Is 007: Agent Under Fire underrated?
007: Agent Under Fire is a first person shooter released for the PlayStation 2 in 2001 with
a GameCube and Xbox port following in 2002.
While not the first Electronic Arts James Bond game, it does mark the series debut on
the 6th generation home consoles, making the game somewhat historically significant, or
at least interesting.
Anyway, unlike the grandfather of all James Bond games, GoldenEye 007: Agent Under Fire
was met with mixed reviews.
GamePro scored the game a 4 out of 5 stating, "Agent Under Fire accurately represents
the James Bond world, which is full of fast-paced firefights, beautiful women, and international
intrigue."
GameSpot gave the game a 6.8 out of 10 noting, "Agent Under Fire isn't a horrible game,
but its lackluster level design, poor enemy AI, and easy level of difficulty pile up to
greatly detract from what it does offer.
Its vehicle levels provide the single-player game with a good degree of variety, but they're
not in and of themselves enough to save the game."
IGN scored the game a 7.6 out of 10 proclaiming, "The footspeed, controls, enemy AI and rate
of fire in the FPS segments of Bond just don't synch up the way they need to for this game
to be anything more than a short term, big-licensed little snack of a game whilst Xbox owners
wait for the big guns, literally, to come blazing onto the system."
So, is Agent Under Fire really this underwhelming?
Let's take a look.
First and foremost, one will need to go into the options menu to fix the controls.
The default setting mixes up the strafing, and control setup 2 will be the normal dual-analog
setup we're all familiar with today.
You can't change the setup in-game either, which is a baffling omission.
Being a 007 game, there is a lot of story to chew in if you're into that sort of thing.
Sadly, a majority of the plot elements are portrayed between levels with a series of
still images along with a narrator.
While the acting is on point and the story interesting enough, the delivery method is
a bit lackluster.
Basically, James Bond is tasked with helping out an American CIA operative investigating
Nigel Bloch, who was overly protective of a case containing some vials.
Sadly, it appears she was captured on her mission to steal the vials, and Bond's first
mission is presented.
Right away, the player is given a choice on how to enter this facility.
One can use a hacking device to open up the front door, or use this Batman styled gadget
to go an alternative route.
The fact there is a choice is pretty cool, giving a nice sense of freedom.
Using the Q-Claw will also trigger a 007 Icon and some music, rewarding the player for doing,
uh, spy things.
Anyway, once inside the lab the shooting can begin.
There is no way to sugar coat it, the aiming is dated.
First, the auto-aiming is pretty aggressive, centering the reticle on the body of a nearby
target.
If you want to go for a headshot, you'll need to hold the left trigger, and then use
the left analog stick, which is not normally used for aiming, to manually aim and take
down a foe.
This trend of goofy control mechanics is repeated throughout the game, and I'll do my best
to point them out at the appropriate times.
Anyway, once an enemy strays too far from the reticule, it snaps back.
In Halo and modern games, auto-aiming is gentle, and actually moves the player, allowing for
the assistance to be seamless.
In 007: Agent Under Fire, it can be a bit clumsy.
On the positive side, there are scripted events you can take advantage of.
Shooting this forklift will cause it to explode, killing foes hiding behind some crates.
And again, the little 007 logo and appropriate jingle will play.
New gadget sceneries are also presented, like using a laser to break a lock, allowing progression.
There are no tutorials either, just a quick 5 second piece of dialog and a brief text
box.
It does a good job teaching the player new skills without grinding the gameplay to a
halt.
After a few shootouts, Bond finally catches up with the captured CIA operative.
Nigel has her tied to a submarine and since she won't cooperate, plans to dive the sub,
so she drowns.
Pretty dark.
Of course, Bond needs to rescue the gal and a heavy fire-fight ensues.
While parts of 007: Agent Under Fire attempt to encourage stealth and espionage, other
parts are pure action.
Here the player is encouraged to just move forward and give hell.
There are exploding barrels everywhere, all enemies drop munitions, and there are enough
health packs lying around to mitigate aggressive play.
There is a time limit as well, but making it to the American won't take much time
at all.
After rescuing her, an in-game cut-scene will play, showing off one of the best aspects
of the game, and the Bond universe as a whole.
Bond never takes itself too seriously.
Upon completion one of the most unique aspects of the game is revealed, a rather involved
point system.
We can see here points are rewarded for those Bond moves, time taken, along with the usual
stats for accuracy.
If you score enough points, you'll earn a Gold Medal along with a bonus for your efforts.
With Nightshade rescued, Bond still needs to secure those vials which is rectified in
the next level.
Here, Agent Under Fire turns into an on-rails shooter.
Besides the gameplay type being different, the mechanics don't change much.
The auto-aim works exactly the same, and things can be occasionally tricky as your car moves
from left or right without your input.
