James Bond 007: Nightfire Review

By Martin Taylor Published 2 December, 2002

Review - Martin can't seem to Bond with this one...

Version tested: PC

Why do Bond games seem to be so hard to get right? The ingredients are all there waiting to be put in the mix, and the hard work of getting the player to identify with a lead character and the role they fulfil is practically done for them, yet only one developer has ever managed to do it right - Rare. Every time a new Bond game is released, it seems appropriate to line it up against Rare's standard-setting N64 classic GoldenEye. So how does the Gearbox-developed Nightfire stand up against that stalwart of Bond gaming?

"Bond, James Bo-" "Oh shut up"

'James Bond 007: Nightfire' Screenshot nfire01

Some housewarming this turned out to be

As you may have already guessed, Nightfire doesn't even come close to rivalling GoldenEye. As a bog-standard FPS, it fares quite well actually; it looks reasonably good, there's a compliment of neat gadgets, characters are well animated and locations are varied, fairly detailed and well constructed. As a Bond game, though, it fails quite miserably.

The main fault is an almost complete lack of purpose. Certainly, there are mission objectives to fulfil, but you never really end up going out of your way to achieve them. Instead, you pelt through each level, dispatch some villains, reach the and discover that you've completed objectives without even realising it - all I remember doing was pulling a few levers and shooting a bit.

The levels, while each at first appearing quite detailed and exhibiting a commendable level of variety, are completely static and barely exhibit any kind of interactivity. Your progression through them is deceptively linear through the clever use of locked doors, but the opportunity occasionally arises for a bit of imagination in how you approach a situation. The game pulls this kind of thing off with varied success - take the first mission where you need to get inside a heavily guarded mansion on the side of a mountain for example. Parachuting onto the roof of a guard tower, M radios in and informs you that you may be able to enter the compound on board a goods truck that's heading up the road. We try that, and fail, so we change tack and decide to try and sneak our way in. Spotting a cable attached to the tower and offering a way across the road and up to the mansion, we clamber up and sure enough Bond starts swinging his way along the cable. Brilliant! Except... he won't get off. No matter how hard we try, Bond just dangles there refusing to do anything other than wriggle up and down the cable until we give up and start the level again.

This kind of sloppiness is glaring throughout Nightfire, and it quite frankly ruins an already pale gaming experience. Any attempt at stealth tactics is usually marred by completely unresponsive controls and enemy soldiers with super-human vision, capable of spotting you lurking in the shadows from 300 yards, in the dark, in the middle of a snowstorm. Attempt to peer around the corner and spot any lurking enemies, and see if you're lucky enough for the lean function to even work at all first time - it usually takes six or seven presses. And forget about trying to lean while crouching, it's impossible. I honestly can't understand how these completely obvious flaws were ignored.

Sigh...

'James Bond 007: Nightfire' Screenshot nfire02

Zzzz

The use of Q gadgets also leaves a lot to be desired. For the most part, they're employed to assist in mundane tasks, which simply drive your linear path forward. Using your laser watch to melt padlock after padlock, the grappling hook to hoist yourself up onto a balcony when every door has been found locked, the x-ray specs to peer into a room before you enter and easily bump off the frustratingly stupid guards - nothing particularly interesting. Weaponry is exactly what you'd expect, with the requisite pistol, machine guns, shotgun, grenades, rocket launcher and so on, although it does feel a bit stupid to have Bond walking about with an enormous great futuristic rocket launcher perched on his suave frame.

Oh yes, I didn't mention the AI yet, did I? There isn't any. The sentries happily stand around and watch their colleagues' demise, or take a shot in the leg or the arm without bothering to find out who did it. When they're not ignoring their own impending doom, they occasionally see fit to inexplicably turn on each other. Spectacular.

Despite looking reasonable for the most part and having some genuinely well produced elements - the introduction movie and music in particular is superb, suiting the style of the license tremendously - Nightfire systematically fails to engage you in practically every respect. You just don't feel like you're Bond, and including any number of easy, ridiculously forward, large-chested women and having you take pictures of them (yes, you do) isn't going to make it any more Bondlike.

The problem lies in the way you coast through the levels without any real sense of progress or achievement until you realise you're finished. Garnish this enormous flaw with a smattering of smaller niggles in the unresponsive controls, bad AI, a tacked-on afterthought of a multiplayer mode and some ridiculous bugs and you're left with another extremely unsatisfying attempt at the Bond license. Next!

3 / 10

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Comments (19) Latest comment 8 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • pjmaybe #1 9 years ago

    Too frickin' expensive for "Agent Under Fire 1.2"

    Peej

  • Whizzo #2 9 years ago

    Well it looks like the demo was representative then, that was appalling!

    Gearbox have done some decent stuff in the past, hopefully this isn't an indication of how their PC version of Halo is going to be...

