4/5 ★ – blastr85's review of James Bond 007: Nightfire.

This is where the rubber meets the road in terms of James Bond games evolving. While TWINE and its successors all had varying degrees of success at imitating many of Goldeneye's exceptional qualities, Nightfire feels like the first time the games began evolving alongside contemporaries like Halo: Combat Evolved, instead of their peers from vets like Rareware and Free Radical. While the levels still have mid-level load points, the transitions are handled much more cinematically, lending a cohesion to the levels that make them feel similar to Goldeneye-length missions without the paperwork in between. To that effect, the game's 12 missions feel particularly more beefy than that number. Once again, we have the standard gadgetry and firearms with a few unique wrinkles tossed in. The remote control missile launcher (right out of Metal Gear Solid) is an especially appreciated addition. The game's stealth missions all seem to work a little bit better than Agent Under Fire's likely from extended QA and tweaking. Enemies still take too many bullets to kill (even on the easiest difficulty) but they do have more animations and reactions to respond with than the Agent Under Fire. The driving missions offer more variety than before, with one traditional mission in the game's licensed Bond car that was exception, as well as an underwater submarine mission that evoked License to Kill's Esprit (and the dam level from TMNT on the NES), plus another in a beefed up armored car rolling through the jungle. These all offer fun changes of pace to the rest of the game's first person campaign. Aside from a terrible Pierce Brosnan attempt-alike, all of the cutscenes and voice acting are handled charmingly. The story is inconsequential enough, though some billionaire resisting globalization by turning the world into a giant corporation free of elected leadership wish space-launched missiles. The trope-laden plot is more relatable now than ever before. Multiplayer retains the Goldeneye radar and general fun vibes that Agent Under Fire failed to allow space for. Various game modes also can be played single player, with customizable bots (though not as customizable as Perfect Dark's) available to fill out the remaining player slots. Maps like Sky Rail feel like classics for their time. This was a worth Goldeneye successor I had been searching for. It doesn't make the splash or impact, but it is a well-enough made romp that captures the vibe and feel of the titular 007 to make it easily recommendable to any fan.