Though neither game was ever considered a top-tier quality title, both Soldier of Fortune games have managed to attract and keep a solid cult following with many gamers (including myself) playing one or both of the games even to this day. So when Activision suddenly announced earlier this year that they were bringing the violent series back, many people were quite excited -- if a little confused by the news that Raven Software was no longer the development company. Things didn't get much better when it was found out that a small company named Cauldron out of the Slovak Republic would be handling the development, but still people held out hope. I mean how can they mess up with such solid groundwork already laid in place by the previous games?
Unfortunately, it doesn't take long for cracks to start showing in Soldier of Fortune Payback's facade. Right off the bat, you find out that they've ditched the series protagonist John Mullin in favor for a generic faceless mercenary who sounds like he's trying to pass an unusually large kidney stone every time he opens his chew-filled mouth. The rest of the voice acting in the game varies from much worse to slightly better and completely fails at drawing you into the characters or the story itself.
