Yes, a Bond game that strictly focuses' on driving does exist, and I was shocked to find out as well. The idea of a racing game involving the Bond vehicles sounds fun for a multiplayer mode, but to carry on an entire game sounds boring and ridiculous. Well, after buying a copy of the game and popping it in to give it a try, though it was still bad, it wasn't as terrible or stupid as I anticipated. Instead of getting a cheap "Mario Kart" knock-off as the title and tie-in may suggest, I was pleased to see more variety to the missions. They'll be times where a player would have to race to an objective before time runs out or before another villain gets there. But then there would be tasks involving destruction such as destroying a certain number of enemy cars, demolishing a base, and of course, recusing a Bond girl. And the best part is, despite having similar objectives, the missions don't all feel the same; there's always something new added to keep them from feeling repetitive. For instance, while one mission involves Bond to plant detonators' to destroy a base and rescue an ally, another level with a similar objective has Bond controlling the car through the perspective of a faulty security camera in night-vision that unexpectedly changes angles and glitches. There are plenty of missions where the player has to chase down a villain and damage the vehicles to apprehend them, but different methods are used for each level, such as lasers, ramming the car at a weak spot of a vehicle, or gathering ammo for a rocket launcher before giving the enemy the final blow. While on the topic of picking up ammo, there are also missions where Bond has to collect a certain number of items while also making a deadline. Some of those missions include collecting homing beacons while racing against a female assassin or collecting antidotes while escaping an underwater facticity during an explosion and making it out the blast doors before they close. The mission that always stands out to me regarding this type of objective is the one that rips-off the film "Speed" where Bond is forced to drive a rental car at a certain speed or else the bomb attached to it will explode. As a second mission, this could easily involve Bond driving fast until the player reaches the destination to dump the car, except the bomb is on a timer that will still eliminate Bond. Therefore, the gamer must locate transmitters to delay the bomb's set time to explode before dropping it in the ocean. It's a little much to throw in so many obstacles so early in the game (the level following the limos towards the end of the game would have made for a better swap), but still an intriguing challenge none the less.
Unlike the past Bond games based on the Brosnan films released at the time, this game marks as the first Bond video game with an original story with new characters. However, the game's story does feature characters from other Bond films, including JAWS, Jack Wade, Xenia Onatopp, Zukovsky, Sheriff J.W. Pepper and Whisper. It's a cool concept of creating a new story while still incorporating classic foes and allies in the franchise to throw in some nostalgia. And above all, this game gives fans the chance to explore the world of Bond in video game format in a completely different way. The only way to drive one of Bond's cars before this game was the BMW 7 in the video game "Tomorrow Never Dies," which was the only driving level in the game. This game allows fans to control various Bond vehicles they can only dream of driving, such as the Aston Martin DB5, the BMW Z3, and the Lotus Esprit. And instead of just firing missiles and machine guns, the game features other devices to stop an enemy, including oil slick, and an emp.
In theory, this sounds like a fantastic game, but it's overall quite dull and frustrating in practice. The plot of the game itself is not bad, it just needed a better way of telling the story. There are only three cutscenes in the game's story mode, as two are shown at the very beginning, while the other is shown at the end. And aside from a mission briefing cutscene, the other two focus on driving that don't add much to the plot. The game's usual way of telling its story is through mission texts. That's fine, but unlike how "Goldeneye N64" would have a non-diegetic mission briefing, a diegetic mission briefing from M, and advice from Q and Miss Moneypenny to capture the feel of being in Bond's shoes, most of the texts in this game read like a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book. Occasionally a general mission briefing from M would appear, other than that the actions that Bond does off-screen are read, where the word "You" replaces any mention of Bond's name or number. And for the lack of visuals, the new characters become forgettable quickly after playing. Their voices are heard, a picture of them can appear occasionally, and two of the girl's Bond meets are featured in the first and last cutscene of the game. But because these characters are hardly shown in the game, it's hard for them to leave an impression. I remember the characters from other Bond movies that appear in this game than any of the new ones. And even the characters from the franchise that do appear here (with the exception of R and M) all feel like they're just thrown in for cheap fan service for how little their importance to the story is.
If the gameplay and graphics were good, having lousy storytelling wouldn't be that much of a distraction, except the game doesn't offer that either. Now I'm not an expert when judging a video game by its graphics or mechanics, but these are pretty terrible. The cutscenes are visually good (with the exception of the faces), while the rest of the game appears so blocky and blurry that it's bland. The game features exotic locations like New York City, Mexico, Louisiana, and Eastern Europe, and they all look so empty and glitchy with such a lack of personality in design to make them appealing. The only memorable location that comes to mind, is the science lab with a giant laser, and that's only one room out of an entire level. But it doesn't matter how unappealing these locations look because since you're always on a timer or chasing after someone, there's very little time to explore or play around with the weapons. When activating the cars for each mission, I never felt like I was in full control compared to other games (including "Tomorrow Never Dies"). Usually, I find myself crashing for how unreliable the steering is, and when trying to break the car at certain locations where the mission wants me to carry out an objective, I still have to reverse or move forward to get the car to the right spot. Using weapons isn't much fun either. It seemed promising in the first level until I played the third level to discover that using any explosive weapons will most likely damage my health whenever I use them, even if I'm distances away from the blast. I could use the submachine guns instead, but they take longer than they should to destroy an enemy car. I honestly can't remember if I ever succeeded in blowing up a car with the sub-machine guns; all I know is it works perfectly on henchmen firing outside of their vehicles. And while I lose health from terrible steering mechanics and weapons that are either inefficient or will do me as much damage as the thugs I have to fight, I'm forced to listen to R yelling at me constantly. It's usually hilarious hearing Q or R beg Bond not to damage the cars he's given, and I was thrilled to hear John Cleese's voice badgering me to be careful. But after the fifth time when replaying a mission listening to him aggressively giving the same useless instructions as before, he becomes irritatingly fast to the point where I had to turn off the character voice option.
The game has a ton of potential, which can be seen as a rough prototype for future Bond games when establishing driving levels and pushing for the games to have original stories. As much as I appreciate what it was trying to do and what it will inspire for future Bond games, it's still overall a very aggravating experience to an ugly looking game that's typically overlooked for a good reason. From the Ps1 era of Bond games, I find myself having more of a blast playing the driving level in "Tomorrow Never Dies" than I do with any of the levels in "007 Racing."
Worst Mission
"Ambush"
All the problems I have with the game's mechanics can all be summed up in this level. Destroying all eight dodging cars had me realize how terrible the weapons are, as I have already used up all health packets after finishing them off. Then I find out I have to disable two forklifts that are nearly invincible and could take ages to destroy if I don't lure them to boxes filled with explosives if I'm lucky enough not to blow-up myself because of the steering. And by the way, R doesn't tell Bond to lure them to those crates, I had look up this information for myself. Out of telling me to "return fire" knowing it would risk my health 99% percent of the time, and to "pick up a health kit" when I have used them all at that point, it would be more helpful to tell me what I could do to weaken an unnecessary powerful forklift?! And just when I thought that the nightmare was over, I have to crash into a lab and carefully park my car towards each of the ten computers to disable them with an emp (that always needs charging) before time runs out. It just never ends for how needlessly long it is!
Favorite Mission
"Escape"
If I have to pick a favorite, I will say racing against Xenia Onatopp with Valentine Zukovsky in the passenger seat, concluding with activating a Union Jack parachute attached to the car off a cliff is pretty awesome. Thankfully for each replay I don't always hear Zukovsky making the same sarcastic comments over and over, therefore coming across as genuinely funny for when he unexpectedly does say something.
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