Page 31 - OSG Presents Classic Gamer Magazine #7

James Bond in Agent Under Fire (2001).
Developer: Electronic Arts
Publisher: EA GAMES
Platforms: PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox

Agent Under Fire, Electronic Arts’ third Bond game, is the first to feature a
storyline that isn’t based on any particular movie. Ironically, the result feels
more cinematic than in any other Bond game before it. The developers have Bond, James
combined first-person stages with free-roaming driving sequences and on-rails
shooting segments that all fit together surprisingly well. It certainly helped that
EA commissioned the Need for Speed crew to design the vehicle stages,
which are good enough to build an entire game around. The downside to the
experience is the overwhelming sense that you are in an extremely linear ad-
venture, one in which you are being led by the lapels through short, compact
levels. Great action moments, but the freedom, stealth, and multiplayer have
been jettisoned like Hugo Drax on the Moonraker.

007: NightFire (2002).
Developer: Eurocom Entertainment Software
Publisher: EA GAMES
Platforms: PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox

007: NightFire is a modest improvement over Agent Under Fire,
offering new, exotic environments to explore within the same linear
framework introduced by its predecessor. Only seven of the 12 lev-
els are actual first-person shooter stages, gadgets seem more of an
afterthought, and the difficulty level only influences the skill of ene-
mies, not the number or type of objectives to complete. NightFire
does add a multiplayer element, one that includes bots for solo
gamers (four on PS2, six on Xbox and GameCube), and it is still an
action-packed title that will hold your attention from start to finish.
Yet it could and should be so much more, squandering its potential
to cater to the popcorn crowd.

James Bond: Everything or Nothing (2003).
Developer: Electronic Arts
Publisher: EA GAMES
Platforms: PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox

Everything or Nothing shows EA’s love for big-name productions with a
voice cast that includes Pierce Brosnan (a first in the series), Willem Dafoe,
Shannon Elizabeth, and even Richard Kiel as Jaws. In a risky move, the
game returns to the same third-person perspective that buried Tomorrow
Never Dies, but with substantially better results. In fact, everything has been
juiced up in this sequel, from the vehicles (a helicopter and motorcycle join a
cloaking Vanquish and Porsche Cayenne Turbo) to nifty Q gadgets like a re-
mote-controlled spider and a retractable rope for rappelling down shafts. Still,
Everything or Nothing could use a little somethin’ somethin’, and that’s a
return to one specific genre, where the developers can focus their attention
on better level design and more complex objectives. The co-op play and four-
player arena modes make this the best Bond game from EA to date, but there
is still room for improvement.

Classic Gamer Magazine July 2004 31