|
James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing Review for PlayStation 2 (PS2)
Posted on Tuesday, March 16, 2004 @ 05:40:20 pm E.S.TIt was around several years ago when Rare and Nintendo released GoldenEye 007 and redefined the FPS genre. Since then, the license to the James Bond series has changed hands, and EA has made several noteworthy attempts to live up to the expectations set by GoldenEye so many years ago. It seems that with the release of James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing EA has changed their strategy on how to handle the Bond series. The typical FPS Bond game is no more, for now at least, and Bond has been moved to a third person perspective. After playing through only the first few levels, the change was found to be most welcome.
The gameplay in Everything or Nothing is just incredibly deep. With an all-star cast of actors and voice talents, Everything or Nothing proves itself to be a truly cinematic experience. Among the cast is: Pierce Brosnan, Mya, Shannon Elizabeth, Judi Dench and Heidi Klum. With their likeness and voice talent implemented into the game, things start to feel almost too much like watching a Bond flick on your TV. However, there is so much more to Everything or Nothing than just an excellent cast.
Playing as James Bond has never felt this right. With the third person viewpoint, you will always see Bond, and you’ll have a number of new stealthy tactics at your disposal. A few basics of third person action are obvious: back to wall, dive rolls and crouching. Not all these moves have been present in past Bond experiences, and while they’re nothing new the third person action genre, they are implemented in Everything or Nothing in a way that creates a whole new element of stealthy gameplay that, often, makes Bond play more like the spy that he is. With all these moves at your disposal, it would seem pretty important to provide some sort of hand-to-hand combat system. EA scores some major points in this department, as the hand-to-hand fighting system works amazingly well, and adds so much more depth to the gameplay by allowing you the choice of how to deal with your adversaries. With any game, there will always be something missing. This statement holds true for EON, as a number of minor features were seemingly absent from the gameplay. Most obvious of these would be the blatant lack of a jump feature, which at many points in the game can become bothersome.
As always, the shooting aspect of EON is definitely gripping at times, but with most third person games, it’s not quite perfect. The targeting system in EON is something fairly new to third person action. Pressing L1 will target an enemy and once you’ve locked on you’re able to use the right thumb stick to move a reticule around that enemy’s body to aim for certain areas. This becomes especially important while trying to score a few shots on an enemy using cover or when you’re running low on ammo. The targeting system is a bit buggy at times, and creates for a slight difficulty in tight combat situations. When Bond has his back to the wall, it’s difficult to target enemies right in front of you, and when you’re up against multiple opponents, you’ll have to give your L1 button a good whooping to cycle to a specific target. Due to this, you’ll come to appreciate the hand-to-hand combat systems and the various gadgets that are your disposal even more, due to the fact that it provides alternatives to using gunfire when a quick response is needed or to take out multiple targets ahead of you, thus saving you ammunition and frustration.
Who knew Bond could pilot a chopper?
EON offers a whole lot of freedom throughout its various missions. There are a number of things that help to provide you this freedom, but one thing in particular makes things quite a bit more interesting: gadgets. Through the use of his Q Spider, a small robotic spider capable of a number of things, Bond is able to scout ahead, take hidden paths through air ducts and even clear out some enemies. Often, the Q Spider opens up entirely different ways to complete mission than if you were to run through guns-a-blazing. While the Q Spider is a major player in the EON experience, the ability to rappel adds a great amount of strategy to mix of action and stealthy gameplay. Rappelling in EON provides a seamless transition between running on the ground and up and down the sides of structures. Rappelling provides some of the most compelling and exciting fight scenes in the game, as you shoot down at enemies and swing around to have shootouts on building sides with countless amounts of enemies.
While EON is truly a thrilling experience on foot, it offers up the same variety with its vehicular missions. As Bond, you will control anything from motorcycles, to cars, or tanks to helicopters. To insure the quality of these missions, EA has used a modified version of the Need for Speed: Underground game engine. This aspect of the game keeps things interesting and really helps this game to feel more and more like an actual Bond flick and less of a refined first person shooter featuring the Bond name.
Everything sounds peachy, no? Well prepare for a bit of a let down. Past Bond games have always been known to have some great multiplayer, but if you’re planning on having a night of fun with your buddies, you will probably want to opt for something other than EON. The move to third person has been nearly detrimental to the multiplayer experience. With lackluster split-screen games, Bond fans will find that the PS2-exclusive two player online co-op mode is the only truly worthwhile experience in terms of multiplayer experience.
It seems that while doing their best to provide gamers with an enjoyable new Bond experience, EA missed a few very basic aspects of action gameplay. Most obvious of all being the blaring absence of an in-game save feature. As missions become progressively more challenging in the more advanced difficulty modes, many gamers will find that having to replay the same scenes multiple times becomes tedious. EON is not an easy game by any means but it is not the most difficult game either. While the lack of an in-game save feature is certainly a nuisance, it shouldn’t keep anyone from finishing the game.
With so much depth to be found in EON’s gameplay, it’s quite pleasing that the controls are all very manageable. After the first few missions, mostly everything in the game becomes second nature, with one exception. Often, the camera is going to cause you to take damage from unseen hostile fire. When Bond’s back is to the wall, enemies directly in front of you will often escape the camera’s deadly view, and only when you start to take damage will you jump from the wall to eliminate your enemies, if it’s not already too late. Aside from the occasional annoyance you will experience from the camera, EON controls very smoothly and will be quite easy for anyone to pick up.
Look, an old friend. How nice.
Graphically, EON is amazing. Bond shields his face during explosions, textures are smooth and there are countless numbers of polished animations. EON is one of the most aesthetically pleasing PS2 games to roll around in quite some time. Character models are interesting and varied, and even Bond will even change his duds throughout the game. The cutscenes are gorgeous and make for a cinematic feel so surreal it’s rivaled by only a few recent games across any platform. However, graphics don’t carry a game alone; sound is a major player in EON, as well.
Perhaps the strongest showing in EON is the sound. With the cast mentioned earlier, the voice acting is just incredibly strong and even witty at times. The in game music fits wonderfully with the mood, and people chime in at just the right times. This may be due in part to the fact that the same man who wrote Tomorrow Never Dies wrote much of the story for EON, as well. Basically, with strong voice acting and the right music for the mood, sound becomes an enthralling aspect of the EON experience.
All in all, Everything or Nothing is an excellent single-player experience and is, dare I say, the best Bond has looked since the days of GoldenEye. Whether or not you have been a fan of recent Bond games, Everything or Nothing is definitely a game you have to play at least once. With an intriguing story, polished gameplay and an all-star cast of actors and voice talent, Everything or Nothing has shaped up to be an amazing single-player experience. Review By: Kent Mackowiak - 4315 Reads
James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing Review Scores for PS2 :
| Gameplay |
| 8.0 |
| Graphics |
| 9.0 |
| Sound |
| 9.5 |
| Replay |
| 7.5 |
| Overall |
| 8.5 |
|
Go Back |
Reviews Index |
Post About It
|
