Stealth is a very useful feature that comes in handy especially when you play on higher difficulty, but for most of the game one can easily annihilate the threat without sneaking around all of the time. This remains essentially a one-shot one-kill game, so one thing nobody can afford to ignore is finding cover at all costs before entering an environment swarming with hostiles, otherwise the chances of escaping unharmed are minimal. The system is very easy to pick up and you'll never run out of cover as virtually any corner or object can become a shelter for a brief time, depending on what it's made off.

Some will easily fall apart under heavy enemy fire while other will resist even after a grenade blows up near, but it's dangerous to linger on for too long in the same place because the opponents have a nasty habit of flanking you. One thing that should always be taken into account is to use the environment to your advantage, explosive barrels are scattered allover the place, chandeliers and other hanging objects can be use to crush an unwary enemy but could become a serious threat if the opponent finds a way of exploiting it.

Speaking about the AI, this is surprisingly good with the enemy being capable of articulate maneuvers, providing suppressing fire for an advancing soldier, wielding grenades to get you out of cover and executing spectacular jumps while trying to avoid you bullets. They will always be a threat if you underestimate them and although the life gradually recharges when being in a safe place, the opponent can inflict serious damage in a matter of seconds. The benefits of using stealth are obvious when you have to infiltrate a heavily defended site and any loud noise will lure the guards to your location, greatly complicating your mission.

On the bad side, the otherwise smart AI tends to perform the same moves when jumping over obstacles, shooting an enemy will cause him to collapse in a similar fashion with the previous victim and their attempts to flank you are repetitive and become increasingly easy to repel. I understand the use of explosive barrels and canisters; they help you deal with upcoming enemies and the blasts look very nice both on the wide screen and the monitor, but this is no reason to exaggerate. You can find hundreds of these items virtually everywhere, even in places where their presence should be discrete, at best, like museums, mansions or casinos. To make things even worse they all have an eerie, blue glow, destined to make them effortless to spot and subsequently easy to use, but it has a deterring effect by altering the illusion of reality.

The very short storyline is in some way saved by the multiplayer that features besides two deathmatch modes, arcade and regular, three original types: Bond Versus, Bond Evasion and Golden Gun. The first one is the least attractive, with one player trying to eliminate an entire crew of "The Organization" or to secure an objective. Evasion has the players divided into two teams, one trying to protect Bond and the other aiming to kill him before he escapes. Golden Gun is definitely the most entertaining mode, where an one-hit one-kill weapon is placed in the middle of the map to be picked up, and only kills made with it count on the scoreboard.