The game is a mixture of a first-person shooter and a stealth game. Most, but not all, missions can be solved in multiple ways: using sneaking to avoid danger or by going in with guns blazing. A stealthy approach can be taken to evade security cameras, guard dogs and other obstacles. Enemies are aware of noise made by the player, including footsteps and weapon fire, and they also react to footprints in the snow, and dead bodies left lying around. The game features a wide variety of firearms, including a semi-automatic pistol, a revolver, a submachine gun, a sniper rifle, and an assault rifle. Some of the weapons can be loaded with different types of ammunition, including standard full metal jacket bullets, dum dum rounds that expand on impact and cause bleeding damage, and phosphorus-coated tracer bullets that continue to burn upon impact. Silencers and scopes can also be fitted on some weapons.
A novel feature of the game is its array of gadgets, often disguised as ordinary female fashion objects. For example, lipsticks double as various explosives, perfume bottles hold materials such as sleeping gas, a barrette also functions as a lockpick and poison dagger, sunglasses can be used for photographing evidence and detecting land mines, and a stylish belt buckle hides a zipcord inside it. Other over-the-top gadgets include a body-removing powder for disposing of incriminating corpses, a robotic poodle to distract guard dogs, and a rocket launcher disguised as a briefcase. An ordinary coin can be thrown to confuse enemies, giving the player the opportunity to sneak by without a guard noticing. A cigarette lighter can also be used as a miniature welding torch. These ingenious gadgets come from UNITY's gadget lab, led by its main inventor and scientist, Santa. "Santa's Workshop" continuously works on these covert gadgets, and provides Cate with them as the game progresses.
In various sections of the game, the player can ride a Triumph motorcycle, or a snowmobile. Other segments of the game involve boss fights. If the player chooses to be sneaky, they can overhear humorous conversations between non-player characters, such as guards, scientists and civilians. Occasionally, the player can engage in conversations with such characters. In certain cutscenes, the game uses a dialog tree, in which the player can choose between different questions and responses when talking to another character.
The missions in the game are littered with "intelligence items": briefcases, envelopes, and manila folders containing textual notes which often provide humorous side-notes and helpful hints to the game. The collection of intelligence items is optional. Special power-ups, called "gear" items are also available for collection during the game, such as "fuzzy slippers" that reduce noise made by movement, earplugs that reduce damage from explosions, and a fire extinguisher that protects the player from burn damage. These gear items are sometimes located in hard-to-reach areas. At the start of each mission, the player can choose which weapons, gadgets and gear to take with them. Some intelligence and gear items cannot be collected on the first playthrough of the game, as the necessary gadgets to reach them are not unlocked until later in the game. If the player wants to collect these items, they have to revisit the mission with the appropriate equipment.i
At the end of each mission, the game displays various statistics, as well as any awards and bonuses earned during the mission. Awards are humorous textual notes given for the player's performance during a mission; these include awards for using a very low or a very high number of bullets, or a "Thanks For Not Getting Hurt Award" for avoiding damage. The player also receives a rank, such as "Trainee" or "Super Spy", which is based on the number of intelligence items obtained during the mission. Achieving a high mission rank increases the player's maximum health, armor and ammo capacity, as well as stealth, the amount of inflicted damage, and the accuracy of their shots.
No One Lives Forever also includes multiplayer gameplay online or over a local area network. There are two multiplayer modes available: standard deathmatch, and "H.A.R.M. vs. UNITY". The latter is a team deathmatch mode, where the goal is to capture as much intelligence for a player's team as possible, by sneaking in to the enemy team's base, finding the item, and photographing it.
Plot
Story
UNITY is a secret international organization headquartered somewhere in England that protects humanity from outsiders that want to take over the world. In 1960, over half of the UNITY's elite agents are murdered by an unknown assassin within a week, leaving UNITY with a critical manpower shortage. They are forced to send UNITY agent Cate Archer and her mentor, Bruno Lawrie, on a series of high-profile missions. Cate is an ex-cat burglar, and is UNITY's first female spy operative. UNITY's leaders, Jones and Smith, are skeptical of Cate working as a field agent, and have previously relegated her to more mundane assignments. Intelligence reveals that a Russian assassin named Dmitrij Volkov and a new terrorist organization named H.A.R.M. are responsible for the murders of UNITY's former agents. Cate and Bruno embark on a dangerous assignment in Morocco, which later turns out to be an ambush set up by Volkov and his men. Cate manages to escape Morocco whilst Bruno is shot by Volkov. In the UNITY headquarters, Jones and Smith reveal that Volkov killed Bruno simply because he was the traitor, to which Cate reacts with disbelief.
She is then tasked to escort Dr. Otto Schenker, an East German scientist, to England. Later on, as Cate and Dr. Schenker fly back to England, he is captured by H.A.R.M., led by Magnus Armstrong, who knocks Cate unconscious. Armstrong decides to spare Cate's life, believing that she is a fellow Scot. Cate awakens and is soon thrown from the plane as it explodes. After surviving the fall via parachute, Cate is later introduced to a new partner, Tom Goodman, a UNITY agent from the American branch. After meeting him in a nightclub in Hamburg, they are ambushed by H.A.R.M. but manage to escape. The nightclub is owned by a German singer named Inge Wagner, whom Cate suspects is connected with H.A.R.M. The two are then tasked to investigate a cargo freighter containing several suspicious chemical containers that UNITY believes are linked to Dr. Schenker. Cate gets in the freighter, and after taking photos of the containers, is knocked unconscious by Armstrong, who spares her life by locking her in a cargo hold, thus ignoring Wagner's insistence that she must be liquidated. As the freighter heads out to sea, it slowly begins to sink, due to a huge explosion. Wagner and Armstrong escape immediately, but Cate has to fight her way out of the bowels of the freighter. Because Cate could not obtain the required information, she and Tom must return to the sunken freighter to finish gathering intelligence aboard. Cate goes scuba diving, and after investigating the shipwreck and obtaining the captain's log and the cargo manifest, she is ambushed by H.A.R.M. divers sent from a submarine commanded by Armstrong and Wagner but manages to escape.
Later, Cate finds out about a connection between H.A.R.M. and a large manufacturing firm named Dumas Industrial Enterprises, which was operated by Baron Archibald Dumas. However, the Baron claims he has no intelligence regarding his connection to H.A.R.M.
Later, Cate infiltrates the Dumas corporate headquarters, gaining access to their highly guarded safe, and photographing some relevant documents, despite heavy opposition, including an ear-splitting deathmatch against Wagner. However, after photographing the headquarter's final document, Cate escapes the headquarters despite witnessing Tom being shot by Volkov.
