Taste-Test: James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing

“Whether EA can make the transition (from first- to third-person Bond) successfully this time around remains to be seen, and, honestly, I’m a bit skeptical myself. We’ll see, though, right?” If you read my preview on this game a little while back, chances are you saw me say this. Well, I’ve never been one not to admit it when I was very, very wrong, so, I’ll admit it. I was very, very wrong.

Third-person shooters, in the 3D era, have, historically, not been the greatest games, with under-whelming titles such as Mission: Impossible and Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire coming to mind. The mechanics never quite felt right, the controls and physics just a little too clunky, and the aiming just a little off. With all this obviously in mind, Electronic Arts decided to take a little bit of a risk, departing from the traditional first-person realm for James Bond. And they somehow made it work.

I’m not going to give the story away, seeing as how it’s actually one of the biggest driving forces behind the game, unlike the past non-movie based Bond titles, in which the story is tertiary, at best, and often times convoluted and hard to follow. You’ll actually want to know what’s going to happen next in this game, and you’ll find yourself really feeling like you’re living a Bond film. The story in this game may be worthy of being a movie in itself. And, if you’re a fan of the film series, you’ll find some very, very interesting nods to it (Jaws isn’t the only one of 007’s old nemeses to have a certain presence in the game).

The graphics are, simply put, fantastic. This is no-doubt one of the best looking games on the GameCube, rivaling even Resident Evil at some points, especially in the ultra-crisp, insanely realistic FMV scenes. Animations are smooth and clean, environments are immensely detailed, and the character models, many of which taken from Hollywood heavyweight actors, look nothing short of amazing. Just as impressive as the graphics is the audio. The use of the film series’ actors (Pierce Brosnan, Judi Dench, John Cleese, Richard Kiel), as well as some other well-known Hollywood personalities (Willem Dafoe, Shannon Elizabeth, Heidi Klum), makes for a truly movie-like atmosphere, and, like EA’s Lord of the Rings games, really does make it feel like an interactive film.

Ok, so you’re all wondering about control, aren’t you? How could EA have possibly made this game feel right in third-person? Simple. By making it feel as first-person as possible. The control isn’t perfect, and the flaws become more evident as you get into the more difficult missions with many, many people shooting you from every different direction. I’ll go into that more in my review, which should be coming…eventually. I won’t give a time frame, because I don’t know. The use of L-targeting, in the same vein as Metroid and Zelda, is a very effective way of getting rid of those pesky aiming issues that are nearly synonymous with third-person shooting.

Verdict so far: If you’re a fan of shooters, James Bond, or just a solid gameplay experience give this one a look-see. With about 30 missions, it’ll keep you busy for a decent amount of time. Hopefully you can expect a fully detailed review in the not-to-distant future.

Carl DeNovio