James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing for Xbox

My only other real experience with a Bond game in the past was a brief encounter with Golden Eye for Nintendo 64. My son played it for awhile at my brother's house. I intrigued by the graphics, but not by the story line. This weekend, my son rented 007 Everything or Nothing for his X-box and I have to admit, I was duly impressed with the graphics, the "plot" and the detail of the game.

I have been a long time fan of James Bond movies and, with the ever increasing improvements in video game graphics, I've begun to watch the movies thinking "this would be an awesome game". However, many of the games of this type fail to capture the thrill of the adventure that IS James Bond. I believe, though, that this game is as close as any have been yet.

The game opens up with a small tutorial to get you familiar with the controls and to learn some of the awesome moves that Bond will be expected to use through out the game. There is nothing quite like the thrill of rappelling down the side of a building. The real feel is unbelievable. Once you've completed the training mission, then you are off on the adventure. And what an adventure! The full game starts right out with a heavy duty action scene. The third person perspective adds volumes to the "Bond feel" of the game. Gameplay is interwoven with cool in-game movies which actually help add to the atmosphere and help move the story along.

Pierce Brosnan (Bond), Richard Kiel (Jaws) and John Cleese (Q) all make appearances throughout the game with their own voices. This goes a long way toward adding the real "movie" feel to the game. Having the real voices (and extremely well done characters to match) increases the believability of the game.

The actual mechanics of the game are very good. The third person perspective, in my opinion, is much easier to control and enjoy than the first person shooters. This game feels very similar to Splinter Cell, but not quite as "dark". Hand to hand combat, exploration, and progression through the scenes are…well…fun! The moves Bond makes are realistic and the controls are intuitive. I have difficulty with complicated button sequences. I'm what my son calls a "button jammer." When we play fight games together, he memorizes long, complicated sequences of commands to execute complex moves. I jam whatever combination of buttons my fingers happen to hit and I can beat him 50% of the time. But in a single player, action game like this, random button pumping is often times not going to work. You need to know specific buttons for certain moves. The controls in this game are simple enough that the first time player can advance quite well simply by playing through the tutorial. No complicated sequences are required.

The game is broken down into a series of short objectives to reach the main mission goal. Q and M offer frequent voiceovers to assist you along the way. The game offers both automatic and manual targeting for weapons. I choose automatic since, basically, I suck at shooting on these things. In automatic targeting mode, there is a somewhat large circle of arrows that flashes on the screen to help you aim your weapon. Oh, and the variety of weaponry available is phenomenal. Some of my favorite parts of the game are controlling the spider bombs and RC cars. You control these and send them off to blow up places Bond can't (or shouldn't) go. Very ingenious!

Multiplayer: 'Everything or Nothing' comes with online accessibility for PS2, but not for the X-Box. I enjoyed the cooperative play as it allows my son and I to play together, but it isn't as much fun as the single player mode. The screen splits horizontally and works very well. The missions differ in this mode from the single player game. Unlike so many "shooter" games, this one really excels as a single player game.

Overall, this is a brilliant offering by EA games. Rating it, I'd offer the following, on a scale of 1 to 5:

Graphics: 5
Sound: 5
Replayability: 4
Multiplayer: 4
Controls: 5
Weaponry 5
Bang for the Buck 5
Overall 4.7 (So yes, I'll be giving it 5 stars)