy of SoF2. Activision Value have completely butchered this series. I can't belive I picked up this game over Call Of Duty 4, worst £30 i've spent in my life. I've given it a 1, because the weapon models and reload animations look pretty cool, but it's definitely not enough to sell the game.… Expand

Activision have used the same engine as their 'History Channel' games (Blue and Grey and Pacific...erm.... Oh dear...those games were so naff I cant remember the titles anyway!!) I don't know who 'Cauldron' are...but I suggest they go and jump in one after SOF Payback!!!

first of all i wish the rating tab here went into negative numbers if you just want a mindless shooter go find a good old classic like duke nuke 'em 3d or blood or the first couple of doom games the only thing this game as going for it is the dismemberment/gore but hell even that gets screwed over since corpses disappear after 30 seconds sure we got around 30 weapons but your enemies only use about 4 of them through out the game meaning you'll be running out of ammo after the first few dusin of bad guys and forced you grab one of their unmodded weapons speaking of modded weapons that is always a nice feature but here is useless and beyound you get about 8 versions of scopes / a choice between handgrip for better accuracy or a nade launcher for most assulet rifels / and a silencer which due to the utter lack of any thing that even remotely resembles "stealth" does nothing but chance the sound the gun makes now i aint saying we should be able to jump out of the shadows and knife the bad guys without anyone noticeing but a little bit of sneaking around would be nice but nope aint gonna happen as soon as you down that first enemy EVERYONE know exactly where you are at ALL times even if they're 50 miles away they will shoot at you offent with insane accruacy (think shotgun shell being fired through jungle underbrush and trees from 200 meters away and hitting you square in the face and you get the idea) there is barely any story to it either and the little there is is just bad and horribly scripted with basicly no ending just some random non sense makeing radio chatter and then credits gank you from out of nowhere the game is only a whooping 5 levels long so atleast you wont be wasting too much of you life if you happen to deside to play it but if you do be prepared for major frustration due to lack of save features and no customization for graphics or ANYTHING for that matter /end rant im gonna go play a nice game of pong now atleast thats remotely entertaining… Expand

Im afraid i cant comment on the actual content of the game, because i couldnt get to the content! There was so little effort put into the production that they actually dont allow you to lower the graphics level... Iv got a mobility x1600, which played crysis reasonably, and i couldnt play this on the lowest settings at anything above 15fps. absolutely horrible...

This is one of the worst FPS games on the PC, its a generic call of duty ripoff, its a direct port from console to PC with nothing added.

Horrible! It ruined the whole Series. Story is just bullshit, Very Buggy, Horrible Voice's and Retarded Enemies, only reason this game earns a 3 is due to the blood and gore ingame... Only that!

First, the good: It's not half bad looking. The environments, if uninspired, are still very easy on the eyes. There's a lack of detail work, but the graphics engine isn't too shabby; it even performs well. It's violent, and the gore is more than a little excessive as it only takes a few shots to an arm to totally tear the thing off. Then there's the bad: The AI is completely stupid. They either simply charge mindlessly at you or they camp and wait to ambush. With the former, they're pretty much gonna die as they don't even shoot at you; and with the latter, they'll either have a limb poking out to give them away or they'll instantly kill you if you fail to spot them. As for the so-called story line, it's complete and utter garbage. The characters are introduced in a shoddy fashion, the voice acting is atrocious, and the dialog itself is just as bad. Gameplay is also lacking, and all the maps are extremely linear with a waypoint on your HUD always telling you where to go. Long story short, I only picked it up because I found it on a clearance rack for an extremely low price. I sure wouldn't pay full for it.… Expand

Maby i shoul give it 1 cos it does start up and you can play it ...but then again this game might have been a more enjoyable experience if it infact didn't start up, playing this game is so weird graphix are like a mix between 10 year old graphix and "next-gen" the ai and enemy skins are appalling the map design and textures could be done better by a 5 yo with a yellow and brown crayon... it's stupid boring ugly bad faulty annoying appalling terrible its the diametrical opposite of fun and entertaining ...it's almost the worst game i've ever played... and btw i really loved sof 1 and 2 and all i hoped for was sof 2 with better graphix and new missions... instead i got THIS!!!!… Expand

I found the story in this game lacking, but the action fun, and the weapon selection and customization effective. The game held up to repeated play purely because it was easy and fun and was a shooter. Don't expect anything more from a ten dollar game than a ten dollar game.

I think its quiet because online it rocks.But there are many mistakes like the horrible story or the stupid enemys.

