As a kid, I received a promotional DVD for GameCube games to be released in 2002. Having played a bit of The World is Not Enough for the Ps1 and Agent Under Fire, I had no idea another Bond game was in the works. When I saw Bond introducing himself in the trailer through his iconic line, I gasped in excitement to discover that a new Bond game was about to come out! The trailer played to the tune of the classic Bond theme, starting as slow and edgy as the first half of the score, showing Bond sneaking around with new gadgets, introducing the new Bond Girls, one of the driving missions, and guards preparing a sneak attack. After the later image, throughout the rest of the preview until the finale, Bond and the guards fire at each other left and right, along with explosions as the music becomes loud and dramatic. By watching the preview, I went from being interested in the game to anxiously wanting to play when the action kicked in. What convinced me to play it as soon as it was released was the final image with Bond in Space, no doubt serving as the game's climax. I was not a big sci-fi fan, but I was curious to see the game occur in outer space. I was craving to play as Bond in outer space, along with all the other cool new features and locations I wish were in Agent Under Fire.
When convincing my parents to buy the game, despite owning Agent Under Fire, they denied my request because of its violence. My desire remained and only increased when I saw it promoted on my GameCube box and saw a new trailer in the game section at Toys R Us in New York City. When finding it available on sale, my mom bought me the game, and for a very, very long period, it became my addiction. Despite getting stuck in the Night Shift mission for not knowing how to use one of the gadgets until my brother Jesse figured it out, I would revisit the story mode and play multiplayer with my brothers for endless hours. The game had everything I desired in a Bond game, living up to my expectations. And after all these years, the game holds up extraordinarily well! And please remember, I'm only covering 007 games for the PlayStation and Nintendo consoles, which means there won't be a part two for me to explain the PC version.
Not since Goldeneye had a Bond game opened with an animated gun barrel sequence. As the only two Bond games I played then, The World is Not Enough for the PS1 used footage from the film, and Agent Under Fire did not even bother. Seeing EA finally create a gun barrel sequence to start the game excited me, giving me the feeling that this game is about to be the ultimate Bond experience. And in the first mission, which served as a tutorial, the game had already been outdone itself in under ten minutes. The mission's set in Paris during New Year's Eve (where apparently people are tossing confetti before it is time) where I am tasked to use various game mechanics such as on-rails shooting for the first half and driving the Aston Martin Vanquished for the second half as the level is showered with action, explosions, and humor. There is also a lovely Bond Girl for Bond to escort and rescue and a short appearance from Q aiding our favorite spy in his mission. This first mission even has elements that Agent Under Fire lacked or did not do including having the Bond model with Brosnan's likeness, proper delivery of Bond's iconic introductory line, and Bond about to make love.
After the mission, the game has an opening credits sequence, with cinematic visuals like the Bond Girls that would later appear, images from outer space, and flames, along with a fire color palette. Instead of the visuals moving to an instrumental, it is an original song by Esthero entitled Nearly Civilized that is energetic and seductive. I have criticized this sequence for not having any credits aside from the title and the song not tying into the story. However, to have an opening credits sequence explicitly designed for a Bond game was unseen. The closest the games ever came to having one was showing footage of the opening credits from Tomorrow Never Dies, just with new credits connected to the game. To see a movie-style credits sequence while discovering the mission I just played is supposed to function as a pre-title mission, along with all the goodies the mission has, was a fantastic surprise that made me hope the rest of the game is as spectacular as everything I just witnessed. I still think the pre-title mission in From Russia With Love is the best (even if it lazily uses film footage of the gun barrel). However, this mission did bring the game franchise in a different direction that was mind-blowing for the time. And the best part is, in terms of gameplay, this mission can be played again without the tutorial features, which makes it more interesting than having it hold your hand every time a player revisits it.
During my Everything or Nothing post, I talked about the history of EA using Brosnan's likeness for the games and how this game uses his image but does not have the proper voice. Though his voice sounded weird at times when I was a kid, I did not think too much of it. Replaying the game in recent years and becoming familiar with the franchise is distracting. There have been many good impersonations of Brosnan, but he sounds a bit gruffer here. While Brosnan's voice and likeness would be more authentic in the next game, out of all Bond games, this is the game where Bond has the most personality. As much as I love hearing Brosnan and Daniel Craig's voices in the later games, they sound like they are reading their lines in a studio most of the time. In the From Russia With Love game, Sean Connery brings plenty of spirit and depth to his character despite sounding old, but his model is not as expressive as his voice. And the Bond in Agent Under Fire has an excellent design and has the characteristics of Bond, but Adam Blockwood's performance feels so phoned in half of the time that it's almost as if the character is constantly horny.
