Everything or Nothing is based on the theft of robotic nano technology intended for humanitarian missions such as the remote inspection and repair of nuclear facilities. The project's overseer is also missing and under suspicion, and Bond has been called upon to return the technology and destroy the villains' facilities where the technology is about to be harnessed for less charitable ends.

Typically, the mission calls for the use of plenty of gadgetry from holograms to a rappel device, and a range of weaponry and other equipment. Through a tactical approach to missions with the aid of appropriate gear, points are awarded allowing more advanced items to be added to your inventory.

The missions take place over four locations: Egypt, Peru, New Orleans, and of course Moscow. Objectives are based on uncovering plot elements through rendezvous with other agents and fulfilling subsequent mission criteria such as destroying facilities and defeating the odd foe.

All versions of Everything or Nothing take place in the third person, and the GBA version uses an isometric view as did the GBC version of Perfect Dark, although Everything or Nothing offers a slightly better view of enemies in field missions due to the larger screen and more distant viewpoint. One of the key intentions of the third person perspective is to make the likeness of Pierce Brosnan more prominent than in earlier games by both EA and Rare, and the chosen camera offers a reasonably sized Bond with just enough of a view of the surroundings to make the stealth and exploration work without becoming a memory test or too heavy on trial and error.

The smart layout of buildings, people, save points and obstacles brings a certain similarity to missions as another GBC game, Metal Gear Solid. While the isometric view of Eveything or Nothing can make shooting difficult, the emphasis on stealth makes it important to prefer sneaking behind guard and breaking their necks over drawing attention to yourself and hoping for your ammo, grenades and body armour to last you between medkits.

A manual aim junction allows a greater degree of control combined with automatic aiming that can be upgraded along with rapid fire speed, damage inflicted and other aspects of your armory, all purchased with points from Q prior to the missions.

As well as strangely poor visual resemblances of Judi Dench and John Cleese who appear with genuine, if sparse, speech samples during briefings as M and Q actors Willem Dafoe, Richard Kiel, Shannon Elizabeth and Heidi Klum also feature in the game as the main characters in the Everything or Nothing saga. Their appearances carry the same graphically overlaid look that betrays claims of using special technology to incorporate their likenesses, though the importance of this is rather toward the bottom of most gamers' priorities.

Besides the similarities to much of Perfect Dark and Metal Gear Solid, Everything or Nothing uses Spy Hunter as inspiration for driving sequences, though these remain in isometric view rather than the top-down angle.