There aren't many good single player games out there- still if you enjoy the series for what it is.. violent.. then you should like this one too- acting is terrible but think of it as a sort of Duke Nukem bad and you'll get by. Multiplayer? Meh.. Buy CoD4 if you want good run and gun playing.

One of the crappiest FPS I've ever seen, and I've seen plenty. Don't even THINK to buy this game.

Activision ruined this game. Not enough budget to the developers, and that resulted in this horrible game. Cauldron is more capable than this.

This is the first in the series I played, and boy was it retro. Let me explain, I say that because everything in it is "classic." Such as the boss battles. None of this headshot crap, it is unload everything into them like 90's games did. Graphics are just a little bit above par. Story, why is everyone mad about it, I got it. Mason has two obsticals, the Wall brothers and his own revenge. Levels are short and quick, but no problem, up the difficulty and play again. I love the weapon customization. All in all it is a very standard shooter. Die hard fans might like it, but I think it's the second best in the series.… Expand

Why would this have NO MANUAL SAVE FEATURE? It's only checkpoints which gets incredibly irritating to hear voice actors over and over at the beginning of certain levels. Besides the bloody gameplay, this game is nothing interesting and makes an embarrassment of the SoF series.

This gamne in no way resembles the SOF franchise before it. Terrible graphics, AI, gameplay and everything else you can think of. I will never get the couple of hours I wasted on this game back. Do yourself a favor and stay far away from this "game."

Now this is something unbelievable crap. I cant award the game more than just two points, because A) It hang up a few seconds after level got loaded and B) it sucks terribly technically. I was not able to choose any larger resolution than 800*600, and turning and moving was like in ten years old FPS games. Mouse sensitivity was terribly high and so on. I also had serious sound issues, barely could hear any game voices, just some random gibberish. One point for game starting up, second point for the notorious Soldier of Fortune name. Dont touch this garbage.… Expand

This is not soldier of fortune it is a joke.

This game really isn't worth your time the graphics are great but the game has huge issues frame rates drop at random points and some people had blackscreens while trying to play the game is totally redicilous it is an fps game which takes place in the current time but it's so unreal. you have to kill some arabian dude with 5 grenade shells and 4 x 30 mags of bullets before he drops to his knees same goes for another one I fired 16 grenade shells and he wasn't dead it's just crap all the way Don't buy this game! Don't ever play this game! Activition value should be ashamed.… Expand

Absolutely agree with everyone before me. this a pile of garbage, value game, but i dont blame the Developer Cauldron, the guildty one is AcTiVision for being cheap and greedy not to pay more the developers to make a better game. They just butchered the freanchise that Rven soft so carefully and built upon the loyal base of PC gamers, the pc version of Payback is just a cheap Console port. Ok by yall. I gave 1 for a good graphics, weapons models, reload animations which is not emoch to save this game. very sad.… Expand

Absolutely horrible. I've been playing Soldier of Fortune II for years, and even that one is better than this atrocity. To anyone reading this: Don't play this game.

I've played SOFII for years just like everybody else that has voting or played the SOF series. This game had alot of hype and alot of anticipation. But once I started getting into it, I couldn't. I do blame Cauldron because there were talks of patches and 5 months later still no patches. There has not been anything said, so why try to make a quick dollar if you can't at least make the effort to support and keep the people happy.… Expand

Even though im pritty sick and love to watch body parts fly EVERYWHERE, this game got so boring after the 4th or so mission i decided to quit and do something better and more entertaining, such as stubb my toe against my desk.

SoF, one of the most sucessful FPS series has been severely let down by this awful pile of crap that is Payback, the third in the series. Whoever at Activision decided to hand it down to their red headed step children budget company and let Cauldron LLC develop it is a total moron. Everything about the game is crap and there is not one single feature that redeems it. A HUGE disappointment for SoF fans and even FPS fans. It plays and feels like a console shooter. In fact, as soon as you get to the menu screens, it feels like a direct port and I think it is. There aren't even any graphics options, except to change the resolution and you can't even chat in multiplayer. The gameplay is awful, you just fun and shoot and your enemies barely even move out of the way unless you throw a grenade at them. The storyline is pathetic and has very little if any relationship to the previous games. DO NOT but this game whatever you do. This game deserves to die and rot in hell, it is a total embarrassment to the series and should not even be counted as part of it. Activision, you should be ashamed of yourselves.… Expand

This game is an abomination to the other games in this awesome franchise. I don't know what they were thinking when they brought this game in to the world, I've played numerous made mods that are way better and less buggy than this. They have really overdone the gore on this game too, I guess that's because that is the only thing this game has to offer. If there will ever be another Soldier of Fortune game they should call it Soldier of Fortune 3 and just forget this piece of ****… Expand