Tomorrow Never Dies (video game)
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| Developer(s) | Black Ops |
| Publisher(s) | Electronic Arts MGM Interactive |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation |
| Release date(s) | November 16, 1999 |
| Genre(s) | Third-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: T OFLC: M |
Tomorrow Never Dies (also known as 007: Tomorrow Never Dies) is a third-person shooter based on the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies. Developed by Black Ops and published by Electronic Arts, it was released on November 16, 1999 exclusively for the Sony PlayStation. It is the first 007 game of many that was published by Electronic Arts since acquiring the James Bond licence. This game marks the fourth appearance of Pierce Brosnan's James Bond, although the voice of Bond is provided by actor Adam Blackwood in the game.
Tomorrow Never Dies came on the heels of 1997's hit Bond game, GoldenEye 007 for the Nintendo 64 console system. Often hailed as one of the best first-person shooters for a console, GoldenEye was critically acclaimed for redefining the first-person shooter genre and popularizing multiplayer gaming on a console. After the success of GoldenEye 007, the James Bond licence was picked up by Electronic Arts. Tomorrow Never Dies broke away from the gameplay that made GoldenEye 007 a success by choosing to make a third-person shooter and by leaving out a multiplayer portion of the game. The game was met with only average reviews and currently sits on GameStats with a 5.9 rating. After this title, the next a third-person shooter based on the James Bond franchise was not created until 2004 with Everything or Nothing.
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[edit] Plot
The game deviates from the film in many ways.
Bond begins to cross the Russian border from China into a Russian radar base, which is intercepting messages delicate in subject. Using a laser designator, Bond paints the dish and a British jet flies over, dropping an Air to surface missile. A helicopter arrives, and Bond kills the inhabitants, and recovers a key. He uses the key to unlock a large gate, and makes his escape on skis. Bond can do tricks in this section to gain 'style' points, and he is attacked by Russian skiers. Bond can use his ski poles to defend himself, and lure them into the paths of trees and boulders. Bond reaches the end of the run - a sheer cliff drop. Bond continues on, and opens his Union Jack parachute, reminiscent from The Spy Who Loved Me.
Bond lands in an Arms Bazaar (the one from the beginning of the film). After taking pictures of hardware, a British naval ship launches a BGM-109 Tomahawk. At the last second, Bond realises there are Nuclear weapons at the Bazaar on a jet, which was incorrectly referred to as a MIG, when it was really a L-39 Albatros. He hijacks the jet, after shooting lots of terrorists, and returns to MI6.
Bond is sent to investigate a man called Elliot Carver during a party after a British Warship sank in the South China Sea and with the murder of the British sailors. The Carver media published the full story before the MI6 received a full report. Armed with a sub-machine gun, his Walther PPK and he picks up an AK-47 later. He also has a gadget, a pair of laser cufflinks. Bond meets Paris, who slaps him. Carver arrives, and offers a 'tour of the facilities'. Bond follows, but is knocked out by a henchman. He wakes up in a room with a large 2-way mirror. He uses his laser-cufflinks to escape, then he destroys the central computer, allowing him to make his escape.
He makes his way to the press, and kills a number of security guards by shooting them once, and they fall into newspaper printers. He has a gadget of a thumbprint scanner.
He recovers Henry Gupta's GPS scrambler which was used to lure the British Navy into Chinese waters. Bond escapes. Bond drives to the 'Hotel Atlantic', where Paris is being held prisoner. He arrives, initially as a non-combatant, but when he goes to the bar and asks to see Paris, all hell breaks loose. Bond uses the elevator to get to a luxurious area, where he meets Dr. Kaufman. Kaufman uses spinning razor discs and an AK-47 to try and kill Bond. If Bond rummages around, he can find some gas grenades.
