GameCube

007: Everything or Nothing

Flat out, Everything or Nothing will blow you away. You don’t even have to be a fan of the hero to enjoy this one, and the best part is, anyone can pick it up and play. This can easily go down as the best 007 gaming experience and dethrone N64’s Goldeneye. Here’s your chance to be James Bond and do all the groovy stuff he does.

The latest game in the James Bond universe from Electronic Arts can be summed up in one word: WOW. Everything about this game screams the word, from the all-star cast to the gameplay to the story, this is one slick package. The meat of the game unfolds in the story mode following James and his efforts to stop the nefarious Nikolai Diavolo, a former KGB agent, in his pursuit of world domination. James must run, shoot, drive, race, fly, pilot tanks, and of course make time for the ladies in his pursuit of the madman.

Signing on to her majesty?s secret service will finally give you a good view to a kill. James Bond returns to the small screen in his finest performance yet on this generation of consoles. 007: Everything or Nothing?s high-octane action accurately captures the spirit of Bond with a snappy variety of hijinks and a roster of talent that packs in Hollywood stars like sardines.

Ever since the success of Nintendo and Rare's take on the James Bond film GoldenEye, the world's most famous secret agent has been cast in first-person shooter after first-person shooter. It seems as though Electronic Arts has been trying, with varying degrees of success, to recapture the magic of Rare's classic Nintendo 64 game. But for an agent as versatile as James Bond, casting him into a shooter has always felt a little limiting. There's certainly much, much more to the character than just running around with a gun. Electronic Arts has finally come to this conclusion, it seems. Its latest Bond game, Everything or Nothing, is a third-person action game that blends shooting, driving, and other types of action together in a seamless fashion, delivering an awesome experience that puts you in 007's shoes better than any game to come before it.

While I preferred playing this title on the Xbox, it's a solid release on all three systems, and it's a great chance to see Bond in an adventure that's (a little) less ridiculous than most of his recent missions.

However, issues aside, Everything or Nothing is a mission that any gaming agent would be pleased to take. Since there’s no Bond movie this year, it seems as though the developers and actors put all of their talents into making the best game they could, and it shows. A solid story, engaging gameplay and sound technical merits makes Everything or Nothing the best Bond title that’s been released in years. If you dig Bond in any way, you have to get Everything or Nothing.

Despite its daring, varied design and big-time production values, it's not perfect. There are frequent problems with camera view, and the auto-targeting vacillates between adequate and maddening. However, good games can make you overlook their flaws, and on this count Everything or Nothing is a success. Is it the next great evolution of gaming? Perhaps not, but it is a step towards creating the ultimate James Bond title.

007: Nightfire habe ich sehr gerne und oft gespielt und ehrlich gesagt habe ich erst eine bisschen gebraucht, um mich an die neue Perspektive zu gewöhnen. Als diese anfängliche Umstellung dann vorbei war, konnte mich Alles oder Nichts sehr gut unterhalten. Neben der Bombast-Präsentation sorgt auch die einfache, fast schon anspruchslose Spielmechanik für fesselnde Action. Man stapft überwiegend im Trial-and-Error-Prinzip durch die Levels und ärgert sich manchmal – stellenweise flucht man regelrecht – über fehlende Checkpoints und die Tatsache, dass man den Level nach dem Ableben komplett von vorne spielen muss. Das Leveldesign ist in fast allen Belangen sehr gut gestaltet. Einzig und allein das unerklärliche Auftauchen von Gegnern lässt nicht nur Fragen, sondern auch stellenweise Frust aufkommen.

As one of EA's blockbuster games, Everything or Nothing is by no means subtle. It's big in nearly every way: big budget (we're assuming, given the cast of famous actors and Bond screenwriter), big explosions that fly by you as you race through levels, and a big storyline that has you traveling all over.

Try as it may, Electronic Arts has been unable to shake the legacy of Rare and Nintendo's highly respected GoldenEye 007, a standard-setting first-person shooter for consoles and fantastic adaptation of the Bond movie. It seems that with each release, The World is Not Enough, NightFire and so on, fans of the franchise were always stacking it up to expectations that are almost impossible to meet. This time with the release of James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing things have changed. EA's internal development team has crafted a hugely entertaining third-person action title that offers up a bevy of gameplay styles, mostly centered on strategic shootouts and gripping driving sequences.

Yet Everything or Nothing, the game that preceded Rogue Agent, was a great title. It was a game that had few flaws, and was the ultimate Bond experience to date. With intense shootouts, fast car and motorcycle chases, great animation and graphics, as well as a heaping of excellent storytelling, Everything or Nothing throws the player in the shoes of James Bond with great results.

We've been mesmerized by James Bond since childhood. And then GoldenEye 007 came along and turned his console appearances into some of the most anticipated in gaming. Too bad, then, that none have stood up to Rare's masterpiece and the superspy mantle has been taken up by younger, less British playas. But EA's had a secret weapon in development for years, and in third-person, no less. Could it break the FPS shackle to put 007 back on top? Absolutely. Lacking only the stellar multiplayer of GoldenEye 007, Everything Or Nothing nonetheless may be the best console Bond ever, with rich varied gameplay that has something for everyone. The over-the-shoulder view is what 007 needed all along. After all, espionage is all about voyeurism, and now we get to see every detail.

En définitive, cette nouvelle aventure de 007 comblera les amateurs d'action, à condition bien sûr de ne pas s'attendre à un titre révolutionnaire. En incorporant tous les ingrédients d'un bon James Bond ciné, Quitte Ou Double parvient à accrocher par son aspect spectaculaire, sans pour autant être le jeu d'action de l'année. Il reste toutefois plombé par des niveaux trop courts et quelques passages plus rébarbatifs. Comme c'est souvent le cas dans les jeux EA, le gameplay n'est pas très profond, mais on s'en prend plein la gueule.

Like most 8 year-old boys, I had a love affair with 007. When asked what I wanted to be when I grew up I would without hesitation snarl, Bond, James Bond. Then I’d provocatively raise an eyebrow in between sips of my fake martini shaken, not stirred.