James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing

"This is one Martini that has been stirred"

James Bond: Everything or Nothing

The name's Bond, James Bond. Yes, James Bond has returned in his 5th adventure by Electronic Arts. Ever since the critically acclaimed Goldeneye (made by Rareware) for the Nintendo 64, several companies have tried to outdo it, but most did not succeed. Even the Bond games released afterwards did not exceed the greatness of Goldeneye. Did James Bond: Everything or Nothing surpass the amazing Goldeneye, or will it fail like all the rest? Find out in my review.

Gameplay
Instead of going with a First-Person Shooter like The World is Not Enough (N64), Agent Under Fire (Xbox, GameCube, PS2), and Nightfire (Xbox, GameCube, PS2), James Bond: Everything or Nothing is a Third-Person Shooter, not unlike Max Payne. Thanks to this, the hand-to-hand combat is greatly improved over previous titles. You may be asking yourself ''But Lunar, James Bond is about guns, not hand fighting!'' Well in order to make the 3rd-person perspective work, EA has put in a Lock-On feature you activate by pressing L. Once locked-on, you can manually move the reticle pointing where you shoot, so you can pick what body part to hit. The lock-on can be a little flaky at times, as sometimes it won't lock on to what you want it to. In order to switch your guns, you simply press left or right on the D-Pad. Once in the inventory, the game slows down to bullet time (ala The Matrix), giving you time to select your weapon. The inventory could have been better done though, as it can be hard to find the gun you want.

*WARNING!!! Small Spoilers*
The story in Everything or Nothing is a typical Bond story. The main villain, Nikolai Diavlo (voiced and modeled after famous actor William DaFoe, aka the Green Goblin from Spider-Man the movie), who was once a disciple of ex-KGB agent, Max Zorin (villain from Roger Moore's 1985 Bond movie ''A View to a Kill'', played by Christopher Walken), wants to get revenge on Bond for killing his mentor. He steals some small nano-bots that were designed to repair objects.

*END SMALL SPOILERS*

Why does Nikolai want these micro-repair droids? It's up to Bond to find out. You uncover his twisted plot over a series of around 30 levels. Each of the levels vary in what they are like. First you got the straight forward action levels that require you to go from point A to point B, or retrieve an object, while blasting baddies at the same time. There are also some stealth levels there as well. Then you got the driving levels. There are a total of four different vehicles you drive. There is of course his Aston Martin V12 Vanquish from Die Another Day, a Porsche Cayenne SUV, a Triumph Daytona motorcycle, and to top it all off, a Rubinovsky SF-63 tank. Sometimes the levels mix a few of the different elements together into one. Also as an added bonus, Jaws, the metal toothed assassin from The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker, returns to take a bite out of Bond.

Bond comes equipped with Q-labs latest equipment. Thermal vision, Q-Grapple, and coin grenades are just icing to the cake. Bond also comes equipped with Q's newest invention, the Spider cam. It is a little robotic, remote controlled spider which Bond can use to enter small areas he normally wouldn't be able to fit in. Later on, some of the equipment gets upgrades (like adding a EMP function to the coin grenade, or a explosive trigger in the spider bot.) He also gets his own cloaking device. Some of the gadgets require battery power to run.

Graphics
The graphics in James Bond: Everything or Nothing are extremely good, especially for an EA game. It's kind of scary how close Bond looks like Pierce Brosnan in this game. It is like starring into a mirror. All the characters look very photo-realistic to their voice actors and the actors who play them in the movies. M looks like Judy Dench, Q looks like John Cleese, Nikolai looks like William DaFoe, and so on. Some of the textures look a but blurry close up, but over all this game looks very realistic. Each level has a different looking setting then the previous, so you don't see yourself in the same area twice all that often.

Music/Sound
Just like Nightfire, Everything or Nothing comes with a theme song. This time around, it is sung by singer Mya (Note: Mya also plays a role in the game *coughlamecough*) Once you get to the main menu, the main Bond theme plays. Most of the levels have different music then the last, but I can't help but noticing all the music sounds a little familiar. Well in recent Bond movies, most of the music does sound similar to each other, but it's not that big of a problem. From gunshots, to explosions, to flooring your car to escape the pursuing henchmen, all the sound effects sound very authentic to real-life.

Multiplayer
Want to play Everything or Nothing with a friend? No problem! EA was kind enough to include a variety of different multiplayer options. Out of the choices, it of course comes with split screen multiplayer. Sorry, like all EA games on Xbox, Everything or Nothing features no Live support. There is also a cooperative mode, but unlike most other co-op modes in other games, Everything or Nothing's cooperative mode has different levels then single player, so you get 2 stories in one (although there are no cut-scenes in co-op).

Final Thoughts
Overall, Everything or Nothing is a damn fine game, but it still fails to beat Goldeneye, sadly. The single player missions can actually get pretty challenging and the Platinum Awards are actually difficult to get this time around (they were easy to get in Agent Under Fire and Nightfire). If you want a game that's single player, mutliplayer, and unlockables will last you a long time, or you are just a big James Bond fan, you'll probably want to pick this game up. Easily the most Bondiest Bond game yet.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/06/04