007: The World is Not Enough

""Shaken not stirred""

After its brief hiatus from the Nintendo 64 the Bond series is back on the Nintendo 64 with the game licence of The World is not Enough. Yet The World is not Enough (they would have to give it a big title...) might as well be called Goldeneye 2. The game copies and (it has to said) improves upon many of the ideas Goldeneye implemented. Although this isn't a bad thing, Goldeneye was a superb first person shooter and I've been waiting ages for James Bond to return.

The storyline is a typical 007 style plot. A businessman named Sir Robert King purchased a document that he believed to contain information on the terrorist attacks to his oil pipeline in Kazakhstan. The document actually contained a classified report from the Russian Atomic Energy Department; this report was stolen from from a MI6 agent who was murdered for it. However, a Swiss banker named Lachaise, a middleman in this affair, has offered to return Sir Robert's money. Bond's task is to collect this money and find out who killed the agent. The plot gets thicker as you work through the game; it's a great storyline. Not quite as good as Goldeneye though...

If you've played Goldeneye you'll be right at home with this game. The controls are almost exactly the same. The A button selects your gadget or weapon, the B button reloads or opens stuff and the Z button is the trigger. However there is one big difference - the inclusion of a jump button. It is controlled by the top C button and means that you can jump onto platforms, etc. It doesn't actually add a lot to the game in terms of control but it does mean that Eurocom could include some levels with ridges and platforms, which is great.

The locations in The World is not Enough are all true to the movie and are very varied. You start the game off in a bank in Spain but in the end you are on a submarine in a completely different part of the world. And that's the thing I love about the Bond movies, all the locations that you get to go to. Anyway, the best level has to be the one set in the London Underground. It includes ticket machines, moving (yes, moving) trains and some intense terrorist ass kicking action. However the whole level is a fight against the clock, as you need to defuse a bomb hidden in one of toilets. I'm wondering how they managed that though, surely somebody would have noticed a guy wandering into the cubicle with a big black box.

That brings me nicely onto the gadgets and weapons of TWINE or the Q division if you like... There are a feast of different guns and gadgets to play with. The gadgets all have a purpose but some are fun as well. Take the X-Ray goggles for example, they are a fantastic experience. But you can't see through people clothes, which may disappoint some of you! But, moving away from X ray vision... The guns are of a similar quality to the gadgets. They all come with two functions and are great for unloading your anger on enemies that happen to get in your way. Or any enemies you find, either way it's enjoyable!

Enemy AI isn't very clever in TWINE. In fact some of the guards would be queuing up outside the unemployment office if I were in charge of things. Sneaking past guards is too easy and sometimes you can pick off an enemy while he is chatting to another guy. The one you shot will hit the deck but the other guy will carry on with his conversation. This lack of challenge isn't excusable but it is explainable. A few of the levels require you to employ stealth and not kill a single person, the enemy AI has been lowered for these levels so you don't get shot every two seconds.

The multiplayer mode in TWINE is good for a while and the option to play with four bots in areas specifically designed for four player fights is fun. But the mode isn't as entertaining as Perfect Dark's multiplayer mode and eventually you'll get bored of it. The enemy AI isn't always as clever as it could be (like in the single player game) and usually the computer opponent just runs after you even if the only weapon it possess is a handgun.

Visually TWINE is a great game. The detail is great and the underground military testing place is excellent. The corridors look exactly like the movie and the explosion that's occurs is excellent. And that is only one example. The whole game is great and miles ahead of Goldeneye though not quite on the same level as Perfect Dark. It's close though. There aren't any odd glitches in the game either; you'll see no body parts appearing through walls in this game! TWINE's cinema scenes are done using in game graphics because FMV isn't an option. But I actually prefer the in game graphics for movies; it keeps the whole game looking the same.

Sound is another plus for TWINE. There is no Bond theme and that is a con but the recorded speech creates a great atmosphere and every time you speak to someone they will say something even if it's just ''I'm very busy'' or ''Hello''. It adds a good sense of realism to the game. And makes it more than just an update to a dated game (Goldeneye). Yet beneath all the new features it is essentially the same game that I played three years ago and doesn't offer as much as Perfect Dark. The urge to be Bond all over again is just to strong though...

The World is not Enough – 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/23/01, Updated 05/24/01