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20100718.144024
website is now in archive mode. visit blog.subnova.com for information.
20080730.144615
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James Bond: Agent Under Fire The first of (so far) two Bond games on the XBox (the other being Nightfire), Agent Under Fire is a classic Bond game with everything we expect and little else.
The plot is a classic Bond story: an evil corporation wants to replace all the world's leaders with clones. That's obviously going to work. Well, Mr Bond is called in to save the day, and equipped with a rather pleasant array of Q gadgets, a couple of sweet cars and the mandatory beautiful sidekicks, he does so.
 
Car Chases Galore
The single player mode has three different setups. The first is classic first-person shooter mode, where you step into 007's debonair shoes and shoot your way through the rather stupid AI terrorists. The weapons are classic Bond - pistols, rifles and shotguns - and are of course supplemented by the latest from the Q branch, including a grapple line, a watch-laser and a jetpack.
The second setup is when you are placed within a car and given a Continental city to lay waste to. Of course the car has standard modifcations such as rocket and missile launchers and turbo boosters to get you over those seemingly impossible jumps. The car scenes play very well indeed, and often when you complete "Bond Moments" the camera will go to a film-style view and show your car bursting through the side of a building. Or something similar.
The final setup for single player is the so-called "rail-mode", where you are basically in the back of a moving vehicle controlled by someone else, and you get to stick your head out the roof and clear the path of terrorists. The controls are very similar to the first-person view, with the addition of a "180-degree-turn" button, which will cause you to quickly spin and point the other way - very useful if you suddenly hear a helicopter descending behind you.
The three types of play are spaced evenly through the game, with an emphasis on the first-person mode, but with a good collection of car chases and tank driving. It certainly does add a little something to the game that makes it seem more Bond-esque.
Location, Location, Location
The levels in 007: Agent Under Fire are beautifully constructed. There is very little non-linearity in the game, and you are always encouraged in the right direction. Some of the levels are really small and easy to get through, but others are split into 4 or 5 different sections, each one of which has to load individually. That's one thing that gets rather trying, unfortunately: the load time for the levels is really big, normally around the 30 second mark. The very first level sees you get through a door, shoot one or two people and then descend in a lift, only to be met with a loading screen which halts the action for 30 seconds. Very upsetting.
If you can get over the loading problem, the levels when loaded are really lovely. They are all very nicely polished, with excellent lighting and good layout. The enemy positioning is wonderfully done, so that you can spin around a corner and just know there is going to be someone there for you to take out. The car chase levels are slightly less intricate, but they are large and covered with roadblocks and cars laden with gun-toting terrorists.
 
Rent-a-Guard
Regrettably, the guards in the 007: Agent Under Fire are less intelligent than standard bad-guy bodyguards. They don't appear to have any noticable AI, and will quite happily run at you in a big group just asking to be gunned down. Occasionally there will be a seemingly clever guard or two, but you soon realise that they've just been scripted and can be taken down with one cleverly placed grenade.
The bosses aren't much better, apart from having more health and bigger guns. I actually dispatched the first couple of bosses without realising they were the bosses, but on the last couple of levels they were noticably harder. The penultimate boss fight is very nicely done, but the final one really grated on my nerves because it was so easy.
Talking of difficultly, the game comes with three different levels of difficulty which can be played at. If you complete levels on different difficulties and with certain results (like acheieving all the Bond Moves in a level) then you get something unlocked for use in the multi-player, but I have to say this is the one game I've not been overly enthusiastic towards trying to get all the secrets. The levels are nice but they don't play fantastically well because of the poor AI.
 
Conclusion
007: Agent Under Fire is a very nicely polished game. It's a port from the PS2 version of the same name, and sports noticably better graphics and multiplayer bots. A quick mention of the multiplayer side of AUF: its far from fantastic. I've played a couple of games and got bored very quickly. Much better to play TimeSplitters 2 multiplayer.
The graphics are good, the sound is fantastic, the one-liners are almost acceptable, and the story is a classic. The women and fast cars make it worth playing, but the really shoddy AI makes for no replay value at all. I personally got it, finished it and I'm going to trade it in very soon, possibly for 007: Nightfire. Its a good game, but its not a great game.
| Graphics | 8.0/10 | | Sound | 7.5/10 | | Story | 7.5/10 | | Playability | 6.0/10 | | Replay Value | 2.0/10 | | Fun Factor | 7.0/10 | | Overall | 6.3/10 |
Please note all images in this article are Copyright © XBox.com |
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Slackers.
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