James Bond 007: NightFire

"Like Agent Under Fire, but it's actually fun"

007: Nightfire is a Bond game that mixes Goldeneye with Agent Under Fire. I know when you heard Agent Under Fire, you shuttered; but Nightfire takes the few good parts of it and makes them spectacular.

GAMEPLAY - This game is deep. Take Goldeneye, and add the ability to make enemies surrender, have a lot more gadgets, different ways to get from one part of the level to the next, and better graphics and you'll have an idea about Nightfire's Gameplay. The weapons fire realistically, and you can even change the rate of fire on some of them. Most weapons also have a secondary fire which varies from adding a silencer to shooting grenades. Also, there are tons of weapons at Bond's disposal. If you've played Agent Under Fire, you'll know that the game has a variety of levels. Of course there are first person shooting levels (which are the most fun), but there are also levels where you drive a car, and levels where you control a gun while going on a fixed path. At times it ruins the great first person shooting aspect of the game. But, that's nothing to really worry about. The one bad thing about Nightfire is at times, guards can be so stupid (I really only noticed this on the second mission). You can shoot one guy who's standing three feet from another guard, and the other guy won't even move. That's very believable.

-Positives:
*Nice levels
*Tons of weapons
*Nice gadgets
*Great shooting game
*Multiple ways to proceed through a level

-Negatives:
*AI can be really stupid
*Some of the fixed path (kinda like Virtua Cop, but not as good) missions are not fun

GRAPHICS - Nightfire's has some really nice graphics. The textures are great, and they don't look too repetitive. Guns are modeled very well, and so are the people. I have not noticed any glitches or slowdown either. Overall, this is one of the best looking first person shooting games available now.

-Positives:
*People look good
*Nice textures
*Weapons are awesome

-Negatives:
*Some parts of the environment can't be shot or blown up

STORY - Nightfire has a completely original storyline that has nothing to do with the movie Die Another Day. Your job is to stop a mad man from making nuclear warheads. The story is pushed along well through cut scenes, and the level variety makes the story flow smoothly. Story Mode is okay, but most of your time will be spent playing against friends and/or bots in multiplayer mode.

-Positives:
*Nice cut scenes

-Negatives:
*Same Bond scenario (which isn't necessarily a bad thing)

MULTIPLAYER - As good as Nightfire's single player is, it cannot compete with the multiplayer portion of the game. It's a mix of Goldeneye with Perfect Dark (you can have bots). What makes it even better is that there are so many different modes that you can play like Deathmatch, Team King of the Hill, Capture the Flag, Goldeneye (you have to put the two pieces together to score a point), etc. Plus, you can play as all kinds of classic characters including Baron Samedi, Odd Job, Nic Nack, Jaws, Scarmanga, Goldfinger, Xenia Onnatop, and many more. Most of the characters need to be unlocked though. The bad thing about multiplayer is there aren't many maps, and with the exception of one or two maps, the levels are terrible. The few good maps more than make up for the others. Also, there are no custom weapon sets, just pre-made selections like MI6 weapons, State of the Art, Explosives, etc.

-Positives:
*You can play with (controllable) gun turrets on
*Lots of characters
*Tons of modes
*The best FPS multiplayer game I can think of

-Negatives:
*Levels feel like they were thrown together
*No custom weapon sets

LASTING APPEAL - There are so many things to unlock while you play Nightfire. If you want all of the modes, characters, and options for multiplayer, you'll have to unlock them by getting medals in single player (or by cheating). The multiplayer alone is reason enough to keep playing the game. A lot of the levels are short, so it won't take most people long to beat the game.

-Positives:
*Lots of unlockables
*Multiplayer mode is the best

-Negatives:
*Levels can get boring

OVERALL - Nightfire is a game that will stay in my collection for a long time. This is one of a select few amount of games that I recommend to anyone because it is so easy to just pick up a controller and play. Like I said before though, Nightfire has an awesome multiplayer and a decent single player mode (so don't expect too much out of Story Mode). I even think that the multiplayer mode is better than Unreal Championship, and I loved Unreal Tournament. That'd be nice if they had downloadable content via Xbox Live. I give Nightfire a 8.5 (which rounds up to a 9) out of 10 because it is a game that provides endless amounts of fun.

BUY OR RENT (multiplayer) - BUY
BUY OR RENT (single player) - RENT

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/20/02, Updated 12/20/02