James Bond 007: Nightfire Preview

Making a successful debut in Rare’s N64 title Golden Eye, British secret service agent James Bond is about to embark upon a new and exciting journey in EA’s upcoming FPS, James Bond 007: Nightfire. Once again I gotta hand it to those dudes at EA, ‘cause they always manage to maintain a tradition of hiring top-notch developers for their projects. This time around, they teamed-up with the crew at Gearbox Software. In addition to James Bond 007: Nightfire, Gearbox is currently working on Counter Strike: Condition Zero and Halo (PC). They are also known for their expansion packs Half Life: Blue Shift and Half Life: Opposing Force.

Ian Fleming’s indomitable character James Bond always had two distinguishable features that represent an important part of his life and career as a secret service agent. The first thing is his relentless charm and animal magnetism, which seem to appeal to extremely sexy women each and every time (I think it’s his hairy chest - Ed). And the second thing is a daring talent for tracking down and eliminating super-villains sought to destroy the world. These, shall we say, trademarks, are also an essential part of James Bond 007: Nightfire. This means that you’ll be entangled in one of those classic plotlines where a heavily guarded bad-ass villain must be put out of his misery, in a swift and sophisticated manner - Bond style, what else. In Nightfire most of your missions will be related to one Raphael Drake, a prosperous industrialist, who recently took an interest in nuclear weaponry. Your job is to learn more about his operations, while avoiding tons of his goons and gangsters. Seems simple enough.

Well, we finally got the opportunity to test a preview build of the game ourselves. At first glance, the game feels like any other FPS, with a few endurable snags here and there. To begin with, the character’s movement seemed a bit unusual; instead of walking you somehow get the impression your character is sliding across the floor, rather than walking or running - weird. Also, as a result of few bugs it seems that Bond can frequently jam himself while walking through doorways and standing on chairs and tables. Nevertheless, we hope such obvious flaws will be adjusted before the full retail version arrives.

Any passionate James Bond fan should be thrilled to know that this game will have it all, from numerous exotic outdoor locations, to wide-ranging special-agent weapons and gadgets. When you begin the game, you’ll see that Bond is trained to operate almost every weapon he picks up along the way. Yep, he’s a regular Rambo I’ll tell ya! He carries a delightful "bouquet" of different hand grenades, along with an M16 rifle, shot-gun, and his trusty Walther PPK. Thanks to Q-branch and their amusing, but extremely lethal toys, Bond will be going on his missions well-equipped. Each item in Bond’s inventory has its own purpose. His mobile phone shoots out a zip line, which can be very helpful in certain predicaments. Next, he carries a miniature shocker that’s used for overriding various security systems. And of course there’s always an item Q’s "particularly proud of" - a fountain-pen that fires small tranquilizing arrow-heads. When you wish to play it quiet and stealthy, this item should be the perfect choice. The only drawback is that it has a limited amount of darts, so you have to use them wisely and accurately. For carrying out tasks in the dark, Bond has a pair of cool-looking shades with night and thermal vision. Last but not least, you have your very own Bond-watch that’s been supplemented with a very efficient laser, which can penetrate just about any lock that gets in your way. Every time when Bond finds himself in a fix, he can turn to his reliable equipment from Q-branch. This is one of best parts of the game and the most important flavor, which will separate Nightfire from regular action-oriented FPS’s (Yeah right... aren’t we forgetting someone here - Ms. Cate Archer - Ed). Basically, these items emphasize the tactical aspect of gameplay.

Graphically, the game has more than enough to keep up with today’s standards. While you move across huge outdoor environments, you’ll notice several effects that make the ambiance believable; decent light and shadow effects, solid reflections (especially on water surfaces), diverse details in the background, etc. However, I think that in-game models could use more polys on them, perhaps even Bond himself. Also, I noticed that some of your enemies won’t fall down even if you’ve pierced them with multiple ‘shots. For instance, if an enemy is leaning up against a wall behind a corner and you have a clear shot at half of his body, no matter how well you aim, it is impossible to injure him (Classic example of bounding boxes not corresponding with hit zones on the player models - Ed). This means the developers need to polish the damage model just a wee bit. Well, despite these issues, the game looks OK. The camera will shift to 3^rd person in certain situations; like when Bond shimmies across ropes, cords, and rooftops. On top of that, the animation of the characters is good; your opponents can fall down in many different ways, or, sometimes, you can see them run for cover while clenching at their wound. Not bad.

A most pleasant addition to the in-game atmosphere and suspense is the brilliant soundtrack (the tunes will change once the action begins). The famous Bond theme is going to remind you of all of those famous movies, ranging from Goldfinger to Tomorrow Never Dies. All in-game characters are accompanied by professional and excellent voiceovers. Naturally, good-old Pierce Brosnan was kind enough to borrow his voice, as well as his appearance to the main game character. Piercie, we thank you for that one, you da man! (yeah, I bet he got a pretty penny for it, too! Sheesh... we thank ya! - Ed)

In terms of gameplay, James Bond 007: Nightfire will surely present a decent challenge to all gamers. There will be a great number of intriguing mission assignments in various exotic locations, such as: Hong Kong, North and South Korea, London, Cuba, etc. The scenery will usually be packed with a variety of smart opponents that are ready to carve you up or fill you with bullet holes.

Good, clean James Bond fun is what we experienced in this preview version. So, if Gearbox manages to fix all of the aforementioned faults in time for the release, we think there’s no reason why any shooter fan should give this game a miss once it hits the shelves.