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James Bond 007: Nightfire demo (Reviews)

I like James Bond. The movies are excellent escapist fantasy and unlike their American counterparts, have a typically British sense of humour underlying all the action.

James Bond games however tend to be a little less interesting than the movies, and James Bond 007: Nightfire fits that mould perfectly.

I won't say that I enjoyed Goldeneye 64, as to be honest I didn't. I didn't enjoy Agent Under Fire either, so was hoping that Nightfire, with a first-person 3D engine would be far more interesting.

Whilst I know that the demo is not how the full game will be, it is at least indicative of the finished product. It looks pretty enough, with the requisite high resolution textures, and great attention to detail in the level design. There is also a fairly integral storyline, yet as a complete package the game - well the demo at least - feels incredibly awkward.

Overall the feel is of something that has been put together to cash in on the franchise rather than anything that is a serious attempt to create a game.

There are - at least in the demo - things that seriously detracted from the gameplay experience. The most obvious of was the indication of level changes (and this brings up another point - very small levels between loading places with long loads times, meaning a lot of stop-and-wait). Interaction with the world is through the use of various objects and a generic "use" key. The "use" key is used to open doors, and is also used to change levels. The problem is that when you're running through a level, you may come to a door, hit the "use" key to open it and then watch the "change level" marker fade into view. And unlike normal doors where you can back away in a hurry, once you hit the change level button, you're stuck.

There were other things as well. Using ropes is one. To hang from a rope and proceed allong it you must enter a specific zone, where the "use" key will put you onto the rope and into third-person allowing you to move along the rope. However, whilst you are in the "get on the rope" zone, but before actually getting on the rope, your weapons become useless. You can still fire them and waste ammo, but you won't hit anything.

The ponds within the game left a lot to be desired as well, as they are almost impossible to get out of! The underwater part of the pods are vertical, and you cannot just go up to the edge of the water and jump out - it just doesn't work. I spent a frustrating 10 minutes splashing around trying to get out of the water.

I can only hope the complete game will have a more polished feel, and will feel complete. When playing the Project IGI - and these two game have to be compared as Nightfire borrows so much from IGI - the interaction with the world and the items at your disposal is seamless and feels solid. In Nightfire, everything feels like it's going to collapse any second.

- posted by cro on 26.10.02
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