Time to reset the gayme Mr Bond?
The wait for No Time To Die has been made even more interminable for gamers of all persuasions by the complete lack of new Bond video games to fill the void. With Craig’s swansong imminent, gaymer Sam Rogers takes a look back at the Bond video games, including the ‘golden age’ of his childhood, and speculates about their potential future after the producers have officially hit the reset switch. Could the next generation of Bond video games be a path to better representation for groups overlooked by the film franchise?
Where are the new Bond video games?!
As I’m writing this I’m actually waiting for used copies of original Playstation (PS1) games Tomorrow Never Dies and The World Is Not Enough to be arrive in the post. I’ve resorted to playing titles from several gaming generations ago because there is a complete lack of new Bond game content.
The games were a significant stepping stone for me becoming a Bond fan. I believe that bringing out more games could engage new audiences, satisfy established audiences and make a difference in how we perceive Bond and his universe as a whole.
But how could a Bond video game work with modern gaming standards?
How could characters be better represented in Bond games?
How could a new Bond video game better connect with contemporary audiences?
Octopus agent: Too bad the game is over Mr Bond.
Bond: I think it’s just begun.
James Bond 007: From Russia With Love
Unlike the Bond film series, I believe that the video games (and video games in general) allow a way of opening up a larger world, which enables creators to be bolder, crazier and flexible (which could allow for more varied representation). Video games have the freedom to be their own works of art and when it comes to the Bond variants, they don’t need to be a complete reflection of what is shown in the film series. For example, some of the most beloved of the Bond series of video games includes GoldenEye 007, Agent Under Fire, Everything or Nothing and my personal favourite, Nightfire. Only GoldenEye 007 (on the N64) is based off an official Bond film and, even then, developers add more content and different areas in order to make the story better suited to a video game style.
These differences arguably make GoldenEye 007 more memorable while the original stories in Agent Under Fire, Nightfire and Everything or Nothing (what I like to call the EA 007 trilogy) work well within the Bond universe but don’t stray too far into the completely unimaginable within a video game context. Cloning, invisible stealth suits, extreme rappel use, nanobots and a large roster of gadgets and weapons all feel at home in the video games yet wouldn’t necessarily be welcome additions to a Bond film, with the invisible car idea not being particularly well received by audiences during its appearance in Die Another Day (which to me isn’t too farfetched considering other elements of the Bond franchise).
A lot of the Bond video games created in the 90s and early 00s in particular seemed to be a lot more experimental, especially compared to the Craig era of games. Each game has its own feel and style making it unique in its own way.
007 Racing is definitely the most out there as it’s completely car-themed yet still tries to convey a coherent storyline which, although not completely successful, is still commendable. What made many of these games so beloved were their multiplayer features.
GoldenEye 007’s multiplayer is probably the one that is best remembered, and quite rightly so as it arguably incited what it meant to play split-screen multiplayer. Many kids would play as characters such as Bond, Xenia and Oddjob with his infamous bowler hat and play together in instantly recognisable levels in order to come out on top. In this game, and in other titles from the era (all EA games from Agent Under Fire onwards), you can play as a variety of characters from the respective video game and play in a number of different modes with others to reach the objective set. Not only this but in Everything or Nothing you could play a co-op side campaign and in many games, like GoldenEye 007, you could play as classic Bond characters and even some classic Bond locations. For most fans, this was what made the video games work so well for them and I especially for some of the LGBT+ community. It was fantastic to have an opportunity to play as different characters who weren’t Bond. Being able to play as Dominique from Nightfire or as Elektra King from The World Is Not Enough, fighting with or against Bond, was such a buzz and in retrospect was a brilliant way for those who couldn’t allow themselves to be their authentic selves take control of characters who they saw more of themselves in (hopefully I’m not as much as a sociopath as Elektra King!).
“Bond, can you hear me? Come in 007?”
