James Bond 007: NightFire

"The game that really makes you feel like bond"

Introduction

The first thing I want to say is there's no way you can compare this to goldeneye, they have 2 main things in common - you play as bond, its an FPS. The reason you cant compare is the amount of difference for one unique story, away from a movie allowing suspense through the game. The driving never featured in goldeneye which was a shame for the bond cars are a major part of being bond. The final one, well that I can think of is the bond moves, for performing usually a cheesy bond scene, but still a very cool effect.

Graphics - 9 out of 10

Pretty much perfect, rich texture and colour in different stages, such as beautiful locations, great office spaces, and executive areas, with the right find of layout and colour to make location more realistic, lots of details on little things in the levels such as phones laptops, plants and generally different objects like this which add life to levels making them much more vibrant. Also good shooting animation, characters are well designed. The cutscenes are also of high quality from water dripping off your car, various characters and bond actually looking like Brosnan this time. If you've come from playing agent under fire your be pleased to know that the ball like bullets are now replaced with decent gun fire.

Sound - 8 out of 10

Not much to be said really, good music, well its bond so its gonna be good, timed nicely on levels, realistic explosions and gunfire, voices on characters are not bad, sometimes guards muttering can be annoying but nothing by far to ruin the game. Different from most bond games to date Nightfire has a pretty cool starting theme tune which is impressive and can tell the effort went into making it feel like any bond movie with the women sliding across the screen a gun shooting and of course the song, which is not as long as the movie versions but is still nice to have before the playing the game.

Gameplay 9 out of 10

Great to be honest, Nightfire has fun and creative levels, a wide array of guns, a for instance a casual blue laser, not to nearer the end though, driving missions are very fun, to so much based in a free roam system like Agent Under Fire more of set route but is still fun especially using the Q Wedge to squeeze through 2 cars. Shooting levels are put well together without each one feeling the same, a wide array of gadgets, to be expected of course, its bond, some classics and some new gadgets to add to that incredibly large inventory of bonds. At the end of a level you find whether you've been awarded a new medal for your skills, usually the requirements are pretty steep to get platinum which provides a great challenge of improving your skills and knowledge of all the levels. Ideally the medal systems focuses/forces you to play harder difficulties and learn more bond moves and locations of 007 icons, which after achieving gold they appear on a the level, although often can be tricky to find but will really help to get the extra points needed for platinum award.

Story 8 out of 10

Its bond, its world domination, its up to you and an array of women who always get into trouble to save the world etc etc. Its not really as boring as that theres little twist and turns, to be expected but mainly once you've seen a part of the story once its never worth seeing again just skip and get into playing.

Replayability

Generally the game is not that long 12 levels, some are fun enough to come back to now and again some are not, there always the challenge of getting the best medals for every mission and in turn unlocking some pretty decent upgrades, multiplayer characters, mutliplayer modes and multiplayer maps to keep you going for some time. Then of course theres the multiplayer which with a couple of friends can be quite fun, add a couple of bots to add a bit more excitement to the game. Theres also a couple of features in multiplayer that wern't in one player such as remote control vehicles, hhhhmmmm a different idea but definatly something to play around with.

Final comment

Nightfire can generally be purchased for quite cheap now, and its a game worthy of adding to your collection of games, really to get the most out of the game your gonna want to get all of the best medals or just cheat depends what kinda gamer you are, so if your up for blast, get it blast, like gun fire and explosions, sorry its all that bond humour brings out the bad jokes in me, you should probaly give Nightfire a try.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/03/04