GoldenEye Rogue Agent (Xbox)

GOLDENEYE ROGUE AGENT casts players as a disgraced double-0 operative, responsible for the accidental death of England's most famous secret agent. Turned out by the government, you find a new career among James Bond's biggest nemeses, who have bonded together to form a syndicate of evil. When the series' original crook, Dr. No, decides to pursue his own diabolical plan, you are sent to eliminate the threat to the new organization and bring accord to the group of diverse criminal masterminds.

You embark on an around-the-world killing spree, firing an array of weapons from both hands to dispatch Dr. No's plentiful minions. A high-tech fake eye gives players some limited, and mostly useless, superpowers, such as seeing through walls.

It's too bad the game fails to capture the big personalities of the Bond baddies, instead delivering a disappointing, by-the-numbers shooter that just barely manages to be fun. The things that have made the Bond franchise successful for so long -- creative gadgets, wry humor, a sense of style, and clever solutions to desperate predicaments -- are totally absent.

Despite the techno soundtrack and slick presentation, GoldenEye Rogue Agent offers very little beyond pulse-pounding battles with a seemingly endless horde of semi-intelligent enemies. It is worth noting that you can wound an enemy and use his body as a human shield. Overall, while the fast-paced, frenetic, and bloodless firefights can be fun, they underscore the sad truth about the game: GoldenEye Rogue Agent uses the Bond label only to distract from the fact that it has little more to offer than killing and explosions. Even Bond's greatest rivals have more pride than that.