Bond Is Back, With All New Gadgets And Wit To Prove It. It's The James Bond We Know And Most Dearly Love.
Well, as everyone who has a brain (And sadly, now a days, that isn't many...) know, this is THE first bond game to go 3rd person, and with kick butt melee fighting. This game was said to feature excellent graphics, AI, and voice-overs. But why did I give it an eight? Well, you will find out in my review.
Graphics : No, this isn't old choppy bad frame rate bond we used to know from Night fire and Agent under fire. This is excellent graphics, good frame rate, and 3rd person all in one. The buildings look well done, they are cell shaded and polished. Vehicles are decent, but aren't the best part of the graphics. The best part is...the cut scenes. The cut scenes are the best in any game made, and the only one that rivals this game is Dynasty warriors 4. Everything is perfectly made, mouths move, eyes blink, hair moves, and people go boom like Arnold Schwarzenegger implanting a bomb into Hitler. Its perfect dude, you got to see if for yourself.
Sound : Gun sounds are well done, voice-overs are un-matched in perfection, and the opening music has a good tune to it, even though I despise music and want to impale all music people... But, anyway, back to the review. Explosions sound good, and now, the best part. Vehicle sounds. They are literally the real things, only put into the game. Now you can't get better then that? Overall, the sounds are above average, but better game sounds are out there.
You play as James Bond, and you try to take down an empire of enemies who's plan is to use Mini-bot things to pull off terrorist type attacks. I don't want to spoil anything... The story, while nothing new, is interesting, and is backed up by a Hollywood cast. James Bond is of course played by Pierce Brosnan, and his nemesis, former KGB officer Nikolai Diavolo is played by Willem Dafoe. There has been a theft of nano-robot technology from the Oxford University, and the scientist overseeing this project, Dr. Katya Nadanova (played by Heidi Klum) has been kidnapped as well. After MI6 identifies the political faction behind it's theft, Bond sets off for the sandy dunes of Egypt to a secret facility. This is where his adventure will begin, and will eventually pass through such locales as Peru, New Orleans and Moscow. He'll also meet several beauties and enemies, like the geologist Serena (Shannon Elizabeth) NSA agent Mya Starling (Mya) and even the classic villain Jaws (Richard Kiel). It's a great cast, and it really delivers the story in an authentic way. This one is good enough for the big screen.
Gameplay : From bashing people with a wrench, to mowing them down with a machine gun, this game is James Bond on steroids. You can fight countless enemies like a ninja, you can fight with guns, or both! There's driving, shooting, and of course, stealth. I HATE stealth, but in this game, its different. -WARNING, intense sentences of violence coming up. This is not for little kids. This stuff can happen in the game too.-
You can ambush enemies and break their necks, you can snap their arms and smash them into walls, you can bash someone's forehead into a brick wall, you can throw sledge hammers at people, and blow up various enemies with bazookas. -Violence ended-
So that basically sums it all up. Intense action across 30+ levels, but, this game doesn't have computer-controlled enemies like Night fire and Agent under Fire; this game only has a cheap co-op with about five levels, and an arena where you fight enemies. That's the bad part of this game. And when you blow up a civilian car in a driving mission, you lose the level. The gadgets are cool, and also help to make the game more exciting. Q Spiders can crawl through vents to scout territory or take out enemy troops. The RC car, deployed while in a vehicle, acts as the same thing. By pressing left on the D-Pad, the player will enter Bond Sense. Here, time slows down to a near standstill, and allows the player to think. In a sense, it's giving Bond time to think what to do were he in the situation. By pressing R1 in this mode, the camera will direct you to anything important, whether it be a rappel point, the position of the enemy to objects that can be picked up. When time speeds back up again, you'll know where everything is and you'll be able to take out a roomful of enemies in no time. Control is sometimes an issue, as it feels a little loose. The camera is a tad clunky as well, but even casual gamers should grasp it quickly enough. As in Nightfire, performing different feats will award you with a Bond moment. These moments can be hard to spot, but sometimes you'll just know it before you even do it, because it's been cliched in so many of the movies. Hmmmm, there's a half naked girl sitting over there waiting for a massage in a New Orleans dance club. I wonder what Bond would do?
Aside from the shooting and massaging, Mr. Bond will have to do a lot of driving as well. He'll have an SUV, his Vanquish, a helicopter, a motorcycle and even a tank at his disposal. Unlike the driving sequences in Nightfire, these are insanely fast, very challenging and highly exciting. There's no rush quite like tearing down a mountain road on a motorcycle, using the ramp on a truck to fly over a roadblock and into the hull of a plane even as it's taking off. The driving segments are fun, unlike in Nighfire where they seemed like a chore. The engine is really solid, but there's also an arcade-y feeling to it. Let's just say if you want to go 100 mph around a sharp turn while firing missiles, you go right ahead and do that.
With a co-op campaign, 30+ levels, and tons of bonus cheats to unlock, you won't stop playing.
Even though I gave it such a high rating, I would recommend renting it. It will get boring, and the price is still too high right now. So, rent it, maybe twice, you will get your kicks out of it by then.
Hope you enjoyed my review, and laughed at my stupid cheesy jokes. Good-bye!