Remember GoldenEye? Yeah, that game rocked. Except for the fact that it wasn't really a James Bond game. I mean, James Bond kills a lot of people in the movies but in GoldenEye it was just rediculous. It was like someone had set the guy from Doom loose on the sets of a James Bond movie. Tight mechanics and solid gameplay, not to mention the ultimate multiplayer party experience, made GoldenEye not only the best game for the N64, but arguably one of the best games of all time. There was only one thing missing: James Bond. Fast forward ten or so years (my God, has it been that long?) to today, and by today I mean 2004. What have we seen in the way of Bond games since GoldenEye? In order to save space I'm going to say: Bupkus. There were some games that were supposedly about James Bond, as we could see from the cutscenes, but the gameplay was still locked in the shooter mentality, and if a secret agent like James Bond gets locked in the shooter mentality it means death or capture followed by death and a disavowal of your existence from your government. So have we seen some good games? Yes. Have some of these games starred James Bond? Yes. Have we seen good, James Bond games? No. Enter Everything or Nothing, an apt title since it seems to get everything right and nothing wrong. EA's 2004 James Bond experiment. This game gets everything right that the other games, yes, even GoldenEye, got wrong with James Bond. Third person "There's Bond, right there. Just like in the movies!" The actual actors: "Listen, it's Pierce Brosnan, Judi Dench, John Cleese and a handful of other A-list actors. Just like in the movies." Hand-to-hand combat: "Look, James Bond just grabbed that guy's rifle, smashed him in the face with it and knocked him over that railing. JUST LIKE IN THE MOVIES!" Everything from the movies is in this game, even Bond's car makes an appearance, along with a motorcycle, tank and helicopter and you get to drive/ride/pilot all three at some point during the game. Okay, so this is definitely a game with James Bond in it, and he, controlled by you, gets to do a lot of the stuff that has made him famous as a character. This does not necessarily mean that the game is fantastic. That is where the gameplay comes in. I'll go into detail about the features that I mentioned above, starting with my personal favorite: Hand-to-hand combat As much as I liked GoldenEye "with karate-chop action." I always knew that James Bond didn't need a gun to kick serious ass. In Everything or Nothing James Bond has a staggering unarmed combat moveset considering that there are only two attacks and a defend command, and that this isn't a fighting game. The other thing that makes the fighting work so well is the fact that like everything else about this game, it's Bond through and through. James can knock out henchmen with a single punch, throw them to the ground and deliver an elbow to the face, and execute the aforementioned over-the-railing toss. All of this is done intuitively, with context-sensitive moves showing up accidentally at first, and then expertly as you master them. James is hardly an unstoppable juggernaut, though. Granted, he is easily three-times stronger that your average henchman and with two to five times as much health, but this will not help much when he is facing eight bad guys, two with shotguns, one with a pistol, three with crowbars and two with champagne in an open room. If you're not careful, it can happen to YOU. Guns/Gun combat James Bond uses guns. You can't have a James Bond game without them. In Everything or Nothing the gun mechanic of the game has been radically changed from the previous James Bond games. For starters, the gun mechanic isn't the ONLY mechanic. Having the game in third-person makes it necesary to change the "point-and-click" interface that is characteristic of FPSs. Everything or Nothing employs a lock-on method but takes it a step further. Here's how: pressing the left shoulder button locks onto an enemy, pressing it quickly will cycle through the visible enemies. When an enemy is locked a large, rotating reticle is displayed around them. At the center of this reticle is a red dot. This red dot is where all of your shots will invariably go because James Bond is an excellent shot. The trick is getting this red dot where you want it on your enemy, that is handled via the right control stick. It works reasonably well, especially in conjunction with ducking, diving and shooting around corners. Vehicles James Bond drives cool cars. You drive cool cars. The driving engine does a great job, the cars, motorcycles, and tanks all handle like you would expect them to and the weapons are satisfyingly powerful, if you can use them correctly. the vehicle missions really have to be experienced first hand. Some of them are among the best, most replayable levels in the game. The Whole Package/Extras James Bond: Everything or nothing does not revolutionize the genre. There have been games that have done shooting, hand-to-hand fighting and driving/car combat better than this game, so what makes this game so unbelievably awesome? There are two answers: presentation and variety. This game is polished to a mirror sheen in its presentation. The music is perfect, some of the tunes are even memorable, and they complement the action beautifully. I hardly need to mention that the voicework is top-knotch. And the gameplay itself is remarkably cohesive, with all the aspects I mentioned above blending together almost perfectly. The variety in this game is also impressive. And by impressive I mean astounding. This is most evident in a handful of levels that showcase game mechanics that are then not seen for the rest of the game. Once you think you've mastered the driving aspect, the game throws you a level where you have to fly a helicopter. One of the best little touches is the Rappel mechanic, which lets you run up or down the sides of buildings and once you think you'ce mastered that, the game makes you JUMP OFF A CLIFF and do a whole level in freefall. It's a short level but it's extremely well-done. The Final Word It's not just a game. It's an Experience
Other Helpful Reviews for James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing
This game is good, let me get the out there right now. The storyline does a good job of being James Bond and, in fact, the entire game excels in this respect. I do have my few issues, but they're insignificant. Gamepl... Read Full Review
Ever sense Goldeneye to me they haven't had a successful James Bond release, but this is a game to put them back on top. It is the first time that they went away from the first person shooter and went to the third person... Read Full Review
