Friday, October 17, 2008

007: NightFire, Xbox FPS title.


Plot:
Bond learns of Raphael Drake, the lavishly wealthy head of a so-called environmentally-friendly company, the Phoenix Corporation, that is renowned for decontaminating abandoned, radioactive nuclear power plants. M, Bond's boss, sends him to a party hosted by Drake in his Austrian castle where he discovers that the party is really a cover for the exchange of a missile guidance chip between the Briton Alexander Mayhew, who manages Phoenix's Japanese branch and had stole the chip from the US, and Drake, his employer. The secret operation is part of Drake's global domination plan, an operation deemed "Operation Nightfire." Bond parachutes into the castle grounds and after defeating the guards, casually enters the building, dressed for the festive occasion. Bond, CIA agent Zoe Nightshade, and Dominique, who is posing as Drake's mistress, meet in the library. While Zoe distracts the guards, including Armitage Rook, Drake's personal bodyguard, Bond makes his way to the exchange and steals the chip. James and Zoe then explosively escape Drake's forces, believing that Rook has been killed in the process. In the console version, Bond and Zoe escape in an armed snowmobile, before continuing in James's Aston Martin Vanquish. They rendezvous with Q, who takes them on a flight out of Austria. In the PC version, they escape by running to Drake's nearby airfield on foot and stealing his private jet.

Drake, infuriated by the breach, threatens to kill Mayhew for the failure. Mayhew contacts MI6, saying he will provide vital information if James Bond personally protects him from the repercussions of Drake's death threat. At Mayhew's Japanese estate, Bond meets Mayhew and his bodyguard Kiko Hayaski. Suddenly, the place is attacked by Drake's armed men, who take Drake's servants hostage. Bond fights his way through and manages to obtain a file from Mayhew's safe. The file leads Bond to Mayhew's office at the Phoenix Building in Tokyo. Mayhew promises to come to the building with Bond, but he is fatally wounded by a Ninja assassin on the doorstep. Before his death, he provides Bond with the Nightfire password: "afterburn."

Bond leaves for Tokyo and is able to infiltrate the Phoenix Building while the guards are changing shifts, securing official Nightfire documents. He is then attacked by Drake's men as the alarm is triggered, pursued to the top floor. Dominique provides a distraction which allows Bond to jump from the roof of the building.

The Nightfire documents lead Bond to a nuclear power plant that is thought to be in the process of decontamination by the Phoenix Corporation, but that is actually a front for a secret factory being used to aid Drake in his villainous plot. Bond retrieves evidence of Drake's activities and escapes, learning that Drake's security commander, Armitage Rook, has survived the helicopter crash, but his face has been mutilated as a result. The vengeful Rook accuses Bond of causing the injury, and is heard saying that he will be "sure to thank him" for it should he see him again.

In the PC version, Bond uncovers the plant to be a secret training facility for Phoenix astronauts and Rook is killed in an anti-gravity wind tunnel in the core of the training center. In the console version, there are two differences from the PC version at this point in the plot: one, Rook does not yet die at this point in time and, two, Bond finds that the plant has been converted into a weapons factory rather than a training facility.

As Bond flees the plant, he is abruptly double crossed and captured by Kiko, his former ally. He is then turned over to Drake, and it is clear that Kiko has been secretly working for Drake all along. On the top of the Phoenix Building once more, Drake tells Bond that he has seen too much of his operation to live, but there is one moment for him to "enjoy" first. He orders Kiko to kill Dominique, who has been discovered as a spy working with Bond. Dominique manages to break free, but is kicked off the rooftop by Kiko and dies. Simultaneously, Bond causes a diversion and escapes to the ground level before being saved by Australian Intelligence agent Alura McCall who provides a car for a speedy getaway.

M sends Bond and Alura to Drake's private island, where Drake has set up a jamming signal. The pair infiltrates the island and eliminates Drake's island-based missile defenses, encountering camouflaged mercenaries along the way. Bond makes his way to Drake's underground silo, a hidden hangar with activated space shuttles full of combat troops with intent to overtake the defense platform of the International Space Station. Although Bond tries to prevent the shuttles from blasting off, a mixture of heavy enemy gunfire and moment's-notice preparation on Drake's part allows the first stage of Operation Nightfire to go as planned. (In the console version, Bond kills Rook at this point). Bond, however, is successful at boarding one of three space shuttles and evades being killed by Kiko. Kiko, who has been stalking Bond throughout the hangar, dies in the blast pit when Bond's space shuttle launches.

Bond reaches the International Space Station orbiting the planet, which Drake and his Phoenix henchmen have forcibly taken possession of. Bond successfully disables the flights of the deadly missiles, saving millions of lives, and causes Drake's laser weapon to malfunction, leading to the station's self-destruction. Finally, Bond kills Drake himself. As the station goes up in flames, Bond blasts from an escape pod and goes back down to Earth, where he celebrates the victory with Alura.

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