James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing

"Wrong wrong WRONG! Here's why... (warning-EXTREME DETAILS)"

Although he's no stranger to danger, it could be argued that James Bond has never been closer ro death than he is now. The man who revived him, Pierce Brosnan, has hung up his bow tie, with new 007 Daniel Craig fighting off armies of fans enraged (unjustly) about his hair colour. The man carrying Ian Flemings literary Bond has walked out to write Splinter Cell novels and, perhaps most offensively of all, the people making the critically panned but highly enjoyable 007 games have resorted to turning out inept third person shooters to cover up the fact that they don't the talent to program the little finger on one of GoldenEyes guards. And they didn't even have little fingers.

The point of the Bond games, arguably more so than any other series, is that it lets YOU, the player, be Bond. You see through Bonds eyes, swan around doing Bond- type things, and swarms of evil cannon fodder are constantly shooting at YOU. Because you are 007, dodging bullets and returning fire with a precise aim as only her Maj's finest can.

While this formula has suffered a few setbacks since GoldenEye used it to thrilling effect, the prospect of actually being 007 has pulled it through the worse times, such as the cornflake-sprinkling guns and constant hints about things that are so obvious you've often already figured them out, as seen in Agent Under Fire, or Nightfires overly linear level design. The excitement of shooting, running, dodging and generally seeing the world through 007s cold blue eyes was enough to keeps players coming back.

The first thing EA have done here is to get rid of all that.

Yes, as you know we are in third person territory here. This means that you no longer are Bond, you just watch him do all his exiting things from the POV of a spasmodic butterfly. Now, I was disappointed about the new viewpoint when I heard of it but I was willing to give it a chance. After all, the Bond series moving towards the Hitman series, even slightly, is exactly what the series needs. And while the first person aspect is what made to Bond series what it was, with clever programming all the good things could be kept in place, while all the advantages of the new viewpoint could be used to make something new and special.

Clever programming? It looks good. After that its downhill.

The third person viewpoint constantly works to thwart the game at every turn. The game doesn't work like Hitman and it's ilk, in the sort of 1st/3rd person way, with the character looking and shooting where you point the camera. Here, moving the camera doesn't make Bond look or aim at anything at all. In fact Bond is frequently looking or even shooting directly INTO THE CAMERA. A big action game no-no, made worse by the fact that there is absolutely no way to get the camera back behind Bond without very slowly moving it around manually. A true sign of a game programmed by blind, crippled chimps.

Whats most offensive of all is that this free roving camera has clearly only been implemented for one purpose- to show off EAs lovely new Pierce Brosnan character model. At every turn, Bonds is pressing his back walls and throwing enemies over his shoulder, with the camera swooping into place to capture his manliness, often even slowing down and swooping round him when he throws a punch, in one of the games most irritating features. when its over, you WILL get punched in the face in the moments disorientation.

Which leads to the worst and most important aspect of the game. The shooting.

As stated before, you have no control over Bonds aim. Which means you have to rely on an auto-aim. Thats right, this is a shooting game where the game DOES THE AIMING FOR YOU. which as you can imagine, leads to a rather shallow experience. The only bit the player needs to be concerned with is actually trying to clean up the mess from when the auto-aim:
A) Ignores everyone who is shooting at you and targets an enemy several kilometers away from the firefight you are actually involved in. Often one who hasn't even seen you yet.
B) Refuses to target anything at all, even though you are taking fire from several people, with no obstacles between you and them.
C) Targets Barrels, ledges, rocks and general inanimate objects rather than, say, the enemy shooting at uou.
This actually means the player is involved at least half the time, since you get bet that one of these mishaps will happen one out of every two times you will press the aim button. But even when the system works, it's just dull. Let me put it into context.

1st Person Bond: You are sneaking quietly along a path, having alerted no-one. Suddenly, an enemy bursts out of an unexpected place, firing a stream of bullets at you. you very quickly sidestep behind cover, just avoiding the hail of bullets. You quickly pop out and fire a few shots, winging your enemy, who runs off to sound the alarm. Seizing your last chance, you pop out, bring up the aiming crosshair and carefully aim at the enemies back. After a few misses, your aiming skills pay off and you drop him at the last moment, wipe the sweat off your brow, and continue.

