007: Tomorrow Never Dies

"Good, but certianly no Goldeneye."

i was excited when i got to the store that day. A Bond game? For the Playstation? Cool! I eagerly shelled out the requisite 44 bucks and brought it home. The manual looked interesting, and the intro was fantastic! Then the game started. Ugggh! Purple snow? Guns that make no noise? Crappy Framerates? Choppy animation? What the hell is this? i prayed things would get better.

They didn't.

Lets start with Gameplay. Okay right up front this game strikes you as a Syphon Filter/Tenchu hybrid. The controls (though they arent configured like Syhpon Filter, might as well be since there are most of the same movement/aim options. I say most because some of the basics are missing. Bond cannot sidestep while crouched, making sniping some enemies a chore to hit rather than simple. The ability to roll when crouched is a cool option, but Bond moves in it with all the grace of a one-legged drunk wino. He moves like mollases, in other words, pretty crappy. He sneaks EXACTLY like Gabe would, though he ducks 2 seconds AFTER you stop moving. Huh?

Auto-Aim feature? Errr you could call it that. There is no button to easily lock onto the next enemy. instead, bond merely faces them. This is handy when you are being attacked from behind, but USELESS when there are 6 guys in front of you. instead, Bond auto-aims himself. Cool Idea, poorly implemented. You see, while you get the auto targeter around enemies ABOVE you, Bond only shoots on HIS level. in order to get those hard to reach bad guys, you got to manually aim it. TERRIBLE! Add to the fact poor James has TERRIBLE aim. (You'd think a spy for MI6 would learn to aim high.)

Speaking of enemies, they are about as observent as a Herring Sandwhich (Ahh! A herring sandwhich! i like Herring sandwhiches!) Drop one 3 feet from his comrade with a noisy gun, and his partner just spends 10 minutes looking around. oblivious to the fact his buddy has a gaping hole in his head.

Graphics? okay, its has it problems. Skip animation for a sec (dropped 2 points, its that awful). Colors are off, and textures are bland. Each level looks the same type of level before it (Snow levels look the same, Building levels look the same, ect.)

sound is good/bad. Sometimes and enemy will shoot, but you'll have no idea where he is because his gun wont go off...Huh? Were enemies issued silencers? Nope. There gun makes nose on the NEXT shot, allowing you to lose precious health wile trying to figure out just where the heck they are. The auto-lock feature helps alleviate this problem, but not by much.

Okay so what are its good points? Well, it really pulls off the 'feel' of a Bond game MUCH better than Goldeneye. Theres lots of gadgets, and Bond's cool BMW car. In fact, you never before have gotten such a feel for a Bond game. Also, unlike Syphon Filter, Bond has the ability to do a stealth attack. Useful! as it makes no noise and gives you a nice selection of options. Do I rush the guy and hope he dosent raise an alarm? Or do I sneak up on him, and knock him flat on his back? Weapons are varied, but not as diverse as Syphon Filter, or as cool as metal gear solid. Of course none of them had Cufflink disrupters, ehh?

Graphics-7: Marred by chopiness, terrible framerates.

Sound-6: MISSING sometimes.

Camera-8: Some clipping issues, but otherwise okay.

Controls-8: Good, easily configureable. Cinch to learn.

Playability-7: Still fun to play as Bond though.

Overall-6: RENT dont buy.

Amakusa Thinks that Gabe would win in a shootout, Snake would win in a fist fight, and Bond would STILL go home with ALL the women.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/29/99, Updated 11/29/99