007 Nightfire Electronic Arts (PC M15)

By PETER ELEY

Games based on movies so often disappoint fans who have bought them because they liked the film.

Many Bond games fall into this category, and none have been as good as GoldenEye, released in 1997 for the Nintendo 64. 007 Nightfire breaks this
pattern, delivering a slick, fast-paced action game given an extra edge by the playable character's uncanny likeness to the current incarnation of 007, aka Pierce Brosnan.

Nightfire is a solid title with a good multiplayer option. It won't take hard-core players that long to clock, but it will appeal to the more casual player who wants a good-looking game that doesn't require fighter-pilot reflexes.

Nightfire is a bit of cheat, in that it isn't based on any film, although the Halle Berry looka-like could fool you into thinking it's based on Die Another Day. It isn't, and that may be something to be thankful for, given the film's reviews.

The plot is vintage Bond -- power-crazed tycoon Rafael Drake plans to use a secret weapon to destroy the world.

Bond has to stop him, and in the process we play on some superb levels from the Austrian Alps to the South Pacific, all with gorgeous scenery, not to mention the Bond girls.

You also get to slug it out on a space station, and another level sees you don scuba gear for some mischief on the seabed.

There's a mishmash of vintage Bond elements, notably a confrontation with Oddjob, and you really feel the part with all of those trademark gadgets from Q-lab, not to mention the Aston Martin V12.

y@nzherald.co.nz