In this game, Bond perfectly balances everything we associate with the character. He is tough, cold, smooth, charming, funny, and empathetic, and even though Maxwell Caulfield sounds nothing like Brosnan, he nails down all the elements of the character. Sometimes, he can sound hammy, like when he asks two women for a ride after parachuting on top of their car as if Bond is trying to change his accent, but for the most part, he plays it straight. Caulfield sounds confident, sophisticated, and calculating, making him sound like a credible agent, and when making subtle dirty jokes and quips, while humorous, they are usually delivered cool and casually instead of feeling over the top or forced. I especially enjoy the subtlety when Caulfield expresses Bond's feelings towards the characters, whether showing concern for one's life or trying to deal with his emotions after losing a friend.
Further adding to Bond's personality is, of course, using Brosnan's likeness, which was motion captured by the respective actor, and years later, I am still impressed with how much expression the Bond model in this game has. Without any dialogue, there is plenty of personality to take away from the character, which is as subtle as Caulfield's voice work. The annoyed look on his face when given multiple tasks from a criminal he is assigned to protect, the look of satisfaction when taking revenge, and the brief look of puzzlement when spotting another agent, it is incredible how life-like and natural the expressions are. And as the cherry on top of all this, players can now finally play as Bond wearing a tux and a spacesuit, which you bet was another element that drew me into the game after seeing the trailer. As grand as it is to play in the next game with Brosnan's voice in the next game, as well as Connery's voice and likeness in the later game, I feel closer to feeling like Bond in this game, simply from the writing, graphics, voice work, and attire.
Some of the MI6 regulars return in this game. M gives the briefings and hints to aid Bond, voiced by Oscar-nominated actress Samantha Eggar, bringing the class and demanding authority as Judi Dench does. The only nitpick is outside of standing in the shadows, M's physical appearance, like in Agent Under Fire, is never shown. It would have been intriguing to see Bond engage with her in a cutscene at MI6 headquarters, but her purpose in the game is fulfilled. When I discovered the character Q returned to the game franchise as a kid, I was happy to see him controlling the Aston Martin Vanquish, giving Bond gadgets, and looking annoyed at Bond's quips. If you read my Agent Under Fire review, you already know that my thoughts about his portrayal have changed, as I felt R in the previous game was closer to the character's spirit with a fantastic design. While the portrayal of Q in this game is not offensive and is voiced well, he comes off as pretty bland for his generic scientist design and sounding way too calm when he should be annoyed like Bond. R was proper but also aggressive, and there were moments in the games when he demonstrated his gadgets either passionately or mockingly. Yes, Q gets into the action a bit, but after that brief scene, he does nothing that stands out, not even in terms of personality.
Another upgrade that this game has over Agent Under Fire are the Bond Girls. As many of them in the last game were underused or felt thrown in, here they all have personality and a purpose. The first agent Bond encounters is Dominique, a skilled driver and fighter, but her true strengths lie in her seductive charm of manipulating the game's main villain to gain inside information. Though Bond saves her at one point, she helps Bond by giving him a key to spy on a meeting and a parachute to escape from the building. Apart from aiding Bond, her personality is charming, supported by a sexy design and a beautiful French accent. She is also calculating and vulnerable, keeping her from appearing too perfect. Despite only happening in three levels, the chemistry she shares with Bond is believable and, at times, cute, coming across as a genuine partnership. Providing more layers to their relationship since Dominique is undercover, Bond sometimes questions where her loyalty lies, which is handled subtly.
As a kid, I was hoping Dominque would be the game's main girl, only to be heartbroken to see her die a horrible death (which is still disturbing now). Unless the Bond Girl was connected to the villain, none died until this game. Paris lives in the Tomorrow Never Dies game (though she never appears again after the level), and Zoey Nightshade's death was a fake-out. In this game, Dominque does not survive the fall, nor does she and Bond have a final farewell; she is taken out quickly during a fight with another goon working for the main villain, making this the most shocking death in the game franchise. Within the same level, a blonde-haired Australian agent named Alura McCall (a pun on Lauren Bacall) rescues Bond, and the two become partners for the rest of the game. Of all the Bond girls in the game, I always found McCall to be the least interesting. She looks gorgeous, is witty, playful, a fantastic getaway driver and pilot, and technologically advanced. She has an upbeat and serious personality supported by an attractive Australian accent, making her one of the best girls in the game franchise. My problem is she feels shoehorned in as a last-minute replacement for Dominique. I suppose I wouldn't mind it so much if she weren't so perfect, making her a bit bland. If the chemistry she and Bond share was as engaging as the other characters in the game, that could make up for it. Unfortunately, their chemistry is nonexistent to the point where Bond does not seem too pleased to be partnering up with her, almost as much as the player who was emotionally invested in Bond's relationship with Dominique was.
