This is a major improvement over previous James Bond games. I really like John Cleese as Q, and Brosnan is still at his very best in this final installment involving his role of Bond. The story is nice and original, and the third-person action-packed gameplay is awesome. I also like the weapons and gadgets they've developed as well. And as always the visit to Q branch is the highlight. No matter how bad a Bond video game is (not that any are really bad) when the dots rolls across, the music starts up and the man himself walks on, you just can't help but get chills, ready for all the great things that could lie ahead. And the first half of this original interactive Bond adventure is worthy of those chills and expectations. The first half is actually kinda fresh and new. A story we haven't quite seen before, and for the 20th anniversary of this game as part of a series you would expect that's a hard thing to do. But just when you're thinking "Hey, this is pretty nifty! It was worth elbowing that old lady in the head to get a good copy!", the second half begins, and it's a very familiar story. It actually continues Die Another Day. I don't want to ruin it or anything but how many bloody deadly Soviet suitcase bombs can there be? I mean come on. I'd rather they'd have devised some new remote missile or something than have yet another suitcase bomb be the big starter weapon to recover. And other than that I reckon that spider bot is the most unoriginal gadget yet, and it would've been better if the dude simply threw a shoe grenade. Ok relax, my rant about bad bits is now over. If you ignore all those bits, this is otherwise a very fun Bond flick. There's plenty of action, the odd gadget, and Bond girls that both have you wiping your chin. It's all the stuff you'd expect. There's also plenty of good laughter, including heaps of references to old Bond movies (it's almost worth seeing just for that). But it just didn't quite do it for me. I thought the last Bond video game Nightfire was far superior, even if this one does have more loud bangs. What probably disappointed me most of all is that this thing really lacks Bond-esque moments. There is really only one or two things he does where you go "Wow, he's so cool!". Of course, I still enjoyed it. It seems an eternity since Bond's last outing so it's good to see a new one, even if it's a bit average and it's a video game. And what's great about these Bond games is that even an average one is a whole lot better than try hard actiony type spy games (in other words it's still better than Ballistic: Ecks versus Sever). With all its bad sides, there is still enough to make it worthwhile. If you're not yet a Bond fan though, this isn't really going to show you what it's all about. You need to go rent and play some old ones instead. Bring back Connery. Or Rare's Goldeneye 007.
