James Bond 007: NightFire Preview

By Giancarlo Varanini, GameSpotPosted Jul 18, 2002 6:13 pm PT

Secret agent 007 is on his way back to the PlayStation 2. Get all the details on James Bond 007: Nightfire for the PS2 here.

As the 40th anniversary of the character known as James Bond looms on the horizon, Electronic Arts has been working on the next video game incarnation of the superspy. For nearly two years now, the development team has been working to craft a story, characters, an assortment of gadgets, and exotic locales befitting the James Bond license. James Bond 007: NightFire will take you through the halls of a castle located high in the snow-covered mountains, to the South Pacific, and through the streets of Paris in a high-speed pursuit. Needless to say, you'll encounter plenty of action on your trek to uncover a plot involving a famous philanthropist, Raphael Drake.

Bond is ready for action.

Electronic Arts didn't want to create a game that simply involved moving Bond directly from point A to point B. Instead, the development team has designed the first-person shooter levels in such a manner that you'll be presented with multiple solutions to a single problem. In fact, some of these solutions offer a dramatically different experience from the others, giving the game a somewhat nonlinear feel. For example, in one of the first missions, James Bond parachutes within 100 yards of a castle, with numerous guards positioned just outside the entrance. There are quite a few paths you can take at this point. If you think you have a good feel for the control scheme or you're just generally feeling bold, you can run down the steps with your gun blazing, thereby alerting just about every single guard within the immediate vicinity. You can also use a much more subtle approach by taking out individual guards in a quiet manner. Or if you don't particularly care for either of those strategies, you can hop off the bridge and into the back of a truck that will transport you all the way up to the doors of the castle.

Nightvision goggles enhance the stealth element of the game.

Interestingly, the decisions you make at one point may affect the route you take later down the line. Back in the castle mission, if every single guard in the complex has been alerted, then it's obviously much more difficult to go up to the front door, knock, and ask that you be let in. It might be wiser to take an alternate path, which winds its way around the outside of the castle where guards can't track you. What makes this particular path even more fun is that it's one of the first times you'll be exposed to the game's third-person action sequences, in which James will have to perform special actions to proceed. In this case, you have to move past a series of windows, but of course, there's a catch. Inside the windows, you can see guards making their nightly patrol of the castle, and if they see or hear James walking outside, they'll immediately open fire. While we have yet to experience any additional branching-path areas, the ones that we have seen so far give a pretty good indication of the development team's attempt to blend different action elements into one seamless experience.

Indeed, you'll find that NightFire actually encourages you to think about your actions and decide whether or not they're actually the best method for completing Bond's objectives. Of course, there will be occasions when you'll have to get into a gunfight, but in some of the later missions, stealth becomes a key element for survival.

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