For years, I've been wondering if James Bond will ever make a return to the gaming scene. Sure, 007 Legends was a flop but Bond has produced some of the best stealth action games out there in the form of Goldeneye, Nightfire, Everything or Nothing, hell, I'm pretty fond of the lesser known 007 Blood Stone. With a new Bond film coming in 2019, is there any chance that we see a new 007 game or is Bond a fad of the PS2/OG Xbox era? Do you want a new Bond game and who would you think should make it if you want a new one?
EDIT: Shoutout to Dr. Caroll for this extensive breakdown of the Bond series in the video game medium, just in case you've forgotten or haven't played some of the games:
Let's talk about what has gone wrong (and right) with James Bond games.
GoldenEye (1997) by Rareware set the standard. Revolutionary spy FPS with a focus on what Martin Hollis called "cinematic realism" that resonated throughout the entire industry. Games like Syphon Filter and Medal of Honor were created in response to it. It influenced everything from System Shock 2 to Deus Ex to Thief. Even Counter Strike. It's a damn good game. Not as good as Perfect Dark, IMO, but it's fun.
Jumping forward for the sake of it, GoldenEye (2008), a remaster by Rare, never saw the light of day outside leaked footage because Nintendo are a cathedral of wieners determined to ruin everything good and pure in this world. Golly gosh darn you, Nintendo. This remaster looked incredible.
Tomorrow Never Dies (1999) by Black Ops Entertainment was not very good. There's not much to say about it. It's just not good.
The World is Not Enough (2000) for PS1 by Black Ops Entertainment is pretty decent. Not as good as Eurocom's version, but good.
The World is Not Enough (2000) by Eurocom for N64 is very different to the Black Ops Entertainment game. It's an FPS game in the style of GoldenEye, but with Eurocom's own twists on the formula. Quality game, overall. Danjaq executive meddling hit hard late in development and stuff like Bond music had to be removed. Eurocom would make several Bond games, and unfortunately the series would destroy them.
Agent Under Fire (2001) by EA Redwood Shores aka Visceral Games was originally a port of TWINE to the PS2/PC. Due to various reasons, this morphed into a new game which is a bit of a mixed bag. A very problematic design trend was started with this game. DRIVING SECTIONS USING RANDOM NEED FOR SPEED ENGINE ITERATION! WOO! You see, when Eurocom made TWINE, they scrapped a planned boat chase sequence because they felt their engine wasn't suited. EA decided, going forward, that Bond games needed driving sections. So they jammed a second engine into each game for the driving sections. Frankly, driving sections in Bond games have never been great. AUF is a decent enough Bond game, but it's oddly videogamey. It lacks the cinematic sensibilities of the other high profile games.
Nightfire (2002) by Eurocom for consoles is quality. It has forced driving sections -- thank you, EA -- but everything else is great. It's basically TWINE 2.0, with pretty much everything improved. The GoldenEye DNA is still intact. Really good game.
Nightfire (2002) by Gearbox for PC is a rushed mess that condenses every negative quality of GoldSrc into a single game and then breaks key engine features such as lighting, decals, and weapon selection. It has some really nice level architecture in places, but it is worse than Eurocom's game in every possible way, except maybe Nightfire PC's MP, which was pretty decent. It also doesn't have any driving sections because GoldSrc couldn't handle them and bolting on the Need for Speed engine was impractical.
Everything or Nothing (2003) by EA Redwood Shores was a great, great game. Third person cover shooter with tight gameplay and good atmosphere. It was an example of a Bond game that strove to not be like GoldenEye. And this worked out for it.
GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (2004) by EA Los Angeles was a deeply cynical game that EA sink money into while neglecting TimeSplitters: Future Perfect. Ah, EA. We love you. It has some redeeming features, but it's really not a good game. There was a DS version whose engine was used for basically every Nintendo DS FPS game.
From Russia with Love (2005) by EA Redwood Shores was an interesting game. Not a bad game by any means, but it was just very weak. It lacked the momentum and excitement of Everything or Nothing. It was an example of a tired sequel. More of the same, but nowhere near as good as last time.
THEN ACTIVISION GAINED THE LICENSE.
Quantum of Solace (2008) by Treyarch is basically Call of Duty: Modern Warfare with third person cover mechanics. It's a decent enough game, but quite short and is a weird mixture of Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. The problem at this point was that developers were forced to release games to meet film deadlines. This had happened previously. Nightfire was rushed be released around Die Another Day, in order to exploit its marketing hype. But with Quantum of Solace, the cracks of harsh deadlines really started to show.
It gets worse. It gets much, much worse.
Quantum of Solace (2008) by Eurocom is a third person shooter with the worst QTEs since Shenmue II. It has some decent sections. The final boss is the worst thing I have ever encountered. Again, this is because the game was badly rushed. Good developers making sub-par games because the publisher forced a release date.
