007: The World Is Not Enough (Nintendo 64)

007: The World Is Not Enough is a first-person shooter video game developed by Eurocom and based on the 1999 James Bond film of the same name. It was published by Electronic Arts and released for the Nintendo 64 on October 17, 2000, shortly before the release of its PlayStation counterpart. The game features a single-player campaign in which players assume the role of MI6 agent James Bond and as he fights to stop a terrorist from triggering a nuclear meltdown in the waters of Istanbul. It includes a split-screen multiplayer mode where up to four players can compete in different types of deathmatch and objective-based games.

The game runs on an entirely new engine that was adapted to fully take advantage of the Nintendo 64 strengths. Although Eurocom used original production material to authentically recreate the environments of the film, the company added elements to help the game design, including a mission which takes place in the London Underground. The game supports the Nintendo 64 Expansion Pak, which provides enhanced graphics and visual effects, but a Controller Pak is required to save the player's progress through the game.

The World Is Not Enough received generally positive reviews from critics and was frequently compared to Rare's Nintendo 64 first-person shooters GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark. It was also considered superior to its PlayStation counterpart because of its level design and inclusion of a multiplayer mode. Critics generally praised the game's graphics and smooth frame rate, but criticized its weak and inconsistent enemy artificial intelligence. In the United States, the game sold more than one million copies.

Gameplay

File:TWINE N64 Combat.png

Combat takes place in real-time and from a first-person perspective. The green and blue bars at the top left corner represent the player's health and armor levels respectively. Ammunition information is also displayed at the bottom right corner.

The World Is Not Enough is a first-person shooter based on MGM's 1999 James Bond film of the same name, where the player assumes the role of James Bond through 14 missions with three distinct difficulty settings.<ref name="IGN review"/> The player has the ability to run, jump, crouch, swim and dive underwater for a short period of time. One mission is played as a rail shooter in which the player skis down a mountain.<ref name="GamePro review"/> In each mission, the player must complete a number of objectives while defeating enemies controlled by the game's artificial intelligence. Objectives range from rescuing hostages to destroying vehicles and collecting items.<ref name="Prima Guide Walkthroughs"/> Some objectives require the player to use numerous high-tech gadgets. For example, the Keypad Decrypter can be used to decode lock systems, while the ID scanner is useful to copy fingerprints.<ref name="Prima Guide Weapons"/>

Mission objectives vary in quantity and length depending on the difficulty setting chosen.<ref name="IGN review"/> Difficulty settings also affect enemy accuracy and damage, and the availability of the game's optional automatic aiming assistance.<ref name="Prima Guide Tactics"/> The player can use several weapons, including pistols, submachine guns, assault rifles, a shotgun, a sniper rifle, and a rocket launcher.<ref name="Prima Guide Weapons"/> Weapons must be reloaded after a certain number of shots and have alternate fire modes.<ref name="Prima Guide Tactics"/><ref name="Prima Guide Weapons"/> For example, the Wolfram P2K can be used with or without a silencer.<ref name="Prima Guide Weapons"/> In addition, the player always carries a wristwatch which may be used to stun enemies, fire tranquilizer darts, throw a grappling hook, or emit a laser beam to open locks.<ref name="Prima Guide Weapons"/> In some missions, the player can also use night vision or X-ray vision glasses to outsmart enemies.<ref name="IGN review"/> The player has a certain amount of health which decreases when attacked by enemies. There are no health-recovery items in the game, although body armors can be acquired to provide a secondary health bar.<ref name="Prima Guide Tactics"/> A Nintendo 64 Controller Pak is required to save the player's progress through the game.<ref name="N64 Magazine review"/>

In addition to the single-player missions, The World Is Not Enough features a multiplayer mode where up to four players can compete against each other in different game types, ranging from the traditional deathmatch to objective-based games such as capture the flag or king of the hill.<ref name="Prima Guide Multiplayer"/> Other game types include Last Agent Standing, where players begin the game with a finite number of lives and must survive until the opposing players exhaust their lives, and Uplink, in which players must find and touch uplink units scattered in key locations of the map to score points.<ref name="Prima Guide Multiplayer"/> Multiplayer games can be played on 14 different maps and can also include bots.<ref name="IGN review"/> Bots' appearance and amount of health can be changed to match player preference.<ref name="Manual Multiplayer"/>

Plot

The game closely follows the plot of the film. MI6 agent James Bond is sent to Bilbao, Spain to meet a Swiss banker and retrieve money for Robert King, a friend of M who purchased a classified report from the Russian Atomic Energy Department. The report, which was taken from a dead MI6 agent, is believed to contain information about terrorists who have attacked King's oil pipeline in Kazakhstan. Bond asks the banker who killed the MI6 agent, but he is quickly killed by an assassin before he can reveal the name. Bond escapes with the money and takes it to the MI6 headquarters in London. A terrorist group then launches an attack on the MI6 headquarters, prompting Bond to pursue the assassin through a London Underground station. Bond offers her protection, but she ultimately kills herself by exploding a hot air balloon.