CIA Agent Zoey Nightshade from the previous game makes an appearance. I was not a fan of Nightshade in the prior game because of how bland of a character and voice performance she is. In Nightfire's case, she has improved in every single way imaginable. I had a hard time believing she was a CIA agent because of how incompetent she sounds, but here she is way more believable, coming across as confident and legitimately badass. None of the Bond Girls Bond meets in the game ever carry weapons in story mode, and Nightshade, who never had one herself in Agent Under Fire, is now firing at goons. As people think of Bond wearing a tuxedo while carrying a gun, Nightshade in a red party dress handling a weapon appears just as classy and rugged. While professional on the job, she has her fair share of jokey and flirty moments in the game, which feel as natural as Bond's, instead of unemotionally phoning them in. Everything about Nightshade in the game is smooth, beautiful, and dangerous, making her on par with Bond and her male CIA counterpart Felix Leiter. A part of me should be distracted by how different the character behaves and sounds, from how foreign she is to how she was portrayed previously. However, since the Bond franchise was hardly strong with continuity by recasting actors and giving them different appearances, even character traits, I can overlook Nightshade's change for how improved of a character she is.
Outside the Bond girls and MI6 characters, the only ally Bond meets during his adventure is Alexander Mayhew, who works with the game's main villain. Fearing that his boss will kill him for a setback, he asks for Bond's protection in exchange for evidence exposing the villain's scheme. The only time Mayhew and Bond ever meet, or team up is during one level, where he also dies. In a way, he reminds me of Mr. Henderson from You Only Live Twice. A British man living in Japan who has secret information to provide Bond, only to suddenly get assassinated during their encounter at his estate. Like Mr. Hendreson, despite not being a regular supporting character, he does leave a good impression due to his personality. Despite being a wealthy criminal, he is a humble middle-aged man who lives in fear and has a big heart for his servants. What makes their relationship so much fun, even if it is subtle, is how Mayhew pleads for Bond to do various tasks, which causes him to get annoyed to the point where he denies his last request. Mayhew's appearance may be the most short-lived of all the characters in the game, but not a second of character is wasted or pointless.
In previous Bond games, I have talked about how underused the new main villains are. In Agent Under Fire, Malprave hardly appears nor has a showdown with Bond, and the villain in 007 Racing never appears and hardly says anything that I forgot his name as quickly as his motivation. Nightfire's main villain, Rafael Drake, makes up for all the previous shortcomings. Despite coming across as a blatant knock-off of Moonraker's villain Hugo Drax (having a famous, wealthy background, plan to dominate the world from space, and a goatee), Drax has a smooth, charismatic personality who shows no hesitance with killing people who get in his way. He is the kind of man who will invite you for dinner, refuse to give you anything, but instead have you watch the person you love die before killing you next. One moment, he's gracious, throwing a fancy dinner party; the next, he is scheming with his associates, threatening to kill one of his men who fails and sending a woman out to be tortured. While ruthless and sophisticated, his master plan is quite humorous. Not so much his master plan being executed from space, but more so that he plans to take over the world through his business after he blows up NATO bases. Afterward, a board of directors would replace governments (for instance). As silly as it is, it is funny how this man thinks less like Hitler compared to Drax and more so as a businessman with nuclear weapons. With an engaging two-faced villainous personality and a grand scheme, unlike the others, Bond gets to fight him in the final mission, who I'll admit is one the trickiest foes to fight in the games (which I'll get into detail later). Upon the original villain Bond fights in the games, Diavolo from Everything or Nothing is undoubtedly the best. Still, Drake set the ground rules of how an original Bond foe should presented in the games, and is undoubtedly one of the best, if not the most original.
Drake's right-hand man, Rook, makes for a worthy foe for Bond to fight against, with each encounter they have having something important to flow the story rather than just having a pointless boss fight for the sake of one. Both characters are shown as Bond fires at a helicopter piloted by Rook, who plans to blow him and Nightshade to Kingdom, making him the first boss fight in the game. Just when you think he is dead, he is alive and well. However, later on in the game, when ordering his crew of snippers to kill Bond, we never get a full glimpse of his face. It is not until the second to last mission that Rook reveals his entire face, with the left looking as brutally scarred as Two-Face, as he wields a state-of-the-art laser gun to finish Bond. Rook has all the ingredients of a great Bond henchperson. He's strong, intimidating, and near unstoppable. And he has a distinctive look that, interestingly enough, was given to him by Bond, making the stakes a little higher given his vendetta against him. However, while having all the qualifications, his seeking vengeance against Bond is an afterthought, and his showdown with Bond, though a decent boss battle, hardly feels climatic. I expected Bond's final fight with Rook to be something big and challenging, which, to the PC version of the game's credit, delivers by having them fight in an anti-gravity astronaut training facility, where he dies by a giant blade. In the console version, Bond just walks around shooting Rook multiple times, dodging his laser beam until he dies, which is nothing special or unique.
