James Bond 007: NightFire

"Your mission, should you accept it, is to not fall asleep during this game"

Many would argue that one of the best first shooters ever was ‘Goldeneye’ for the Nintendo64. More still would argue it is the best Bond game ever, featuring varied objectives, rewarding gameplay and plenty of the renowned James Bond gunplay. The follow up ‘Agent Under Fire’ had mixed success, and now we have the latest Bond game yet; ‘Nightfire.’ But is it as good as ‘Goldeneye’ or even ‘Agent Under Fire’? The answer is no on both counts.

‘Nightfire’ follows your standard James Bond plot, evil megalomaniacal man; Rafael Drake, steals some missiles then holds the world to ransom. The only man capable of stopping him in the suave British super-spy; James Bond.
This is pretty much what you get from your typical James Bond movie (I’m still a fan though!) and it works well for this game. Agent Zoe Nightshade returns from ‘Agent Under Fire’ this time boasting an even more gravity defying bust, if you’re into that sort of thing…
Otherwise the plot is rather sketchy throughout the game, and most of the characters lack any depth or motivation for their actions. Then again, this game isn’t about amazingly complex characters, it’s about blowing **** up, with style. It is a pity however, that the developers have chosen not to base this game on one of the movies, as many of them have plots that would work well in a game.
One disappointment was the lack of recognisable villains in the game. While on the box there is a picture of ‘Odd-job’ from ‘Goldfinger’ fame, he is no-where to be seen in the single player game, offered only as a multiplayer character. Rather disappointing as I was hoping for some classic Bond thrown in. Oh well…
Story: 3

Graphically, ‘Nightfire’ is not a bad looking game. While not quite up their with the likes of the ‘Unreal Warfare’ engine, or even the ‘Lithtec Jupiter’ (No-One Lives Forever 2 uses this engine) it still manages to hold it’s own, with some nice looking character animations and environments.
Pierce Brosnan actually had his face digitally scanned for this game, so in the cut-scenes the James Bond actually looks like he does in the movies! Just a pity he sounds nothing like him…
The gun models are especially note worthy, with some very chunky and cool looking weapons, equipped with scopes and laser sights as well. Nice! Reloading animations are great too, as you can even see the clip being ejected from the gun and a new one being slapped in.
All is not great however, as the game suffers from some horrendous clipping at times, and some of the objects in the levels are painful to look at, such as the chandelier in the first section of the game.
Also the explosions in the game seemed to make my computer slow down to slide show pace, odd considering that I was running the game on a GeForce 4 Ti.
The maps are average, not particularly note worthy. Luckily it never felt like you were running through a maze, although there were times when the game seemed too restrictive, such as certain doors being conveniently locked, providing only a single path to your objective. When will the developers learn from games like Deus Ex? We don’t want linear gameplay anymore, we want multiple paths to objectives and varied level design!
Graphics: 7

I swear, if I have to hear the James Bond theme music once more someone is going to die, or at least get horribly disfigured. Honestly, the theme is used over and over throughout the game, sometimes a slower more classical version, and others this god-awful techno trash. Suffice to say you’ll be reaching for the volume control in no time.
The game also has it’s own theme song, which will have you wanting to rip your ears off just to make the pain stop. Okay, well maybe not that bad, but truly this has to be one of the worst theme songs for a game yet heard. This is not style, this is a disaster.
One thing that really gets to me with games based off movie licences is that the original movie actors almost never provide their voices for the games, leaving us with cheap impersonators who sound nothing like the original actor. ‘Nightfire’ is no exception. While Pierce Brosnan may have been generous enough to have his face mapped into the game he sure as hell wasn’t generous enough to supply his voice. Gone is the suave, super cool charm, and in it’s place a complete fake. Really Pierce, would it have killed you to supply just a few lines of dialogue to the game? To make matters worse the voices are fuzzy and faded, and you often have to strain to hear what is being said.
The guns sound powerful enough, especially the magnum and 12 gauge shotgun which have a nice resounding BOOM when fired.
Sound: 4

