The World Is Not Enough

N64, The World Is Not Enough (2000) game

'TWINE,' or 'Twinges' as it was sometimes known in our house, was a little bit of an anomaly. 'Goldeneye' had taken the console world by storm three years earlier and crafted its own innovations in the first person shooter genre. Rare lost the James Bond licence, meaning 'Tomorrow Never Dies' skipped the N64, and in that time Rare had brought out a sequel of their own devising, 'Perfect Dark,' which revolutionised things even more. 'TWINE' came out later that same year and went back to the Bond world, following the plot of the third Pierce Brosnan film, but was created by Eurocom for EA. In many ways it was a backwards step or two even from 'Goldeneye' since they clearly didn't have the same grasp of the console's abilities and structure as the masters at Rare had done. At the same time I wasn't old enough to get 'PD' with its '18' certificate, but this filled a hole for a while and also had some impressive new features that were more advanced than 'Goldeneye' - namely, in-game and cut-scene speech, where before it had all been text, and computer controlled Bots in the multiplayer, which had as much thought and effort put into it as the classic 'Goldeneye' version had, with a mix of dedicated arenas and others based on the missions.

The trouble with 'TWINE' was its reliance on saving to Memory Pak, albeit only taking up a very small amount of space, rather than the cartridge itself, a small technicality, but one that meant, while I still have the original files of 'Goldeneye' and 'PD,' I've had to complete 'TWINE' several times over the years, mainly to unlock the best cheats which allow you to play the full complement of multiplayer arenas, and some of the scenarios that weren't given freely. It's a technical issue, and an unfortunate one, especially as I didn't have an official Nintendo Memory Pak until late in the day, so would lose my files a couple of times, but leaving that aside and judging the game on its merits, how does it do? Very well indeed, I must say. It is generally quite linear, other than a few of the levels, which is taken to its ultimate with an unwanted on-rails skiing mission where you're forced down a preset path with only a modicum of lateral movement to prevent you feeling like you're on a roller-coaster. But when you think about it, that's pretty much what the 'Train' level on 'Goldeneye' was - moving in a straight line. I suppose they should have been awarded recognition for trying something different, even though it's the least enjoyable level. It must also be said that the high quality realism of the textures seen in the earlier game, and the realtime lighting of 'PD' were lost in favour of a far less realistic, almost cartoonish tone and palette, especially seen in the cut-scenes.

And while I'm criticising, it really does make a difference not to have the famous theme music blaring out, and much of the soundtrack is repeated across levels. What I will say is that it is suitably cinematic and exciting, and other than the repetition, it works well, especially the main theme. Sound effects are also well judged with meaty blasts from the weapons and plenty of vocalisations from characters and enemies. You can tell the movement is animation from how jerky it is, far from the smooth motion capture that so impressed in the other games mentioned, but it's not enough to truly detract from the experience, which is very close to 'Goldeneye.' You can tell they were very much inspired by everything about that game, from the use of gadgetry to the three levels of difficulty, the targeting reticule and the multiple persons involved in mission briefings, which return to text-based information. So you feel right at home if you know 'Goldeneye,' which both makes the game more accessible, but also jars a little when you feel the lack in some areas. Yet the game still has the ability to impress, particularly with the scope of some of its levels - the vast forest of 'Midnight Departure' where you're supposed to sneak around tailing an enemy until you can off him, then catch a plane without being hampered by the various enemy forces there. It really was great fun sneaking through the trees (even if they are flat shapes folded together like origami to represent trees, rather than anything really impressive like the undergrowth in the next generation's 'Turok Evolution,' for example), engaging night vision goggles and taking out enemies silently.

Then there's the inclusion of a full-sized Russian submarine in its underground dock in the penultimate mission, 'A Sinking Feeling,' where you again have the option to creep around silently dispatching the guards to prevent them alerting villain Renard to kill his hostage. The size of the thing, it reminded me of the time I first came upon Clanker in 'Banjo-Kazooie'! What's great about levels such as these was the latitude for how you approach it. At the same time there's a lot less freedom in this game than the other two - if you fail to take out a guard before he reaches the alarm on that submarine level, for example the mission ends, but even in that you get a 'bonus' cut-scene showing what happens to Christmas Jones, and this was the case in several levels. Other times it can just make the game tougher, with a squad or two of tough soldiers showing up in the forest level if you set off that alarm. The game, for all its linearity and strict adherence to its rules, can also be surprisingly subtle and generous on occasion. Not more so than in the time trial option. The other games had this feature, too, but because 'TWINE' is so restrictive in comparison, it lends itself much more to time-trialling and this was an aspect of the game that pushed it over what my original rating was going to be. I would have given it four stars for being a great game with some flaws, but I found myself totally absorbed into an intent to beat all my previous times.

Although I'd sadly lost the original files I had wisely written them down at the time so I knew what my best times were twenty-odd years ago and I was dedicated to beating every one. Back then the motive had been to enter the 'N64 Magazine' section where they had leader boards for various games, including 'TWINE,' and I'd succeeded in getting in on the Agent levels they started with. Frustratingly, in those days it took a long time to not just play the game and get a great time, but to send off the photographs for processing, receive them back, send them to the magazine, and then of course some of the photos wouldn't have come out well enough and the mag itself was a couple of months or more ahead of the latest issue, which is how things work in the publishing industry, so the upshot of it all was that I would probably have been top of all the leagues if I'd been able to get my best times there in time, but then the mag changed from 'N64' to 'NGC' and promptly redesigned the challenge section, removing the 'TWINE' league entirely so I was never able to bask in the glory of success. This only spurred me on to beat all my best times now and this is really what gave the game its longevity on this occasion - oh, I enjoyed going through the levels as I had, and even found time for a revival of the multiplayer, all great fun, but the greatest satisfaction to be had was in knocking sometimes only one second off of a time from the past, and on this occasion doing it without the use of Auto Aim, which I suspect I'd have used back then as it would have made sense!

