Without even bothering to see the movie yet, I picked this game up when I saw it in video rental stores. Now, wasn't HUGELY into James Bond at this time, but I played GoldenEye with my friends (along with the sag known as "Tomorrow Never Dies"), and thought this game would be good. So, I rented it, took it home, and prepared to have THE WILDEST JAMES BOND ADVENTURE OF MY ENTIRE LIFE!!!
Okay, maybe that wasn't the case, but I will break it down (as always) and tell you how this all went down:
GRAPHICS: Decent, but the character models are blocky and the backgrounds are blandly made. Although graphic clipping occurs rarely, there is a lot of graphical "swerving" going on. I call it "swerving" because if you go up to a wall or something and turn, you will see the wall "move" a little. It's not a big problem, but sometimes swerving occurs even when you're simply turning. The backgrounds are mildly detailed (light fixtures are literally "glued" to the background), and about the only thing "realistic" is Bond's hand or the gun he's holding up. Everything else is blandly detailed. And don't expect enormous Terminator explosions...explosion effects are barely even noticeable. Sometimes blowing up gas canisters only makes the screen flash, and the canister disintegrates with a response of black smoke.
SOUND: Though TND didn't have as much gameplay appeal as TWINE, TND did have decent and pulse-pounding music. The music in TND was fast, exciting, and some songs lasted as long as 2 or 3 minutes. However, in TWINE, no one gave a flying piece of sludge about the music. The songs last at least 20 seconds long, and the music does not get you in the mood for a gunfight. The music practically gets you in the mood to go to sleep. The silenced handgun Bond has makes another appearance, but continues to sound like a silenced weapon. Other weapon effects have nice sound effects to them (like the sniper rifle and the Kazakovich assault rifle), but don't expect much from actual explosions. Accompanying the screen flashes are mainly no other sounds other than the bullet hitting the canister. There may be some explosion sounds, but even THOSE are barely noticeable.
GAMEPLAY: Your basic role is to just go out on SUPER short missions and either kill things are sneak around. There is, however, ONE unique mission in this game, and that is the casino mission that forces you to win a game of BlackJack in order to pass. That's the ONLY unique mission. And...what happened to the driving missions?! In this game, you only use the car to stock up on video camera rockets on this one mission where you have to fight helicopters on the docks. Other than that, your BMW Z8 is useless. There was no real problem with that in GoldenEye (at least I think there's no driving mission there), but here, it suffers terribly. The game is short enough, so it wouldn't hurt to put two decent missions in. Cheat codes also work differently this time...instead of inputting controller codes, you have to get near-perfect scores on missions. The PS1 version also suffers from a lack of multiplayer (as with TND, but according to my GS Pro snapshot archive, there is a multiplayer screen in it somewhere). Replayability is non-existent...the game's just not a good enough hit to play over and over again.
STORY: Exactly the same as the movie's...you're sent out to stop a madman from bombing the world, only this guy is no real madman...he just spits up insults to you and runs. In all the other James Bond games to date, you have to fight the final boss with a special strategy or with just all-out gunplay. However, TWINE has no last boss...in this game, the last boss is just you shooting out reactor panels while blasting away hilariously slow bad guys. Do all that, and you'll already have beaten the game. So, you don't necessarily fight Renard...you're just fighting his plan until he dies.
BOTTOM LINE: Only RENT this game. Do not buy it. If you're a James Bond head who plans to fill your game collection with James Bond games, be my guest. If you're just looking for a good game to pass the weekend, this game is right for you. If you want to go out and buy good James Bond games, try getting the latest James Bond: Everything or Nothing. THAT'S the James Bond game you should waste your allowance on.
FINAL SCORE: 6/10
