James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing Review

WWJD. What would James Bond do? That’s the single-most answered question you will ask yourself when playing Everything or Nothing. Pierce Brosnan, along with other top-tier actors and actresses, have joined the James Bond cast in EA’s latest Bond game. Among them: Judi Dench as M, John Cleese as Q, Shannon Elizabeth and Heidi Klum as Bond girls, and Willem Dafoe as the super villain Nicolai Diavolo. Diavolo is a friend of fallen villain Max Zorin (A View to a Kill) and, like Zorin, is an ex-KGB agent.

Bond’s witty comedy returns. In one scene he is talking about Max Zorin, “We once played bridge together. He lost.” If you’re not familiar with that movie, Bond killed Zorin on the Golden Gate Bridge. Cut-scenes, like this, take place throughout the entire game and give Everything or Nothing character that most other games would not normally have. Then again, other games aren’t Bond.

Everything or Nothing is a completely new take on the James Bond universe, lest we forget Tomorrow Never Dies (which was also third person). The third person view is a breath of fresh air for the Bond series that, while still breathing, was beginning to need a respirator. I have always thought third person would make for a good Bond game and I was right.

The third person view allows you to have much more control of your character, whether it is crouching or backing against a wall kill.switch-style. Locking on to enemies with L and firing a weapon with R is simple and suggestive of Freedom Fighters. What I found to be a bit shocking was the rappel, allowing you to climb/descend walls by simply locking on to them and shooting with R or falling off.

Q gadgets are not abundant in Everything or Nothing, unlike in other recent Bond titles. In The World is Not Enough you had like four different watches, including grapple, darts, and laser. Everything or Nothing does not even give you a watch, which is a first for the series, even though I can’t speak for Tomorrow Never Dies, since I haven’t played it. The control pad is used to switch between Q gadgets and weapons. The most useful Q gadgets aren’t the normal ahead-of-their-time stuff: thermal vision is used for darkness, invisibility suits, and a scouting spider, which can also detonate and shoot sleeping darts.

Q also provides you with a nice supply of vehicles, ranging from a motorbike to a V12 Vanquish from Die Another Day. In one of the driving levels, you must ride your bike at a crazy speed to chase Jaws, who is driving a semi-truck and use a flame-thrower to take out his tires. In another level, you drive a truck through the countryside and eventually into a small South American town. In the same level, you must drive a motorbike onto a plane, Living Daylights-style. Other levels in transportation vehicles include two tank levels and a helicopter flying level. Flying the helicopter, Bond must chase another helicopter that has weapons in a suitcase. Use rockets to attack enemies and destroy a bridge, while at the same time, using flares to defend yourself from becoming a fireworks display.

Bond is all about being suave. In one of the nearly three dozen levels, Bond must knock Jaws into an electrical current to defeat him. Another main attraction to the Bond universe is the glamorous locations. This time, Bond travels to an Egyptian military base, a train reminiscent of GoldenEye, a South American village, ancient South American ruins, a mine shaft, a New Orleans nightclub, a plantation in the bayou, and Moscow. Everything or Nothing is possibly more fun than even GoldenEye, in some respects, when it comes down to single-player missions. While GoldenEye’s single-player was as strong as Everything or Nothing’s, its multi-player is what earned it a 10 from Game Freaks 365. Everything or Nothing was over-looked in the multi-player area by EA.

Everything or Nothing has a few different multi-player modes. Co-op is one of them, which is a first for the Bond series. Co-op is completely separate from the single player missions. By making co-op a standalone feature, EA made it more interesting and worthy of your time. Instead of playing through single-player missions a second time, except this time with a friend, EA decided to make co-op independent of the single-player game, which was a good move.

In co-op, no one plays as Bond. In fact, you aren’t even a 00 Agent, but you still take orders from MI6. Playing co-op earns you more arenas and characters for arena mode. Co-op only has three levels, each of which are broken into three stages. Locations for the three levels include Tunisia, Andaman Sea, and an Egyptian military base, the same one that Bond blows up in the beginning of the single-player mission. In fact, you actually meet Bond in the middle of the Egyptian mission, which happens to be your final co-op mission. The biggest flaw was that enemies come out of no where. You could be standing somewhere and a baddie pops up right behind you and shoots away at your character. I might add that I will not go into detail on arena, since it was so pathetically disregarded. It plays more like Fusion Frenzy than a Bond game.

Everything or Nothing has some of the best single-player third person shooter action and stealth around. The gadgets are satisfying, the locations are blisteringly cool, and there are a large assortment of driving levels. Everything or Nothing would have been a great choice for a purchase had EA added an arena mode worth playing. The co-op is definitely positive, but it does not have unlimited replay value, unlike death-match, which does and was not added. If you are a Bond fan, like myself, Everything or Nothing is worth a purchase. Otherwise, this is a great rental.