007: The World is Not Enough Review

Throngs of GoldenEye fans were foaming at the mouth when Rare politely declined to secure the Bond license for a second go-around. Seizing the opportunity, EA gobbled up the license and hasn't looked back since, publishing several Bond games for the PlayStation and now The World Is Not Enough for the Nintendo 64. Make no mistake, TWINE attempts to mimic Rare's game in many ways. Where GoldenEye's storytelling is heavily grounded in skill progression, Eurocom chooses a more blatant, theatrical approach. Paralleling Bond's latest big-screen flick with precision, The World Is Not Enough provides an engaging experience but fails to match the gameplay finesse of GoldenEye.

Minus a few levels, the majority of TWINE's quilt of gameplay is constructed of the same cloth as GoldenEye's. There's a lot of sneaking around, escaping rooms with no weapons to use, assuming other identities, and rescuing hostages. Beyond that, there are other levels that mix it up a bit. One level has you skiing down a mountain while thugs on parachuting snowmobiles drop grenades from the sky and try to cap you with their rifles. Another level requires that you swim through a maze of underwater tunnels. The controls are abominable during these levels, and they usually just take you away from what you really want to be doing - shooting to kill. Which brings up another control issue, the auto-aim. Just when you think you can count on it to sight someone up on its own, it hangs you out to dry. Other times it completely takes over, eliminating enemies in the distance while leaving the immediate threat breathing down your neck. The gameplay variety offered in The World Is Not Enough is refreshing at times, but there seems to be more run-and-gun action than the suave and sophisticated Bond would normally engage in.

What is a James Bond game without gadgetry? The contrivances Q throws out in TWINE are some of his best works yet. A watch is always part of your equipment, and this time around it's multifunctional. You can use it to stun the enemy, grapple to out of the way places, shoot darts, or cut things open with its laser. Night vision goggles, sticky bombs, and the safecracker make up just a small portion of your arsenal. The traditional Bond weapons have also returned, including silenced handguns, machine guns, and sniper rifles. Head shots lead to instantaneous death, while plugging enemies in the torso or limbs takes several rounds to bring them down. Unfortunately, the enemies in TWINE are blessed with artificial ignorance. They see, they run, they shoot - and that's about it. They do not seek cover, and they do not alter their path to make killing them difficult. Despite this, there's plenty of Bond charm to go around in TWINE, and most will enjoy playing through it.

TWINE's multiplayer mode is somewhat limited. While there is a nice selection of arenas, the weapon customization is extremely limited, with just three presets to choose from. You may play with up to three bots, though giving them any sort of command is impossible, and they generally amount to nothing more than fragging fodder thanks to their limited intelligence. There are plenty of modes to explore such as capture the flag, deathmatch, king of the hill, and last man standing. It should be noted that the frame rates stay solid during multiplayer, but the stifled customization seriously hacks into the replay value.