Bill Tanner, James Bond 007: Blood Stone
After Everything or Nothing and Brosnan’s dismissal from the film series, the Bond video games started to shift away from its usual output. Although From Russia With Love would be the final video game of this era, GoldenEye: Rogue Agent was the precursor to the Craig era video games with more of a realistic style of gameplay and serious tone. I believe that these elements are part of the reason that the game wasn’t received well by audiences (especially Bond fans) which is why it’s a shame that this style takes precedence throughout the Craig era of games. Activision gained the Bond licence after From Russia With Love and worked to make the gameplay and overall tone reflect the films, switching from extraordinary to a more serious and realistic tone… which could have been rather exciting had popular shooter video game franchises such as Call of Duty, Gears of War and Battlefield not been gaining popularity worldwide. As great as it is to play a more realistic Bond game, set in his world, it’s not much fun to just run around large areas filled with NPCs with only two (usually boring) weapons at all times and just kill people. This also makes the replay value virtually non-existent.
GoldenEye Reloaded was actually pretty solid but nothing compared to the original, whereas 007 Legends was a complete disappointment. Due to the negative reception to Legends, the Bond video game series has lain dormant for the better part of a decade.
This is quite a shame, especially for fans, like me, who were brought up in the ‘golden age’ of Bond video games: the late 90s and noughties. A real remaster of some of these classic video games would do wonders (a recent fan remake of the N64’s GoldenEye 007 has had to cease production after EON got a Cease and Desist out), but I believe there’s also a real chance for change with elements of the classics being combined with modern shooter conventions and storytelling techniques. They could also be more representative of female and queer players.
“Tell me, Bond. How does it feel to lose?”
Nikolai Diavolo, James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing
I don’t believe the Bond video game series is lost. However, there have been some missteps, even within some of the better entries, in large part due to their lack of representation.
One of the most notable exclusions from the EA 007 trilogy is that of Miss Moneypenny who doesn’t appear at all, not even in voiceover. 1997’s GoldenEye 007 used messages from all of the main MI6 regulars, including Moneypenny, prior to each mission which reinforced that we were part of Bond’s world. We could expect a sassy comeback or line from Miss Moneypenny. From Agent Under Fire onwards however, Moneypenny is MIA, not mentioned or referenced at all whereas M and Q/R make appearances throughout the trilogy. Q/R actually has female assistants (Z and Miss Nagai respectively) who, granted, don’t add much to the games themselves but are still included over Moneypenny which makes her exclusion more puzzling. It could be argued that Moneypenny wouldn’t have much to add but even her text in GoldenEye 007 was fun and playful. Building on the Bond/Moneypenny relationship would have been much more satisfying than the jokes and flirtation between Bond and Z/Miss Nagai (Z appears in just one cutscene in Agent Under Fire).
Moneypenny and Bond’s interactions during the Brosnan films were some of the best since the Connery era (credit to Samantha Bond’s performance and the quality writing) and so it would have been nice for a similar relationship to be captured in the video games. This would have been the most helpful in Everything or Nothing as Bond has quite a few cut scene interactions with M, Q and Miss Nagai, making it a natural fit to have had a run in with Moneypenny. So it’s jarring that she isn’t in the game herself or even mentioned. She even appeared in 2000’s 007 Racing so why not Everything or Nothing three years later? Her twelve year absence (she finally returned in 2012’s 007 Legends) makes it appear that Miss Moneypenny isn’t a necessary part of the Bond universe.
With regards to representation, the video game series as a whole doesn’t do much to break new ground character-wise. In Nightfire for example, the main villains consist of Raphael Drake, Armitage Rook and Makiko Hayashi (generally referred to as Drake, Rook and Kiko). Drake is Brazilian-Russian, Rook a black American and Kiko is Japanese which does highlight different ethnicities and backgrounds… but at the end of the day they are the villains whereas the heroes are all white and are from the UK, France, Australia and the USA.
