James Bond 007: NightFire

"A decent Bond adventure"

I like the new Bond movies and I am sad to say I have never seen any pre-Brosnan. I do own a few of the older films on DVD; I just haven't gotten to them yet. Now, I grabbed this game from the used bargain bin because I remember liking it when I rented it many years ago. Now I am trying to judge this title by when it came out but man, the game still needs some work.

It's your typical Bond plot. Bond must stop evil man from trying to destroy the planet. This time around it involves space and some other things. It felt a little absurd and I haven't not cared this much since World is Not Enough (movie wise, let's never talk of that game...). The Bond girl is alright but there have been better in the games so far.

Graphic wise this is a great title to show how the graphics have changed. Bond sort of looks like Brosnan, a little flat and lifeless. The interiors and exteriors in the game are nicely done. Not overly detailed but detailed enough to make them believable. Cut scenes look alright but I wouldn't write home about them.

Sound wise I found the game weak. Some of the guns sound so far from what they should that it actually bothered me and really, I'm not into guns but these noises were annoying. Music in the game is forgettable and the theme is one of the worst I've heard. Voice acting is good, no complaints there.

This game offers a very solid control set-up. You can pick from 9 or so different settings and I found the Night fire setting to work best for me. The normal had some weird turning thing going on with the right stick that felt wrong. On Night fire setting it's your typical console FPS controls.

Night fire is split into 12 missions. I think there is something like 5 driving missions, 1 stealth mission and the rest are your typical first person shooter. The mission objectives are rather bland as well. Use this gadget on this computer. Don't kill anyone. Save these people.

Actually, a few of the objectives didn't feel Bond like to me. The stealth in the office building and the rescue the geisha thing was annoying as well. Not hard mind you but annoying and it just didn't fit Bond.

The driving missions are alright and I have played much worse. It is rather straight forward with maybe one or two in all of them that requires you to veer off the path. It's pretty much drive, shoot and uses gadgets to stop cops without killing them. The problem I have is that the car feels like its floaty and to be honest it isn't a real problem but it makes the game feel cheesy.

The game is fairly short and if it takes you more than five hours then I don't know what you were doing in the game. I beat it in one sitting. Besides that the game does offer a few different types of multiplayer, your typical capture the flag and all of that. The game offers bots which is a plus. From what I understand this is the closest a new Bond title has gotten to Goldeneye's multiplayer.

Is Night fire a great game? No, it has its flaws. It's short, but you can always play on harder settings. The game does have a ranking system of bronze, silver and gold metals. I found I usually got a gold on most of them on my first time. The AI in the game is actually good; the enemies will run and take cover. I think my biggest problem is that some levels have no real check points, like the sub level and when you die at the end by accident and have to redo the entire thing again, it gets annoying after a while. The loading every time a new area of that level comes up is annoying as well and really makes the game feel clunkier than it is.

Story - 6/10
Graphics - 8/10
Sound - 6/10
Control - 8/10
Game Play - 6/10
Replay value - 7/10

Final Score - 7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/22/07