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Rhianna Pratchett wants to reboot the cult-classic No One Lives Forever

TheHeroOfTime

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https://www.gamesradar.com/female-s...reboot-the-cult-classic-no-one-lives-forever/

"Female spies are really interesting" – Tomb Raider writer Rhianna Pratchett wants to reboot the cult-classic No One Lives Forever
After gathering dust for almost two decades, Rhianna Pratchett believes it's time for a cult-classic to make a comeback
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Rhianna Pratchett is an inspiring figure in the games industry, an acclaimed video game writer who has worked in some of the most popular franchises of the generation. While Pratchett has taken a step back from triple-A game development of late, opting to instead spend her time working on Lost Words – a beautiful and mechanically ambitious narrative adventure game featuring a young girl as the playable protagonist – there is one cult-classic game series gathering dust in an archive somewhere that would bring Pratchett back to big studio development in an instant.

No One Lives Forever
Pratchett famously wrote the scripts for Tomb Raider and its sequel, 2016’s Rise Of The Tomb Raider. They went on to not only breathe new life into the iconic Lara Croft, but also to make her feel like an actual human, rounded woman. The games achieved critical and commercial success, with Pratchett winning the award for Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing at 68th Writers Guild of America Awards in 2016, and in 2018 spawned a rebooted blockbuster movie starring Alicia Vikander, clearly influenced by Pratchett’s latest iteration of the character. This writer knows how to pen a winning reboot.

So when GamesRadar spoke to Pratchett about her innovative upcoming indie diary puzzle game, Lost Words: Beyond The Page, we also wanted to know which classic game she’d be keen to reimagine and turn her artful hand to next. “I would’ve said the Thief games, until I worked on a Thief game, and then that didn’t really work out as much as I’d like,” says Pratchett candidly, of her work writing the Steampunk-style story for the 2014 Thief reboot of the cult early-2000s fantasy game series, which was released to mixed reviews.

But after Lara Croft, there is another female protagonist who Pratchett would be keen to write. 2000’s acclaimed first person shooter The Operative: No One Lives Forever, and its hero, super spy Cate Archer: “Cate Archer in The Operative and its sequel [2002’s No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way], with all her little spy gadgets and things like that. I think female spies are really interesting. I’d like to reboot Cate Archer, I think.”

Legal peril
Developed by Monolith Productions, published by (now defunct) Sierra Entertainment, and released in 2000, the story-driven, stealthy FPS was set in the 1960s, stylised like the classic Bond-style spy films of the era.

It's a long-forgotten classic, one of those games spoken about in whispers by those old enough to remember the turn of the century. The reason for that is because No One Lives Forever is stuck in a hell of sorts, with complications and confusion surrounding the intellectual property (IP) rights. This has ensured that the series is not only nigh-on impossible to play nowadays – it isn't available to purchase on any of the major digital publishing platforms – but also that any chance of it making a return is near impossible, given that Warner Bros., Activision, and 20th Century Fox are reportedly at war over the ownership of the IP. For No One Lives Forever to be revived, something massive would need to change.

Perhaps having a big name writer like Rhianna Pratchett on board could be what the series needs to give it a rehabilitating spy-gadget-shot of life back from the dead. At the very least, we know that Pratchett would be eager to keep the spirit of The Operative alive. In the early-Noughties games, you play as spy Cate Archer, whose spy gadgets were concealed as campy fashion accessories, “She had these lipsticks and powder compacts that would turn into secret weapons and gadgets,” remembers Pratchett, “I thought that was good!”

Giving thought to the possibilities that would bring, Pratchett confirms, “Female spy stuff, that’s very interesting to me.”Before any far-future plans though, Rhianna Pratchett’s upcoming indie puzzler, Lost Words: Beyond The Page will arrive this year. The innovative new game is set in the pages of a young girl’s diary, and in the vibrant fantasy world she writes about in it. She spoke to GamesRadar about how the creative new game gives us characters which are completely different to what mainstream games offer us – and why making it has been totally different to working on Tomb Raider.
 