The MI6 traces the recovered money to a KGB agent-turned-terrorist known as Renard, who previously kidnapped King's daughter, Elektra. M assigns Bond to protect Elektra, who is about to oversee the construction of an oil pipeline in Azerbaijan. During a tour of the pipeline's proposed route in the mountains, Bond and Elektra are attacked by a hit squad in armed, paraglider-equipped snowmobiles. Bond suspects the attack was caused by Elektra's head of security, Davidov, and decides to kill him before taking his place on a flight to a Russian ICBM base in Kazakhstan. There, Bond meets nuclear physicist Christmas Jones and learns that Renard managed to steal plutonium from a nuclear warhead.

To get a lead on where Renard might be hiding, Bond visits a former Russian mafia adversary, Valentin Zukovsky, who reveals that Elektra was in exchange for the use of a submarine currently being captained by his nephew. Jones realises that if Renard were to insert the stolen plutonium into the submarine's nuclear reactor, the resulting nuclear explosion would destroy Istanbul, sabotaging the Russians' oil pipeline in the Bosphorus. In Istanbul, Bond and Jones are captured by Elektra's henchmen. Jones is taken aboard the submarine, while Bond is taken to the Maiden's Tower. With the help of Zukovsky, Bond kills Elektra and boards the submarine. Ultimately, Bond finds Renard in the submarine's reactor and kills him before escaping with Jones.

Development

The World Is Not Enough was developed by Eurocom and published by Electronic Arts, which formed a partnership with MGM in late 1998 to produced games based on MGM's intellectual properties.<ref name="EA and MGM"/> At the time, Eurocom had already started development on a "very scalable" first-person 3D engine intended for sixth generation platforms like the GameCube.<ref name="Eurocom on Bond"/><ref name="N64 Magazine preview 2"/> After Electronic Arts acquired the James Bond game licence, Eurocom showed them their engine and soon both companies started working together to produce the next official Bond-licensed game.<ref name="Eurocom on Bond"/> This happened when Eurocom was still working on the Nintendo 64 version of Mortal Kombat 4.<ref name="Eurocom on Bond"/>

Although Eurocom worked on the 1999 shooter Duke Nukem: Zero Hour, none of its technology was used in the game.<ref name="Eurocom on Bond"/> The new engine, which was completely created from scratch and adapted to fully take advantage of the Nintendo 64 strengths,<ref name="Eurocom on Bond"/> is capable of delivering a fast and smooth frame rate while offering particle explosions, dynamic lighting effects, long draw distances, and other environmental effects like fog or smoke.<ref name="Answering to Q"/> Focusing on the game's frame rate and technical aspects was a major priority because developers wanted The World Is Not Enough to be the fastest first-person game on the Nintendo 64 system. According to Eurocom, "[we] don't think we could push it much more than we have".<ref name="Eurocom on Bond"/><ref name="Answering to Q"/> In addition, with The World Is Not Enough being Eurocom's last Nintendo 64 game, the company saw it as "a nice swan song to go out on."<ref name="Eurocom on Bond"/>

To help Eurocom authentically recreate the environments of the film, the film makers provided Eurocom with original production material, including concept drawings, blueprints, and photographs of the film's sets.<ref name="N64 Magazine preview 1"/> Although the game closely follows the plot of the film, the developers added new elements to help the game design. For example, the London Underground level, where the player must rescue several hostages, is not part of the film.<ref name="GSpot hands-On"/> However, the boat chase scene is not playable in the game due to limitations in the Nintendo 64 cartridge size. According to the game's producer Bill Beacham, vehicle-based gameplay would require the creation of a separate engine that would possibly compromise the game's base first-person engine.<ref name="GSpot hands-On"/> All the characters' faces were digitised from the film's actors, but impersonators provided voiced dialogue. One exception was English actor John Cleese, who reprised his role as R.<ref name="N64 Magazine preview 1"/>