The pleasure was not simply from playing and replaying the levels over and over until everything fell into place for that near-perfect run, but in learning or relearning those little tricks that enabled the best times, finding those shortcuts and experimenting. It might be considered harder to complete missions going as fast as possible, but in fact it was often easier since you would bypass conflict as much as possible, doing only what was required to achieve the objectives. That was another holdover from 'Goldeneye' - intelligent tasks rather than merely shooting everything in sight. In fact you couldn't shoot everything or everyone because you might destroy something necessary for completion and civilians were held sacrosanct. No more teasing the scientists in 'Goldeneye' with a little wounding here or there, this was much more realistic in that respect, and killing any civilians meant disqualification. It was taken so seriously that even in multiplayer you weren't allowed to pit so-called 'Good' characters against other 'Good' ones! A bit excessive, it must be said, but true to the restrictive nature behind the game's rules.

As well as the satisfaction of beating mission times, there was another motivation, and that was earning cheats, as I mentioned before. It was the same thing in the other games, but I was pleased to see it continue here, even if they're far easier than the possible completion times, and you get a sense of reward. That's important in a game, progression and reward, and 'TWINE' did it as well as any other. Yes, there are only fourteen missions to complete, a paltry number compared to the other two games, but most of them are good, challenging fun. There's some variety, too, though perhaps somewhat ill-advised on the face of it, like the on-rails shooting of 'Cold Reception' or the foot chases through London and Istanbul in 'Thames Chase' and 'Turncoat' respectively. It could also be said that some levels are a bit plain in comparison to others, with the two 'City of Walkways' locations about as attractive as the Streets or Depot in 'Goldeneye,' but once again the time trialling forces all such aesthetic thoughts out of your mind as you battle to do everything you can to get through quickly. As is always the case, even with 'Goldeneye' and 'PD,' the final level is a bit lacklustre and especially frustrating, in this case, having to swim through an upturned sub with occasional encounters with soldiers and a reliance on your grappling hook, not the most inspiring end, but certainly tricky.

Which brings me onto the greater addition of gadgetry than before. You have different visual aids (night vision goggles, x-ray ability to look through solid walls), various mission-specific devices, and your most useful addition: the watch. In 'Goldeneye' the watch was mainly used as the pause menu, complete with agonisingly slow zoom animation where you'd bring your wrist up and eventually get into the menu, all the while vulnerable to enemy fire! That's something that changed for the better. I imagine they put that in to stop people pausing too much, an artificial escape from the action, but it's much fairer to have an instant pause from where you can check your objectives, switch weapons or gadgets and just generally adjust the options. The watch gadget on this occasion has four modes: stunner, the most useful, which fires out a continual stream of electricity (don't ask me how!), until the battery runs down and needs recharging. This has the benefit of stunning enemies for a few seconds, depending on how long you zap them, and was invaluable in the time trial when you didn't always have time to shoot the opponents and had to get past them quickly. Then there's the laser, which has a similar effect, but is mainly used for damaging electrical equipment or burning off padlocks. And the dart gun which is for a more severe stun than can knock enemies out for much longer, but also requires careful aim - plus in many missions you don't carry any. And finally the grapple.

The ability to swim, jump and pull yourself up on specific yellow and black hazard warning sections meant the game had another difference to the others. It was far less 'pure' a shooting game, but it became almost closer to 3D platforming in the sense that you needed to be aware of the physical space more (though not to the extent of actual platforming sections like the ones in the original 'Turok,' thankfully!). For example, you could leap over the bannisters at the bank, but if you jumped from too high you'd be killed. Again, experimentation with these things was necessary to get the best times and in the multiplayer it was absolutely hilarious seeing a human player suddenly leap in the air (especially if you're playing a scuba diver with flippers on your feet)! It is more fiddly having these extra modes of movement, but it just makes 'TWINE' a slightly more different game, which is no bad thing. And the thing is that there was often a little more to your options than was immediately apparent sometimes. Take the gas room in 'Fallen Angel' where you chase Elektra - you could run in and find the only exit is using the grapple, or you could shoot out the cameras in the room which would prevent the shields coming down and then run up the stairway. Or in the same level you could shoot Bullion from the upper walkway and if you stood over him on that section you could still read his fingerprint even from that distance. These little subtleties made the game more enjoyable as it showed there was more to it than simply following the obvious path all the time.

The game is undeniably more superficial than the others, with its heavily scripted moments, and sometimes could be glitchy, such as the ability to shoot or be shot through the corners of walls on occasion, there was an inconsistency to it. But it's the qualities that stand out to me, the things that still seemed quite revolutionary at the time, such as those Bots. It is limited to the extent that you can only have four players maximum, human or artificial, but just the option to include computer-controlled players was exciting and gave our games a new lease of life, and there's even good variation in the quality of the opposition, and many, many happy hours were spent, 'TWINE' being up there with 'Goldeneye,' 'PD,' 'Snowboard Kids,' 'Mario Kart' and the wrestling games as the most played multiplayer games on the console. It was also one of those few releases I paid full price for when it came out, and it's telling that I feel glad to have done so with no regrets. I love a bargain, and a number of games I got were heavily discounted, despite being brand new rather than second hand (I got plenty of those, too!), but 'TWINE' was absolutely worth the money (and bought in Woolworths, too!). It's been a great pleasure revisiting it, even so soon after 'Goldeneye,' and now I only have 'Perfect Dark' to reconquer in that line, so here's to the trilogy of great shooters of the N64, all of them terrific!

*****