007: Nightfire

The Good
| The Name is James, Bond James |
From the very start, this games hooks you up as FMV opening sets a unique theme song and as the game starts, you see a typical "James Bond shooting atcha" screen and the story opens with a dynamic action sequence. Being my first and currently the only James Bond game in my collection, I'll put aside my personal feelings for EA and keep getting these games if they keep making them this good, and this James Bond alike. The plot is different yet so perfect for James Bond universe, it has all you need to it, women, loads of badguys, a madman, and secret agent, and captures the essence of James Bond in the best possible sense you could imagine.

| Ready 2 Rumble |
This is basically a FPS (first-person shooter) with some huge exceptions. Aside from regular weapons you may find in other shooters, there are Q's gadgets that James Bond could do without, plus you get to drive Aston Martin (it'll probably be BMW in next one) with explosive Need4Speed experience. But that ain't the only vehicle, you'll drive heavily armored battle jeep, submarine version of your car, or be at a gunman point of a snowmobile or a small plane with, duh, woman at the driving seat. When you're on foot, you can only play in first-person view, though some actions will trigger third-person view automatically (e.g. cable walking), but when in your car you'll be able to switch between first-person and third-person view on the fly. Engine works splendid and graphic and sound effects are top notch as well as James' humorous responses.

| Bond 2 the MAX |
On the fun side, you'll never get bored or see just more of the same, each mission will be unique experience and with extraordinary quality of speed of visuals and dynamics on the screen. There will be stunts like you could only expect to see in James Bond movie, like driving snowmobile through the Alpes and jumping off the cliff and right through the pursuing chopper, or driving a car right through the restaurants due taking the shortcut. This game has a hype that'll live up to your expectations, whether just an action fan or James Bond fan in general, this is something you gotta love to try.

The Bad
Not much, perhaps it might've been a little longer, but when you spot all the details it has, you just take it as one of those masterpieces that end up being short because it simply takes time to make even the slightest level with such quality.

The Bottom Line
| The Game That Injected Me Some Hope About Electronic Arts |
You can forget about watching any James Bond movies after getting this game. It gives you more time to enjoy than a movie, and has better plot than most of James Bond movies, takes you to more exotic locations, and gives you plenty of scenes to let you believe you're being a renowned secret agent himself in the movie of top quality. I used to love James Bond movies as a kiddo, but kinda lots the touch for them a few years ago. This game I actually bought as it was on a special discount. Luckily, I never imagined it could achieve this level of amazement and perfection, and ensure my step back in the world of James Bond series. The reason I liked this one so much may perhaps be it's very similar to Moonraker, the second best JB movie I've seen (first one is The Living Daylights), and the voice actor that gave voice to James Bond fits perfectly, I could barely notice it isn't Pierce Brosnan, since character model is made after him. This is not just a game, nor an interactive movie, this is a true experience which I can hope will be followed by equal in quality series, and not just give-us-more-money-'cos-we're-EA sequels.

The Good
The James Bond games have always been fun to me! Nightfire is a good game, and should be remembered The graphics are actually really good! The story line will constantly have you at the edge of your seat. The game has a variety of guns and gadgets. Lovely level designs and and great CG graphics. I also love the multi-player in this game! Though the game sounds flawless, its not.

The Bad
Perhaps the programmers should have made Bond just a tad bit more durable. Bond dies way to easily in the game. Or perhaps the game designers should have made the level designs less confusing. Players will find themselves going into the same lobby/room/etc. This is especially frustrating in the level "Night Shift". And it could have also been better if the car was supplied with a little more ammo. Ammo is very very limited in the "Vanquish" mission. Those are the flaws I find most important to point out.

The Bottom Line
The game is fine! You'll have lots of fun destroying your friends in multi-player or just battle some enemy bots when alone. The games story line is great. I used the "View To A Kill" reference because that's one of my favorite Bond movies,and NightFire is one of my favorite Bond games.

The Good
The shooting mechanics hold up very well because you can choose what kind of controls you want to use. Normally you can just the way you look around in a game (normal or reversed), but here you can actually customize pretty much every button function into the way you like it? Want to feel like you're playing Resident Evil and use A to shoot, well you can. There is also a wide variety of weapons that you can use, ranging from crossbows where you actually need to keep in mind that the arrow will lose height in it's flight to powerful laser technology. Almost every weapons also has a secondary firing mode which mostly means switching between single shots and salvos.

