James Bond 007: Nightfire

James Bond 007: NightFire
North American cover art for PS2
Developer(s)	Eurocom, Gearbox Software, Aspyr, JV Games
Publisher(s)	Electronic Arts, MGM Interactive
Series	James Bond
Engine	GoldSrc
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Windows, Macintosh, Game Boy Advance
Release	November 18, 2002 PlayStation 2 GameCube & Xbox Windows Game Boy Advance Macintosh
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player, Multiplayer

James Bond 007: NightFire is a first-person shooter video game that is based on Ian Fleming's British secret agent James Bond. This marked Pierce Brosnan's fourth appearance as James Bond before the release of his fourth and final Bond film Die Another Day, however, in the video game, his likeness was featured, but not his voice, which was provided by Maxwell Caulfield. 007: NightFire was developed by Eurocom for the PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, and Xbox video game consoles.

Gearbox Software developed the game for Windows, which Aspyr later re-released for the Mac. The computer versions are substantially different from the console versions, featuring different missions and a modified story line. It was published by Electronic Arts in Template:Vgy. In Template:Vgy EA released NightFire for the Game Boy Advance this time developed by JV Games.

Gameplay

Overall there are many weapons that the player can carry including grenades of various sorts and other types of explosives. In addition, there are numerous amounts of mounted weapons found throughout the game. As with previous James Bond games, the weapons that appear are based on actual weapons, but with the names changed. Some weapons appear in the console version but not the PC version, and vice-versa.

Multiplayer

In the multiplayer mode of Nightfire players can play in many different levels, including Fort Knox, from Goldfinger, Atlantis and the sub docking pen from The Spy Who Loved Me, and many Nightfire related levels, including Drake's castle, Drake's underwater base, and Drake's secret missile silo. Other levels include Skyrail and Ravine. The player may choose to play against AI bots with customisable reaction time, speed, and health. The amount of usable bots vary in the console version. In the Gamecube and Xbox version, up to 6 bots may be used. In the PS2 version, up to 4 bots may be used and up to 4 humans can play. In the PC version, up to 12 bots may be used. The PC version also has online multiplayer. Some medals obtained will unlock new characters.

Plot

The game's prologue mission starts in Paris, France, with James Bond helping Dominique Paradis evade enemy cars while chasing a truck with a stolen nuclear weapon, before continuing in his car. After stopping the truck from blowing up the Eiffel Tower, Dominique and James celebrate the new year.

M sends Bond undercover to a party in industrialist Raphael Drake's Austrian castle. M believes that the party is a cover for the exchange of a missile guidance chip between Drake and Alexander Mayhew, who manages the Japanese branch of Drake's industry, Phoenix International, and had stolen the chip from the United States. Phoenix is believed to be a front for weapon smuggling. Bond, CIA agent Zoe Nightshade, and Dominique, who is posing as Drake's mistress, meet in the castle library. While Zoe distracts the guards, Bond makes his way to the exchange and steals the chip. James and Zoe then escape Drake's forces in an armored snowmobile before continuing in James' car. They rendezvous with Q, who takes them out of Austria.

After the breach, Drake threatens to kill Mayhew should the operation fail. Mayhew contacts MI6, saying he will provide vital information if Bond comes to his rescue. At his Japanese estate, Mayhew is attacked by Drake's men. Bond fights his way through the estate and manages to obtain a file from Mayhew's safe. Mayhew is killed by a ninja during the process. The file leads Bond to Mayhew's office at the Phoenix Building in Tokyo.

Bond is able to infiltrate the building while the guards are changing shifts and secures official NightFire documents. He is then attacked by Drake's men before Dominique provides a distraction which allows Bond to escape via parachute off the roof of the building.