3rd Person Bond: You sneak quietly along the path. Suddenly, and enemy pops out and fires at you. You wrench the stick sideways and Bond does a little pirouette on the spot, taking a few bullets in the back as he casually jogs behind cover. You hold the auto-aim button, but it doesn't work. The enemy runs off for the alarm. You jog back out, hold L, and press R a few times. The enemy goes down, and you jog on.

So, yes the problem here is that all the skill and involvement has been taken out of shooting. you just hol one button and press another. You can slightly tweak your aim via the c-stick, but it doesn't lend any much needed involvement on the players part. The games main problem is it just doesn't demand and skill or attention.

Other problems include mind numbingly linear levels. There's one way in each room. And one way out. If you're lucky there might be a switch to press, but thats it.

M and Q. The game is so insulting simple that higher primates could get through it with little problem (beyond the aiming) so we really don't need the constant hints and pointers. Case in point: You are driving down a road. A film plays where a tank approaches and blocks off your route, but blows a gap in a wall you can escape through. When you regain control, John Cleese chips in with "Veer Left 007!" indicating the hole on the left, Even though its the one hole in an otherwise featureless wall and you have nowhere else to go. You don't even need to veer left, since the game has re-positioned you so you are facing the hole anyway, JUST TO MAKE SURE. This sort of thing happens a lot.

The driving stages, which were very playable highlights in the previous games, have returned in force. The have also been neatly screwed up, by simply making all the vehicles handle like oil-slicked penguins. Although they are still enjoyable when you get used to them, and help relieve the tension of the on-foot stages.

As you may have guessed EON is a badly flawed game. What makes it all the more painful is that there are things it does very well.

The enemies, for example are spot on. The AI is perfect. enemies are smart enough to pose a genuine threat, and dumb enough to still be beatable and y'know feel like Bond fim cannon fodder. These guys won't just stand there waiting to be shot. They will take cover behind whats available, press forward in teams, throw grenades at the right times (and run from yours). And there is often one guys who will do something stupid on his own, giving a sense of individuality. Even better, these guys take damage depending on where you shoot them, something that has been missing in recent 007 games. its just rubbish when you shoot a bud guy in the chest three times only for hi stand there and take it, until he just falls over when he's had enough. Not here. Shoot a guy in the leg, he'll hop. In the hand, he'll drop his gun (and run to find another) These guys are just what action game enemies should be.

And, it has to be said, the game looks stunning. The actor likenesses have been captured perfectly, and are full of personality. The games environments also have bags of atmosphere. Peru feels hot and exotic. New Orleans feels seedy and dangerous. Light reflects off puddles and everything is as it should be. It really helps build up a world for the game to unfold in. it's just a shame you can never really be a part of it.

The sound and music is also excellent. Barring a rubbish remix of THAT theme tune, it's tense, exiting and memorable. The voice acting is, of course, top-notch (and for what it must have cast EA it bloody well should be) and again contributes to giving you a genuine Bond movie to play around in.

The Story. 007 games have had their own story lines and characters for a while now (a testament to the strength of the franchise) and EON does have the best of the bunch. I won't go into any details on the story, but I will say that you can tell they have brought in an actual screenwriter from the Bond films. the story is messy, and very generic. The main villains evil plan is so stupid you almost feel sorry for the poor lunatic, and the pacing is all over the place, but there is a through line of credibility to it all. Bond is always given good reason to go to the places that he does, and all the characters fit nicely into the plot and have parts to play. It is nowhere near good enough to be a movie plot, but it is a cut above the other Bond games at least. It all falls apart before the end though. Any Bond story thats has its big finale as a shoot out in a WAREHOUSE needs a second look. Add a final fight that can won in under five seconds and you have problems. Still, other than this, good effort.

So, as always, 007s winning personality does go a long way toward making the mediocre at least partly enjoyable. But the fact remains that this time around you can't BE Bond, just watch him, and as such this game doesn't even come close to the rest of the series. This game is just about on par with Agent Under Fire, the weakest 1ST person entry to the series, and is nowhere near as good as Nightfire. And as for GoldenEye, pfffft...

There is a limited amount of fun to be had here, if you are very forgiving. And it is better than it's sequel, From Russia with Love (which fails largely for the same reasons) but no amount of graphical gloss or expensive face can hide a game that is severely flawed and ineptly coded, and is a huge downward turn for the Bond series. that can only be rectified by nailing the camera firmly back where it belongs- in Bonds head.

Only Daniel Craig can save us now...

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 02/28/06