It provides just about everything you could want in a Bond game: guns, gadgets, girls and tons of explosive action.

User Rating: 9 | James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing PS2
In the theme song for EA's James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing, which accompanies the game's Bond-style opening credit sequence, Mya sings, "Give me everything or nothing at all!" It's an appropriate sentiment, since the game really does give you just about everything you could want in a James Bond game: guns, gadgets, girls, and tons of explosive action. The result is the best Bond game yet, and one of the most effective and cinematic uses of any movie license in a game. Although not based on a preexisting Bond film, Everything or Nothing feels very much like a chapter in the perennial series. All the elements are here. Of course, a Bond movie needs a powerful villain who plans to hatch some scheme for world domination, and in Everything or Nothing we get Nikolai Diavolo, an ex-KGB agent who intends to unleash an army of metal-devouring nanomachines on the globe. It's Bond's mission, of course, to stop him, and that mission will take him from Egypt to South America to New Orleans to Moscow and find him fighting on foot, piloting helicopters, riding motorcycles, driving tanks and even competing in auto races. Diavolo has the voice and likeness of actor Willem Dafoe, while digital doubles of Heidi Klum, Shannon Elizabeth and Mya all show up to be rescued and romanced by the suave secret agent. In addition, the core cast of the recent Bond films is all here--Pierce Brosnan as Bond, Judi Dench as M, and John Cleese as Q. The presence of these three actors, as well as the use of other actors in roles created solely for the game, really helps to give Everything or Nothing the feel of a big-time Bond movie. This all wouldn't matter much, though, if the game wasn't any fun to play. Thankfully, it's a blast. You'll navigate the game's levels from a third-person perspective, taking advantage of the ample opportunites the levels provide for cover. You'll spend a good deal of time, perhaps a bit too much, hiding behind crates or around corners, waiting for your enemies to expose themselves so you can target them with the press of one button and shoot them with the press of another. However, the action remains varied and frequently thrilling as you'll rely on a mix of stealthy sneaking, melee combat, running-and-gunning, and, of course, your trusty gadgets. Bond wouldn't be Bond without Q's assortment of gizmos at his disposal, and this game incorporates them brilliantly. One of the neatest is the Q-Spider, a little robot you can use to explore areas Bond can't access, scout ahead, and get the drop on baddies. Probably the coolest of all, though, is the rappel gadget, which lets you walk up walls with a bit of effort and run down walls with no effort at all. The levels that incorporate the rappel and have you leaping off ledges only to find yourself walking down elevator shafts or the sides of buildings are really liberating. The game also gives you plenty of opportunites to take Q's souped-up vehicles for a spin. You'l find yourself zooming to catch up with a train in Egypt, leaping a motorbike across rooftops in Peru, and, perhaps most thrillingly, speeding down Pontchartrain Bridge in Louisiana in a desperate attempt to catch up with a tanker whose cargo will spell destruction for New Orleans. These levels tend to be frantic and a whole lot of fun, and the terrific sense of speed you can get on the bridge really captures the white-knuckle feel of a movie car chase. Bond movies are also known for trying to create those moments that make our jaws drop wide open at the sheer awesomeness of what we've just seen, or sometimes in sheer disbelief; they're part of the over-the-top fun of the movie franchise. The game has these, as well. They're called, appropraitely enough, Bond moments, and there are a few to be found and performed in each level. They range from the relatively simple, like shooting a well-placed explosive barrel to take out some enemies, to the completely amazing, like leaping your motorcycle up an impromptu ramp and flying through the air to land on the other side against oncoming traffic. Many of them are a real kick to perform, and like so many other things about Everything or Nothing, they really contribute to the sense that you're playing not just a James Bond game, but an incredibly effective game/movie amalgamation. The game's single-player campaign is nice and meaty and should take most players around fifteen hours to complete. After that, the game provides some incentive to play through levels again. In addition to the fun of playing just to discover all the Bond moments, you can unlock a whole mess of cheats by completing the game's levels on the hardest difficulty level and meeting certain criteria, such as finishing within a time limit or taking less than a specified amount of damage. There's also a nifty cooperative mode that lets you and a friend work your way through a separate campaign. Everything or Nothing looks pretty fabulous. The characters all bear an impressive likeness to their real-life counterparts, and the environments, which run the gamut from little Peruvian villages to high-tech command centers to the neon-bathed streets of New Orleans, feature a surprising level of detail. As with the films themselves, though, it's the special effects that will garner the most attention here. When you're running down the side of a burning building, for instance, the flames you're leaping through look surprisingly real. The game sounds great, too. Most of the actors do a fine job of voicing their characters in the game, and the music makes effective use of the classic James Bond theme and nicely adjusts to suit the action on the fly. It's hard to imagine that anyone who comes to this game hoping for an authentic James Bond experience could come away disappointed. With the gadgets, girls, car chases and top-notch third-person action full of memorable setpieces, Everything or Nothing is a remarkably successful distillation of the essence of the James Bond movies into game form.