Miraculously, Nightshade and Bond are able to snag a briefcase of vials from a factory
before it explodes.
But then the bad guys arrive, murdering Nightshade while getting away with said vials.
This segues to mission 3, which introduces the third and final gameplay type: driving.
Bond hops in his BMW and must use yet another gadget to disable the getaway van containing
the vials Bond had recovered, but then lost.
I've heard reports this uses the Need for Speed engine but I couldn't find any definitive
proof confirming this.
In either case, the driving is pretty solid.
It definitely feels arcade like and navigating through the streets dodging traffic feels
responsive and predictable.
You are also equipped with a basic weapon, in addition to special weapons you can collect
across the map.
The constant screen flashing, bombastic weapon sounds, and thundering music give this a car-chase
vibe which feels appropriate for an action movie.
The actual task at hand is a touch more tame.
Just use the Q-Pulse weapon when close to the target, and this disables the van and
ends the level.
With the vials now obtained they can be analyzed, and it's determine they are blood samples
marked with the initials from the 8 world leaders in the G8, along with some guy named
Reginald, and some photos of the British Embassy in Romania.
The photographs serve as a clue of sorts, though a bit unbelievable if you ask me, but
moves us along to another country, and another shooter level.
For my money, this fourth mission is the toughest in the game.
You are not allowed to kill anybody, have a limited set of tranquilizer darts, and if
you are spotted, embassy guards will head for the alarms.
If they set them off, the mission is failed.
This brings up two of my main gripes with 007: Agent Under Fire, the trial and error
nature of the difficulty, and the lame checkpoint system.
As for the trial and error, it's not always clear where embassy guards are, and it's
not always clear when they can see you, or when they can't.
While Bond can use his cell phone as a grappling hook defying the laws of physics, he doesn't
have any sort of radar system to help map out rooms and guard patterns.
Needless to say, I failed here, a lot.
Once I finally cleared the first half of this level and made it to a checkpoint, I ran out
of my three lives and received a game over.
A game over means the mission must be started over from scratch, going through the clumsy
stealth section yet again to get another chance at the second half of the level.
I find this a bit archaic and it really serves no other purpose than to pad out the playtime.
On the plus side, these glasses are kind of cool.
The player can jump or duck under laser grids if they so choose.
But the glasses will reveal secret panels on the walls, and you can then disable the
lasers using your own laser.
Again, I applaud the developers for allowing the player different options for tackling
challenges.
So, after subduing Reginald, and obtaining some evidence from a computer, Bond makes
his way out of the Embassy to mark the conclusion of the mission.
From here, it is determined Reginald is actually a clone, and the computer data acquired leads
the team to believe Malprave Industries is involved with illegal human cloning.
With this information in hand, Bond goes undercover and arranges a meeting with the CEO.
Of course what he really wants to do is find more evidence.
Unfortunately, Bond realizes he bumped into Malprave when he was sneaking around the embassy,
so he can't actually meet with her at this new location or his cover will be blown.
Therefore, a new element is introduced, a timer.
Honestly, this timer is never too big of a deal.
It resets after reaching certain objectives, like taking photographs of evidence.
It also leaves enough time to actually be stealthy, creeping through vents and using
the silencer to take down foes, rather than going in guns blazing.
I also located a keycard, which allowed me to turn off the alarm system later on in the
level, which is a cool touch rewarding exploration.
The second half of the level on the other hand, is all action, offering the player a
chance to use a variety of weapons, like the shotgun, to mow down an army of enemies.
Upon completion, the team discovers someone in Malprave Industries went rogue.
Dr. Damescu left the company with some stolen data files and is hiding out in the British
Embassy in Romania.
Unfortunately, Malprave has sent an assassin to kidnap her, so Bond needs to interfere
and rescue the Doctor.
I guess this might be why Bond ran into Malprave at the embassy the first time around.
Despite Mission 6 occurring in the same locale as Mission 4, most of this area is new.
Bond must first navigate around the outside, then through some adjacent buildings, before
finally entering the embassy and revisiting a few locations previously seen.
There really isn't much new introduced here, and most of the obstacles and combat simply
build upon previously established concepts.
When you catch up with the Assassin for example, you need to wait for her to get into a specific
spot, so you can use an environmental hazard to dispatch her, not unlike the exploding
forklift in the very first level.
Anyway, after rescuing Dr. Damescu and obtaining her stolen information, Bond takes down the
terrorists trying to escape in helicopters and the objective is complete.
In seems Malprave conducts her cloning and replicant program in a secret lab, and the
locations to that secret lab is in, you guessed, another secret file that Bond must go retrieve.
Mission 7 brings us to the second and final driving stage, and Bond finally gets to drive
an Aston Martin.
While in the previous driving stage you could mostly ignore the aggressive henchman, here
the player must go on the offensive using rockets and missiles to take down enemies.
