"A Great James Bond Game Overshadowed by Rare"

Introduction

Another Pierce Brosnan as James Bond movie, and another videogame to accompany the movie The World is Not Enough. The World is Not Enough for the N64 is not bad at all, but it is considerably different from the revolutionary Goldeneye 007. What you get from The World is Not Enough is a very good Bond game that is probably as close to Goldeneye as you could get for a James Bond videogame sequel.

Gameplay 8

The controls are easy to use and offer some new concepts for the first person shooter genre. An easy item and weapon selection system can bring up the thing you need to keep going in the game by holding the A button and pressing the B button to quickly select an item. Moving around can be difficult depending on how old your control stick. Once again you again strafe around with the C buttons as well as jump and duck for cover. The control stick moves Bond around and the movement is kind of slow using that old control stick. The missions vary tremendously and there are some fun levels involving vehicles and even a level on skis. There are even some bonus levels you can unlock although I do not think I ever unlocked them. Multiplayer is innovative enough with the use of AI bots and various maps and gametypes to play on. The bots can hold their own, but you can only use up to three and won't be able to use any if you have all four human players present.

Story 9

It is easy to have a good story if you stay true to the movie version of the game. The World is Not Enough does exactly that right down to some of the dialogue featured in the game. The game plays itself out as the movie itself and with only a little variation in the missions (you can't have Bond just walking out the bank without wasting a few henchmen) and it also includes the likenesses of the characters in the movie although the dialogue is voiced by other people and not the actors in the movie. It is not an Ian Flemming script, but it is still a good Bond plot with some interesting bad guys.

Sound/Graphics 7

I really like the gun sounds in this game even though they sound like shooting weapons from an old Western. The voice dialogue is professional and as close as it gets to having the real actors voice their characters in the game. The graphics I'm not so big on. We know you can have some limited variation in the detail of characters that are not important like the enemies you shoot up in this game. The main characters are detailed of course although the first time I saw Bond he looked like his face was smashed in. The enemies could use some better detail and variation. The music of course is very similar to The World is Not Enough's soundtrack.

Replayability 7

The World is Not Enough plays for a long enough time even if you are playing through on Agent. The missions are objective based and take a while to complete and there is always a chance of failing your mission and having to play it all over again. I haven't played this game in so long that I forgot about a lot of the things that make this game fun to play through again. The multiplayer is great for a party game and you can also enjoy it without any friends to play with. There is a lot of replay value to this game and a lot of missions to back and enjoy.

Final Recommendation 7.75/10

I think The World is Not Enough is a great James Bond game that is severely underscored by it's more famous predecessor. This underscoring also makes this a game that is overshadowed and not as memorable as Goldeneye 007. It is no Goldeneye, but it has some improvements over Goldeneye that were also overshadowed by Rare's release of Perfect Dark. If you are a fan of the Bond series and want a game that doesn't try to capitalize on the Goldeneye fame then this is definitely worth the buy. It is still fun to play despite the N64's limited capabilities and any Bond fan will appreciate how well The World is Not Enough stays true to the movie.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/02/08

Game Release: 007: The World is Not Enough (US, 11/01/00)