The NightFire documents lead Bond to a nuclear power plant being decommissioned by Phoenix International. Bond retrieves evidence of Drake's activities and escapes. However, he is then double crossed and captured by Kiko, Mayhew's former bodyguard, and turned over to Drake. On the top of the Phoenix building, Drake plans to kill Bond and Dominique, who has been discovered as a mole. Dominique is kicked off the rooftop and killed by Kiko. Bond escapes to the ground level before being saved by Australian Intelligence agent Alura McCall.

M sends Bond and Alura to Drake's private island, where Drake has set up a jamming signal. The pair infiltrates the island and eliminates Drake's defenses. Bond makes his way to Drake's underground silo, fighting off Kiko before entering one of three space shuttles intending to capture the Space Defense Platform. Kiko dies in the blast pit when Bond's space shuttle launches. Bond reaches the U.S. Space Defense Platform, where Drake is. He successfully sends all eight missiles off course, saving millions of lives, and causes Drake's laser weapon to malfunction, leading to a huge explosion. Finally, Bond defeats Drake. As the station goes up in flames, Bond blasts from an escape pod and goes back down to Earth, where he celebrates the victory with Alura.

Characters

• James Bond (voiced by Maxwell Caulfield with the likeness of Pierce Brosnan).
• M (voiced by Samantha Eggar).
• Q (voiced by Gregg Berger).

Raphael Drake Drake, the Brazilian-Russian dual heritage owner of Phoenix International Corporation, is the main villain in the game. He poses as a humanitarian and an avowed opponent of the use of nuclear weapons, but in reality he is hoarding dozens of nuclear weapons for his own future use. He tries to take over world by hijacking space defense platform and launching its arsenal of nuclear weapons against major NATO bases in an attempt to wipe out global security. He is killed on the space station by Bond, who shoots him with a Phoenix Samurai laser gun before escaping the space station in a rocket, with Drake's corpse left floating into space as the rocket launches and the station explodes. Drake is voiced by Michael Ensign.

Makiko Hayashi As Mayhew's personal female bodyguard, Makiko (or just "Kiko") is very skilled in martial arts and loyal to Alexander. She originally appears to be working with Bond, and helps him to penetrate the Japanese branch of Phoenix International after Mayhew is murdered on Drake's orders. However, her true allegiance is revealed when she shoots Bond with a tranquiliser gun at the Tokyo nuclear plant; she then takes him to Drake. While on the top of the Phoenix Building, Kiko and Dominique get into a fight after Bond attempts to escape. During the fight, Kiko kicks Dominique Paradis off of the Phoenix Building's heli-pad, sending her down to the lobby floor and killing her instantly. Kiko continues to serve Drake from then on and attempts to kill Bond at Drake's island fortress by sending him in the shuttle launch chambers. Unfortunately, Bond takes cover in the blast chambers and kills Kiko's men, forcing her to retreat. Eventually, Bond activates a trap, that sends Kiko into the Launch Chamber; Bond activates the shuttle, but Kiko was unable to reach the blast doors in time, so she was quickly incinerated by the shuttles fire, avenging Dominique's death. Makiko is voiced by Tamlyn Tomita.

Alura McCall Alura is an ASIS agent who comes to Bond's aid in Tokyo and goes with him to Drake's island. She provides critical aid to Bond when he has to stop the nukes from launching of the space defense platform. She is first seen when collecting Bond from the Phoenix International building in Tokyo, giving him a lift from the building in her red sports car. Allura is voiced by Kimberly Davies.

Armitage Rook Rook is the head of security for Raphael Drake, and like many previous henchmen, he has the abnormal ability to survive the most dangerous scenarios. He is first seen at a party in the Austrian Alps hosted at Drake's castle. When 007 and CIA agent Zoe Nightshade witness a secret meeting, Rook pursues them in a Mi-24 Hind helicopter which is subsequently shot down by Bond. Rook manages to survive and returns later at the nuclear power plant not far from Tokyo in the mission 'Chain Reaction'and also at Drake's Phoenix Base, bearing a scarred left eye and armed with a state of the art 'Samurai' laser gun. Despite this advantage, he is killed while engaged in an intense firefight with Bond. In the PC version of the game, he dies when he is killed by the lethal blades of a huge fan inside a wind tunnel-like astronaut training facility; in the console version, he is killed much later on in the plot by Bond while inside Drake's underground shuttle hangar. In both variations, he dies while fighting Bond and he fights with his cane gun. Rook is voiced by Richard Whiten.

