007: Everything or Nothing review

When GoldenEye wowed Nintendo 64 owners as the best first person shooter for the console it showed the world that using a film license to sell a game didn’t necessitate a rubbish game. Since then, film licenses have, by and large, returned to the shadows of the gaming world, popping out to make quick money for the developers and then disappearing amidst a critical hammering. There have been a few exceptions in recent times such as the mixed, but generally good, reception afforded to Enter the Matrix. The secret agent game has always been a popular one but good Bond games have always been in short supply.

Let’s see some action

Everything or Nothing draws from the popular “stealth ‘em-up” genre drawing particularly on Splinter Cell for the action and Metal Gear Solid for its cinematics. The game here is presented in the same way as the films are, with an opening story which is unrelated to the main story and then the meat of the plot. With elaborate, well presented cut scenes and the film actors providing the voices and appearance of the game characters, Everything or Nothing appears as an interactive Bond film. Many film franchises will try to retread the steps of the film they relate to or use set piece scenes that refer back to popular films in the franchise to draw in gamers keen to play out their favourite scenes. By bringing its own story to the game Everything or Nothing doesn’t rely on any specific film to provide its set pieces. The in-game sound provides a good atmosphere to build on with realistic sound effects and great voice acting from the likes of Pierce Brosnan, Judy Dench and John Cleese. The game does manages to create a suitably Bond feel, so that you know you are controlling Britain’s most famous secret agent.

Magic moments

Everything or Nothing manages to create a believable Bond environment in a third person, stealth heavy, game. It uses this to create a film style game adding in driving elements and “Bond moments”. The driving is well handled and, whilst no challenge for the likes of a dedicated driving game, the mechanics and handling of the driving sections feel well done. The vehicles are difficult to handle and are a little over responsive but the courses being are so narrow and busy with enemies that you’re too focussed on working out where the course goes and where you’re being shot from to worry about the vehicle handling. In the midst of the action, whether driving or creeping around, you’ll occasionally see the 007 logo appear on screen. This indicates that you’ve completed a “Bond moment”. These are set-pieces throughout the game which can be completed for extra points in the mission. Ranging from silently killing bad guys to blowing stuff up they are hidden secrets in each mission that provide a certain level of replay value.

Solo agent

As mentioned earlier, the single player takes the form of a Bond film that revolves around a nefarious plan involving 003 as a villain. The story in the film isn’t captivating but this style of presentation makes more of the Bond license than simply copying an existing film. The objectives in the mission are described by voiceovers from the lead characters including Judy Dench as M and John Cleese as Q. The objectives are often quite vague, giving little indication of what it is you’re trying to do or hints as to how to complete the mission when it’s obvious that you’re struggling. This leads to plenty of exploration of the levels and scope to complete the Bond moments but can make the levels dull and frustrating. Another frustrating element of the level design is the inability to save during a mission, meaning that there is plenty of repetition with the enemies being fairly scripted. They respond well the first time through but after that you realise that they’re the same every time - allowing quick progress through the parts of the level that you’re used to. This results in having to learn how to control Bond to make progress the way that the game wants you to. It is often a bad idea to go in guns blazing, although it can work, and you learn to use cover to your advantage to make better progress through the level.

Bring a friend

Bond isn’t a strictly single player affair. Whilst Xbox Live isn’t supported, up to four Bond fans can compete on the same machine in one of four game modes. Co-operative sees two players making their way through missions gone awry. The Race mode is a co-operative mission that is scored based on the time taken to complete the level, the Scramble mode puts gamers against each other to try and pick up points on user selectable criteria and finally Arena is for up to four players in a free-for-all. The multiplayer modes provide the biggest return audience draw.

Nothing is Everything

Whilst Everything or Nothing presents a very James Bond game by drawing from successful games it feels slightly rushed. The premise is definitely there but it implements some of the ideas poorly. The camera, for instance, is more often than not pointing in entirely the wrong direction. It points in the direction that you were last moving but rotates very slowly. It would be more natural if it either panned more quickly or pointed in the direction you are facing. You can manually position the camera with the right thumbstick but this is ungainly. The other main problem is the auto aiming. Bond can shoot by simply facing towards the enemy and pulling the trigger. If you want to stand a chance of hitting anything, however, you need to hold the left trigger which will focus Bond onto a specific enemy making him much more accurate. The problem here is when there is more than one enemy on screen at once. The selection of an enemy is not very intuitive, with the game often picking a distant enemy over the one standing next to you shooting you. All of which conspire to make this a flawed but still intermittingly entertaining game.