I am sure most people already guessed this, but this is indeed yet another old game I used to play at parties and family gatherings back when I was eleven years old. Is that a bad thing? No, but I sincerely hope we are almost through all of these because they are an ass to review. The multiplayer is really good in this one and in terms of customization it is almost on par with Timesplitters 2. You can meddle with pretty much everything, ranging from what weapons will be available to the very exact behavior used by the AI opponents.

The story mode really does have that special Bond-feel to it, that special feeling you get when you watch the movies too. You are not just playing as James Bond, when you play this game you FEEL like James Bond. Sneaking around the castle, been rewarded for entering through a risky cliff-passage without been detected and cruising around in the Aston Martin Vanquish while explosions happen in the background. It is all just like in the movie, except you are the one triggering it all.

One detail that is rather fun and well implemented are the gadgets that 007 uses. I have played some other Bond games, but most of them limit themselves to the grappling hook only, while this game also has a Laser Watch for sabotage, a micro-camera for zooming in, a stunner for taking out enemies without violence and a decoder that hacks passwords.

The enemy AI is pretty good in both the singleplayer and the multiplayer, though part of it naturally depends on what difficulty you choose and how you configure their behavior (the latter only applies in multiplayer). At the easiest difficulty the game can be completed by a kids (roughly aged between 8 and 12) without too much difficulty, while the higher difficulties can be rather tough and challenging. I also like it that you can determine how the AI will act in multiplayer, you can make him gather all the weapons and ammo he can find, have him focus on priority targets and also set his movement speed and health. All the settings required to craft your own, meaty challenge.

Driving sections occasionally break up the action on-foot in the singleplayer mode and there are even controllable mini-helicopters and tanks that can be used in the multiplayer. The controls for vehicles work pretty well and allow you to use gadgets and built-in weaponry. In multiplayer it also nicely balances out because the vehicles are not very durable and while they do a lot of damage, they leave the user stationary on the spot where they started using them.

The female characters are very pleasing to look at, which is a requirement for everything with the James Bond name on it. You got the opening with the girls dancing with guns too, so that's a check, but the actual ladies hold up pretty well too and actually build-up the sexy. First you got the rather clothed French Intelligence woman whose name I always forget, followed by the rather bland Agent Nightshade who has a taste for good dresses and finally there is the Australian Alura who takes the grand prize due to her wearing an armored bra instead of actual clothes.

The Bad
The story mode is very short and not very interesting to follow, it is mostly a collection of cinematic missions that can be completed in about a day. The characters are not really all that interesting and aside from James Bond himself none of them really seem to put up the performance they should or read from the script that the game deserves. Another little flaw is that the game is often very dictatorial on when you have to use stealth and when you have to go around blasting guns, meaning that sometimes enemies instantly turn around and put bullets in you just because you were in a no-sneak section or that you end up having to retry a mission because you weren't allowed to blow an enemy to pieces.

Talking about retrying, that is probably my biggest problem with the game. Every time you make a mistake that leads to your death or compromises the mission, you will have to do an entire section of the mission all over again. There are some checkpoints along the way, but they are not particularly well distributed, so sometimes I get a checkpoint five minutes after the last and sometimes I need to do an entire two hours without messing up even once.

While the multiplayer is pretty good, this game can be easily overlooked due to the huge amount of high-quality shooters with a singleplayer and multiplayer. I admit having fun with the game, but it's rather standard compared to Timesplitters 2, Freedom Fighter, XIII and Halo: Combat Evolved. It has gadgets, yes, but it doesn't really do enough to shine. Strip away the James Bond theme and all you'd be left with is a very bland action game.

The Bottom Line
Let's go over some other business real quick first: I tried Need for Speed 2 and Shadow of the Colossus. NfS sucks due to insane pop-in, too many loading screens and poor driving mechanics and Shadow of the Colossus is on hold until I am mentally prepared to go through a game that only had Japanese voices.

With that said: Nightfire is a pretty nice game to still have around. It is a functional shooter that lives up to the License it's part of and the multiplayer is rich with content due to customization and entertaining gameplay. There are some flaws though, mostly related to the story mode, but these are not big enough to completely ruin it for me (though it does diminish the joy entirely from time to time).

If you're a fan of 007 then this game is good enough to warrant a purchase, if you and your friends like competitive multiplayer shooters with a nice twist to them, then the same story applies for you too. However, if you are not a Bond fan and not particularly moist about multiplayer shooters this game likely won't cut it for you. Also, if you're a nostalgic adolescent/grown-up then get this game right away, because I had fun with it again and you will likely have the same too =)