James Bond 007: Nightfire Review

Out of all the James Bond games I have played, this surprisingly has to be the best one, I wouldn't call the game an amazing game in its own right but out of all the 007 games I played, this was one was the most self aware about everything. It has it's own story and has better production values than Goldeneye does, it controls better than Agent Under Fire if you pick the "Nightfire" control options and the game just knows that it's style of combat whether it's just you fighting hitscan enemies with hitscan weapons doesn't make for combat that is super compelling so the game has constant mix ups.

You got missions like the exchange where it's decently open(all though this is early 00s awkward stealth mechanics so you aren't given enough information regarding guard awareness), several car driving sections examples being including one where you are in submarine like underwater level and then having Twisted Metal like car combat sections, a plane section where you are shooting things down from an aircraft, a stealth mission where you need to sneak into a building and install viruses(luckily you got a tranq pistol this time), sniping sections as well as one where you need to kill snipers while moving across a vast power plant of sorts, a level in an undeground complex where you need to avoid rocket burners during one of the sections and a level up in space.

007 Nightfire's campaign, very much feels like the over the top action film franchise that inspired it, no mission goes on for too long and nothing drags on for far too long to the point where the game ever gets dull. Everything about Nightfire just feels like the devs wanted to make an over the top action movie and they've done a solid job. They also know that the combat of, "point hitscan gun at enemy and shoot them" isn't compelling so they knew to spice things up. Out of all the Bond games I played Nightfire is the most self aware of this.

The story is just dumb over the top spy movie fare, all the parts where the women where fawning over Bond just made me laugh more often than not and over the top finale in space just felt like the devs wanted to ramp it up a notch.

The only major compliants I have with the game besides the stealth mechanics is that enemies don't react to getting shot which is something I would consider a game design sin but easy mode rectifies this and have enemies die pretty quickly. Also easy mode gives you more hints regarding gadgets so it feels like the mode first time players should play on. I remember not knowing how stuff like the Q Laser works or the grapple hook when playing on the supposed "normal" difficulty. I didn't like how getting hit never told you where the shot came from but I found this to be a minor issue, might be big for some. Final issue is that the game does suffer from a problem many games from this era had where you would often have 5-6 minute levels bookended by loading screens and have sectioned off levels during the overall mission, for me constant loading screens after a few minutes of play can take me out of it, might not be so much of an issue with others.

Overall, Nightfire was a great time, it's weird how this was the Bond game I played in this "binge" of sorts and I ended up liking this one the best. If you are like me and where you mainly get mild enjoyment from games where you fight human enemies with hitscan weapons, you might have a good time with this one.