007: NightFire

Stealing the best gadgets and characters from the movies, NightFire lets you decide how to topple the requisite megalomanical villain: Use stealth and gizmos (like Eurobabe-revealing x-ray specs—thanks, Q!) or go in guns blazing.

Though Nightfire does have its problems, it most definitely could have been worse.

There are a million offices to search, but 99% of them are locked and, super spy that I am, simple office locks are beyond me. Fortunately everything I’m looking for has been left in unlocked offices, or offices to which I find conveniently discarded keys, or, worst comes to worst, offices with a window that I can break and climb through.

It's a classic case where many problems outweigh few pluses and a stylized, cool by definition premise gets utterly destroyed by an incredibly short, substance-free kind of gameplay that ranges from frustrating to idiotic.

A little more challenge, depth, and length with the trimming of the lame on-rails levels would have made this one a near classic. As it is, though, it's an above-average shooter with just enough variety and charm to make the familiar trip worth your time.

Has its moments, but too often feels like a conventional, uninspired shooter.

The PC version's straightforward nature and bungled multiplayer options make the game a passable experience at best when compared with other first-person shooters for the PC.

Nightfire has some of the worst AI I've ever seen in a big-budget game release. [Feb 2003, p.61]

What can I tell you about the AI? It's UNBELIEVABLY scripted. It's so scripted it's not even funny.

I like James Bond. I hated this game. As a stealth-action shooter, Nightfire has no redeeming qualities.

Outside of its swanky opening credit sequence and the appearance of the classic Bond theme throughout, it lacks any sense of style or sophistication. [Feb 2003, p.66]

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.