Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

007: Agent Under Fire delivers a classic first-person-shooter experience at its core, putting players in the polished shoes of James Bond as he travels the globe on high-stakes missions. The main campaign unfolds through diverse objectives—assassinations, bomb defusals, and stealth infiltrations—keeping the pacing tight and the stakes consistently high. Players can choose to gun their way through enemy strongholds or employ a more covert approach, sneaking past guards and disabling security systems with Bond’s iconic gadgets.

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One of the game’s most notable features is its seamless integration of three distinct gameplay modes. The bulk of the adventure is spent in the standard FPS view, but at key moments the action shifts to an on-rails shooter segment where Bond vaults onto moving vehicles or precarious ledges, with players focused solely on aiming and firing. To break things up further, there are driving levels that let you slip behind the wheel of Bond’s signature cars, weaving through traffic and dodging enemy pursuit. This tripartite structure keeps the experience fresh, even if a few transitions feel abrupt.

Bond’s gadgetry is front and center, offering a menu of creative tools alongside the traditional armory. The Q-Claw grappling hook lets you scale walls or reach hidden vantage points, while the Q-Decoder hacks security panels from a distance. Firepower options range from the standard Walther P99 to more imaginative hardware like the Photon Cannon and the five-way grenade launcher. Each weapon has its own recoil, reload time, and firing pattern, encouraging experimentation. As you complete missions, you’re rated on score and difficulty—higher ratings unlock both new weapons for single-player and additional maps and modes for multiplayer.

Graphics

For its era and the consoles it graced—PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Xbox—007: Agent Under Fire boasts solid visual fidelity. Character models are impressively detailed, with recognizably suave features on Bond and a range of expressive faces for his enemies and allies. Textures on environments such as icy mountain bases, tropical jungles, and high-tech laboratories appear sharp, even if occasional fogging pops in on older hardware.

The lighting and shadow effects heighten the atmosphere during nighttime infiltrations and clandestine rendezvous. Gunfire illuminates corridors with bright muzzle flashes, and explosions send dynamic light across walls. While draw distances can stutter in sprawling outdoor stages, indoor levels maintain a consistent frame rate, ensuring the action never feels sluggish. Cutscenes blend seamlessly with in-engine graphics, preserving immersion when story beats escalate.

Rail-shooter and driving sequences run with surprising smoothness, though on GameCube you might notice a touch more aliasing compared to the Xbox edition. Even so, the overall presentation remains cohesive. Small touches—like jittering foliage in jungle missions or water spray from Bond’s speedboat—reinforce that this is an authentic Bond adventure, even if the visual polish doesn’t rival later-gen titles.

Story

The narrative kicks off with a distress signal: CIA agent Zoe Nightshade has been captured by Nigel Bloch, head of Identicon—an ominous subdivision of the Malprave conglomerate. Bond’s mission is twofold: free Zoe and recover stolen DNA samples crucial to a bioweapon plot. The premise is straightforward but effective, immediately drawing you into a globe-trotting chase from European cities to remote island strongholds.

Dialogue and cutscenes evoke the essence of a Bond film, complete with cheeky one-liners, high-tech briefings, and tense confrontations. Though Pierce Brosnan isn’t the in-game voice actor, the performance captures that trademark Bond suavity. Zoe’s character adds a welcome dimension, alternating between damsel-in-distress and capable operative, while Bloch’s corporate villainy gives the story a contemporary, techno-thriller edge.

Mission design often weaves narrative threads into gameplay: discovering secret files unlocks new intel, and rescuing hostages can alter dialogue in subsequent levels. While the plot hits a few expected tropes—evil CEO bent on world domination, nuclear threats, double agents—the pacing and variety of locations help keep each chapter feeling distinct. If you’re a Bond fan, you’ll appreciate the nods to classic gadgets and the film franchise’s signature style.

Overall Experience

007: Agent Under Fire stands out as a robust debut for James Bond on sixth-generation consoles. Its biggest strength lies in the variety of mission types and the gadget-driven gameplay, which capture the spirit of the series’ high-octane action. The balance between gunplay, stealth, and vehicular sequences means players rarely feel like they’re repeating the same formula.

Replay value is solid thanks to the in-level rating system that encourages tackling missions at higher difficulties and with specific challenges, unlocking bonus weapons, skins, and multiplayer maps. The multiplayer mode itself—featuring classic modes like Deathmatch and Goldfinger—extends the life of the game if you can find fellow agents to compete against.

Minor hiccups in texturing or occasional awkward camera angles don’t detract significantly from the overall fun factor. For anyone seeking a Bond-flavored FPS with a dose of gadgetry, exotic locales, and a respectable length of campaign, 007: Agent Under Fire remains a worthwhile purchase. It may not reinvent the wheel, but it rolls out a dependable, entertaining spy thriller that stands up well against other shooters of its generation.

Retro Replay Score

7.2/10