James Bond 007: Agent Under Fire

"It is hard to be an agent under fire when your enemies play dead before you shoot them..."

Goldeneye was, and still is considered to be the God of the first person shooting genre. It has held this title for years due to its lengthy single player campaign, and its awesome multiplayer that kept gamers everywhere busy for a long time. It was a few years before another Bond game was released on the Nintendo 64, but it came. The World Is Not Enough wasn't quite as good, but it was still decent. It wasn't as long, and the multiplayer was not quite as good, but it held its own. Nintendo would not see another 007 game until the Gamecube era, and while it appeared promising, it was a major disappointment in almost every department.

This was the first Bond game to feature an original story, and while that may seem cool that the story is original, it turned out to be way over the top, even for a James Bond game. The game opens with Bond attempting a mission in which he needs to retrieve a case of chemicals from an island lab outside of Hong Kong. From there Bond will trace the chemicals to an organization that plans to clone the G-8 leaders and from here the organization will take over the world. There have been some seriously outlandish Bond stories (Moonraker, I am looking at you), but this is way out there. Cloning is something that needs to remain in Sci-fi games and movies.

The let downs do not stop with the story. The gameplay is just as bad, and in a way, it is even worse. I am going to kick things off with the worst problem, and that is the artificial intelligence. These guys are insanely stupid. The game provides an ample amount of cover for the guards, but that doesn't help if they don't use it. Not one of the guards will think to hide behind that wooden box or that metal car. They would rather remain in the open and enjoy the simple pleasures such as getting shot in the face by a British super spy. I am going to retract my previous statement about the cover. Sometimes a guard will take cover…behind an explosive barrel. Oh, and I love it when the guards hide under crates with thin ropes. For an organization hoping to gain dominance over the world, they hired some pretty stupid men who would be better off in a 6th grade classroom.

My other major complaint is the fun factor of the missions. The missions have great potential, but the lack of variety in the objectives really brings the game down. For every cool objective, there are 10 boring ones. Throughout the 12 missions, only a few stand out as being fun. The only missions that really stick out at all are the vehicle ones, which happen to be rather fun. Other than that, this game fails to deliver an exciting adventure.

Speaking of driving missions, these sequences are new to the series, and they are a worthy addition. There are only two, but they are damn good. They take place in open cities and they give you a number of gadgets that come right out of the movies. Oil slicks, magnetic pulses, and smoke all worked there way into the game. And seeing as how I love the Aston Martin, that driving mission was a treat. Overall, these missions are the best, and it is a shame that they only include two.

Now I will move onto the graphics. Surprisingly, they are great. The levels boast a great amount of detail right down to the sky. Textures are clear and crisp, and the backgrounds really blend in with the game. One scene in particular is in the first mission when you can see a great vie of the Hong Kong skyline. The guns also boast excellent detail. Each one looks different, and the lighting on the guns changes as the lighting changes. The lighting in this game is also great. The levels are all realistically lit, and this helps to add life to the game. The characters are also well done. Every character sports impressive detail. All I can say is that this game is an impressive piece of work.

It is too bad the sound couldn't live up to the visuals. Some things are cool such as the sounds of the guns, and a few of the environmental sounds. Other than that, this game lacks quality sound. The soundtrack is repetitive, and even the few tracks they have are annoying. Since you will hear the music a lot, this is a big complaint. The voice acting is good, although there is better, and like I said before, there are a few extra sounds that stick out. There isn't much to the sound. If you turn off the music, the game actually sounds all right.

Finally I will cover the multiplayer. I regret to inform that the multiplayer the same as everything else. There is an impressive amount of options. There are so many in fact that I won't even list any of them. There are a decent number of maps to choose from, but out of the 15 or so maps, only a few stand out as fun and enjoyable. Throughout the course of the single player you will unlock things for multiplayer, but sadly none of these extras are too good. Character selection is pretty good, and everyone should find a preferred character. At last I will cover the bots. Well, there isn't much to cover. They basically run and shoot. Even then they are not smart, and once you learn how they behave, they will not pose a single threat, even on their hardest setting. The multiplayer is an all right diversion, but it will not provide the hours that Goldeneye provided

This game is not worth a purchase. The lackluster story, the horrible and boring gameplay, and the dull multiplayer all fail to do anything good for the series, and it is even a step backward. Not a single person, except for the die-hard Bond fans, should own this game, and that is my final recommendation.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 07/26/05