#117: The World Is Not Enough (2000, N64)

Why not begin with the obscure - or perhaps more aptly, the forgettable?

Forgettable in this case doesn't even mean bad or mediocre, it is just that - especially in a genre as, well, dependent on oneupsmanship - as the first person shooter. It is difficult for a single title, unless really well received at the time of its release to really remain relevant to today. Something like GoldenEye 007 may still be well-regarded and well-remembered, but good luck remembering the other titles it competed with in its day - did you even know Quake, Duke Nukem 3D, and Doom all saw fairly high profile releases on the N64? People may recall Turok, but did you know there were four of them on the N64? Perhaps even more forgotten than any of these is GoldenEye's own 'brother-from-another-mother', EA's The World Is Not Enough (TWINE).

You probably didn't know this, but TWINE was actually quite well received in its day. This is pretty surprising when you consider how the public opinion pretty quickly denounced it as some sort of GoldenEye impostor. That is not to say that such a claim was not true - EA, after obtaining the Bond license in time for the terrible Tomorrow Never Dies (terrible referring to the movie itself) put out a Tomorrow Never Dies videogame, of which I am very unfamiliar with (not having owned a PlayStation at the time) - but I do know it was not a FPS like the very excellent GoldenEye 007, and also that it wasn't especcially well received. For their second-go-around, EA decided (as they often do) to go with what others had proven to work. This isn't even to say EA's method here should be denigrated - there is much to say for the ability to turn out quality gameplay, even if it's as uninspired as EA's work tends to be. They also opted to hand it off to the independent developer Eurocom - master of the art of the liscensed property, who would later be responsible for the overlooked Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy.

In some respects, TWINE even exceeds Rare's seminal effort. While it doesn't quite match the fluidity of control that GoldenEye achieved, and while the graphics seemed somehow more jaggy and less refined (shall I say, PS1-looking), EA still managed to produce a more polished single-player campaign. It simply felt more, let's say, Bond-ish. It certainly had a better idea of what makes a good Bond set-piece.

Still, GoldenEye remains more fun to play, and the better game. And in multiplayer there really isn't much of a contest. Granted TWINE may have a better selection of options, but what it already lacked in graphical 'smoothness' and in quality of gunplay becomes only more pronounced once we get more people involved in the shenanigans. This says nothing about the map and level design.



The World Is Not Enough is at its best being what it was in its own time - a rather good diversion for those of us waiting for the forthcoming Perfect Dark (and also as a nice blue cart to add to ones collection). But this doesn't change the fact that, given Rare's twin titans of the genre on the same platform, there simply isn't any reason to come back to, or really, to remember it.

The World is Not Enough
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Eurocom
Released: 10/18/2000
Obtained: Christmas 2000 (Gift)

7.0/10