James Bond 007: Nightfire

James Bond 007: NightFire is a first-person shooter video game featuring the character of the British secret agent James Bond and a sequel to Agent Under Fire, published by Electronic Arts in 2002. NightFire was developed by Eurocom for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox video game consoles, while Gearbox Software developed the game for Microsoft Windows using the GoldSrc engine. Aspyr later re-released the game for the macOS. The computer versions are substantially different from the console versions, featuring different missions and a modified story line. In 2003, Electronic Arts released NightFire for the Game Boy Advance (GBA), developed by JV Games and also featuring different missions and a modified story line from the console and computer versions.

The game marked Pierce Brosnan's fourth appearance as James Bond before the release of his fourth and final Bond film Die Another Day. His likeness was featured in the game, but not his voice, which was provided by Maxwell Caulfield.

Gameplay
Overall there are many weapons that the player can carry including grenades and other types of explosives. In addition, there are numerous mounted weapons found throughout the game. As with previous James Bond games, the weapons that appear are based on actual weapons, but with the names changed. Some weapons appear in the console version but not the PC version, and vice versa.

Each version of the game differs significantly from the others. The PC version, for example, has fewer levels than the console versions and does not implement driving mode. It begins the plot right at Raphael Drake's Austrian castle, skipping over the French mission. Also, in this version, Rook dies much earlier on, in the astronaut training facility that Bond infiltrates. The Game Boy Advance version resembles the PC NightFire more than the console versions. However, the very general overall storyline and characters remain the same in all versions.

Multiplayer
In the multiplayer mode of NightFire players can play in many different levels, including Fort Knox, from Goldfinger, Atlantis and the sub docking pen from The Spy Who Loved Me, and many NightFire-related levels, including Drake's castle, Drake's underwater base, and Drake's secret missile silo. Other levels include Skyrail and Ravine. The player may choose to play against AI bots with customizable reaction time, speed, and health. The amount of usable bots vary in the console version. In the GameCube and Xbox version, up to six bots may be used. In the PlayStation 2 version, up to four bots may be used and up to four humans can play. In the PC version, up to 12 bots may be used. The PC version also has an online multiplayer mode.

Some medals obtained will unlock new characters. Notable characters included from previous James Bond films include Francisco Scaramanga and Nick Nack from The Man with the Golden Gun, May Day and Max Zorin from A View to a Kill, Jaws from The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker, Elektra King and Renard from The World Is Not Enough, Auric Goldfinger and Oddjob from Goldfinger, and Baron Samedi from Live and Let Die. Players can customize multiplayer settings before playing. However, one disadvantage to this is that the game will not save the alterations players make to the multiplayer mode.

Plot
In Paris, James Bond (voiced by Maxwell Caulfield with the likeness of Pierce Brosnan) helps French Intelligence operative Dominique Paradis evade a gang chase while chasing a truck with a stolen nuclear weapon, before continuing in his Aston Martin V12 Vanquish. After preventing the truck from blowing up the Eiffel Tower, Dominique and Bond celebrate New Year's Eve.

The UK Government sends Bond undercover to a party at industrialist Raphael Drake's Austrian castle. M (voiced by Samantha Eggar) believes that the party is a cover for the exchange of a missile guidance chip between Drake and Alexander Mayhew - who manages the Japanese branch of Drake's company, Phoenix International - had stolen the chip from the United States. Phoenix is believed to be a front for weapon smuggling. M gives Bond the instruction for him to rendezvous with CIA agent Zoe Nightshade and Dominique, who is posing as Drake's mistress. While Zoe distracts the guards, Bond makes his way to the exchange and steals the chip. Bond and Zoe attempt to escape via cable car, when Drake's bodyguard, Rook, attacks the cable car with a rocket-launching helicopter. Bond shoots down the attacking helicopter using rockets found in the cable car. Bond and Zoe then escape Drake's forces in an armored snowmobile before continuing in Bond's car. They rendezvous with Q (voiced by Gregg Berger), who evacuates them from Austria to safety.