When it comes to gameplay, ‘Nightfire’ falls apart in almost every regard, leaving the game feeling like a shoddy port of a console game that was no good in the first place. What makes the game so bad? For starters, enemy AI is non-existent, and I kid you not when I say that ‘Goldeneye;’ a game over six years old featured more realistic and challenging AI. For example, on the first level of ‘Nightfire’ I was able to walk right up to a guard and stand in front of him without him even batting an eyelid. Other enemies will just stand still and watch you level your gun at their head, or watch the person next to them get shot in the back and walk along calmly like nothing just happened. What’s going on? The enemies feel more like cardboard cut-outs, and when compared to games like ‘Medal of Honour’ are just pathetic.
Another problem is the controls, as Bond feels like he’s constantly running over a thin layer of ice, sliding around each level. His movement felt slippery and imprecise, not to mention completely unrealistic, and at times the controls refused to respond.
‘Nightfire’ is currently available on GameCube, X-Box and PlayStation 2, all of which feature driving missions, yet strangely they are absent from the PC version. Why? Who knows, but they may have provided some slight variety from what we are offered in the PC version.
As for weapons, Bond has a nice arsenal of weapons, including the usual pistols, shotguns and machine guns. There are also some fairly cool gadgets, such as X-Ray specs, brief case sentry guns, lasers, even a dart pen. Each have their own various uses, although sadly the gadgets featured here are no-where near as original as those featured in the ‘No-One Lives Forever’ games. There was a problem with the grenades and rocket launcher as they have an exceptionally small blast radius, and often you can throw a grenade right next to an enemy and it won’t even scratch them. The other guns also have some control problems, as often I found myself firing a whole clip at an enemy only to hit nothing!
Another problem with ‘Nightfire’ is the clipping, as often if you throw away a weapon or even the brief case sentry gun, it will fly into a wall never to be seen again. There were even occasions where Bond was able to walk straight through a wall. That’s a bit unprofessional wouldn’t you say?
The game also tries to present the player with a somewhat non-linear approach to your objectives, offering multiple paths to take in some levels. While this all sounds great on paper, the reality of it all leaves a bad taste in your mouth. The first level for example, has Bond attempting to sneak into a castle heavily guarded by enemy soldiers. You can chose the run-and-gun approach, or you can do, as your superior M suggests; sneak a ride on-top of a passing vehicle. Jumping on the vehicle seems to work at first, till a guard shines a spot light on you and all of a sudden you are being shot at from all angles. Shooting the spot light out doesn’t seem to work, and no matter how many times I tried it, I just could not sneak in undetected. Was this game actually play-tested or what?
In it’s time, ‘Goldeneye’ presented the players with a realistic physics engine, and advanced hit location. All of this is absent from ‘Nightfire;’ shooting an enemy in the toe has the same result as a head-shot. The environment was also rather non-interactive, as only computers and glass could be destroyed.
‘Nightfire’ consists of a total of nine levels, but I wonder who can be bothered to sit through them all. There are flashes of brilliance here and there throughout ‘Nightfire’ although nothing near as good as ‘Goldeneye’ or even ‘Agent Under Fire.’ This is truly a waste considering the great subject matter, and one can only guess as to why EA even bothered to release this sad excuse for a James Bond game. Had it been released four or five years ago then perhaps it would have been good, however there are far better first person shooters out these days, and ‘Nightfire’ just isn’t worth your time or money.
Game Play: 4
Life Span: 5

Pros
+ Graphics
+ Weapons
+ Gadgets and Guns

Cons
- Clipping
- Unimaginative game play
- Full of bugs/flaws
- Overuse of theme song
- Feels like a bad console port

I can’t say I am looking forward to the next Bond game. I truly wanted to like this game, yet it is so flawed it is almost unplayable. Don’t be lured in by the pretty pictures on the box, this is a flawed shooter and offers nothing new or even remotely interesting to the genre. Avoid at all costs.
Overall: 3

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 04/03/03, Updated 04/03/03