Developer: Eurocom Publisher: EA Games

Released: October 17, 2000 Rated: T 8/10

It’s tough to tell if we’re past the point where we can call The World is Not Enough the “forgotten” Bond title for the N64. Obviously, when we’re talking about 007 games for the system, any old sense of shorthand for a Bond game is going to refer to Rare’s original classic, while pretty much everyone is going to need some kind of identifier: “the other one,” “the blue one,” or the effective acronym, “TWINE.” As long as you don’t call it “the bad one,” it’s alright by me, at least, because regardless of how much Goldeneye continues to receive its much-deserved flowers, The World is Not Enough is anything but a cheap copy. 

Although I legitimately had to look up if The World is Not Enough was actually based on a movie or not, I can confirm that it does follow the plot of the film of the same name. It concerns a lot of your typical Bond fare, as James is tasked with fighting terrorists, retrieving a stolen nuclear warhead, protecting industrial tycoons, and, of course, taking home a sexy physicist with a silly name. Thankfully, this does well to inform the mission design over the 15 levels of the campaign, and what we get when we mix them all up and take it out of the oven is something that takes less from Goldeneye than it does from EA’s burgeoning Medal of Honor series. Although all of your gadgets and tools have kept their places to remind you that you’re still the secret agent extraordinaire, the majority of the game actually leans towards a pure run-and-gun action style. You could argue that this dilutes the license and makes things feel more generic, but at the same time, the N64 and really the gaming scene as a whole at the time was far less populated with this kind of shooter in back in 2000. As tired as we may be of the set-piece heavy Call of Duty vibe in this era, both this game and Turok 3 opt for their respective styles to set themselves apart, not to become also-rans. And the fact that Goldeneye had already received its proper sequel in Perfect Dark only justifies TWINE further in my eyes. 

Of course, that isn’t to say that the entire campaign is guns blazing, Duke Nukem/Doom style bullet-fest. Although much of the levels focus on gunplay, you’ll still be kept on your toes with strict stealth missions that will really test your mettle, and slower-paced Bond cosplay moments where you’ll be calmly moving between rooms, following instructions from NPCs and doing your best to infiltrate before things go off the rails. The opening level illustrates this particularly well, asking you to present papers and obtain key items for just long enough to not be boring. A cutscene then triggers where the classic band of masked assassins burst in and kill your contact, forcing you to shoot your way back out to the lobby to end the level. Add in some other cool set piece moments like an on-rails section featuring an iconic Bond ski-chase shootout, and a sequence where you run across a shipyard pursued by an attack helicopter until you can grab a rocket launcher and take it out

There’s also a multiplayer mode that even supports bot play this time around, though there’s something to be desired with it, mostly due to game modes and the AI if you elect to play with computer opponents. In fact, I think weaker enemy AI somewhat populates the whole game, and may have steered the overall design away from the more tactical style that Rare brings to the table in their efforts. TWINE’s henchmen and enemy goons react quickly and get their shots off at first, but they don’t pepper or swarm you, or even do a good job getting backup or anything else that might end your mission. In multiplayer they have the ability to keep the pressure up and pursue you, but not much in terms of cover or any other self preservation. This may also be why the more creative multiplayer modes from Goldeneye have been swapped out for the basics: deathmatch, team deathmatch, last man standing, king of the hill, and “uplink,” which is just Domination from modern Call of Duty, i.e., king of the hill with three zones. Still a decent multiplayer selection, but pales in comparison to Perfect Dark. 

At least we can appreciate that The World is Not Enough delivers on production values, at least in the context of the system it’s on. We may not have music quite as astounding and iconic as Graeme Norgate’s contributions on Goldeneye, but the Bond license provides more than enough of a roadmap to put together an appropriate set of mischievous and dangeresque tunes. Character models leave a little to be desired, especially considering the option to beef up the resolution with the Expansion Pak, but there’s a nice consolation in being able to gun someone down as Dame Judi Dench with the available multiplayer cast. Performance is improved over Goldeneye, nonetheless, with much fewer instances of the game slowing to a crawl when it gets busy on screen. Not completely free from slowdown, mind you, but I played rather deep into the campaign before I encountered any dips in the frame rate. What really surprised me, though, is the presence of voice clips in the cutscenes, owing to who else but the sound wizards at Factor 5, who loaned out their compression tech for use here. It sounds small, but is always noticeable, and I feel like I should keep a list of all the games on the N64 that can deliver this, either through Factor 5’s tech or elsewhere.

All wrapped up in a tight, effective little package, The World is Not Enough bridges the gap nicely from the early era of the N64 and the console-first FPS titles that redefined the genre, to the next console generation where production values started to become a main focus. Compare TWINE and Medal of Honor: Underground to 007: Agent Under Fire and Medal of Honor: Frontline, respectively, and EA’s publishing efforts in particular really start to show a smooth transition, with similar gameplay motifs highlighted by a big immediate jump in presentation. It’s much easier to appreciate TWINE when you know where it stands and why it’s different, rather than expecting it to be another generation-defining classic. A ton of fun for more Bond-oriented action, heavy emphasis on “action,” it’s definitely a must have for FPS fans on the system who lean towards a cinematic style rather than the classic boomer shooters of the earlier releases. 

Continuing Legacy

Though most of the Bond gaming legacy lies with Goldeneye, naturally, this offering from EA was the first of their short but fondly remembered time with the license. TWINE developer Eurocom even contributed the lauded FPS 007: Nightfire, and was even brought back after Activision obtained the license to work on the Goldeneye remake in 2010.

Additional Information

Saves: Controller Pak

Players: 4

Compatible with: Expansion Pak (High-Resolution, automatically enabled when detected)

Print Guides: Prima

Aggregate Critical Reception (GameRankings): 81.03%, based on 24 reviews

Other releases: EU, December 8, 2000

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Previewed in Nintendo Power Volume 136 (September 2000), Featured in Nintendo Power Volume 139 (December 2000)