Of all the foes in the game working for Drake, the one who gets the most attention is the game's femme fatale, Kiko. Kiko serves as Mayhew's bodyguard in the first half of the game. She is pleasant and quiet yet assuredly skilled in her profession, and she aids Bond during his mission. As a kid playing the game, I did not suspect her to be the villain. Even when I saw that she was on the villain's side in multiplayer before seeing the twist for myself, I refused to believe it. But from the moment she shoots Bond with a tranquilizer dart to killing Dominque in the very next mission, I was both shocked and enraged, eagerly waiting to kill her more than Drake or Rook. During the boss fight, I was furious that I couldn't shoot her as she safely watched behind a bulletproof glass of Drake's goons firing at me while taunting me. When the time came for me to press a button, sending her to the blasted pit and see her fried to a crisp as Bond launched into space on a rocket, I laughed with glee that this two-faced assassin finally got what was coming to her. Looking back at Kiko now, it is easy to figure she is a twist villain, from her poor excuse of getting pinned down during a home invasion and suddenly disappearing after Bond retrieves the Nightfire evidence to reappearing out of nowhere. Whether Kiko's twist is obvious or not, she is still one of the best original baddies in the games for her manipulation skills, calculating and demanding mindset, having the heart of a cold-blooded killer, and having the best death in a Bond game.
I don't usually talk about the typical guards that Bond fights in the game, but the game does something more with one of them than usual by making them a boss. Usually, in boss battles, guards assist the main villain or henchperson or fly in helicopters. In this game, the guard with whom Bond has a one-on-one boss fight is a highly trained ninja. The design for this foe is incredibly creepy. He is completely dressed in black from head to toe, and the only thing we see on his face is his red goggles, appearing like a shadowy demon from hell. How this ninja moves further adds to the fright factor, as he flips around and always runs towards you closer than any henchperson would. The ninja also carries various weapons, including a machine gun, flashbang grenades, and a samurai sword, which have more weapons than any other villains and typical henchpeople in the game. And on top of it, he kills Mayhew when you suspect someone like Rook and Kiko would get their hands dirty. Unfortunately, this character has one level, and after he is killed, he is replaced by multiple ninjas in the second to last level, making the character sadly interchangeable since all ninjas act the same, just without serving as a boss. This character could've been a unique foe stalking Bond around or a tremendous surprise that leaves a haunting impression from his sudden appearance. Despite having more than one scary ninja of all the typical henchpeople Bond fights in the game, he will always stand tall as the best secondary henchpeople for his design, abilities, and spotlight that also advances the plot.
The first-person gameplay is not too different from Goldeneye 64, The World is Not Enough, and Agent Under Fire. Gamers can typically choose their approach to getting from point A to B while exploring and finding alternate routes, hidden ammo, and health. Extra points can be earned for thinking like Bond in certain situations. Players can also carry various weapons without limiting them. And a guards can be taken hostage leaving you to kill or subdue them. The game even brings back the blood trickling on the screen whenever Bond dies, an element I missed when playing Agent Under Fire. One minor thing the game includes is times when the game occasionally switches to third person, when Bond is up against a wall on the ledge of a building or climbing on a zip-line. Like the game Tomorrow Never Dies, it is fantastic to switch perspectives, and while better used here, it does live up to its full potential, unlike Quantum of Solace. The only time the game mandatorily uses the third-person mechanic is at one level; the other times it's used is when finding a secret route or gaining a Bond move (for a nonsensical reason).
What makes this game extra special in comparison to the previous Bond games is how most of the combat is different from each other. I'm not implying the combat levels in the last Bond games were dull and repetitive (007 Legends and Goldeneye: Rogue Agent are prime examples of that). Each level in the previous games offered beautifully detailed locations to explore, challenging boss fights, and a few other little objectives to complete to make these levels amusing. However, as highly engaging and well-detailed as those levels are, they usually felt the same regarding gameplay and objectives. The gameplay doesn't change in Nightfire either, but there's usually something different about the levels that make them stand out. You have a critical stealth level, a sniper-based level, a fast-paced escape level with non-stop action, an escort level, and one in outer space with zero gravity. It was not just the design and boss fights with a few twists that gave these levels an identity when performing a familiar task; it was how the entirety of these levels functions differently to others while having enough familiar elements to keep the changes from feeling too jarring.
As most of the levels feel different from each other, the designs for them are not only as good as some of the previous games, but they also take them to new heights. Compared to the N64 or PS1 games, Agent Under Fire made the levels feel more three-dimensional with the number of details put into creating them. It hardly felt like a typical blocky video game environment and almost like a film. Nightfire enhances the visuals by providing solid textures, colors that do not look the same as other levels, natural lighting, and weather that plays a part in the realism by having either rain or snow. It's genuinely outstanding how much attention to detail was placed in the game to make it feel cinematic, from a guard's breath appearing in the cold or the sun flaring the lens. And while looking nearly as big as a Bond movie, there are plenty of things to destroy recklessly and little easter eggs that give the levels some personality. Furthermore, Jeff Tymoschuk's score, combined with the game's sound design, enhances the game's cinematic presentation due to the amount of atmosphere it brings. As iconic as the score and sounds were in Golendeye 64, hearing more alternative and intense music as guards yell and fire or soft and eerie music as I listen to sounds from a computer hacking puts me more on my toes while feeling more accomplished.