Electronic Arts secured a "Teen" rating from the ESRB to avoid intense portrayals of violence because they felt that fast action and memorable spy moments were what the Bond legacy had always stood for.<ref name="Answering to Q"/> In May 2000, the game was presented at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles.<ref name="More Bond"/> By the time, development of the game was nearly 75% complete.<ref name="More Bond"/> The game was released on a 32MB cartridge that includes over 500 lines of speech, which was compressed using Factor 5's technology.<ref name="Eurocom on Bond"/> It also supports the Nintendo 64 Expansion Pak, which provides enhanced graphics and visual effects.<ref name="IGN review"/> The game was initially intended to be released on November 20, 2000 in North America, but was ultimately released one month earlier on October 17, 2000 because Eurocom managed to finish work on the game quicker than expected.<ref name="Release date"/> In Europe, the game was released on December 8, 2000.<ref name="N64 Magazine review"/> A different game, also titled 007: The World Is Not Enough, was released for the PlayStation in November 2000.<ref name="TWINE PS1 review"/>

Reception

The World Is Not Enough received generally positive reviews from critics, who frequently compared it to Rare's critically acclaimed Nintendo 64 games GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark.<ref name="IGN review"/><ref name="N64 Magazine review"/><ref name="Edge review"/> It was also considered superior to its PlayStation counterpart because of its level design and inclusion of a multiplayer mode.<ref name="TCE review"/> Matt Casamassina of IGN felt that Eurocom did "an amazing job recreating the cinema experience for the Nintendo 64 owner, perhaps more so than any other movie-to-game license to date."<ref name="IGN review"/> In a less positive review, Shane Satterfield of GameSpot stated that The World Is Not Enough "belongs in the upper echelon of Nintendo 64 software", but it lacks the gameplay delicacy of GoldenEye 007 to reach classic status.<ref name="GSpot review"/> Edge concluded that, while the game lacks innovative elements, it "still offers plenty of enjoyment for those who have eshausted Rare's masterpieces."<ref name="Edge review"/>

The game's graphics were widely praised for their long draw distance and smooth frame rate.<ref name="IGN review"/><ref name="Edge review"/> Critics also noted the game's believable environments, texture quality, animations, and highly detailed explosions and particle effects.<ref name="IGN review"/><ref name="GSpot review"/><ref name="GameRev review"/> The soundtrack and sound effects received similar praise.<ref name="IGN review"/><ref name="GamePro review"/> Game Revolution said that the background themes "make for excellent espionage", while Nintendo Power observed that the spoken dialogue "adds a cinematic touch" that GoldenEye 007 does not feature.<ref name="GameRev review"/><ref name="NP review"/> GamePro stated similar pros, but criticised the plot for being confusing and "too complex for its own good."<ref name="GamePro review"/>

IGN praised the single-player missions for their variety and great enemy placement, noting that each scenario is different in both design and gameplay mechanics. The reviewer especially highlighted the last mission due to its underwater sections, as it requires players to find hidden air pockets so that Bond can breath and stay alive.<ref name="IGN review"/> In contrast, Mark Green of N64 Magazine remarked that the missions were fairly scripted, limiting the player's options and experimentation.<ref name="N64 Magazine review"/> Similarly, Edge said that the game's "on the fly" mission objectives give the game a fair amount of rigidity. The reviewer explained that, while GoldenEye 007 or Perfect Dark set their mission objectives at the beginning of each level, thus giving players a chance to tackle the mission as they wish, The World Is Not Enough "cannonballs" the player "from one objective to the next with little room for invention of improvisation."<ref name="Edge review"/> Nevertheless, he highlighted the Night Watch level for being "fantastically stealth-centric".<ref name="Edge review"/>

The game's weak and inconsistent enemy artificial intelligence was a common subject of criticism.<ref name="GameZone review"/><ref name="GSpot review"/><ref name="IGN review"/><ref name="N64 Magazine review"/> GameSpot described the behaviour of enemies as "They see, they run, they shoot - and that's about it", while N64 Magazine noted that they regularly fail to spot the player even when standing next to them.<ref name="N64 Magazine review"/> The gadgery was seen as a useful gameplay feature, with AllGame noting that players need to figure out the proper way to use each gadget.<ref name="AllGame review"/><ref name="IGN review"/> Although GameZone highlighted the multiplayer mode for its replay value and teamplay options, critics agreed that the game felt short in comparison to Perfect Dark.<ref name="GameZone review"/><ref name="IGN review"/><ref name="GameRev review"/> The artificial intelligence of multiplayer bots was also a frequent criticism.<ref name="GSpot review"/><ref name="IGN review"/><ref name="GameZone review"/> According to GameSpot, "they generally amount to nothing more than fragging".<ref name="GSpot review"/> In the United States, The World Is Not Enough sold more than one million copies.<ref name="Magic Box"/>

External links

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