007: Tomorrow Never Dies

"Its not the worst Bond game to grace the Playstation, but it is definitely not the best either!"

Bond. James Bond. He has flown all over the world, dueled with burly assassins, sent megalomanics to their deaths, driven many stylish and gadget ridden cars, and now he has come to the Playstation. Many thought that the shining elements featured in Goldeneye would now entertain the Playstation owners, but unfortunately, Tomorrow Never Dies just has the wrong approach. Syphon Filter was a great, popular hit, and this game wanted to be just like it, except this would have a well known hero. And instead of following Goldeneye's approach that entertained thousands of Nintendo owners and became one of the best renowned games of all time, Tomorrow Never Dies tried to become Syphon Filter instead.

The latter is not a bad role model; I myself had a great time with the 3rd person action, but this game was not Syphon Filter; it is a horrible mess that tries to impresonate it. The best way to get popularity is to suck off the popularity of others, but instead of bringing a new, better Goldeneye to the Playstation, they brought us this purely mediocre game instead. A huge disappointment to say the least.

Graphics
Think of the graphics in Goldeneye, which is much older than this game, and you have an accurate representation of what this game looks like. The characters are blocky, poorly detailed and unrealistic. Bond merely has the same vague characteristics of that thing we see on screen, he looks nothing like the dark haired hero in this. All the characters are poorly portrayed, and detract from that in-the-movie sense.

On the other hand, the environments were quite well done. The level design was different, and spanned large distances that pushed the Playstation to its limits. The snow was quite realistic, albeit rather boring to look at (though after all, it is just snow), but the basic quality is there. Unfortunately, very little detail was included; I would have liked mud, blood or just a little more wildlife in what I saw, which usually consisted of pure white with are poorly portrayed hero in front. That was the main problem: the environments had great level designs, but were repetitive nonetheless. For example, the skiing levels are just straight shots downhill will several identical trees littering the pure white hill. Come on, this really could have been better done.

The FMV sequences were also a little disappointing. It is a privilage to be a game based on a movie; there is no need to make your own FMVs, as you can just take them from the film! Unfortunately, they were very short and detatched in the game. This limits the storytelling and interest you have in the game.

Overall, the graphics are mediocre at best, and lack the detail and quality to make it great. 6/10.

Sound
This, to some, is the strongest part of the game, because it is perfect in every way. Unfortunately, I beg to differ. Though it has many bright spots, there are just a few annoying additions that bring down the score.

For example, the voice acting and sound effects. The former was poorly done, as nobody sounded even close to what is heard in the movies. I realize that it is hard to get an exact match, but Bond in this sounds like he is muttering under his breath instead of speaking slyly. The sound effects were also quite bad. The assault rifle sounded flat and boring, the Walther cliched and the grunts atrocious. If you get shot, you grunt unrealistically. If you get shot with a machine gun, you grunt as fast as you are getting hit with bullets. It sounds something like this:

ugh...ooo...ugh ugh ugh ooo ugh ooo ugh ugh ugh ow ooo ow ugh ugh ugh ooo ow ow ugh.

This gets tired very quickly, and so the realism goes way down.

There was a bright side to the sound though: the music. Sure, the creaters basically copied the original Bond tune, but each level has its own, unique track that is funky yet suspicion generating. Bravo to the music, as it was the only decent thing! Overall, the sound is very poor and gets a 3/10, but the music is great and get an 8/10.

Gameplay
Well, it was good while it lasted. That mediocre streak that Tomorrow Never Dies had going has ended, and now you are stuck with this. The premise is actually enticing: you are James Bond, a great hero (who is British too!) who I sent on a mission of the upmost importance. If you fail, there will be a huge war, and one media baron will be benefitting from it. But here is where the problems start; as soon is you pop in the disk, you will notice it.

The game is a 3rd person shooter. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy 3rd person games with shooting aspects (such as Resident Evil), but a great shooter should be like Goldeneye, where the action is intensified by the view; with a 1st person, you can actually see what Bond sees, so in effect you are him. But if you can get past the annoying view, it is actually quite entertaining. There are a variety of missions you have to do. For example, you can ride of skis, drive around in a gadget filled car and blast enemy convoys. These different types of levels add a great sense of variety, although you basically do the same thing.

The control scheme is a little rigid and confusing, but they are easy to get used to and offer a larger amount of movement than a 1st person shooter. I believe this is the only game on the Playstation (that I have played) that you can actually roll and shoot; most shooters only allow you to strafe.

Unfortunately, that variety mentioned earler went out the window with the weapons. Through the whole game, you just need to use the awful sounding assault rifle and you can beat the game easily. Sure, you may have to use a rocket launcher once in a while, but it just gets repetitive. And that variety is worsened by the difficulty; you will not experience it because of the arduous nature of the game.

For example, the second level is completed when you photograph 3 vehicles and then fly off in a plane. The problem is, that one of those vehicles is hidden in a large storage box, and there is not clue given to where it is. So if you do blow up all the boxes and hope you get lucky, you then have to pilot the plane. Sadly, you have to find a poorly placed key, so while a bomb is about to wipe you out and several guards are shooting you to death, you are lokking for a tiny silver key. So when you die, you have to replay this annoying level all over again.

Overal, the gameplay is sometimes a little entertaining, but falls short on any levels, making it a chore to play. 5/10.

Replayability
With only 10 levels and a few videos to unlock, Tomorrow Never Dies won't last you long, and you will soon be loking for cheats to liven it up. That is, if you can stnad playing it. 5/10.

Overall
It was good while it lasted, but the game just falls short of everyone's expectations and it pains me to say it, but maybe I shouldn't have wasted 5 pound buying this. If all the problems were ironed out, I would not mind the 3rd person view as much. But still, I say rent it if you are interested, or buy it if it is less than $15.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 08/28/03