When playing Agent Under Fire as a kid, I was underwhelmed by how most of Bond's gadgets were restricted to his phone, despite the fun I had. To finally use Bond's traditional gadgets during the PS2 and GameCube era, helped make the experience feel closer to the franchise. Bond has a laser watch that can cut locks and kill the power. And unlike most of the previous Bond games where Bond is wearing the same sleeves in every level, since EA has to animate Bond using his watch his sleeves match the clothing he's wearing (which hasn't been done since The World is Not Enough for the N64). In the previous game, Bond's Micromini camera was unseen, but here, it is disguised as a working lighter that can take pictures and spot enemies. Bond once again has his stunner, but only this time, his secret weapon takes a stranger's approach. Bond usually had his stunner hidden in his watch or cell phone, which are inconspicuous items. For some reason, his stunner is hidden in his car keys, and while the damage it causes is still as violent it's pretty silly that Bond would need to flash his keys to knock out a guard. I suppose that's because his other hidden assists are already filled. Another weapon Bond has to stun enemies is a flashbang grenade disguised as an electric shaver. It's an excellent concept without any doubt and is cool to use against enemies, but it feels hardly needed. The same can be said about the Q-Specs, which contain three visions instead of one, which are night vision, X-ray, and thermal. These glasses are helpful (and visually cooler than the others) to spot enemies and hidden lasers, but they are barely needed unless you want to play the game super stealthy. However, there is a need for the Q-Worm, a small disc inside a credit card that can retrieve information from computers. Bond does have a gadget hidden inside his cellphone, and that's a grappling hook. The purpose of this gadget is the same as the Q-Claw, but this time, it's more restricted. As a player can feel like flying and even letting go to give the device a sense of freedom and excitement in Agent Under Fire, Bond immediately zips to his location without letting the experience sync in. I probably wouldn't mind this so much if the multiplayer game at least let me use it to swing around like in the last game, except it's just as limiting in the story mode, where the only thing I can latch onto are hooks. Another downgrade is the dart gun. The dart gun in Agent Under Fire was a massive improvement from all the previous games; thinking Nightfire would give the gadget the same effect of permanently knocking out a guard violently, it instead causes them to sluggishly fall to the ground and wake back up in a few seconds. This means that unless you're far away from the guards, you can rely on your fists to knock them out cold, which is just as effective and brutal as the previous use of a dart gun.
For me, the most annoying gadget is the PDA Decryptor. The Decryptor is designed to hack through doors with electronic locking mechanisms, like the one in Agent Under Fire. The gadget's purpose is not the problem; it is more about how it functions. In Agent Under Fire, using the Decryptor was a simple click of a button. In Nightfire, players must hold down the button until they gain the correct numbers to unlock the door. Pressing it once only reveals one number, which is not the correct one either. It is frustrating that the game never tells you how to use it, assuming it's as easy to understand as the other gadgets. But it's not. Through a modern lens, it is now easy to find this information online. But at the time, it was mainly strategy guides or a word from a friend's mouth. Because of my limited information, I was stuck on the level for a long time until one of my brothers figured it out. Out of all the gadgets, my favorite is the Phoenix Ronin. The gadget is not a Q-branch, but it is still a helpful tool. On the surface, it is a standard briefcase. But inside is a computer-operated machine guaranteed to shoot anyone in its path. Players even have the option to manually control it, as opposed to allowing it to shoot automatically at opponents. The only downside is that it is only used in one level of the game, and like the Q-specs and dart gun, a player can make their way through the level without using it. Thankfully, this gadget can be accessed during multiplayer, which will benefit a player more in the campaign than in the story mode.
As mentioned in the game's pre-title mission, the game offers driving levels in gadget-based vehicles such as the Aston Martin Vanquish and an SUV security vehicle. The driving missions feature all the typical features, including machine guns, missiles, smoke screens, an emp, and a Q-wedge (to slide through roadblocks), which are always a blast to use. The levels are just as much a blast as the cars, with having the player pick alternate destinations, crash through buildings, sneak into bases undetected*(if a player chooses so), fighting against goons in numerous vehicles and sentinel towers equipped with turret guns, and avoiding the police without harm. The level designs are also remarkable, with its winter wonderland landscapes and tropical sunny remote island locations. A highlight in terms of designs and action game set pieces is fighting against enemies on a frozen pond while sliding around (which no doubt is a way for the game to subtly promote the new Bond film at the time Die Another Way). For me, however, it's dodging both enemies and authorities in a small yet beautiful town in the snowcapped mountains (reminiscent of the environment in On Her Majesty's Secret Service).
