"Best. Bond. Game. EVER!"

The whole world is in the fate of one man. He is suave, smooth, and sophisticated. He is James Bond, Agent 007 working for MI6, British Intelligence. The man has saved the world from evil madmen over twenty times and has battled evil henchmen all over the world. Everything or Nothing takes all of the basics of the James Bond formula and expands on them by creating a very intense and action-packed ride from beginning to end.

Story

Bond (played by Pierce Brosnan) is pitted up against Nikolai Diavolo (Willem Dafoe), who used to be Max Zorin's apprentice. Nikolai Diavolo has gotten some nano-technology and plans to use it for evil means and taking over Russia. Bond's mission is to stop him by any means necessary. While on your mission, you will team up with a two lovely ladies, one played by Mia, who also voices the game's song. The story is actually better than Die Another Day, the latest James Bond film; which shows that you can make a great story for a game without any narrative reference.

Gameplay|Control

All of the real life actors and actresses lend their voices and their faces to the game, giving the game a really movie-like feel. James Bond looks exactly like Pierce Brosnan; so much so, in fact, that he looks kind of creepy. To make the game feel even more like a movie, Mya has provided the game with a nice theme song; which is actually full length and plays while the beginning credits roll.

The first thing you will notice about Everything or Nothing, is that EA has dropped the traditional first-person view and instead totally changed everything and went with a very intensifying third-person view. The whole reason for switching to the new view was to let the player view Bond and control your character more freely. I have to say that this view is absolutely awesome and it is much more exciting than Nightfire and Agent Under Fire.

Because the action is in third-person, EA had to really step it up and provide good camera angles and a nice aiming system. They pulled through and provided great views of all the action. The aiming system provides a great amount of options when using your weapons. You can use the in-action aiming system, or you can use the Bond-Sense aiming method, which provides you with an ultra-slow motion view of your area. In this mode you can target anything that is usable or destroyable and just go for it.

There is an insane amount of missions and objectives that all keep the game's pace moving well. You will be shooting some guy off of a roof in the Big Easy and driving off cliffs in South America in a matter of a few missions, but the pacing is just fast enough to give you a sense of excitement.

Multiplayer capabilities are only unlocked after completing some two-player co-op missions with a buddy. Because this is the GC version, there is not too much in the Multiplayer area except some solid co-op missions and a couple death match modes. On the PS2 and the Xbox versions there is online capabilities that I will not go into now, but lets just say that the Game cube score will be lower because of the lack of more multiplayer options.

Graphics

Two words: Smooth, Fast. That is all I need to describe the game's graphics in a nutshell. The game runs very smoothly at a constant frame-rate, and this very action-oriented game never dips low. The character models all look nice also, and objects and buildings look like they ought to. Many objects explode and destruct very well and I give some serious props to EA for making this game so believable.

To give you an example of how well this engine does when there is a lot of speed, play the Pontchartrain Bridge level (which happens to be the longest bridge in the world). The Q-Bike will top speeds of 250 MPH and cars will zoom by at an alarming rate. You heart will be pumping so fast and flames are coming out of your bike, yet the engine does not slow down. The graphics remain smooth and solid even at those frighteningly high speeds.

The graphics are simply well done, and they are the best looking in any James Bond game to date. EON surpasses NightFire by more than you can imagine, not only because it looks better and plays smoother, but also because there is much more going on in the game.

Audio

There is a lot of high-quality voice work in the game and it features Pierce Brosnan, John Cleese, Willem Dafoe, Judi Dench, Mya, and many more famous actors. The acting is great, but they aren't really given much to work with. The lines are actually kind of cheesy, but I guess that is what we would expect from a Bond title. At least the high acting quality makes up for the sub-par lines and comebacks.

The James Bond theme runs all the way through the game and it includes some nice variations and subtleties that you would expect from a current movie. The game also has its own theme song, sung by Mya. It is actually much better than some movie songs that are appearing in James Bond movies these days (*cough* Die Another Day *cough*).

Overall the audio is fairly well and there are surprising grunts and yells that sort of grab your attention throughout the game. EA has done a great job with Monty Norman's James Bond theme and has altered the style, but not so much as to ruin his legacy.

Replay Value

The game is fairly easy on the Agent level, but there are more enemies and harder missions if you choose the harder route. You could probably play through the game twice and still be excited about playing it again. Playing with your friends will increase the game's replay value, but if you want to play against or with your friends or online, the PS2 or Xbox version would be better for you.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/02/05