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James Bond: Everything or Nothing
Fom fighting to flying to driving, Bond does a bit of Everything.
by D. Ackerman
| PLATFORM:
PS2,
XBX, GC |
| PUBLISHER:
EA |
DEVELOPER:
EA |
GENRE:
Action |
ESRB:
Teen |
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Every few years, we get another game in the James Bond franchise.
Each time, we’re assured that this will be the Bond game to
eclipse all others, and each time, we’re left disappointed.
After all, while you and I would think the Bond franchise would
work well as a stealth/action/adventure game, all the previous versions
were first-person shooters.
Why? Well, that all goes back to a classic N64 Bond game called
Goldeneye. While it had nothing to do with the movie it
was named after, it was a fairly engrossing FPS, and somehow became
enshrined in the history of video games as one the best games ever.
By the way, any reference to said Goldeneye game is video
game writer’s cliché #1, and we practically guarantee
that any review you read of Everything or Nothing will
mention it.
 EA,
in its last few Bond games has been slowly moving in the right direction.
2002’s Agent Under Fire added vehicular missions
to break up the run n’ gun gameplay and Nightfire,
released a mere eight months later, added the face (but not the
voice) of Pierce Brosnan (which didn’t really mean too much
in a game played from the first-person perspective).
This time, EA seems to be taking a different approach, finally
moving the game to the third-person POV, where it really belongs.
Besides a fully digitized Pierce, voice and all, we get an all-star
cast, including John Cleese, Dame Judi Dench, Richard “Jaws”
Kiel, Willem “I was in the Spiderman game, too”
Dafoe, Shannon Elizabeth, Heidi Klum, and R&B singer Mya, who
plays a bit part and provides the kinda-lame theme song. In addition,
the script was provided by Bruce Feirstein, who penned Bond films
The World is Not Enough and Tomorrow Never Dies.
It’s great seeing a well-rounded cast in an A-list game,
and the actor’s likenesses are some of the best we’ve
seen. The game has a lot of the same humor and style of the recent
Bond films, but it’s largely restricted to the numerous cut
scenes.
The rest of the time, Everything or Nothing is an interesting
mix of third-person action, driving and a couple of unique surprises.
The game does a good job of mixing up the genres so that you’re
never stuck doing the same thing for too long. We did, however notice
a little awkwardness jumping between gameplay and cut scenes, and
sometimes we’d be dropped into a situation without a clear
idea of what we were supposed to do – leading to some frustrating
trial-an-error gameplay.
 The
on-foot levels are well done, with an emphasis on taking on enemies
from behind cover. The stealth portions play less well, with slightly
imprecise controls and twitchy AI leading you into a gun battle
sooner rather than later.
During fights, you’ll find yourself making frequent use of
your “Bond Sense,” which slows down time to a crawl
and let’s you survey the landscape for enemies and usable
objects.
The car driving levels are somewhat difficult to navigate, with
a poorly thought out mapping system and hard-to-steer cars. But,
the levels with your rocket-firing motorcycle give a great feeling
of real speed.
Extra fun are short levels where you rappel down the side of a
building or freefall down a cliff, dodging obstacles and shooting
bad guys all the way down.
As long as you can take the typical Bond womanizing and supermodel-as-scientist
vibe in the tongue-in-cheek way in which it’s intended, most
girl gamers will enjoy Everything or Nothing. It’s
a high-budget A-list game that’s easy to get into, but challenging
enough to keep you on your toes.
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