Tomorrow Never Dies

Overall: D
Violence: D
Sexual Content: A-
Language: A
Drugs/Alcohol: A

Platform reviewed: Sony Playstation
Publisher: EA/Black Ops
ESRB rating: T

For decades now, James Bond has been given a "license to kill," and since 007 is a gentleman who only kills the bad guys and has a certain way with women, audiences everywhere have embraced the concept.

Now you can become the suave dispatcher of evil in "Tomorrow Never Dies," Playstation's contribution to a growing number of secret agent videogames. With a plot based loosely on the film of the same name, you will receive an assignment at the start of each level (ten in all) which must be completed in order to move on to the next. Not to worry though, you have an arsenal of weapons and some cool gadgets at your disposal. The game consists of shooting some bad guys, picking up their guns and whatever else they left behind, shooting more bad guys, picking up other treasures (you'll need them later in the game), shooting still more bad guys, completing your assignment, then moving on to the next level where even more bad guys lurk (did I mention you get to shoot them?). Periodically, you will be called upon to practice other skills such as skiing to safety, flying a jet plane, driving the BMW of your dreams (complete with guns to shoot the bad guys), or rescuing some fair maiden.

The bulk of the action is confined to enemy compounds, so no "innocent" bystanders are involved. The enemies in this game are one neuron short of a synapse... in most cases, they act like beer cans sitting on a fence. Should you line one up for a shot, and miss, he merely continues about his business as if nothing happened. Shooting at, or killing an enemy, rarely alerts any of the other "commie" stooges who calmly await their fate. Sharpshooters capable of a head shot every time will save ammo while dispensing evil, since body shots require more rounds to make a kill (you know he's left this world when you see the red spurt escape his body). Even though the "targets" are murdered, their corpses quickly disappear, sanitizing their death. Don't worry about your own health, just pick up the med kits and body armor along the way and you'll be able to withstand most of that return fire. Besides, you have three lives and the capability to save the game at strategic points. Just like the Bond we've come to know and love, you'll survive to see Q and Miss Moneypenny once again.

In a quest to find something worthwhile, I came up empty-handed. The graphics are passable at best, the music couldn't hold its own in an elevator, and the remainder of the soundtrack is mostly gunfire and grunts. This game is strictly violence.

In a day and age where playing "Cowboys and Indians" is politically incorrect, it is beyond my grasp to understand why the theme of killing has gained such wide acceptance in many videogames, including this one. Shooting a collection of pixels may seem harmless at first glance, but what exactly is happening in the minds of our youth (usually boys) when we give them a "license to kill" for a few hours every day?

Jim Fleming

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