MacPlay To Publish Soldier Of Fortune II: Double Helix For The Mac

M acPlay has announced that it will be publishing Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix for the Mac. The title is a first-person-shooter (FPS) that puts the player in the role of a mercenary out to save to world from terrorism. Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix was just shipped for Windows in May of this year, and is currently claiming the top spot in game sales for the PC. The game is based on the Quake 3: Arena engine, which was heavily modified by the developers of the game, Raven Games. In addition to the built-in maps and scenarios, Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix also includes a random mission generator, something unusual in the FPS world. From MacPlay:

MacPlay, a subsidiary of United Developers, announced today that it has reached an agreement with Activision, Inc. to bring Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix™ to the Macintosh. Developed by Raven Software, Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix drops players into the ranks of Americais shadow soldiers in a gritty and intense battle for survival. Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix is rated M for MATURE (17 and above) for animated blood, violence and gore.  New recruits are being called to active duty for an early summer release.

In Soldier of Fortune II, players once again assume the role of John Mullins, a military consultant working for the top-secret agency known as The Shop. In the game, players must make use of stealth, as well as firepower, to tackle a wide-range of missions including hostage rescue, intelligence gathering and search-and-destroy. To fully immerse players in the experience, Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix brings the grittiness of combat to the PC like never before with incredibly detailed skeletal animations that enable lifelike character movements and per pixel hit locations for ultra realism.

Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix also advances the genre with the introduction of a new random mission generator technology for both single and multiplayer. By entering variables into the gameis random mission generator players can create millions of single or multiplayer maps on the fly for endless replayability. In addition to the RMG maps, multiplayer in Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix offers nine professionally designed maps, more than 100 unique model/skin combinations and four different game modes including and deathmatch, team deathmatch, elimination and infiltration.

"With a huge single player campaign, frantic multiplayer action, and the introduction of the genreis first random mission generator of single and multiplayer maps, Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix is poised to be the next big gaming phenomenon," states Brian Raffel, vice president of Raven Software. "PC gamers are getting a little bit of a head start over their Mac peers, but it wonit be long before both camps are battling it out in lush Columbian jungles and Siberian wastelands."

Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix is built on an enhanced version of the Quake III Arena™ game engine for explosive special effects and fast action gameplay, GHOUL II Technology with ultra-realistic damage modeling anywhere on the body, the TORR Terrain system that allows a full range of player movements including manning entrenched guns and riding in vehicles, and even deadlier AI than the original game.

As of this writing, MacPlay has not added a page for the new game to its Web site, though it should be added soon. The press release says that MacPlay is targeting an "early summer" release.