SOF/Raiders Demo

First-person shooters come in all sorts of shapes and colors, ranging from realistic military simulations in actual locations around the world, or futuristic anecdotes about scientists swinging crowbars on alien planets. Regardless of the theme, they are all based on your ability to have the quicker draw and take out the enemies on your way to achieving various objectives.

SOF/Raiders is one of these shooters and it concerns itself with slightly more realistic matters, at least on paper. Thus, the action takes place in some terrorist compound, while your character must take down any bad guys that cross his path as he makes his way toward gathering vital information and destroying a transmitter that relays encrypted messages to the entire organization cell.

Right from the get-go, you can observe the fact that you are somewhat encouraged to go about your mission in a stealthy way, by staying in the dark and avoiding direct contact with the enemies, until you have them in your sights. On the other hand, it also becomes clear that the game is not that refined and it gets really frustrating when the terrorists can sense your presence from a few hundred yards away, as soon as your face gets illuminated by a light bulb for a few seconds.

Moreover, the enemies can and do hit you with every shot, regardless of the distance, angle or the fact that you have left the illuminated area. This means that once you expose yourself, you cannot really go back into hiding, or survive, for that matter. In case you decide to shoot back, it may come as a surprise that you are also able to land every bullet, since all you have to do is aim in the general direction of the target and hold the fire button down for a few seconds.

Other than that, the game feels very crude when it comes to controls and mechanics, since no effort when into credible sound effects, accurate ballistics, recoil, or physics. The graphic engine is not exactly terrible, but it certainly does not impress, especially because the level design leaves much to be desired and there's not really anything worthy of rendering anyway, other than a few very empty buildings and the surrounding mountains that seem to have the unique ability to deny even the smallest speck of vegetation from growing.

In the end, SOF/Raiders does not leave you with too many options, since everything about it screams "unfinished". You might find a bit of solace in the satisfying array of rifles and weapons, but they're of little help anyway, since the pistol is just as effective and accurate.