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Bond, James Bond, is back in 007: Everything or Nothing, the second Game Boy Advance outing for the world's greatest secret agent.
Introduction:
Bond, James Bond, is back in 007: Everything or Nothing, the second Game Boy Advance outing for the world's greatest secret agent. The last time we saw Bond was in EA's first person shooter, NightFire. This time round the developers, Griptonite Games, opted for an isometric third person type game to echo the design of the forthcoming console release, also subtitled Everything or Nothing. Despite the amount of pre-release coverage EA gave this title, it's not as good as one might expect, but that's not to say the game doesn't feature some decent ideas.
Story:
Like any other Bond game, Everything or Nothing features a particularly obscure storyline, involving Arkady Yayakov, an ex-KGB officer turned smuggler. Yayakov is suspected to have illegally obtained nanotech technology and is said be to be making shady business deals with Nikolai Diavolo. It's up to James Bond to investigate what the bad guys plan to do with the stolen nanotech, and ultimately thwart Nikolai's evil plans for world domination. The game is introduced through a number of cinematic stills, and further story and mission details are given at the beginning of and during each mission through briefing from two familiar faces; John Cleese as M and Judi Dench as Q.
Gameplay:
007: Everything or Nothing is split up to eight different missions spanning a number of different areas of the world. Each of the missions has its own unique setting taking the player from the Sahara Desert and a casino in Cairo, to ancient ruins in Peru and a secret base located inside a graveyard in New Orleans. Each of the eight main missions is broken down into three or four separate stages of varying length, and progress can be saved after each stage has been completed.
The separate missions start off fairly short and basic, with the first requiring the player to escape and rappel from the top of a building before it blows up. The second mission introduces new objectives and skills, including an explanation of Bond's stealth abilities from M. It's up to the player how they through the game, and there are two distinct ways of tackling the levels. The most obvious of these is running through and shooting everything in sight. Of course, this isn't always the best approach, as ammo supplies in some stages can be short and the sound of gunfire can alert other enemies of your presence. The second and by far the most entertaining route thought the game is to make a much more stealthily approach. Rather than fire a few rounds of bullets into oncoming enemies, Bond can also sneak up behind a guard and execute a fatal move that kills instantly. The benefit of taking this approach is that it's silent, so it won't alert other guards to the player's location. Sneaking up on enemies isn't always an easy task thanks to the fact that the camera is zoomed in fairly close to the action. To help remedy this problem the developers have included a simple radar in the top left of the screen to illustrate when enemies are located within the areas closely surrounding the player, but it's still quite easy to walk into new areas unaware that a troop of well-armed guards are waiting there.
Despite thoughts that there might be control issues due to the isometric game design, targeting in Everything or Nothing is surprisingly easy. Griptonite Games has implemented an auto aim system that targets the player's weapon on the nearest enemy in the direction they are facing. It's easy to tell when an enemy is targeted, as a large crosshair appears over the enemy's sprite. A manual aim option is also available and can be used to target enemies that are further away. To activate the manual aim the R trigger must be pressed and held; this displays the crosshair on screen, which can be controlled through the use of the d-pad. The manual aim is very useful for examining the close surrounding environment and can often be vital for spotting enemies lurking around corners. In both auto and manual aim modes the selected weapon can be fired with the simple pressing of the A button. Sub weapons and gadgets, including frag grenades, flash grenades and a tranquilliser gun, can be assigned to the L trigger and fired in either of the two targeting modes, but they play a disappointingly small part in during the game.
Although there are two solid ways of targeting an enemy, gunfights often seem a lot less exciting than they should be. Most enemies are killed after being shot by three or four bullets, and usually die within a fraction of a second if an automatic gun has been acquired. Similarly, if a number of guards gang up on Bond he can be dead within a matter of seconds, meaning that most gunfights are very short-lived, both if the player survives or if the player is killed. Additionally, despite the inclusion of the stealth gameplay tactics, it is often all too easy to quickly run through the levels shooting every guard as soon as he is seen or even avoiding the guards altogether, even when the difficulty setting is set to 'Hard'.