After the breach, Drake threatens to kill Mayhew, should the operation fail. Mayhew contacts MI6, saying he will provide vital information if Bond comes to his rescue. At his Japanese estate, Mayhew is attacked by Drake's men, consisting of Japanese thugs before hiding in an underground bunker. Bond fights his way through the estate and manages to obtain a file from Mayhew's safe. As they are prepared to make an escape from the estate, Mayhew is killed by a ninja. The file leads Bond to Mayhew's office at the Phoenix Building in Tokyo.

Bond is able to infiltrate the building when the security guards are changing shifts, and secures official NightFire documents. He is then attacked by Drake's men before Dominique provides a distraction, which allows Bond to escape via parachute off the roof of the building.

The NightFire documents lead Bond to a nuclear power plant being decommissioned by Phoenix International. Bond retrieves evidence of Drake's activities and escapes. However, he is then double-crossed and captured by Kiko, Mayhew's former bodyguard, and turned over to Drake. On the top of the Phoenix building, Drake decides to kill Bond, and reveals that he has unmasked Dominique as a spy with the hidden camera in the stairwell, which showed her helping Bond to escape. Dominique is then kicked to her death from the top of the tower by Kiko, but Bond escapes to ground level before being saved by Australian Intelligence agent Alura McCall, who drives him away from the building.

M sends Bond and Alura to Drake's private island in the South Pacific, where Drake has set up a jamming signal. The pair infiltrate the island and eliminate Drake's defences. M makes Bond aware of the UN, EU, and NATO forces arriving on the island to dismantle remaining enemy combatants. After killing Rook in a shootout, Bond makes his way to Drake's underground silo, fighting Kiko before entering one of three space shuttles intending to capture the Space Defense Platform. Kiko is incinerated in the blast pit when Bond's space shuttle launches. Bond reaches the U.S. Space Defense Platform, where Drake is. He successfully sends all eight missiles off course, saving millions of lives, and causes Drake's laser weapon to malfunction, leading to a huge explosion. Finally, Bond kills Drake. As the station goes up in flames, Bond blasts from an escape pod and returns to Earth, where M informs him that astronomers from around the globe are reporting "unexpected meteor showers" (which is actually the debris of the now-destroyed Space Defense Platform). Bond celebrates with Alura before setting the auto-pilot on the Vanquish so he and Alura can have a romantic evening.

Development
The game had been in development as early as September 2000, and was announced as James Bond 007 in May 2001. By February 2002, the game's working title was James Bond in... Phoenix Rising. The game's final title was unveiled in May 2002. In July 2002, Pierce Brosnan's head was scanned with a laser digitizer to create the James Bond character model.

Driving levels were developed by Savage Entertainment and a team at Electronic Arts. NightFire marked the first time a James Bond video game featured an original song: "Nearly Civilized" performed by Esthero. Its original score was composed by Steve Duckworth, Ed Lima and Jeff Tymoschuk.

In January 2003, Electronic Arts announced that a Game Boy Advance version of the game was in development by JV Games.

Reception
In the United States, the computer version of NightFire sold 230,000 copies and earned $5.3 million by August 2006, after its release in November 2002. It was the country's 93rd best-selling computer game during this period. The PlayStation 2 version of NightFire received a "Platinum" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 300,000 copies in the United Kingdom.

NightFire was positively received across all console platforms, with reviews toward the game pointing to the realistic animation. In addition to this, graphically most users have also positively commented on the fact that James Bond and Pierce Brosnan look and move so much alike. However, while the console reviews have been generally positive, some critics believe that the main negative aspect of the game is its relatively short length. Critics also noted that NightFire does attempt to steer away from previous Bond games (notably GoldenEye) and add a more interesting story line. Critics also derided the game's bots, as having difficulty navigating through the multiplayer maps; because of this, bots are not available in the map Ravine at all.

The PC version of the game, on the other hand, has been subject to mixed reception. Eurogamer gave the game 3 out of 10, while Computer Gaming World called it "the most incompetently crafted shooter in living memory", noting the game's poor art, terrible A.I., shoddy voice work, and highly derivative level design.

In 2008, PC Games Hardware included Alura McCall, Makiko Hayashi, Dominique Paradis and Zoe Nightshade among the 112 most important female characters in games.