007: Everything or Nothing

The espionage community is lucky that 007 is such a forgiving number. His style has been aped by every player in the gaming spy community, just because Goldeneye was such a good time. Bond has been patient with the pretenders, but he's not going to take it any longer. Soon hitting all three major platforms, 007: Everything or Nothing slides new cards onto the Baccarat table, and could be the numerical spy's return to form.

Everything or Nothing has a story worthy of any recent Bond flick, which is to say that it's a fairly ridiculous setup involving stolen nanotech falling into the hands of Eastern European militants who want to, like, destroy the world or something. It's just an excuse for fantastic set pieces, and with action divided between third-person shooting and fast-paced driving missions, EoN is happy to oblige.

Shaken, Not Stirred

The shooter action owes a lot more to the current crop of stealth shooters than to past efforts like Goldeneye. A realistic weapons cache takes care of the rank and file, but of course Bond's gadgets are the real draw. Small grenades with a coin's form factor and the remote-controlled Q Spider are nice, but the rappel gun is the most choice gizmo. Obviously, it can be used to scale walls, but leap off a precipice and it'll grab the ledge, allowing safe passage down. Full weapon use is encouraged along the way, making for some impressive sequences.

The gunplay is already working fairly well, but targeting can be a pain, since the auto-lock feature is underdeveloped. That means it's fairly easy to take a bullet while following a moving target and managing the camera. With a little bit of work, this doesn't have to be a problem come ship time. Otherwise, the controls are tight, and the hand-to-hand combat system already seems more capable than anything found in competing efforts. Throws and stealth kills are quick, with varied, context-sensitive animations.

License to Drive

Once behind the wheel, Bond may be able to challenge and even overcome the action of Spy Hunter. The first mission on wheels has the agent chasing a train, either on a Triumph Daytona 600 motorbike or in the souped-up Porsche Cayenne. (Dumbest. Car name. Ever.) And check Bond, Mr. Comedy, as he beeps off the Porsche's cloaking device with a keychain clicker. Q has also provided a V12 Aston Martin, and there'll be a few ... appropriations ... of enemy vehicles as well. The levels are dense with multiple paths, enemies, and heavy fire, and the fast pace is a nice counterpoint to the more deliberate action scenes.

Guns and smooth rides aside, no Bond game has yet been able to quite capture the agent's particular joie de vivre. That is, the natural ability to pick up women under fire, or blow away Eastern European chumps in high style. But EoN has a new trick. Each level features potential Bond Moments (TM), where you can really work the tux. They can be simple, like using disguises and jumping off ledges into combat instead of using the stairs, or slightly more complex, such as opening a huge steam vent around the corner and catching a bunch of soldiers unaware before blowing them all away.

Devilish Details

Thermal vision is nothing new to the genre, but the Bond Sense (TM) offers some new flexibility. Engage this slo-mo vision mode, and you'll see things not visible to the untrained eye, like barrels and crates just waiting to be blown up. I haven't been able to figure if this will end up being nothing more than a gimmick, or if EoN has some puzzle solving in mind with BondVision.

With all the action, it's nice to see EA spring for a new graphics engine as well. Characters are built from extensive motion capture and digitization, resulting in models that actually look like their real counterparts. Cutscenes drive the story, but the great models make for nearly seamless transitions between CGI and play. My only complaint with the current graphics implementation is that it seems a bit dark. Otherwise, EoN is looking great.

The environments go the distance as well, and each can be broken down to a great degree. Columns may offer less solid shelter than you'd think, as a high-powered gun will shred them just before perforating Bond. There's a lot of other breakable detail as well, and the varied areas really sell the action. Fire and water effects both look stunning -- a good thing, since there's lots of fire.

Complementing the high-quality models and realistic skins is the voice work, which utilizes the current Bond talent (Brosnan, Judi Dench and John Cleese) along with Willem DaFoe, Mya, and Shannon Elizabeth, who graces the pause screens in a slinky silver-white dress. And old-school Bond villain Jaws (Moonraker) comes back from the dead to chomp those metal teeth. EoN even opens with a classic 007 introduction, though Mya's title song, sounding like a hacked version of Madonna's insipid "Die Another Day," is pretty thin.

The past few Bond titles haven't quite managed the leap from the FPS success of Goldeneye to solid third-person action, but Everything or Nothing is definitely on the right track. There'll be a multiplayer mode to extend the value, but even without it the cinematic action already looks like it'll live up to the code 007.