To spice things up, the game has a driving level that fans of the game either appreciate or really despise, which takes place underwater. Similar to Lotus from The Spy Who Loved Me, Bond's Aston Martin Vanquish, at one point, turns into a submarine on Drake's Island through the ocean. The mission involves the player planting bombs, destroying generators, and following an enemy submarine while avoiding giant fans, debris, and mines. The level has been dismissed as one of the most challenging levels in the game for its slow pacing, unreliable controls, and having no checkpoints. However, others have praised its innovative concept of finally driving a submarine version of a Bond car and a lovely, futuristically menacing underwater environment. I can't call it one of my favorite missions in the game because it can get a bit trying with its new set of controls, especially when there's no checkpoint. But this level is not half bad after playing 007 games with horrific controls. The controls don't take forever to get used to like in Racing or Legends, and while a little challenging since your car is constantly drifting, it's not needlessly frustrating as it should be. It's the right amount of engagingly fun and challenging, where I enjoy exploring the ocean, getting past obstacles, admiring the sound design, and firing torpedoes (especially the remote-controlled ones).
Upon my recent game playthrough, I discovered a few cheats involving the second driving level. The first is having the ability to use the SUV security vehicle, which did not impress me as much. I started to have flashbacks of 007 Racing when I discovered that the missiles cause more damage than the machine guns, making them the only reliable weapon. On the bright side, at least the missiles work the same as they do at the level from which they were initially built. The most surprising cheat was having the level transform into a racing mission by driving a gadgetless Shelby Cobra car with Dominque behind the wheel. It is as challenging as it is to win, like the submarine level, but it does not feel overwhelming. Excitement is always present, and driving a car without gadgets is a welcoming change of difficulty as it uses the best driving level in the game as a racecourse. It's overall truly a better racing level than any of the levels in the official racing video game, and it was indeed a surprise to find out that EA secretly improved their racing concept before Everything or Nothing would.
The driving missions are some of the greatest in the game franchise. However, a few minor issues prevent them from becoming the franchise overall best. Unlike how other driving levels allow me to use a special gadget anytime I wish, a player can only use smokescreens or the Q-wedge when the game tells the player to. This flaw is not a significant distraction, as I am too busy using machine guns and explosives to target enemies. However, the limitation is still there, making it a tiny downgrade compared to Agent Under Fire, which Everything or Nothing would fix. On top of it, as Agent Under Fire had driving locations that were so huge yet had little to do, this game has smaller locations with plenty to do. This reverse of the issue from the last game is not bad; if anything, it makes this mission more engaging and impactful. The action is almost non-stop in these levels of how confined they are, where the focus is trying to race to the destination while destroying vehicles with little time to fool around. But that's what I loved about the driving levels in the other games. Part of the enjoyment was to explore, find gadgets, and take the time to blow up countless enemy cars. To be on a time limit when exploring the town or confined to two roads on the island does not make it less exciting, but certainly less accessible.
As shown in the first mission, on-rail shooting levels also return after Agent Under Fire's success. As much as I loved the on-rail shooting levels in Agent Under Fire, aside from the last level, they all felt a little too easy. Unless you're looking to gain 007 moves, it can be trying, but in terms of surviving, the chances are likely in a gamer's favor. The on-rails shooting in Nightfire keeps what made the gameplay exciting and ups the ante. It hardly ever feels like I have to destroy the obstacles before me, while the ones around me are easy to kill. This time, enemies are coming from all kinds of directions where one would least expect them, as well as more than a few armed vehicles firing all at once at times backed up by turret guns and watch towers, making things less predictable. After playing this game many times, I am still unsure what's coming. And unlike how Bond is always riding on a vehicle located at ground level in the last game, the game has Bond fighting through the air, down a mountain (and through a ski hotel), and at one point controlling a giant turret gun with enemies that hardly take a break from attacking. Excluding on-rails mechanics from the N64 The World Is Not Enough aside, it improves upon the on-rails in its last game in every way.
After feeling extremely excited that Bond would participate in his mission in outer space, I was slightly disappointed to discover that the space setting would only appear in the last level. I thought maybe at the time I would have a chance to explore Drake's space station before fighting him; however, what could be a mission of its own just skips right to the boss battle. Once again, having not experienced playing the Nightfire game for the PC, one of its better ideas than the console version was having Bond roam around the space station. As disappointed as I was, the boss battle with Drake in space made up for it. The level throws everything an excellent boss battle can at you. The goal is to disable Drake's missiles while fighting his henchmen for a limited time. It sounds reasonably tricky, except there's no gravity, which means Bond and Drake's men fly around. The controls are simple, but walking is hardly an option during this battle. The player is not fighting inside but is instead outside, where there's no telling which guard is shooting from. What's even worse, Bond also has to dodge Drake's laser cannon, and where it will strike is as unpredictable as the guards will be when not paying attention. You'd think with Bond wielding a space laser with infinite ammo, this should be nothing, but a player has to use it sparingly because once it overheats to 100, it will take a few seconds for it to cool down to zero. And after stopping the missiles from reaching the earth, the player still needs to take out Drake, who disappears during an explosion and flies out of nowhere, madly firing his rocket launcher at you. A few shots to the head should do the trick, but it's hard to aim since you're floating and trying to keep away from his rockets, and if you should die, you have to start all over again.
