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If there's one area where Agent Under Fire particularly excels, it's in the graphics. The character and weapon models look fantastic, the game's textures are clear and crisp, and the environments are often outstanding. The only real drawbacks to the game's graphics are that the characters move so quickly that they seem unrealistic, some levels look a bit sparse, and the frame rate fluctuates at times. It usually moves along at a fast, consistent clip, but on a few occasions it slows down to a crawl, while at other times it speeds up so fast you'll feel like a James Bond rocket. The occasional extreme in either direction makes for an odd experience.
The Bond film series is universally recognized for its excellent soundtracks, and the trademark theme is often played in Agent Under Fire to great effect (though, admittedly, very often). However, while the game's briefings and cutscenes are voiced well enough, the taunts from your foes during gameplay are horrible and repeated far too frequently.
Agent Under Fire for the Xbox supports up to four players at once in its multiplayer mode, but if you don't have a full quartet to play with, computer-controlled bots can be used to round out the teams (a feature not found in the PlayStation 2 version). Most of the maps are well laid out, and the game's slight variations on the standard deathmatch theme give it some variety, but the game's multiplayer offerings are still fairly basic. Those spoiled by the multiplayer modes found in shooters on older systems like Rare's GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark will find them pretty dull, but there's at least something to be said for it being the first multiplayer shooter with bots for the Xbox.
Agent Under Fire is a short game, one that you can complete within roughly six hours. The developers appear to have taken great pains to extend the game's replayability through the addition of unlockable extras, which is certainly commendable, but since the basic gameplay is already lacking, you likely won't be motivated to continue playing much longer once you've beaten it. Agent Under Fire isn't a horrible game, but its lackluster level design, poor enemy AI, and easy level of difficulty pile up to greatly detract from what it does offer. Its vehicle levels provide the single-player game with a good degree of variety, but they're not in and of themselves enough to save the game.
Fans of GoldenEye 007 and other console first-person shooters will find Agent Under Fire a by-the-numbers FPS affair. Those still curious would be advised to rent, not buy.
