"Good when you're alone, but don't bring your friends over"

The World is Not Enough is a James Bond-license game, based on the movie of the same name. The Bond-license games are pretty interesting, since they've got so big differences and therefore bounce all over the score map. I guess you've already seen what score I gave the game before you clicked in here, so now let me tell you why I gave it that score.


Graphics

You will have a choice of two graphic qualities, one being standard and the other hi-color. If I've understood everything correctly, hi-color will only be available if you've got an expansion pak installed in your console. The difference between these two modes is pretty large, and while I only played for a little time on standard, I found it inferior to the level of irritating. A lot of jagged edges and an overall "haziness" just makes the game feel boring. Hi-color, however, is really nice and really seems to squeeze the most out of the console.

Character designs are a little disappointing. They all seem to be from the same basic model, as they're all equal in length and body type. The animations, however, are nice and smooth, and I am quite impressed by some physics in the game. One level take place mostly on wooden walkways, and some of those walkways gets sawed off, which leaves them falling or rocking back and forth. A thing like that maybe shouldn't be that amazing, but seeing big environmental objects move like that isn't common in N64 games.

The frame rate is good as long as you don't move too fast with a lot of things going on at screen at once. Sometimes it dips, but it only happens for brief periods and very rarely. The draw distance, however, can become very irritating on some levels, since the enemies will be able and see you and shoot at you, but you can't see them and are left to fire blindly. This wouldn't be that much of a problem if only the enemies didn't carry rocket launchers, since with them even a non-direct hit can be lethal. That is just a problem in one level, though, and for most of the time you're indoors or has walls of some sort that makes it a little "twisting and turning", meaning you won't have to look out into the foggy darkness wondering what's out there.


SFX and music

The music is some sort of "general spy themes", with soft synthesizer-heavy music at a high tempo, meant to fit in with the levels. It gets quite repetative after a while, and if it isn't the same tracks that are used for multiple levels, they're very similar. One thing I really miss is the classic Bond theme, that really would've added to the experience of playing a real Bond game.

Unusually for a N64 game, this game has some voice acting. It's a nice touch, but a little sad that only John Cleese returned to do his role, all others are done by soundalikes. That's not a big problem, though, since the voices are so heavily compressed you probably would've thought the original actors sounded strange too.

The rest of the sound effects, while not entirely realistic, at least never feels too out of place.


Story

The story is based of the Bond movie by the same name, and follows the original story way better than most movie-license game. Even if some parts where the movie only showed 1-2 minutes are now full-blown levels, there are no extra levels thrown in just to fill out the game. Another nice thing from the developers is that a very cool area, which Bond never visited in the movie, is a multiplayer map instead. Way better than trying to work it into a single-player one, messing up the story.

The story is shown partly through text message briefings from the headquarters before each mission (from M, Q Branch and others), and the other part of the story unfolds during the missions as cutscenes or audio clips. At some parts, it can be a bit hard to see/understand what's actually going on due to the lack of detail and space for voices, so it might be a good idea to watch the movie before you start playing the game.


Gameplay and controls

The game is divided into a number of levels, each with a set of objectives you have to fulfill. Those can range from actively doing things like "Wiretap the phones" to passive things ("Don't harm the civilians") or just getting to the end of the level. On most levels, it's a combination. The objectives is what makes this game so much more fun to play than a standard run'n'gun shooter, and for many of them can be completed in multiple ways. What objectives you get for each level is affected by the difficulty level, on harder difficulties there are more things for you to do. More about difficulties later.

The levels each have their unique traits, and some are more successful than others. There are plain-out action levels, some "undercover" levels, a skiing level (which is like an on-rail shooter), and even stealth levels. The stealth levels are kind of a disappointment - there are two of them - but that stealthy feeling you get from some other games isn't really present here. In the first of these levels, you feel pretty limited since you aren't allowed to shoot guards, since they're on your side. Still you've got a stunner/sleeping dart weapon, but it never feels stealthy since the darts are limited and very short-lasting (especially on harder difficulties). The stunner, on the other hand, is a close range weapon, so you need to sneak up on a guard and try to stun him and punch him out. It just never feels the same as always hiding in the shadows while either avoiding or taking out the guards.

The controls are good, except for one feature - the jumping. No matter what control style you're using, jumping never feels comfortable. It's also a problem that it's hard to know exactly where your feet are, making some leaps very hard to do before you get the hang of it.

There are several control styles to choose from, and you'll probably be able to find something that suits you. What's strange, though, is that one control style is faster than the others. I'd prefer it if they were all alike, and the only thing that would decide which one you'd use is the one you find easiest and most effective. As it is now, one style can cut several seconds total of a level time, which can be quite important.

Overall, the difficulty of the game is well-adjusted. There are three difficulty levels, and the harder ones throw more enemies at you, which are better at aiming, and they take more hits to kill. In addition to that, on many levels you also get new objectives to complete. This is really enough to warrant three playthroughs of the game, you'll also find out that the learning curve works great. When you're finished with the easiest difficulty, you'll have learned some techniques and the levels well enough to be able to tackle the medium one, and same thing with the hardest. Though there are some levels that has a leap in difficulty, you will be able to complete them with a bit of practice. One level in particular is frustrating since civilians aren't allowed to die, and there's a LOT of stray bullets swooshing through the air. But still, practice (and a bit of luck) makes perfect!

Another thing that's been done to give the game more value is the timed unlockables. Complete the levels on a specific difficulty under a certain time limit, and you get a reward. Sadly enough, those rewards are only for the multiplayer part of the game, and it would've been much better if they had included some that could be used in the actual game too.


Multiplayer

The multiplayer is the biggest letdown of the game. As I just said, you have to unlock much of it through single-player challenges, and some players might not want to do that if they've got their friends over and haven't got a savegame ready.

Or, for they player who haven't got any friends available, there's bots. Strangely enough these are almost incredibly stupid, and they just never feel even close to human competition. Another thing that's irritating is that often an enemy holds the gun in front of his face (aiming), which makes it very hard to get headshots unless you're on an elevated spot of the map.

The arenas feel cramped and boring too, there was only one that I found pretty fun to use. Another big drawback with multiplayer is the teaming. Why, oh why, aren't we allowed to use Good and Evil characters on the same team? Ok that a Bond vs M fight wouldn't happen in the movie, but isn't idea of character selection in multiplayer to be able to pick your favourite (or the one best camouflaged) and be able to play as him/her?

Multiplayer should be avoided, you can try it out once or twice just to try it, but you probably won't become addicted to it. This makes it even more frustrating that the unlockables are multi-only, since it's a big chance that you'll never use them.


TOTAL

Overall, I'd rank The World is Not Enough as a good first person shooter, especially if you're into the objective based gameplay. I'd rank this as the third best FPS game I've played for the N64, Perfect Dark and Goldeneye being the first two, so if you've played them and are looking for something new I definitely say you should check this up! Just remember that the multiplayer is nowhere near those two in quality, this is a game you buy for the single-player experience, and that single-player experience is well made, and also it's more long-lasting than you might think from the start. Though the game has got its share of problems, it's not anything that should keep you from playing the game.

Overall score - 7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 10/11/10

Game Release: 007: The World Is Not Enough (EU, 12/08/00)