This game does everything right of all the boss battles in the franchise. In most games, there was hardly any challenge in defeating the villains. In this one, you are always on your toes while thinking fast with a strategy in mind. And as challenging and downright frustrating as it can be, the amusement factor is always present. The space level design is one of the gorgeous looking levels in the game where its beauty and openness are fun to look at and explore but seductive, given the level's non-stop obstacles. Controlling Bond in an anti-gravity environment, as hard as it can be to keep up at times, makes a player feel the excitement of floating through space and using one of the greatest weapons in the game to save the world. And when overcoming every obstacle this level has, a strong sense of accomplishment makes it worthwhile. Not since Goldeneye 64 has there been a final boss level in a Bond game that was so challenging and rewarding. And as a special treat, after the final cutscene, a player is treated to a short behind-the-scenes look at the game that can only be accessed after playing this mission.
The game's story mode is as top-tier as a Bond game can be. However, for me, my brothers, and others I have shared the game experience with, the real highlight is its multiplayer mode. Out of the few Bond games I played as a kid, the multiplayer in Nightfire was the Goldeneye 64 of my childhood. With the exception of Mayhew, Q, and Zoey Nightshade, naturally, players can choose the skins of the characters in the game, including their alternate attire, such as playing as Bond in a tux or spacesuit instead of his typical stealth suit. Having only played the N64 game once and playing multiplayer in Agent Under Fire with no characters from other Bond films, I was excited to have an experience where I could play as Bond characters outside the game. To play as villains like Goldfinger, Renard, Elektra King, and Jaws was one of the most exciting things I could ever experience in Bond gaming at the time. And viewing the multiplayer skins after playing all the previous ones and having watched all the Bond films, these are all still excellent by including characters like Wai Lin, May Day, Baron Samedi, Pussy Galore, and Max Zorin. When playing the classic Goldeneye, a rule that most people remember is to not play as Oddjob for having an unfair advantage of being shorter than the other characters. In this game, only two characters have a unique ability compared to the others. Nick Nak is as short as Oddjob was in Goldeneye, which makes him just as unfair. And yes, Oddjob is the only character with a special weapon, his steel hat, that will instantly eliminate a player. It would be reasonable if a character like Scaramanga had his one-shot kill weapon, the golden gun, but nope, only Oddjob has that advantage. And rather than forbidding my friends to play as him, many of us were fighting over who gets to be Oddjob.
Increasing my and my brothers' interest in the game's multiplayer campaign was having the choice to fight against AI bots (which we used to call Al bots since the I looked like a lowercase L). We'd like to shoot each other to gain points but given our different abilities as gamers and that having just the two or three of us felt like a small fight, we needed something else to kill that's easier and to make the experience feel massive. That's where the AI bots became helpful as we would set their difficulty to easy and join a team to fight them. Not to imply that we still didn't wish to kill each other, but it was usually when my youngest brother (who was obsessed with Oddjob) was absent. What makes having these AI bots come in handy is when I have no one to play the campaign with, I could just fight them rather than the game forcing me to need another player to access multiplayer. After playing story mode so many times, I would like to have fun freely, causing random chaos while fighting against an opponent. The only dumb thing about fighting against players or AI is heroes can't kill heroes, which is a foolish limitation. I'd be like not allowing Mario to fight Peach or Luigi in Super Smash Bros Melee; none of this is a cannon to a story.
The maps in the game are filled with as much personality as games like Agent Under Fire, Goldeneye: Rogue Agent, and The World is Not Enough. Some maps are condensed locations from story mode, typically involving locations from Drake's Castle. My favorite map that's based on a level from the game is Drake's Phoenix Base, which is a map that is so small that when you combine with every single AI Bot and your friends, you have gunfire and explosions coming at you from left and right, keeping you on your toes. The map my brothers did not like to play (even though I did) was The Ravine, not in terms of its design (with cliffs, a meeting room, and a cable car); more so, it's the only map that strangely does not include AI bots. Personally, my least favorite map was the Missile Silo, which looks superb from its low-key lighting and nuclear green color pallet, except most of the time, I'm just running up and stairs, which isn't as exciting. Some maps are modeled after locations from films like Fort Knox from Goldfinger and Atlantis from The Spy Who Loved Me. There's also the Sub Penn, which is an original map. Still, it does look nearly similar to the Liparus from The Spy Who Loved Me (the game indeed loves to pay tribute to the Moore era for its locations, plot, gadget, and familiar main villain). The best map that my brothers and friends agree on is, without question, the Skyrail. A map that takes place up in the snowy mountains with a cable car circling the map that we'll take players to a lodge hotel and a creepy old castle. Our favorite out of the two places was the hotel, but aside from being the most extensive map with alternate locations that could be their map, the best part was riding the Skyrail either inside it or on top of it or even walking on the cable line. Out of all the multiplayer maps in any Bond game, this still stands as my all-time favorite!