The combat isn't all that deep, with rockets doing great damage but needing some manual
aiming, and the missiles homing in on enemies, but needing 2 or 3 strikes to eliminate a
baddie, but does a decent job in delivering that late 90's car combat feel.
The second half of this level is an on rails shooting segment, in a tank.
There isn't much to say about this either, although you do receive night vision for part
of the level, and watching enemies fall off buildings after death is somewhat satisfying.
With the location of the cloning lab retrieved, and the escape mission complete, Bond is off
to an oil rig in the South China Sea were the lab might be.
It turns out Nigel, the guy from the first level with a Submarine, is also heading to
this Oil Rig, lending some credibility to the hypothesis.
There isn't much new to review here but the flexibility from before remains.
Early on you can hack a computer to learn a crane program, and throughout the level
cause cranes to drop crates, or cause platforms to fall, giving and alternative method to
dispatching enemies.
A jet pack is also introduced, giving Bond a temporary boost in vertical movement.
In any case, after shooting enemies, lasering locks, and dropping crates, Bond reaches the
top of the Oil Rig, and is then jumped by Nigel.
As it turns out, Nigel pushes him into a pool of water, leading to an underground subway
system.
Mission 9 is the third and final on-rails level on said subway.
While the level itself is pretty unremarkable, the conclusion of the level is actually rather
unique.
Bond finds himself in a circular room with a giant turban.
The goal is to use guided missiles to shoot three explosive targets, causing the turban
to break and Nigel to fall into a vat of chemicals.
With Nigel dispatched, Bond can now make his way into the cloning lab.
Missions 10, 11, and 12 are all first person shooting levels and mark the final arch of
the overall plot.
In Mission 10 Bond must destroy all of the cloning equipment to effectively shut down
the entire program.
There are some neat sniping opportunities, but generally speaking, everything here should
feel familiar.
Use gadgets to open doors and steal program code and finally escape on a submarine.
Basic stuff.
After this, it is determined the vials marked with the G8 leaders initials actually contain
their blood, and Malprave's grand scheme is to clone them and replace the real leaders
with her replicants, allowing her to control the world.
The submarine is headed straight for Malprave Industries, so Bond stays aboard to arrive
at the destination and save the world leaders.
After taking out enemies on the hijacked submarine, a mission briefing advises there is a nuclear
warhead on the submarine which will be used to take out the G8 leaders, and the rest of
the level is focused on disarming the warhead.
Finally, Mission 12 marks the end of the adventure.
Bond needs to rescue the 8 world leaders who are being held hostage at Malprave Industries,
as well as take down the mastermind Malprave herself.
The beginning of this level is a real pain.
This is one of the few areas in the adventure requiring some resource management.
Like Mission 4, which had limited tranquilizer darts, limited sniper ammo is available.
Maybe there is a hidden stash somewhere I was unable to find, but I ended up taking
out the 4 snipers in the towers using the standard gun and manual aiming.
After figuring out how to take down the snipers, and then a horde of enemies, with minimum
ammunition, my favorite section in the entire game is presented.
After clearing a room, which frees 4 of the hostages, 4 more must be rescued.
The remaining four are being held hostage in four missile silos and are accessed in
a linear fashion.
Each silo has a different set of grappling hooks, moving platforms, stairs, and ladders
and these must be navigated to reach the terrorists which are not initially visible.
While not super complicated by any stretch, the obstacle course nature requires a little
bit of problem solving and I found all four silos to be interesting challenges.
With all 8 hostages freed we arrive at the final boss.
Malprave reintroduces Nigel, who is none too pleased Bond took out his replicant.
The fight is divided into three segments.
After doing enough damage, Nigel moves to a second layer and the player needs to utilize
the jet pack to continue the fight.
After inflicting more damage, Nigel will cause a platform to drop to the ground and then
escape through a tunnel.
Using another jet pack jump, Bond chases Nigel, arriving at Malprave's office.
The player must use a rocket to break the windows, which kills Nigel, and allows Bond
to escape just before the entire complex explodes.
As Bond gets rescued by M16, I can't help but wonder what happened to Malprave.
I guess I can assume she died when Malprave Industries exploded, but I feel like a proper
explanation would bring proper closure to the adventure.
In any case, with Bond escaping, the adventure is over and the credits roll.
Graphically, 007: Agent Under Fire isn't bad for an early sixth generation release.
It uses the Quake III Arena game engine, which runs reasonably well on the Xbox.
The frame rate is generally an acceptable 30 frames per second, but will occasionally
jump up to 60 when there isn't much geometry on the screen.
You'll also notice there is anti-aliasing as well, giving the game a smooth look.
It seems some developers were hypersensitive to jaggies during this particular time.
While I personally would prefer a smoother frame rate over anti-aliasing, others might
feel differently.