Blood Stone (2010) by Bizarre Creations is a solid Bond TPS. Hits most of the right notes. Good game.
After Nintendo did their usual "let us now destroy everything nice" act in 2008, Activision shopped around for a developer to make a new GoldenEye game. They approached Free Radical, but that fell through. They they approached Eurocom, who were the most venerable Bond developer. This resulted in...
GoldenEye (2010) by Eurocom is an all-round decent Bond FPS. It's not as good as Nightfire. The alterations to the GoldenEye plot and dialogue are an atrocity. Every single great line of dialogue from the film is gone. Every incredible set piece is gone. GoldenEye worked because it was bleak self-reflective post-Cold War work that deconstructed Bond into a self-aware cynical puppet who works for a truly evil empire. That's all gone, and in its place Banks are Evil and Stuff. Everything that was good about GoldenEye is gone. What's left is a bizarre shell from the guy who wrote Tomorrow Never Dies. The film where Bond solves every single problem with his mobile phone. Guess how Bond solves every single problem in GoldenEye 2010. Gameplay-wise, it's a really good game. Plot-wise? It's awful. They ruined one of the greatest action films of all time. And every single character in that film.
GoldenEye: Reloaded (2011) was a remaster of GE2010 for 360/PS3. They did a pretty decent job. The Wii version was a very nice looking game, but the remaster looks and plays great. A PC version was created but never released, tragically.
Then everything went to shit. For everyone. Activision was on the verge of the Bond license lapsing. So they decided to squeeze out another Bond game in time for the release of Skyfall. This game was...
007: Legends (2012) by Eurocom, a game reportedly made in 6 months, that was so unfinished the Skyfall chapter was released as DLC. It is a tragic mess of a game. There is true passion inside 007: Legends. There is true Bond atmosphere. Famous Bond characters return voiced by their original actors. Some sections are great. The writing is terrible because Mr "And then Bond uses his phone" is still writing. All the incredible political subtext of each Bond film covered by the game is replaced with generic "AND HE MIGHT BE FUNDING TERRORISTS!. STOP HIM WITH YOUR PHONE!" It's so broken and unfinished and it's such a tragedy because there is true Bond goodness underneath it all, screaming for another year of development. This game has nightmarishly awful QTEs on PC, BTW.
After this, Eurocom went bankrupt, Activision lost the Bond license, and all Bond games were pulled from Steam, and there hasn't been a proper Bond game since. That's where we are today. Eurocom is dead and the Bond gaming legacy is a smoking ruin with no clear path forward because Activision had no spine or good sense.
EDIT: Shoutout to Dr. Caroll for this extensive breakdown of the Bond series in the video game medium, just in case you've forgotten or haven't played some of the games:
Let's talk about what has gone wrong (and right) with James Bond games.
GoldenEye (1997) by Rareware set the standard. Revolutionary spy FPS with a focus on what Martin Hollis called "cinematic realism" that resonated throughout the entire industry. Games like Syphon Filter and Medal of Honor were created in response to it. It influenced everything from System Shock 2 to Deus Ex to Thief. Even Counter Strike. It's a damn good game. Not as good as Perfect Dark, IMO, but it's fun.
Jumping forward for the sake of it, GoldenEye (2008), a remaster by Rare, never saw the light of day outside leaked footage because Nintendo are a cathedral of wieners determined to ruin everything good and pure in this world. Golly gosh darn you, Nintendo. This remaster looked incredible.
Tomorrow Never Dies (1999) by Black Ops Entertainment was not very good. There's not much to say about it. It's just not good.
The World is Not Enough (2000) for PS1 by Black Ops Entertainment is pretty decent. Not as good as Eurocom's version, but good.
The World is Not Enough (2000) by Eurocom for N64 is very different to the Black Ops Entertainment game. It's an FPS game in the style of GoldenEye, but with Eurocom's own twists on the formula. Quality game, overall. Danjaq executive meddling hit hard late in development and stuff like Bond music had to be removed. Eurocom would make several Bond games, and unfortunately the series would destroy them.
Agent Under Fire (2001) by EA Redwood Shores aka Visceral Games was originally a port of TWINE to the PS2/PC. Due to various reasons, this morphed into a new game which is a bit of a mixed bag. A very problematic design trend was started with this game. DRIVING SECTIONS USING RANDOM NEED FOR SPEED ENGINE ITERATION! WOO! You see, when Eurocom made TWINE, they scrapped a planned boat chase sequence because they felt their engine wasn't suited. EA decided, going forward, that Bond games needed driving sections. So they jammed a second engine into each game for the driving sections. Frankly, driving sections in Bond games have never been great. AUF is a decent enough Bond game, but it's oddly videogamey. It lacks the cinematic sensibilities of the other high profile games.