The game's weapons are the franchise's best. I cannot think of a single weapon I don't find myself enjoying because of how powerful they all are. Part of the reason is not just how they function but the overall sound design, which sounds violent and impactful, even when using a silencer. The game nearly has it all: the Golden gun, remote mines, time bombs, Frinesi Auto 12 Shotgun, space laser guns, crossbows, a Winter Tactical sniper rifle, a giant rifle that can fire in bursts, has the thermal scope, and a grenade launcher, and that's to name only a few. I can use random mode to select my weapons, and I would still be satisfied; if anything, the unpredictability of what I will get adds to the challenge. The weapon that I and others would consider as much of a cheat as playing as Oddjob in Goldeneye is the rocket launcher, where a player can guide their missiles to a target. It's the game's most efficient weapon, hence why it was seen as forbidding, though that didn't mean it would stop me or others from using it for how amusingly awesome it is. The rocket launcher isn't the only guided base weapon, as Q whipped up a few gadgets, such as mini-tanks and helicopters, that will fire and explode on a player's command. The only thing I wish I could use in the game is the ability to carry two weapons simultaneously. However, that's just a serious nitpick.
Any problems I have with this game are all just nitpicks, because there is very little that Nightfire does wrong. The story is classic adventurous Bond camp with all sorts of variety in action. The characters are all memorably awesome. The cinematic presentation through the graphics, music, voice acting, and level designs feels grand. Most of the gadgets are cool. The driving levels though a little too challenging at times are exciting. The on-rails shooting keep a player on edge. The game improves upon some elements from Agent Under Fire, while bringing back some forgotten awesome elements from The World is Not Enough for the N64. And the multiplayer, is the best campaign out of all the Bond games. The game is the most nostalgic for me, but even when taking away the nostalgia goggles, it still holds up as one of the best 007 games of all-time by giving a fan almost everything one could wish for!
Least Favorite Mission: Night Shift
I know some missions, such as Deep Descent and Island Infiltration, frustrate gamers. I'll admit, I was close to placing Chain Reaction as my least favorite for its difficulty finding and shooting every snipper on sight. As hard as these missions are, I still get invested in the action instead of dreading it. Night Shift is the most straightforward mission in the game, and that's one of my problems with it. Hardly anything about it is challenging. Trip lasers that will set off hidden turret guns are so easy to avoid that there's no point in even having them, especially since I can simply shut them down without any problem. And the guards are very slow at responding when they see you, leaving more than enough time to subdue them. To be fair, a mission similar to this, called Bad Diplomacy from Agent Under Fire, was also easy. Still, something was always happening in the mission to keep it from feeling boring while having faster-armed guards and a brief boss fight. Aside from the last half of the level, nothing exciting is happening. On top of it, the mission offers some of the worst gadgets in the game, which are the weak dart gun (that is fun if you use it against enemies with guns) and (the most challenging part of the mission) the PDA Decryptor guaranteed to make a gamer stuck on the level who does not know how to use it. Although it is my least favorite mission, I don't hate it. It has a neat atmosphere with its low lighting, subtle sound design, eerie score, and various rooms to explore, but there's so much left to be desired regarding objectives, difficulty, and gadgets.
Favorite Mission: The Exchange
Choosing the game's second mission as my favorite was no contest. I love every mission in this game, but The Exchange is the most interactive mission in the entire game. It starts with Bond sneaking into Drake's castle, which has so many different routes that finding them is subtle and rewarding. I used to go through the gates during first gameplay, but then I decided to hitch a ride on the back of a truck that would lead me through the gates. Thinking there were only two ways, I accidentally stumbled across a ledge that would allow me to sneak around the castle to the back door while avoiding guards. Once inside the castle grounds, the game still offers all possibilities to make it to the front door. One includes cutting the power to the searchlights, dodging the lights, or sneaking up and killing the snippers. My favorite little surprise is shooting a guard in the head, allowing him to fall on top of a frozen fountain, resulting in Bond saying one of his quips. When approaching the front doors, Bond (in Goldfinger style) is revealed to be wearing a tux under his stealth suit as his theme song plays, and players get to walk freely around a party, socially interacting with guests and guards, and taking out a lighter mini camera for personal amusement. I always enjoy when a Bond game takes a break from the action to have Bond socialize, given it is one of his qualities. Eventually, the action picks up again, with Bond fighting guards and choosing endless methods to obtain a briefcase. Just when one thinks the mission is over as Bond and Zoey escape on a cable car; the game generously offers a boss fight against Rook in his helicopter. This mission does not hold back by providing players with as much freedom as possible, allowing the experience to be different in multiple playthroughs, making it the best mission in the game.
