James Bond 007: Agent Under Fire
| Developer: EA | Publisher: EA |
| Release Date: March 12, 2002 | Also On: GCN, PS2 & Xbox |
"Vodka martini, shaken not stirred." These words were spoken by a true British hero. Well, maybe not hero, but a great role model for kids to envy.
These days, graphics are so impressive, that a game almost looks as if they were part of a movie. Agent Under Fire is no different. The cinematic scenes are gorgeous, just as well as the game play itself. The one MAJOR complaint in this area is that Agent Under Fire looks too much (more like identical) to it's PS2 counterpart, which the PS2's hardware is almost inferior compared to Gamecube's. Why did such a great looking game get a lower rating? The main reason is because it had much more potential than the PS2 version.
What's impressive about Agent Under Fire? Well, it has great shadows and a solid frame rate. The loading times for the GCN versions are about half of the PS2 version. Another very attractive part of the game is the beautifully crafted vehicles, sexy Bond babes, and the architecture throughout the whole game. By the Gamecube's standards though, Agent Under Fire is lower quality than it should be. Some building and objects were unnecessarily blocky and highly compressed.
The players, on the other hand, are fairly well modelled and have great facial textures. Unlike in cut scenes, during game play, the characters seem "robotic" and stiff. What's up with the way that guns shoot? It looks as if the game were in Matrix mode or at least slow motion.
The unique part of Agent Under Fire is the gadgets. Like all Bond games, Bond is supplied with items such as a Q-Claw, Q-Laser, and Q-Decryptor. Not only are there tons of gadgets, but there are also many weapons, vehicles, and characters. The main problem with the game is just walking around! The controls are very hard to get used to and probably can never be mastered on a GCN controller. Sometimes, in a dire situation you'd sit there asking "is shoot A or R?" and to scroll through your gadgets/weapons, you'll need to use the control pad. The whole scheme just seems like a huge inconvenience.
Of course, like in all Bond games, the Bond music is fantastic. The background beat and music (especially in the car levels) gets you motivated and hyped up about kicking some bad guy a**. Even with the great music, some lines and songs begin to get very annoying, to the point where you want to hit the GCN with a bat. Voice acting is good, even though James Bond sounds like Shawn Connery and not Pierce Brosnon. We can't really complain too much in this area though. The wide array of different gunfire sounds and the sound of bullet casings hitting the pavement or floor makes the gaming experience just a little better than normal games would. Don't get me wrong though, Agent Under Fire is an average game. There is barely anything spectacular about it and it is definitely overrated by too many people. I still wish to this day that Rare would have continued making the James Bond games or remake the infamous GoldenEye. Of course, this would never make it to anything other than the Xbox if it were to happen, because Microsoft now owns Rare.
Really, even though first player missions are short, Agent Under Fire has decent potential in the long run for your entertainment needs. By beating levels in a certain amount of time or with so many points earned, players can unlock multiplayer weapons, levels, and characters.
In multiplayer, not only can you play with up to 3 other friends, but Agent Under Fire has the possibility of adding in "bots" or AI. Even with the bots, you can still only have a maximum of 4 players playing, whether computer or human. While playing multiplayer, you have huge possible characters that you could play as, let alone the scenarios that you can play in. How about the levels? Well, there are about 12 multiplayer levels, each of which were made for multiplayer only (not from the story mode.) Even with a stellar multiplayer, the first player mode (story mode) will not help the game at all in this category. I could beat story mode in probably 5 hours or less, depending on if I knew what I was doing or not. If you plan on having multiplayer fun, then this is worth purchasing, other wise just rent it.
While first player was satisfying for me, so was multiplayer. Actually, the main perk of the game is multiplayer. For a little suggestion, if you have Halo for the Xbox and want a FPS with multiplayer, then just stick with Halo's multiplayer. Halo has many great maps that are all much better than those of Agent Under Fire.
With great graphics, stellar multiplayer, and a prominent license, Agent Under Fire isn't that bad of a game. Yes, it does fall short in areas like its blockiness or repetitive theme song, but it packs a punch, which is more like a slap on the PS2's version. We can't forget that the controls are a bit funky or that single player is short, but when those fall short, action, adventure, and adrenaline are also there. To me, Agent Under Fire is a great attempt at a great game, which fell short a tad bit. I believe that Nightfire will be able to live up to what all of the hype is about.
| Graphics: | 8.5 |
| Sound: | 9 |
| Gameplay: | 6 |
| Creativity: | 9.5 |
| Replay Value/Game Length: | 9 |
| Final: | 8.3 |
| Written by Kyle | Review Guide |
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