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orcinator

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None of Rhianna Pratchett's writing was any good while plenty of it was terrible, hopefully if NOLF actually comes up next on the list of shit that needs a cynical reboot they won't let her near it.
 

DalekFlay

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I doubt anyone would fund this with games like Deus Ex: MD, Dishonored 2 and Prey underperforming, and all the focus being on online games right now. Also as the article says, the rights are all crazy. She could do a NOLF-a-like Kickstarter or something I guess.
 

Solid Snail

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Please no, I can't suffer the "new" Lara croft. Better leaving Miss Archer to in the closet than this.
 

FeelTheRads

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Case in point, Bethesda also won an award for writing with Fallout 3. Probably the same thing, don't care enough to verify
 

DeepOcean

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The Tomb Rider game she wrote was hilarious, all characters being awful cardboard characters and Lara stopped being a badass sexy woman to become a whinny brat with dad issues that somehow sees enlightenment after killing a certain number of faceless mooks. It was like watching Caleb from Blood writing love poems after discovering love because he killed alot of cultists. She wants the rights not because she cares about the character but because she wants to vandalize another female character.
 
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Who da FOOK is Rhianna Pratchett?
Terry Pratchett's daughter. Just be happy she isn't laying her hands on Discworld.
I'm not sure that'll last, but I am happy about it. It's theoretically possible that she's not a shabby writer and her writing gets corrupted in the process of game development, especially since she writes for action games, but given Mirror's Edge being an absolute pile of shit story-wise and the new Lara Croft games I wouldn't really bet on it.
 

Drakron

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The Tomb Rider game she wrote was hilarious, all characters being awful cardboard characters and Lara stopped being a badass sexy woman to become a whinny brat with dad issues that somehow sees enlightenment after killing a certain number of faceless mooks. It was like watching Caleb from Blood writing love poems after discovering love because he killed alot of cultists. She wants the rights not because she cares about the character but because she wants to vandalize another female character.

Well I dont think Square Enix was happy about those games performances, I would not say the problems are just the writing but the writing wasnt good either.

And I am sick and tired of all female protagonists having father issues, hell even Samus got one in Another M ... I could say its hilarious seeing all these so called progressive writers just being unable to come up with anything but the root and motivation being simply "daddy". Hell look at what they did with Chloe in that (I hope) last Uncharted game were Chloe suddenly have daddy issues and Nadine had daddy issues in the previous ... I suppose we should be thankful he didnt ruined Elena character despite being a retreading as Drake got stuck with the suddenly brother issues because its 2015 and FAMILY ... God, I hate like its impossible to find characters that go beyond that as motivation.

And if Lara Croft ended up having then despite originally she was just a orphan that survived the plane crash that killed her parents, Cate Archer would had then too despite the first game having Bruno apparent death as part of her motivation (not her sole motivation) so it would not exactly make much sense but hey, Lara Croft had little if any motivation about her family and we seen the shit that come with the new Lara.
 

Echo Mirage

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Well, the original character motivation of Lara Croft was that after surviving the plane crash in the Himalayas she could no longer stand the aristocratic life her parents had given her and was later disowned by them. It was only later in Legend it was shifted more towards mommy issues with the rebooted reboot becoming daddy issues.

The original Lara is still the best. She was just ruthless and focused without the need to have an asthma attack every time she talks or crying about something trivial while somehow being a complete psychopath at the same time.
 

Rev

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I would love to finally have NOLF 1 and 2 on GOG, maybe even a remaster could be a good thing (like the ones made by Nightdive Studios), but a reboot made by the writer of Rise of the Tomb Raider... I'd rather the IP stay dead if that's the alternative.
If she likes the female spy concept so much, she can propose her own new character, instead of relying (and probably ruining) Cate Archer.
 

DalekFlay

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Nobody cares enough to figure out the rights, the money a GOG/Steam release would earn isn't worth the effort and expense. Given that, I think the chances of a remaster are pretty much nil. There's an easy to use repack out there though, that even mods in widescreen support IIRC.
 

Machocruz

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"Female spies are really interesting"

Ok Rhianna, tell us more about all those female spies you hang out with.
 

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