One of the more interesting features in Everything or Nothing is that numerous upgrades can be purchased from the Q-lab on completion of each mission. These include three levels of armour, gun handle, pistol kit and boot upgrades, which improve explosive damage, accuracy, gun damage and speed respectively. A number of one off upgrades are also available including a high capacity magazine (allowing the player to carry 50% more ammo), a nanobot health regenerator and a triage kit, which gives the player a med kit at the beginning of every stage. Whilst earning all of these upgrades isn't vital to progression, they do give the player an extra incentive to get more out of the game. To be able to purchase the upgrades, Bond points must be accumulated. Every mission has a set of primary and secondary objectives, each primary mission earning 100 points and each secondary objective earning 200 points. All of the primary objectives must be completed for the player to progress through the game, whilst the secondary objectives are there specifically to allow extra Bond points to be collected.
One of the most disappointing aspects of the game are the driving sections. The inclusion of the driving stages was one of the main features EA boasted about when the game was first announced, and such stages have been a welcome addition to the numerous recent Bond console titles from EA. Unfortunately, the driving stages in Everything or Nothing are rather bland. Each of these stages requires the player destroy on one large enemy vehicle whilst being attacked by that vehicle and a slew of other smaller vehicles. Equipped with Bond's Aston Martin Vanquish, the player has a number of gadgets and weapons to attack with including machine guns, rocket launchers and the trademarked oil slick from the rear of the car trick that sends the enemy sliding out of control across the road. The controls in these sections of the game can be a little hit and miss thanks to the isometric perspective, making targeting enemy vehicles and avoiding their gunfire more difficult than need be. The driving stages also feel a little like they were thrown in quickly to add some much-needed variety to the gameplay, as the car seems to react most strangely on collision with the environment and other vehicles.
Lifespan:
Everything or Nothing isn't one of the longest games available on the GBA. Most players will probably complete the game within around four hours depending on which approach they take. The stealthy route through the game will last longer than running through guns-a-blazing. Still, whichever gameplay style the player chooses the game doesn't last that long, and there's very little to back to once it has been completed other than to collect any Bond points that have been missed or to play the unlockable Black Jack card game. A multiplayer deathmatch mode for up to four players is also supported, and certainly well worth checking out, but as with most GBA titles it's always difficult to track down three friends who all own the same game, so most will miss out on the chance to sample multiplayer Bond on the GBA.
Graphics & Sound:
Presentation-wise, the developers have done an amazing job at creating a true and realistic Bond atmosphere. Each of the locations features a distinct theme with detailed and colourful background graphics, animations are fluid and well-drawn and the game features the authentic likenesses of Bond actors including Richard Kiel (Jaws), John Cleese (Q), Judi Dench (M) and of course, Bond himself played by Pierce Brosnan. Even the menus are clear, well made and exactly what you would expect from a Bond title. Similarly, the game's music is some of the best and most atmospheric used in a GBA title and is both well composed and of a good quality. Each mission features its own background music, some of which are based on the soundtrack by Sean Callery (who has scored soundtracks for a number of TV series including Fox's 24) for the console release of Everything or Nothing, due out next year. Rather neatly, the pace of the music picks up when an enemy spots Bond, and only once the enemies have been defeated will the main soundtrack resume. The sound package is rounded off with a selection of decent sound effects, a few short voice clips from the actors and a couple of classic memorable Bond themes.
Closing Comments:
After completing 007: Everything or Nothing it's hard not to feel a little let down. Whilst there's nothing truly awful about the title, it just doesn't really do anything to stand out from the crowd of action titles on the GBA. There's no doubting there are some good ideas; it was a brave move to ditch the FPS style gameplay we have come to expect from a Bond title, and the stealth aspects, when put in practice, are great fun. But overall there's just something missing from the title. Gunfights are all over far too soon, the primary mission objectives rarely stretch beyond going from point A to point B and the driving sections fail to really excite the player. That said, most players will probably stick with the game and play it through to the end, the presentation is top notch and creates an authentic environment that should keep Bond fans happy whilst it lasts, just don't go expecting an epic adventure that'll rival Goldeneye.