    Aren't the console versions supposed to be quite different? Will these be reviewed seperately?

  • pjmaybe #3 9 years ago

    Have only seen the PC, PS2 and XBOX versions so far and there's nowt between them. The whole thing smacks of a lazy port from one machine to all the others.

    PC version was, surprisingly, the worst...!

    Peej

  • mouse Verified Graphic designer, Eurogamer Network #4 9 years ago

    I haven't played any of the console versions so I'm not sure in what respects they'd be different.

  • Tiitiz #5 9 years ago

    Gearbox have done some decent stuff in the past, hopefully this isn't an indication of how their PC version of Halo is going to be...

    As i said a while ago, Gearbox doing Halo PC is not a good thing at all. They are always late (very) and end up with a very lazy port or game.
    I just hope M$ breath down the back of Gearbox and get something worth while out of their lazy arses. With the time it takes and and what it ends up being makes me wonder if they have more than 2 people working for them
    Edited by 1 at 02/12/02 @ 13:16

  • sam_spade #6 9 years ago

    Can't think of a good game Gearbox has made, the Half-Life expansions didn't match up to the majesty of the original and how could you go wrong with a game like that?

    Shame really. Someone with an ounce of ambition could make a great James Bond game, but obviously they aren't interested in doing that.

  • Mugwum Verified Operations Director, Eurogamer Network #7 9 years ago

    Ah, Gearbox aren't always terrible. I enjoyed Half-Life: Opposing Force for what it was, and the PS2 Half-Life was pretty good.

  • reto #8 9 years ago

    Is this actually as the same game as on the consoles? As eurocom are normally pretty good. I throught Hydro Thunder was excellant - that New York Level - WOW.

  • lee3p0 #9 9 years ago

    True , Hydro THunder was PURE CLASS, But having played the pc demo of this I proclaim it a Stinking pile of smelly maggot riden turds!!!
    Edited by 1 at 02/12/02 @ 22:57

  • binky #10 9 years ago

    yeah Listen to Barta...... go buy this!!! :)

    /me looks for his xmas bonus....

    Barta. Goldeneye was fantastic. it had GREAT gfx and a superb Multiplayer, so dont be so silly.

  • gizmo #11 9 years ago

    Sorry, but goldeneye was the mutts nuts.

    However, the console versions of nightfire are getting favourable reviews. On IGN it was rated 85,82,81 on gc,xbox and ps2 respectively. Can't be that bad then?

  • mouse Verified Graphic designer, Eurogamer Network #12 9 years ago

    Like I said, I don't know what they've left in or taken out of this version compared to the console versions, so I couldn't tell you why this would be considered worse. All I know is that Nightfire on the PC is absolutely godawful, and you only need to play the demo to figure that out really.

  • Concrete #13 9 years ago

    I've never understood why people liked Golden Eye - but then I never understood why people liked the N64 controller - so erm - there :p
    Seriously though is this a version of the Half Life engine?

  • Alastair #14 9 years ago

    'I've never understood why people liked Golden Eye....'
    It has atmosphere
    ' - but then I never understood why people liked the N64 controller '
    It's got a superbly placed trigger button.

    All imo of course.

  • mouse Verified Graphic designer, Eurogamer Network #15 9 years ago

    Yeah, I think it's a souped up version of the HL engine (this isn't saying much, mind), similar to what they're going to be using for Condition Zero I think. Which is, um... nice.

  • pjmaybe #16 9 years ago

    You sure this is the HL engine? It just smacked of being a rehash of the Agent Under Fire engine to me...

    (agent under fire engine? Probably a safe place to be at the moment...no fear of it moving or anything..!)

    Peej

  • Nemesis #17 9 years ago

    Op Forces was cool as an expansion pack, but the character AI was a bit, er, pants. It was like herding sheep sometimes.

  • otto #18 9 years ago

    Speaking of DHV, I feel a bit sorry for our chum BlankoBlank!, have you noticed he's not been seen much around these parts since his game got such a caning? Poor feller. :( I must say I'd find it really depressing to put your heart & soul into a project for several months/years only to have a bunch of strangers rip it to shreds. Let's face it, even the 'worst' games these days are very rarely less than very good indeed. IMHO.

  • #19 9 years ago

    Just ordered the cube version from dvdcrave for 35€. Might get Madden 2003 later, Madden 94 was pretty good on Megadrive...

  • #20 9 years ago

    Blankoblank... what did he do, otto? That DieHard game?

  • jellyhead #21 8 years ago

    try this taken from neoseeker:
    To activate the cheat mode, you gotta create a file called autoexec.cfg in the "C:\Program Files\EA Games\Nightfire\Bond" directory (or the \bond directory of where you installed the game). Use notepad or some similar editor and add the lines as noted below and then save the file.

    sv_cheats 1
    console 1

    Then, when you are in the game, press the [`] (tilde) key and the console will drop down.