James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing

"Live...and Let this game Die Another Day"

I am a huge Bond fan, and I have been since I was a young kid. When Goldeneye came out, I was ecstatic. That game really captured the excitement and stealth of James Bond. Since that time, no game has been able to recreate the Bond experience as successfully. Like the movies, the games have seemed to grow steadily worse, a very disappointing fact. Everything or Nothing continues the downward spiral.

I was more anxious to get this game than anyone, reading the rave reviews it was receiving from critics. My hopes were very high, yet they were dashed to pieces within about ten minutes of popping the game in. Why does everyone think this game is so wonderful? I truly can't understand it.

So, on with the review...

Graphics:
One area in which the game does excel is the graphical presentations. James Bond looks exactly like Pierce Brosnan, Judi Dench much like M, and all the Bond girls are spot on. The vehicles are rendered well, especially the Aston Martin Vanquish, and the scenery looks superb. Overall the graphics are great. However, I've come to expect this with the quality of the Gamecube (as well as for most systems these days), so this factor isn't quite as important as it used to be.

Sound:
The other area in which this game excels. For me, the musical sequence in which Maya sings the theme song is great and really creates the movie-feel. The voice-acting is also well done. The sound is probably the best part of the game.

Controls:
This is where the game begins to slide. The z button is used both for crouching and for leaning against the wall. A lot of times, it will cause you to crouch when you want to lean and vice versa. This can become quite frustrating, especially if you're in a firefight with a lot of enemies. Controlling the camera is also a huge pain. When you're shot from behind, by the time you've rotated the camera so that you can actually see your enemy (I like to see them while I'm shooting at them, rather than just turn Bond around and auto-target) you've been lit up with several rounds. Very annoying. Using X and Y as your hand-to-hand fighting buttons was a nice addition.

Gameplay: I've divided this into two sections, On-Foot Gameplay and Vehicular Gameplay.

On-Foot Gameplay:
This is one of the biggest disappointments of the game. This game was supposed to be revolutionary, featuring Bond from a 3rd person perspective. Huge mistake. Not only can you not freely aim at ANY thing, but it is too easy to kill enemies. All you have to do is simply auto-target them and fire away. You don't have any freedom to aim where you want (except when using the sniper rifle), and this is ridiculous when there are gas canisters lying around. Sometimes, you get lucky and hit one, but it was rare for me. The addition of hand-to-hand combat was a great idea, but, unfortunately, there are way too few opportunities to use it. Every time I try to engage in hand-to-hand combat with an enemy, he pulls out his gun. By the time I've dispatched him, all his pals have shown up. Instead of joining in a fist fight, they all grab their guns, too. The hand-to-hand combat portion of the game is a missed opportunity because it is used so rarely. More opportunities to use it would mean more fun. In addition, stealth in this game is non-existent, which is inexcusable for a Bond game. Sneaking up on enemies or using your silenced Walther is so pointless because it seems that guards come running no matter what. It's much easier to run and gun throughout all the missions, which is very unsatisfying, repetitive, and decreases the replayability. The days of Goldeneye where you could sneak around and take guys out with a shot to the head while preventing them from setting off the alarm are long gone.

Vehicular Gameplay:
Not as disappointing as on-foot gameplay, but still not satisfying. Most options that your vehicles have are pointless. Machine guns, oil slicks, smokes screens, and car disabling bombs are all pretty much worthless when you can just use missiles to blow your opponents to bits. There is a large variety of vehicles you can use, but the only semi-interesting ones are the motorcycles. The rest, are only slightly entertaining, except the helicopter, which is an absolute bore. When EA first introduced vehicular missions into the previous games, I was really excited and thought they did a good job. Unfortunately, they have gotten worse in this game, especially since the number of incredible stunts you can do is very limited. I also think that they have saturated this game with vehicular missions. It seems like every other mission is a driving mission in this game. Although, considering the quality of the on-foot missions, this might not be such a bad thing...

Replayability:
Despite the fact that you can earn platinum medals and unlock special features of the game, I just haven't had the desire to do so. Playing a game is supposed to be fun. My reason for playing this particular game was, ''Well, I paid $50. I have to at least finish it.'' There is nothing extraordinary about the two-player mode either. In fact, you can't even have AI bots, which is a huge downside.

So, in conclusion, I have to say that this game did not even come close to living up to the hype. Despite the fact that it has great sound, contains some of my favorite characters (such as Jaws), and introduces a new hand-to-hand combat system to the Bond games, there are a plethora of flaws that severely outweigh any of the afore-mentioned positives. EA needs to get back to the basics. Analyze Goldeneye, find out what really made it popular, and model your next Bond game after that.

Rent or Buy? Being the Bond fan that I am, I would suggest that any similar Bond fans go ahead and buy this game for the sheer fact that it is associated with James Bond (I mean, we continued to watch the movies after Live and Let Die, right?). I bought it because of Bond, was very disappointed, and will continue to hope for a better future Bond game. However, if you are not a Bond fan, DO NOT buy this game for any reason. It does a lot wrong, and very little right.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 02/28/04