It's not just these varied locations that keep things constantly fresh and interesting either; from mission to mission the play style you have to adopt can change completely. There are regular run and gun sections (often with a bit of hunting for classified documents or the like thrown in to keep things interesting) but more often than not these are followed by levels where a stealthy approach is needed or one of many set piece levels where you'll find Cate falling out of a plane without a parachute (don't worry, you can nab one from an a enemy on your way down) or completing a mission set entirely underwater infested with sharks and enemy divers just waiting to feel the sharp end of one of your spear gun shots. At one point you'll even get to ride a motorbike across a long stretch of road with sheer cliffs on either side of you along the way. The bike (you also get to ride a snowmobile later in the game) lacks the amount of control found in most “real” motorbike games, but it's a nice change from sneaking and shooting especially as the terrain that you ride the bike or snowmobile over looks so very good indeed.

It doesn't end there either. As befits a world-class super spy, Cate gets to toy with over thirty weapons and gadgets. Her more conventional weapons include three pistols, two sniper rifles, three machine guns, one crossbow, a spear gun, a grenade launcher, a rocket launcher disguised as a briefcase, a crossbow, poisonous perfume sprays, explosive lip sticks and a few other more interesting weapons, although I won't spoil the surprise for you. As if this vast arsenal wasn't enough, a few of the non-sniping weapons can have scopes attached to them later on in the game, a number of pistols can have silencers added, and many guns can even use multiple ammo types, including dumdum bullets that cause severe blood loss and phosphorous bullets that slowly burn on impact, eventually doing more damage than regular bullets. And then there are the spy gadgets such as camera glasses that double as a mine detector and eventually have an inbuilt infra-red mode, a lighter that is also a blow torch, a portable code breaker that conveniently opens doors (thus almost completely removing despised “find key, open door” puzzles from the game) and even a nasty little bottle of a liquid that conveniently removes all traces of dead bodies so that they don't alert nearby guards or security cameras to your presence. Using all these gadgets constitutes most of No One Lives Forever's puzzle content and it's a welcome change from flipping switches and the like. And besides, they're just plain cool to use.

You'll be needing all these fancy toys though because the enemies are almost too smart for their own good. They'll duck behind cover, run when injured, strafe you, call for support, look for you if you hide and just give you the general impression that they want you to die so they can live. The only time they'll charge you is when they've got a fair number of mates with them to give you a hard time. Killing all these enemies also seems such a shame as they are all particularly detailed and smoothly animated, although when you realise that the death animations are even more impressive to watch you'll quickly change your mind. Enemies can be pinned to walls with the crossbow, flinch according to the location they were shot in and, in true cinematic style, will even fall down stairs or over balconies from time to time (after you've shot them, of course).