Written By: Will Schaeffer
James Bond 007 in Agent Under Fire (AUF) is in this reviewer’s opinion, probably the most underrated game of this generation of consoles. It baffles me how a game like this gets so little respect, but maybe that’s another topic for another time, but its a pretty decent game overall. Sure, its not “Halo: Combat Evolved quality” (on Xbox and PC), but then again, not a lot of FPSs are.
The game is based on James Bond, however, EA decided to make its own story for the game, instead of following a movie. This allows for the player to actually be somewhat interested in the story, instead of knowing exactly what is going to be happening next. The story isn’t that different from other James Bond licensed products, but that’s what makes them a classic, Bond goes out to save the world, meets a hot chick, saves the world after a car chase ending in a big explosion, and then screws the girl. However this time we find that not all is as it seems about our Bond Girl, Zoë.
The graphics aren’t top notch, but they are on par with this generation, and can still compete with most of the games out there. They weren’t a vocal point for my experience, so this part of the game never bothered me. The sound included that classic James Bond theme, which I never get tired of, and often found myself humming after playing the game. The guns all have clearly distinguishable sounds, which all fit nicely.
The game play again isn’t “Halo: Combat Evolved quality”, but it is neat trying to work through each level doing “Bond Moves” (Such as shooting a wire which holds a crate over a bad guy, or shooting a tank of gas to kill a couple guys from behind) or finding golden 007 Tokens. The levels hold up against most FPSs as well. The AI isn’t too hard or too easy, and there are three difficulty levels.
The value for me, is where the games strength lies. I’ve clocked in a lot of time on the multiplayer, which is for 1-4 players, its neat to be able to play the multiplayer modes just by yourself when you need some practice as well. A thing I found to be really neat to play with is the grappling hook, which allows you to climb up walls, and then jump down when someone walks underneath you. It also basically makes every wall a sniping spot for your SSR 4000. A couple other things I liked is the ability to make the game go faster, have low gravity, and that almost every gun has a back-up weapon (ie. One gun has a grenade launcher with it, the rocket launcher can switch over to rockets controlled by you, which is fun, and the grenade launcher has grenades that can split into six parts, the explode around your opponent) Also there is a level which is sort of a replication of the temple level in Goldeneye (for Nintendo 64), which is neat and almost a nostalgic experience for veterans of Goldeneye. I certainly got my 50 bucks out of this game.
So in summary, this game may not be “Halo: Combat Evolved quality” or live up to Goldeneye, (Which is just about impossible in my book). But it’s definitely a solid Shooter, and worth a rent at least. Enjoy.