Nightfire (2002) by Eurocom for consoles is quality. It has forced driving sections -- thank you, EA -- but everything else is great. It's basically TWINE 2.0, with pretty much everything improved. The GoldenEye DNA is still intact. Really good game.
Nightfire (2002) by Gearbox for PC is a rushed mess that condenses every negative quality of GoldSrc into a single game and then breaks key engine features such as lighting, decals, and weapon selection. It has some really nice level architecture in places, but it is worse than Eurocom's game in every possible way, except maybe Nightfire PC's MP, which was pretty decent. It also doesn't have any driving sections because GoldSrc couldn't handle them and bolting on the Need for Speed engine was impractical.
Everything or Nothing (2003) by EA Redwood Shores was a great, great game. Third person cover shooter with tight gameplay and good atmosphere. It was an example of a Bond game that strove to not be like GoldenEye. And this worked out for it.
GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (2004) by EA Los Angeles was a deeply cynical game that EA sink money into while neglecting TimeSplitters: Future Perfect. Ah, EA. We love you. It has some redeeming features, but it's really not a good game. There was a DS version whose engine was used for basically every Nintendo DS FPS game.
From Russia with Love (2005) by EA Redwood Shores was an interesting game. Not a bad game by any means, but it was just very weak. It lacked the momentum and excitement of Everything or Nothing. It was an example of a tired sequel. More of the same, but nowhere near as good as last time.
THEN ACTIVISION GAINED THE LICENSE.
Quantum of Solace (2008) by Treyarch is basically Call of Duty: Modern Warfare with third person cover mechanics. It's a decent enough game, but quite short and is a weird mixture of Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. The problem at this point was that developers were forced to release games to meet film deadlines. This had happened previously. Nightfire was rushed be released around Die Another Day, in order to exploit its marketing hype. But with Quantum of Solace, the cracks of harsh deadlines really started to show.
It gets worse. It gets much, much worse.
Quantum of Solace (2008) by Eurocom is a third person shooter with the worst QTEs since Shenmue II. It has some decent sections. The final boss is the worst thing I have ever encountered. Again, this is because the game was badly rushed. Good developers making sub-par games because the publisher forced a release date.
Blood Stone (2010) by Bizarre Creations is a solid Bond TPS. Hits most of the right notes. Good game.
After Nintendo did their usual "let us now destroy everything nice" act in 2008, Activision shopped around for a developer to make a new GoldenEye game. They approached Free Radical, but that fell through. They they approached Eurocom, who were the most venerable Bond developer. This resulted in...
GoldenEye (2010) by Eurocom is an all-round decent Bond FPS. It's not as good as Nightfire. The alterations to the GoldenEye plot and dialogue are an atrocity. Every single great line of dialogue from the film is gone. Every incredible set piece is gone. GoldenEye worked because it was bleak self-reflective post-Cold War work that deconstructed Bond into a self-aware cynical puppet who works for a truly evil empire. That's all gone, and in its place Banks are Evil and Stuff. Everything that was good about GoldenEye is gone. What's left is a bizarre shell from the guy who wrote Tomorrow Never Dies. The film where Bond solves every single problem with his mobile phone. Guess how Bond solves every single problem in GoldenEye 2010. Gameplay-wise, it's a really good game. Plot-wise? It's awful. They ruined one of the greatest action films of all time. And every single character in that film.
GoldenEye: Reloaded (2011) was a remaster of GE2010 for 360/PS3. They did a pretty decent job. The Wii version was a very nice looking game, but the remaster looks and plays great. A PC version was created but never released, tragically.
Then everything went to shit. For everyone. Activision was on the verge of the Bond license lapsing. So they decided to squeeze out another Bond game in time for the release of Skyfall. This game was...
007: Legends (2012) by Eurocom, a game reportedly made in 6 months, that was so unfinished the Skyfall chapter was released as DLC. It is a tragic mess of a game. There is true passion inside 007: Legends. There is true Bond atmosphere. Famous Bond characters return voiced by their original actors. Some sections are great. The writing is terrible because Mr "And then Bond uses his phone" is still writing. All the incredible political subtext of each Bond film covered by the game is replaced with generic "AND HE MIGHT BE FUNDING TERRORISTS!. STOP HIM WITH YOUR PHONE!" It's so broken and unfinished and it's such a tragedy because there is true Bond goodness underneath it all, screaming for another year of development. This game has nightmarishly awful QTEs on PC, BTW.
After this, Eurocom went bankrupt, Activision lost the Bond license, and all Bond games were pulled from Steam, and there hasn't been a proper Bond game since. That's where we are today. Eurocom is dead and the Bond gaming legacy is a smoking ruin with no clear path forward because Activision had no spine or good sense.
Last edited:
