This game was one of most popular games on the N64. The fact that you could play as James Bond and go around doing secret missions (but I would say “go around shooting people up” because that’s basically what it is) was a pretty big deal back in the day. Nowadays, that’s pretty lame because every other game lets you shoot stuff someway. Sure, not every other game contains James Bond. But can you say “I’m Bond, James Bond” to anyone in this game? No? Then being James Bond or Jack McOrdinary Guy has pretty much the same impact. But that’s for today, though, so I’ll try to look at it with a more 1997 perspective.
The graphics are not too bad; they remind me of PS1 graphics. Most of the time everything is smooth except when aiming with the sniper rifle, for some reason everything gets a bit choppy.
The sound effects are the same throughout the game, and the “missed bullet” sound effect gives you that feeling that “Yes, this game is old.” The music as that whole covert ops style, but if you start backtracking like I did (right in the 1st level, because I didn’t read the mission) you are going to notice that the music is kind of annoying. The solution to this is to not backtrack.
In the past, kids, and I guess other people too, would be like “Holy s[ugar] I’mma play this game my whole life” because not only shooting games are fun, you can try to beat all levels in all difficulties, and there is always the multiplayer mode, with all the multiplayer game modes you’d expect (no co-op though). But now you notice the game is kind of dull, not really worth the replay because you already how it will all go. It’s like telling you the same joke over and over; it’s not fun anymore.
It wouldn’t be called Story Mode if it didn’t have story in it, am I right? I don’t remember the movie so I’m not going to say whether it follows it or not. But there is like 4 mission backgrounds telling what’s going on (but I think that HoneyPiggy branch or whatever is pretty unnecessary) and it all sounds like something James Bond would be doing. I haven’t played the whole game through, but I’m going to hope everything is connected.
In depth, I’d say it’s pretty satisfactory. The multiplayer allows many changes like the level, mode, time, characters, weapons, and all that good stuff. There is a reasonable amount of weapons in the game (I’ve seen 9 but I know there are more). Like I said, the story mode has 3 different difficulties, which add more objectives to all the 20 levels in the game, and I think the enemy weapons do more damage. It’s only missing co-op.
I’d say the controls are a bit tough, although this probably wasn’t the case back then. Instead of having one analog to move around, and the other to aim around, both analogs share both tasks. In my opinion, I’d say it’s easier to play on the keyboard then an USB controller, but then again it’s my opinion. And the enemies are not much of a challenge if you are paying attention, they only actually hit you after a certain time or if they are right on top of you.
In conclusion, I’d say the game was pretty good, but it’s starting to expire, and I hope playing expired games doesn’t give you diarrhea.
(Note: This review was supposed to come with a video review, but since I wasn't getting anything done with that, I'm just gonna take that part out. Maybe next time.) This game was one of most popular games on the N64. The fact that you could play as James Bond and go around doing secret missions (but I would say “go around shooting people up” because that’s basically what it is) was a pretty big deal back in the day. Nowadays, that’s pretty lame because every other game lets you shoot stuff someway. Sure, not every other game contains James Bond. But can you say “I’m Bond, James Bond” to anyone in this game? No? Then being James Bond or Jack McOrdinary Guy has pretty much the same impact. But that’s for today, though, so I’ll try to look at it with a more 1997 perspective.
The graphics are not too bad; they remind me of PS1 graphics. Most of the time everything is smooth except when aiming with the sniper rifle, for some reason everything gets a bit choppy.
The sound effects are the same throughout the game, and the “missed bullet” sound effect gives you that feeling that “Yes, this game is old.” The music as that whole covert ops style, but if you start backtracking like I did (right in the 1st level, because I didn’t read the mission) you are going to notice that the music is kind of annoying. The solution to this is to not backtrack.
In the past, kids, and I guess other people too, would be like “Holy s[ugar] I’mma play this game my whole life” because not only shooting games are fun, you can try to beat all levels in all difficulties, and there is always the multiplayer mode, with all the multiplayer game modes you’d expect (no co-op though). But now you notice the game is kind of dull, not really worth the replay because you already how it will all go. It’s like telling you the same joke over and over; it’s not fun anymore.
It wouldn’t be called Story Mode if it didn’t have story in it, am I right? I don’t remember the movie so I’m not going to say whether it follows it or not. But there is like 4 mission backgrounds telling what’s going on (but I think that HoneyPiggy branch or whatever is pretty unnecessary) and it all sounds like something James Bond would be doing. I haven’t played the whole game through, but I’m going to hope everything is connected.
In depth, I’d say it’s pretty satisfactory. The multiplayer allows many changes like the level, mode, time, characters, weapons, and all that good stuff. There is a reasonable amount of weapons in the game (I’ve seen 9 but I know there are more). Like I said, the story mode has 3 different difficulties, which add more objectives to all the 20 levels in the game, and I think the enemy weapons do more damage. It’s only missing co-op.
I’d say the controls are a bit tough, although this probably wasn’t the case back then. Instead of having one analog to move around, and the other to aim around, both analogs share both tasks. In my opinion, I’d say it’s easier to play on the keyboard then an USB controller, but then again it’s my opinion. And the enemies are not much of a challenge if you are paying attention, they only actually hit you after a certain time or if they are right on top of you.
In conclusion, I’d say the game was pretty good, but it’s starting to expire, and I hope playing expired games doesn’t give you diarrhea.
(Note: This review was supposed to come with a video review, but since I wasn't getting anything done with that, I'm just gonna take that part out. Maybe next time.) |