GAME CLEAR No. 82 -- James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing

James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing (2004, Multiplatform)

Developer: EA Redwood Shores
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Clear Platform: PlayStation 2
Clear Date: 2/27/22

This game is really something else. One of the more extreme mixed bag games I’ve played in a long time. Probably best to split this post into the good and the bad.

The Good

First and foremost, you’ve got Pierce Brosnan, Judi Dench, John Cleese, and Willem Dafoe all on the mic. They all do pretty admirable VO jobs, and even when some of the line deliveries fall a little flat, at least it’s them. You’ve also got Bruce Feirstein writing, who had writing credits on the GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, and The World Is Not Enough films. Oh, and also Jaws is in the game for some reason. Fine by me!

As far as the story goes, it’s pretty good! It’s definitely more on the silly/camp Bond side of things, but that fits with Brosnan’s tenure. It’s by far the best story of any of the Bond games with original stories. That’s not really saying much, but suffice it to say it definitely gets the job done. The plot concerns Nikolai Diavolo, a former KGB agent who (more or less) wants to take over the world. He has the technology (nanomachines), and it’s up to Bond to save the day once again. The story is surprisingly long by the standards of the series (and of the day), which was a nice surprise, and it doesn’t overstay its welcome. I won’t spoil anything, but this is a fun, silly Bond story.

The action sequences throughout the game are cool as hell too. They feel very much like they could fit right into a real Bond movie. I don’t think I could say the same about the previous games, and that’s because of one critical difference: the game is in third-person! This instantly seems like the way it should have been all along. It allows Bond to sneak, take cover, and remember the basics of CQC. There is some clear influence from Metal Gear and Splinter Cell in this Bond outing, and mostly for the better. But the third-person action isn’t without fault, which I’ll get into later.

Maybe the highlight of the game, surprisingly, is the vehicular sections. My understanding is that the Need for Speed guys helped with these sections, and it shows. They’ve aged remarkably well, and the motorcycle sequences in particular evoke that sense of Bond action better than maybe any other part of the game. There is some real white-knuckle shit in those levels, and I loved it.

The Bad

This game is obnoxiously hard. The few people who read this blog should know me well enough to know that I am no stranger to difficulty and do not balk at it, but this game is fuckin’ tough. I was playing on “Agent” (normal) difficulty, and I definitely struggled with several of the missions. But really, some of that may just be perceived difficulty: all the game needs is more checkpoints! It’s not generous with them at all (many stages include none whatsoever), so a death right near the end can mean doing a level all over again. It’s brutal, and it makes the game seem harder than it really is. Everything or Nothing indeed.

The difficulty also isn’t helped by the dated controls. It sounds silly to say, but I think this game would be fuckin’ great if it were remade in the FOX Engine or something. Obviously, that will absolutely never happen, but basically third person stealth action controls and mechanics have come a long way since this game. The environments are fundamentally decent stealth and cover-shooter fare, but it’s too annoying to target things, and it’s easy as hell to get caught sneaking. The enemies have that sort of instantaneous awareness of Bond’s position that I complained about in my post about the first Splinter Cell. They go from not knowing Bond is there at all to hearing him take a single footstep, whipping around, and blowing his ass away. Imitating the famous gunbarrel sequence, I suppose.

Another thing worth mentioning on that subject is that it isn’t always super clear whether Bond should be sneaking or blasting his way through certain missions or parts of missions. I get that James Bond absolutely can and does do both, but I wish it were more clear which the game is going for at any given time.

The Funny

Aside from some loose references to Die Another Day (and having the Brosnan-era cast on board in general), the only other film this game makes any direct reference to is A View to a Kill (considered by me and most others to be one of the weakest films in the franchise). Main antagonist Nikolai Diavolo’s mentor was Max Zorin, main antagonist of A View to a Kill. No idea why they thought that would be a compelling tie-in, but whatever! At least it allowed for a nice pun (Bond: “We played bridge together once. He lost.”).

Overall

Game’s not bad. I definitely recommend it to curious fans of 007, and it has some great highs, but know that it can be really fucking annoying at times too. Probably my biggest takeaway from the game is that I really hope IO Interactive’s forthcoming Bond game is great. The series can really work as a video game, and it’s been too long since there was even really a good one, let alone a great one. I haven’t played the Hitman games myself, but I know they’re well-regarded, so I have a lot of faith in them to be able to make a great third-person stealth game. I hope I’m right.

Also, I’d really like that rumored GoldenEye remaster to finally come out. If it works as well as the Perfect Dark rerelease on Xbox 360, I’ll be very happy.