Henchman Rook appears sporadically throughout the game so doesn’t get too much character development with his storyline being that he basically wants revenge on Bond. Early in the game, Rook’s helicopter is taken out by Bond. Although he survives this attack, he returns badly scarred on one side of his face, an typical visual depiction for a villainous character but makes me think of the ongoing violence against black people and that, despite Rook’s obvious physical strength and handsome features, he is still “taken down a peg” and made to be more different physically than his peers. Kiko is the more interesting of the two henchmen as she appears more regularly than Rook and is playing Bond. Appearing to be on his side, she supports him before showing her true colours and confirming that her allegiance is to Drake, bringing Bond to him and killing the main Bond girl, Dominique Paradis. Although not totally unexpected, Kiko being a villain does make her character more interesting in a way and her being the cause of Dominque’s death is something that Bond and the player remembers and will ultimately make her own death much more gratifying than Rook’s. Again similarly to Rook, Kiko’s Japanese ethnicity does make me question her role in this game. The heroic characters - Bond, Dominique, Alura and Zoe - are all white. It could have actually been more interesting had Kiko been on the side of Bond and assisted him while making a character like Dominique be a double agent. I actually believe this would’ve made both of these female characters much more interesting in the long run. Dominique had worked with Bond before so that would have made her double cross more personal and for Kiko it would’ve actually given her more layers than just being the obvious female villain. She could have regretted not being there for her employer Alexander Mayhew, the person that she should have protected, and could have gone with Bond to avenge his death.
The final member of the villainous trio is Drake himself who is probably the least interesting of the three despite him being the main villain. It’s difficult to talk about what makes Drake’s character as there really isn’t much of one apart from him being a rich businessman and owner of an international company who wants to take over the world. He bares simiarities to Moonraker’s Hugo Drax and Quantum of Solace’s Dominic Greene in that he wants to use space as the launchpad for his international takeover and his company purports to be environmentally friendly. Developing the environmental side as well as how he references his plan as a corporate takeover (the business angle to his persona) would have at least given him more character, which we barely see in the game.
This is just one example (of many) of a set of characters from one video game that could have been developed to make them more memorable and more of a threatening presence.
“There appear to be two ways into the building. You could use your Q Claw on that pipe vent to sneak in through the ventilation system or your Q Decryptor could open that digital lock.”
R, James Bond 007: Agent Under Fire
Video games have developed and evolved dramatically and especially over the past decade whilst the Bond video games series has laid dormant.
Although the space between video games has increased dramatically since the release of 007 Legends, much like the time between Die Another Day and Casino Royale (or even Spectre and No Time To Die!) this may be a good thing as a new Bond video game could become its own unique thing, separating itself from the past and moving forwards in a new direction.
Modern video games have been able to integrate more character development into the plot by allowing players to choose who they speak to and what they are going to say, which in turn can completely alter the plot/relationships between characters. Not only this but it creates a unique experience for the player and gives them more control. It all boils down to choice. For example, in the Mass Effect and Dragon Age series, you can choose whether you play as a male character or female character as well as who in the game you want to get romantically involved with, whether it’s between two men, two women, a man and a woman and more. Now as fun as it would be to have Bond suddenly start hitting on men and getting into bed with them, I don’t believe it wouldn’t be right for the character. However, I do believe that the idea that you, as Bond, could build your world and make more decisions could that allowed for further representation.
Even the hit LEGO games implement switching between characters well, allowing you to not only switch between the two main characters that you play as, but also another two characters in a completely different area of the level. And it did this well before the release of 007 Legends in 2013.