Zoe Nightshade Zoe is a CIA agent who helps Bond in Drake's castle. Zoe previously worked with Bond on his last mission (Agent Under Fire). She is first seen in Nightfire when Bond sneaks into the library, where Bond also meets Dominique Paradis. After Paradis gives Bond the key to Drake's secret meeting, Zoe and Bond talk briefly about the mission, however Zoe appears to be jealous of Bond and Paradis's relationship. Zoe leaves and attempts to create a distraction for Bond but is captured under Rook's suspicion and taken to the cable car outside the castle for interrogation. Bond defeats Rook in a brief fight with Drake's bodyguard in a helicopter. Bond and Zoe escape by sliding down the cable car line and together they find a garage with armored snowmobiles. Bond and Zoe wake up the next morning in a small MI6 safehouse. It appears that Zoe and Bond had sex the night before. After shaking off Drake's men, Zoe and Bond get into his Vanquish car and rush to rendezvous with Q. This is the last time Zoe is seen in the series, as Alura McCall is later assigned to help Bond in his mission. Zoe is voiced by Jeanne Mori.

Alexander Mayhew Mayhew is in charge of the Phoenix International properties in Japan, and is very close to Drake. When he becomes a traitor, Bond tries to protect him from Drake's Yakuza thugs after failing to protect the stolen missile guidance module back in Austria (the disappearance of this item was the reason for Drake falling out with Mayhew), but Mayhew dies when a ninja shows up and kills him. Mayhew is voiced by Ian Abercrombie.

Dominique Paradis Dominique Paradis is a French Intelligence agent met by James Bond whilst being saved in the mission 'Paris Prelude'. After she celebrates New Year with James, she then arrives the mission of the party to infiltrate Drake's Austrian Castle, in that she is trying to have a sort of relationship with Drake. Bond meets up with her later, in retrieving information on Drake, with a brief kiss interrupted by Zoe Nightshade. She then arrives later in the level 'Nightshift', and after spotting and trying to assist Bond with infiltrating Drake's Phoenix Japan Headquarters, she is found out by Drake and escorted by Kiko to the helipad on top of the headquarters. After a brief fight on Kiko in trying to get free and then being kicked off the building by Kiko, she falls to her death to the lobby floor. Dominique is voiced by Lena Reno.

Reception

Scores

Aggregate scores

Aggregator	Score
GameRankings	75.58% (based on 145 reviews)
Metacritic	72/100 (based on 87 reviews)

Review scores

Publication	Score
1Up.com	A
Eurogamer	3/10
GameSpot	7.9 of 10
GameSpy
IGN	8.5 of 10
X-Play

Reviews of the game have been positive. Many critics mentioned it had a well thought out plot and was consistent. Some say it is the best 007 game since GoldenEye 007. Many reviewers, praised the accurate James Bond model, as they said it is very realistic. It proved popular with customers and in December 2004 it was released on Greatest Hits edition for the PlayStation 2 and copies are still in shops to date. The game has sold over 6.8 million copies.

Differences in versions

Each version of the game differed significantly from the other. The PC version, for example, had fewer levels than the console game and did not implement driving mode. The Game Boy Advance version resembled the PC NightFire more than the console game. However, the main storyline and characters remained the same in all versions.

Other minor changes are weapon interea (i.e. the movement of idle weapons), the reloading animations (where on the PC-version, an already loaded weapon isn't bolted or cocked again) and the side on which the ejecting port is.

External links

• James Bond 007: Nightfire at Eurocom
• 007: Nightfire PC help & walkthroughs
• 007: Nightfire Community forum
• 007: Nightfire (2002) at IMDb