When Kaufman falls, Bond helps Paris escape. They make it to the Garage, where Bond drives away in the BMW. Bond is then sent to a Ski Ridge in Hokkaido, Japan, to track down and kill chemical expert Sotoshi Isagura, who is thought to be working for Elliot Carver after a nerve gas attack at Yokohama. The Carver Media was 'yet again' the first to report the story. Bond kills Isagura and was sent to Saigon. Bond had to steal a data disk from Carver Media Tower in Saigon but was captured. Bond manages to escape with the data disk. At the next night, Carver bribed the Saigon Military Police. Their orders were to kill Bond on sight, so MI6 had to pull him out. Bond gives Wai Lin the data disk. Wai Lin had a massive gun battle with the Saigon Military Police and made it back to her secret lab to find the location of the stealth boat. On the stealth boat, Bond used the boat's comm-link to give M its position. Wai Lin got kidnapped and was later freed by Bond after he killed Stamper. Wai Lin stops the engine and Bond kills Carver and stopped the stolen nuclear missile from destroying Beijing. Bond escapes the stealth boat before it self destructs.
[edit] Inconsistencies with pre-release materials
The game's trailer, which may be found on some James Bond VHS tapes or Special Edition DVDs features many gameplay clips of actions or areas not to be found in the final game. For example, the trailer shows Bond hitting an enemy in unarmed combat (which can be done by sneaking up behind the enemy guard and activating the "Bond-like" attack move), and actually flying the MiG (which was limited to firing the plane's weapons while it was still on the ground). In the final game, Bond's attacks are mainly confined to firearms, with the Walther PPK (and, later, the Walther P99) being his unlimited-ammo default weapon. The subterfuge aspect of the game was very minor.
The game's own final movie sequence (unlocked by completing the game on '007' difficulty or by using cheat codes or devices) also shows slight variations: the terrorist camp level is shown to contain a large structure not in the game, and Bond is shown jumping from his BMW 750 il before it crashes (whereas in the game the BMW is never destroyed).
[edit] Possible rushed release
These inconstancies suggest that the game may have still been under development when it was released, and that certain features were cut to speed said release. Other examples that point to this can be found in the games mechanics: using the pause menu's "Sound Test" function under "Options" the player can listen to many sounds that are either variations on in-game sounds, or are not included in known gameplay at all (such as Q telling Bond that he is going the wrong way, found in the Alps driving mission).
Also, the game features multiple cheat codes, some of which can glitch the game (such as the "Cheat Camera" which allows the player to scan the area of the level within the draw distance. When pressing pause again to de-activate the code, the pause menu's cell phone graphic does not engage fully, although the code can still be deactivated). Other codes, such as one that enables the player to walk though walls, seem more reminiscent of a beta version of a game than of a release version (the majority of cheat codes in games are included to help the player, such as unlimited ammunition or extra life. The game's inclusion of codes that remove textures is highly irregular).
These irregularities could lead to the conclusion that the game was rushed for release, or that development was caused to drop certain features late in production.
[edit] Cast
- Pierce Brosnan as James Bond (voiced by Adam Blackwood)
- Jonathan Pryce as Elliot Carver (voiced by Nicholas Read)
[edit] Video game's soundtrack
Track Listing
- 01 James Bond Theme (0:56)
- 02 Confrontation (3:49)
- 03 Ppk (2:09)
- 04 Detonate (2:35)
- 05 Media Tower (2:15)
- 06 Arms Bazaar (2:10)
- 07 Decoder (2:33)
- 08 Hotel Atlantic (2:03)
- 09 Pressing Engagement (2:29)
- 10 Carver Media (2:13)
- 11 Outpost (2:39)
- 12 Infrared (3:01)
- 13 A New Beginning (2:22)
- 14 Market (1:59)
- 15 Convoy (2:22)
- 16 Alarm (0:28)
- 17 Letter To Paris (2:47)
Total Length: 38:57
[edit] External links
- Tomorrow Never Dies Official Website
- Tomorrow Never Dies (video game) (1999) at the Internet Movie Database
- Tomorrow Never Dies at MobyGames
- James Bond IGN Walkthrough
