James Bond 007: NightFire

"Whoa! This one is actually better than the last!"

I got admit, at first I thought this game was going to be bad but boy was I wrong. It actually proves to me that EA could put the franchise to work.

Once again, the plot has James Bond having working to find an evil criminal mastermind - Rafael Drake the owner of a secret organization who is bent on world domination. As always, EA included the standard to every James Bond game - The Triple G or in another words the girls, the guns, and the gadgets as well as all those nice vehicle missions. This mission in particular takes James Bond to the Austrian Alps where he'll fight underwater, in the jungle, and in space as well. The gameplay itself was average, but although improved a lot from the last James Bond game. The Xbox version having not a spot of a difference from the PlayStation 2/GameCube versions once again (EA, System Link and Custom Soundtracks would have worked). The new thing to this James Bond game however is the controls. You can pick the one you like or play the default one which is basically copied from Halo. Wheatear or not your a fan, its all good.

The best damn thing to NightFire, and what made it get such a high score from me is the Multiplayer. The Multiplayer is improved greatly (still could use some work), and will last you such a long time. My favorite level was the castle overlooking the lodge with a skyline in between you could take to there and back. This is really useful types such as CTF. The multiplayer also includes modes like King of the Hill (Team or Solo), Hunt-People Down, Assassination, Goldeneye Strike, Recover the Data or Protect (basically CTF), and Destroy the uplink. NightFire also has bots you can use (Easy, Normal, or Hard) and so many different skins from the previous versions as well. Alec from Goldeneye, Jaws from previous versions, all the babies and the rest of the characters from the actual game as well. You can also control (not drive) mini tanks or helicopters with a fire button as well. The multiplayer is one of the fun things to do in this game, but sadly EA didn't include System Link (which the PC version got 32 player online).

I think I'm going to recommend this game. Its price tag should be pretty low about 20, 25 dollars at any EBGames store. Granted, EA has a lot of work in front of them if they want to make a game as good as Rare's work on Goldeneye, which I think they can do if they don't hold out on the Live support which they would probably do. Get a friend over, or play with bots, this game is still kickass in Multiplayer.

Final Reviewed Score: 8/10 - Great!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/31/03