GENRE
	First-Person Shooter
	DEVELOPER
	Eurocom
	PUBLISHER
	EA Games
	NUMBER OF PLAYERS
	1-4
	CONNECTIVITY
	no
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We all know that any James Bond first-person shooter to grace any console will forever be in the shadow of the N64 behemoth that was GoldenEye: 007. However, even though EA Games has had its fallouts with the franchise, such as the abysmal Tomorrow Never Dies for the PSX, they seem to have built better and better incarnations of everyone’s favorite secret agent. After The World is Not Enough and James Bond 007: Agent Under Fire were released, gamers felt hopeful that another incarnation of the wonderfully addictive FPS adventure would grace their presence. Fortunately, developer Eurocom has brought with them their experience with The World is Not Enough and taken the series one step further towards renewal. With a limited life span and even more limited multiplayer modes, James Bond 007: NightFire ultimately falls short of greatness, but it still provides a fun experience for both Bond and FPS fans.

visuals

Without a doubt, NightFire looks excellent. The character models are polished and the environments are large and nicely detailed. This title unveils the first portrayal of James Bond by the action-star himself, Pierce Brosnan. The visual capture of the actor is accurate and used to nearly the fullest extent. Unfortunately, Brosnan is the only star featured in this title, but there are many more to come with the follow-up, Everything or Nothing. The level design is your typical first-person shooter and fortunately, there’s not a huge focus on frustrating platform jumping. Most of the action goes by at an extremely smooth 60 fps, especially the driving levels. These driving levels put you behind the wheel of the Vanquish, both underwater and on the road, as well as a henchman SUV; they all look great. The animation is very fluid and even without blood, the death animations still look gruesome. If you shoot someone in the back of the head, they’ll reach back, touch the back of their skull, pull back and look at their hand as they tumble to the ground. It’s detail like this that brings the action to full realization, especially in the Bond setting.

audio

From the gunshots to the gadget noises, everything sounds like it belongs in a Bond game. The P2K is the hallmark of Bond weapons and it’s captured brilliantly. The music captures the spirit of the James Bond film soundtracks to near perfection. While most of the background music is blurred out by the action on screen, if you take a chance to listen, it’s just like listening to the movie scores for GoldenEye or Die Another Day. The voice acting is great, but Pierce Brosnan, while providing his looks, doesn’t provide the voice of Bond. Adam Blackwood reprises the role of Bond after providing the voice for every incarnation to date, including The World is Not Enough and Agent Under Fire. The quality of the voice acting is better than it was in Agent Under Fire but could still profit from improvement.

gameplay

James Bond 007: NightFire is your usual first-person shooter incarnation. Players traverse several levels, firing a large assortment of weapons in order to meet certain goals or perform certain tasks. Fortunately, NightFire has enough twists to stay above the other titles within the genre. Bond can perform different moves in order to reach his goal such as shimmying against a wall to the other side or moving hand-over-hand across ropes to reach new platforms. The driving levels also break up the monotony of the shooting levels from time to time with fast-paced action and excellent weapon effects. Stealth plays a big part in some of the later shooting areas, since there are alarms to be raised and an entire army to fight should said alarms go off. What also sets this apart is the assortment of gadgets that are at your disposal such as the watch laser, a micro-camera, and a decoder in the form of a cell phone. While all of these improvements on the genre, and even the last couple James Bond titles, are certainly welcome, the incredibly short length of this title is not. Most any gamer could complete the game on the most difficult setting in roughly six to seven hours. Once the adventure is over, there’s hardly any point in playing through it again unless you’re hell bent on collecting all of the medals which unlock new features in multiplayer, where the action lives on.

multiplayer

There are several multiplayer modes to keep you and your friends occupied. From Capture the Flag to Team Deathmatch, you and up to three buddies and several A.I. controlled bots can kill or otherwise decimate to your desire. There are plenty of skins, maps, and weapons to choose from as well as customized game rules. Unfortunately, there’s no cooperative mode to play through the campaign with a friend. While it would be awesome, it would admittedly take away from the feel of James Bond’s solo infiltration missions. The multiplayer in James Bond 007: NightFire is indeed one step closer to the high-grade crack that was GoldenEye.

overall

Creating all new adventures in the James Bond universe is definitely something that has inspired creativity and new, thrilling adventures. In a sense, while NightFire isn’t based on a book, or television show, or movie, it is still a licensed title and proves that licensed titles can provide excellent entertainment if they are put in the right, respectful hands. If you like Bond, first-person shooters, or just a bit of action, you should definitely check this one out. Before Everything or Nothing hits shelves, you should pick it up and see what kind of Bond-style action you’ve been missing since the N64 days.

8.7/10