Strangely enough, the driving segments run in 480p progressive while the first person
stages run in 480i interlaced mode.
I'm not sure how common this is, but it's the first Xbox game I've played that has
the phenomenon.
I'm also not sure if the PlayStation 2 and GameCube versions do this, as I don't own
them.
Artistically, I actually found myself really digging 007: Agent Under Fire.
While the textures are occasionally muddy, the use of color is terrific.
Everything feels slightly over saturated and it works really well.
Environments are typically underlit, making the game a bit dark, but the bright pops of
color help the game feel lighthearted, matching the playful nature of the 007 franchise.
It's a nice change to the drab greys and browns that would dominate the genre in the
ensuing years.
I should also point out Bond himself is modelled after British actor Andrew Bicknell, born
in Somerset, Bond's undercover name in Mission 5.
Bicknell also did the voicework.
While I'm not a Bond aficionado by any stretch, he plays the part well enough, with the right
look and mannerisms to be worthy of the character.
As for the soundtrack, well, this is a 007 game and the soundtrack sounds exactly as
one would hope.
There is plenty of Bond riffs played throughout the entirety of the game, and the loudness
is used expertly to highlight action sequences, and then more muted during less intense areas.
There really isn't much to say here, the game sounds like a motion picture, and I have
absolutely no complaints.
So with all of that out of the way, we arrive back to the question asked at the beginning
of the video.
Is 007: Agent Under Fire underrated?
First, there is a lot to like in 007: Agent Under Fire.
The gameplay variety is a rather pleasant surprise.
The on-rail shooting segments are executed well enough, with a nice mix of memorization
and quick reactions required for success.
The driving sections are even better, with nice arcade physics and an interesting world
to drive through.
These are not the highlights of the game by any stretch, but offer the player a fun diversion
to break up the shooting.
Next, I really dig how there are sometimes multiple solutions to a problem.
Be it using stealth to your advantage, using environmental hazards, or utilizing the gadgets
to get through obstacles or take down foes.
None of this even comes close to something like the Splinter Cell series, but the fact
flexibility exists is pretty awesome.
Finally, it's admirable Electronic Arts was able to create a whole new Bond adventure,
rather than relying on an existing movie.
While the story is a bit shallow with a few too many, go steal the data file plot devices
to keep things moving forward, it's well acted and does a decent enough job giving
Bond an excuse to travel across Europe and Asia.
Add in a classic Bond score and the overall presentation becomes well above average.
However, there are also some problems.
First and foremost, the controls are dated and don't offer enough customization.
It is silly to me in auto-aim mode, the right joystick is used for aiming, but in manual
mode, the left joystick is used.
Oddities like this really suck the player out of the experience.
Changing weapons can be strange as well.
While driving the tank, the black and white buttons, on the Xbox version of course, are
used to change between the two turrets.
But you can't keep pressing the white or black buttons to cycle through the two weapons.
So if you are using weapon A, but press the wrong button, nothing happens, you don't
cycle to the next weapon.
Even using gadgets is cumbersome.
The d-pad is used to select different gadgets, and the B button actually uses them, instead
of the trigger.
I find it odd the trigger is used to fire a weapon, but not a gadget.
Lastly, the A button is used for opening doors and pressing buttons, as well as reloading.
This means you'll often reload your weapon when you wanted to open a door, which can
be problematic when there is limited ammunition.
Overall, I find it baffling how many control mapping oddities there are in 007: Agent Under
Fire and I don't understand how all of these little nuances got by the massive team of
testers.
Same goes for the lives and checkpoints.
It is incredibly annoying to die on the final enemy of a level, and then have to restart
the mission all the way at the beginning because you ran out of lives.
As a first time player, I found this annoying and really padded out the game's length,
taking me about 7 hours to complete.
Still, despite these issues there is plenty of replayability here.
Towards the end of the game I stopped receiving Gold Medals and started earning Silver and
Bronze.
And because the levels are well designed with alternate strategies, I feel somewhat compelled
to replay the game and find faster, more efficient routes through each level so I can earn more
gold medals.
As there are just 12 missions and no level is overly long, this task doesn't seem overwhelming
and I welcome the challenge for future playthroughs.
But no, 007: Agent Under Fire is not underrated.
The issues noted in 2002 are still true today in 2017.
There is absolutely nothing in 007: Agent Under Fire that hasn't been bettered by
other games of the day.
There are better shooters, better driving games, and better stealth games.
Still, that isn't to say 007: Agent Under Fire isn't worth playing.
The colorful graphics, excellent Bond music, and cliched humor do have a certain charm,
and I can honestly say I haven't played a first person shooter quite like it.
There is plenty of variety in the gameplay, from fast and loose, to slow and methodical,
preventing the shooting stages from feeling stale.
It's a good game worthy of your time, just keep your expectations, in check.
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