James Bond 007: Agent Under Fire

"Has another Goldeneye been created? No, but that doesn't mean it's a bad game."

After the incredibly successful Goldeneye, Rareware lost the license for James Bond. When Eurocom took over the license, they created The World is not Enough which was an improvement over Goldeneye. Everyone was expecting another great game when Agent Under Fire was released.

This is the first James Bond game where the story is not base on a movie. The story line has been created specifically for the game which has its own strengths and weaknesses. Agent Under Fire has the same premise of every other James Bond game. You simply try to stop the world from being destroyed by an evil person who you must end up killing in the final level. There are side missions along the way but they are about rescuing hostages, assassinating enemies, and of course, seducing women.

Visuals: As soon as you turn on the game, you are greeted with an opening movie that shows just how good the graphics are. The people all look realistic and the guns are also very realistic. Your surroundings are also very well done. The buildings and windows look like there were taken out of a movie but as in most first person shooters, when you destroy windows it looks very cheesy.

Every time you shoot an enemy, they either clutch their stomachs or flinch even if you hit them in the foot. There are only so many dying animations and it is random which one occurs. You can shoot people in stomach and then they grab their head before they die, it’s quite funny to watch actually.

The visuals of the people are quite well done. You can see facial hair, expressions, and the lip syncing is also very well done. The detail on the people is quite amazing, you can even see the buttons and zippers on other people’s clothing. Whenever an enemy does not detect you, they do very lifelike things, they may stretch their arms or even scratch an itch on themselves.

Sound: As in all James Bond games, the music is superb. It is the classic orchestral pieces that have become famous due to the movies that they have come from. The sound is also quite good but does not even compare to the music. The sound of reloading and firing the guns are very clear and crisp but they are nothing special. In all of the movies, the voices are very well done and are in sync with the lips. The only complaint I have about the sound is that it does not alert enemies to your position. You can run as fast as you want and make a lot of noise but unless you are in the enemies line of sight, they will not detect you. This takes away the point of sneaking around as it does you no good.

Gameplay: The one-player mode definitely needs improvement. Don’t get me wrong, I love the rail-shooting and driving levels, but the first person shooting levels leave me disappointed to say the least. Even in the first level, the game just doesn’t seem to has the same feel as the other games. This could be because of the constant load times that just seem to destroy the games smoothness. These load times also kill the thought of the game connected. You can be on the bottom floor one instant then, you walk into a door and you are just below the roof. You can fight “bosses” who you can kill in one hit, it’s quite stupid though as they are either incredibly easy to kill, or extremely difficult to kill. They either carry pistols, machine guns, or rocket launchers and can kill you quite easily as you are usually in a confined space.

In the one-player mode, there are two types of items you can use. You can use weapons to kill or stun people and gadgets to do things that you can’t do with weapons. Some of my favourite weapons are: the sniper rifle, the calypso, and the shotgun. Gadgets play too much of a role in one-player. You have to use them to open most of the doors and to complete most of the objectives. You constantly have to switch between weapons and gadgets so you’re always open to attacks from the enemies.

There are three types of one-player levels. The first person shooting levels are pretty basic, you run around the level and try to kill everyone. The rail-shooting levels are where you follow a set course and try to destroy as much as you can in order to make it to the end of the level. In the driving levels, you drive a car/tank and try to get to the end of the level. You have total control of where you drive. Your car is equipped with rockets, missiles, paralysis pulses, oil slicks, and smokescreens.

In the one-player mode, they have implemented a scoring system. You get points for Bond moves, accuracy, how much ammo you use, time taken, and enemies subdued. The codes you earn are based on your score and how many Bond moves you perform. Most of the codes are crappy one-player codes that don’t really do anything. The easiest code to earn is THE GOLDEN GUN, but there’s a catch, it doesn’t even kill guys in two shots let alone one.

In the multiplayer mode, there are some great aspects and some horrible aspects. The multiplayer mode takes some getting used to. When you first start the game, the multiplayer seems really boring. You end up getting killed by all the computer bots until you get used to the controls and creating useful strategies. Any level or mode that you receive from the platinum rewards, cannot be used by the AI. This means the AI doesn’t participate in the Golden Gun mode and they can’t even be in all of the levels. There are a lot of great things about the multiplayer mode though. You can always battle the AI which is a lot of fun. The AI is also customizable, you can change their character, their skill, and even their aggressiveness. You can choose what weapons are in each level, you can customize all of the pre-made sets of guns so if you dislike a particular weapon, you don’t even have to use it. In the multiplayer, you can use the Q-Jet and Q Claw which makes the multiplayer extremely fun. The guns in multiplayer are no different than in one-player. It takes a long time to kill a multiplayer enemy and sometimes it takes more than one full clip of 9mm ammo to the chest to kill an enemy. My favourite way to do the multiplayer mode is with me and three AI bots set to the hardest difficulty. You can never escape the constant skirmishes and you’ll have more fun that playing for four human players.

There are three types of multiplayer modes. In combat training, you try and kill everyone on the other teams. In the anti-terrorist mode, you try and kill your opponents while disarming bombs. The top agent mode is where one person is really powerful and the other people team up and try to kill him. Whoever kills the top agent becomes the top agent and then tries to kill the other people.

Replay Value: The one-player mode is quite easy and you will almost never want to redo most of the levels. You will however, be redoing all of the driving levels many times over. You will sometimes do the rail-shooting levels but they don’t compare to the driving levels and get boring after one or two tries as they are the same every time. Another great feature of the game is the cheats aspect. If you want to have more fun playing the game, you will spend as much time as it takes to earn all of the cheats. The multiplayer mode is the strongest source of replay. As in all James Bond games, you will always have fun killing your friends, family members, and AI. The entire game takes some getting used to but once you get into it and is quite annoying at first (especially when your gameslot gets erased!).

Overall: One the best First Person Shooters for the Gamecube (although there are not many of them). It has some great multiplayer and there are a few excellent one-player missions. Having to earn the cheats gives the game another great feature of replay value. The sound and graphics are superb and help to give the game that James Bond feeling. You can play the multiplayer for hours and hours and you can almost never get tired of it. Agent Under Fire leaves a lot to be desired though and you can only feel that the game should’ve been better.

Sound: 8.1/10

Graphics: 8.8/10

Gameplay: 7.5/10

Lifespan: 10/10

Overall: 8.2/10

Information Box

Genre - First Person Shooter
Publisher - Electronic Arts
Developer - Electronic Arts
Players - 1-4
Online Play - Not Supported
ESRB - T

Release Date
March 19th, 2002

Overall Score: 8.3

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/30/02, Updated 11/30/02