The Nintendo 64 has had its fair share of awesome games developed for it, and one of the most memorable is Rare’s Goldeneye, based on the James Bond movie of the same name. Although released far after the movie was brought out into the theater and home video, it has enjoyed being one of the most successful and most entertaining Nintendo 64 titles. Because of the high standard that Goldeneye set, when Black Ops set out to create Tomorrow Never Dies there was a lot for them to live up to. Well, now that we have been able to give the game a good run through, we’ve found the game to be great in its own right, even if it isn’t as good as Rare’s effort.
Chances are that you have already seen the movie, but in case that you haven’t, here’s a brief story synopsis to get you started. Elliot Carver is a media mastermind who enjoys going about creating his own news instead of repeating what is already there. He has obtained a vital navigational tool that allows him to manipulate satellites and the like and he plans to produce a World War III that his network would be able to cover exclusively. James Bond is there to save the day with his new sexy companion Wai Lin. Tomorrow Never Dies - the game - follows the basic plot line of the movie, but comes up with a few twists (nothing major) that allow it to incorporate some cool elements that would have otherwise not been able to be included.
Let me get my main complaint with Tomorrow Never Dies out of the way right at the start: the frame rate. When you’re on the ‘on foot’ missions (which are most of them) the game’s engine has been so poorly optimized that it completely slows down for what seems to be no reason at certain times. Even with no enemies on the screen at all, the frame rate will start crawling because of the sprawling environments. This could be taken as a compliment to the developers for creating such vivid surroundings, but they should have enlisted limitations to make sure they weren’t pushing the engine so far that it started to suffer. And although this doesn’t happen so constantly that it kills the game, there are sections in the final level of the game that are almost entirely unplayable due to the amount of slowdown and frame rate loss that occurs. It hinders the ability to fire at the enemy and dying is already easy enough, and it only makes things frustrating.
Other than the frame rate, the visuals are actually very nice. There is more than enough variety between the stages and there is no repetitiveness at all. Everything has that slick, cool and suave ‘Bond’ feel, even the usually after thought menu screens. If they had only been able to fix the problems with the frame rate, Tomorrow Never Dies would have been a much more enjoyable game at certain moments.
The mission objectives that are given to the player are usually simple to accomplish and don’t require much thought except for having to blast through the enemy without being killed. Once or twice I was stuck at a particular puzzle, but within a few minutes the answer became apparent and I was able to continue on my merry way. What’s nice about Tomorrow Never Dies, however, is that more than a couple of the goals have been uniquely designed. There are, of course, generic ones like “kill so and so” or “find the yellow key”, but favorites of mine include having to take control of a jet filled to the brim with explosives, using a special sniper rifle to target a radar dish that triggers an air strike and there are countless others.
According to Black Ops, most of the delays that Tomorrow Never Dies suffered from were due to the extra genres that were being integrated into the gameplay. After playing all of the ones available in the game, one has to ask: how in the heck did these take so long? It isn’t like they created a whole separate game for the ski section that allowed you to pull off elaborate tricks or a full blown racing simulator. Too add insult to injury, the ski game can be extremely aggravating. You will ski twice total, and the first time it is actually fun to play with, but the second is simply beyond frustration. The enemy skiers’ AI is ruthless and will rush you into walls and not allow you to move left or right. Control is a bit quirky and I found myself falling off the ledges more than a couple times because I slightly hit the analog stick left or right.
Sadly, there wasn’t enough development time to include any kind of multiplayer mode, which is a bit disappointing coming off of how great Goldeneye’s multiplayer was. But then again, with Tomorrow Never Dies’ touchy engine, maybe it is best that one wasn’t included at all, anyway.
Despite this seeming like a more negatively oriented review, Tomorrow Never Dies is actually a good game and I had much fun playing all the way through it. I’d recommend renting this baby out and pick it up if it suits your tastes.
-- Patrick Klepek
