The game's story involves fictional British secret agent James Bond, as he undertakes a mission to investigate the operations of a noted industrialist, uncovering a plot by them to conquer the world via a major defence satellite created by the United States.

In the single-player mode, players must complete a set of objectives, which requires navigating around each mission's level dealing with hostiles and making use of gadgets.

Players can choose which characters to play, including a selection taken from the film franchise such as Jaws, Baron Samedi, Max Zorin, Auric Goldfinger, and Renard.

Infiltrating the party, Bond meets with CIA agent Zoe Nightshade, his contact sent to assist in the chip's recovery, but is surprised to find Dominique within the castle, learning that she is working undercover as Drake's mistress.

Bond recovers the chip before going after and rescuing Zoe, whereupon the pair make their escape down the mountain for a rendezvous with Q while dealing with Drake's men and his head of security, Armitage Rook.

Bond is sent to Japan to extract Mayhew at his Japanese estate, but shortly after being introduced to his bodyguard Kiko, Drake's men attack the building.

While Mayhew is killed, Bond finds important information that leads him to Phoenix's Tokyo offices and a nuclear power plant being decommissioned.

Upon leaving Tokyo, Bond finds himself sent to an island in the South Pacific alongside Alura, learning that Drake owns it and is using a jamming signal to conceal what he has stationed there.

Discovering that Drake built a launch facility on the island, Bond determines that he plans to capture the SDP and use its weapons to dominate the world.

[6] In July 2002, James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan had his head scanned with a laser digitizer to create the player character,[3][7] who is voiced by Maxwell Caulfield.

[14] Nightfire marked the first time a James Bond video game featured an original song: "Nearly Civilized" performed by Esthero.