LEGO is intended to be comic of course. But in more series games, it’s best done in 2015’s Until Dawn (spoilers ahead). This interactive horror video game revolves around the butterfly effect; your actions can dramatically affect the events of the game. Set a year after his sister’s disappearance, Josh Washington invites his friends back to his parents’ lodge on Blackwood Mountain in order to heal after the events that took place. What is meant to be a fun weekend turns into a gory nightmare. Throughout the game, you take control of each of the small cast of characters, switching between them as they traverse their way through the story with the main objectives being to figure out why these events are taking place and to keep as many characters alive as possible. The actions you take and the items you pick up change the story (for better or for worse) and you as the player can get a great deal of satisfaction from figuring out the story with the characters and making the right decisions in order to keep them alive. Although the characters may seem like generic horror movie stereotypes, the choices you make in your interactions and in keeping them alive can gradually or dramatically evolve their characters, which is done exceptionally well considering that you take control of all eight of these characters at one point or another. While not as representative as it could be, there are some things here that are definitely positive. For example, Matt is black and assumes the role of a “jock” that is quite selfless and sensitive, which is a fresh portrayal of a young black male in horror. Yet there is still an option for the player to make decisions (good or bad) for him. The main cast of eight is also equally split between men and women, with the majority of female characters being considerably strong. It is disappointing that some of these female characters are pitted against one another more so than the men, but it doesn’t take away from their other interactions, which fit with the age they are and, crucially, their behaviour changes and evolves as the game continues. There is no LGBT+ representation but the idea that a well-received game like this can be made gives hope that other games can do the same with the inclusion of a more than just straight white men.
What video games like Until Dawn, Mass Effect and Dragon Age do is showcase that characters can have bigger or smaller roles based on the decisions that you make for the characters. And the idea that video games that can actively feature LGBT+ representation could be used as references for future Bond video games is really exciting and showcases that by allowing video games to be more inclusive in its storytelling, it could gain a more positive reaction from audiences and in turn become a way to help more people learn about and understand people different to them.
“…but like the Phoenix, I will rise from the ashes...”
Raphael Drake, James Bond 007: Nightfire
So how could future Bond games utilise modern day mechanics? Well for one thing, a story not based on a film would be the better choice. An original video game means that developers can really put their own stamp on things and not be constrained by a film’s plot and characters. The game itself would focus on Bond, of course, but you could take control of other characters, playing the Bond girl or as other Bond allies, actively aiding Bond on the mission itself with common choices being whether to try and save more lives or focus purely on the mission. Similar to Until Dawn, the player deciding how characters should proceed could change the way the story pans out and could make it a lot more personal for the person playing the game. Any form of positive representation could be beneficial, whether it’s something as small as playing as Bond while speaking to an ally who alludes to being queer to something much more prominent where players control an ally who has the choice of flirting and potentially sleeping with someone of the same sex. In any case this game could stick to the main Bond formula but spend a lot more time on building up the characters and story, and by making other characters in Bond’s world playable, it allows players to make a stronger a connection with them.
Going back to what I mentioned about the use of Dominique and Kiko in Nightfire, a game where the players make the choices could change a character’s allegiance which, again, would give each player a distinct experience. Giving players an opportunity to play as other characters that aren’t specifically a cis straight white male would be a great step into connecting with audiences who have either been represented negatively or barely had any representation at all. Personally, the idea of even just being able to play a main campaign where I could follow the female lead and actively aid Bond would be a fantastic option to have and it would be something that I would certainly take advantage of.
I think there’s a whole world to be explored that can be modern and fun with less of a focus on gritty realism (why bother competing with Battlefield, et al) and more of a focus on the story, characters and unique “Bondness” that the franchise provides. Add DLC (downloadable content) where previous characters from across the franchise comes back, such as Agent Under Fire’s Zoe Nightshade or Tomorrow Never Dies’ Wai Lin. The possibilities are endless.
Although the chances of anything like this happening soon is doubtful, it’s nice to think about and I think if any ideas are used in a future Bond video game, it would be a step in the right direction!
The Bond games of the 90s and 00s arguably opened up the world of James Bond to a brand new generation, helping to codify Brosnan’s era as part of the wider canon. The games from the Craig era have (let’s be honest) been a bit iffy. So what happens after No Time To Die? A new Bond, certainly. A new video game? Hopefully. It could be the perfect way to introduce a more diverse range of people to the world of James Bond.
As well as being a lifelong Bond fan, Sam Rogers is also a Marketing Executive with a degree in TV and radio. He lives in Manchester, England.
You can find him on Twitter @SamR_1995
