JAMES BOND 007

Quantum of Solace Review

Deserving of Double-O status?October 31, 2008 - Put a beautiful beau in a hot
sports car, toss in a gorgeous babe for him to boink and then prop up a
bunch of would-be henchman to stand in between our hero and his goal
and you have the recipe for just about every Bond film in history. Of
course, with every movie comes a game of the same name and [Trebuie sa fiti inscris si conectat pentru a vedea acest link]
is no different. It takes the Call of Duty 4 engine and wraps it around
the James Bond universe with a few new trimmings to try and keep the
action feeling as fresh as possible.

It's just a bummer that roughly everything that was added in an effort
to keep the game feeling fresh isn't done all that well. They're not
bad additions, they just don't meld or work especially well with the
rest of the game and therefore come off feeling very forced and
artificial.

As you'd expect, Quantum of Solace is played almost entirely from a
first-person perspective. The biggest deviation from the COD4 gameplay
formula is actually one of the few moments when you'll be removed from
Daniel Craig's point of view. [Trebuie sa fiti inscris si conectat pentru a vedea acest link],
figuring that they had a star that most would want to look at, decided
to implement a cover system into the standard first-person shooter
gameplay of QoS. It works similarly to what we've seen from the likes
of Gears of War and others.



Click above to watch the Video Review for Quantum of Solace (HD Available).




Basically any surface can be stuck to by pressing A and you can even
dash into a piece of cover by holding the button. The cover system is
better than some (Kane & Lynch) but not as functional as others.
There were times when I felt like I should be able to crouch behind
something in front of me and I couldn't. Only to find out that I was
perfectly aligned and it was the cover system screwing me up. It wasn't
a massive annoyance, but the few deaths that I was able to chalk up to
the faulty cover were a nuisance.

Another problem with the cover system is that the levels are built
around the mechanic. That means that the free-flowing way of
dispatching enemies from several different angles as was available in
COD4 is no longer available. Instead there are too many situations
relegated to standard stop and pop gameplay. That's fine if things are
bright and flashy with lots of blood and guts, but when you're fighting
a bunch of henchmen things can feel a little tired.


Luckily there are moments when things aren't so mundane. When the
game tries it does do a good job of delivering intensity and flare but
those moments are spaced a bit too far apart. Also trying to keep the
action fresh are the levels which stay varied throughout. They're all a
little predictable – there's the requisite speeding train and museum
levels – but at least you're not running down the same hallways over
and over.


[Trebuie sa fiti inscris si conectat pentru a vedea acest link]Rainy gun play.




You can tell that the developers really wanted to make this game
different than COD4, but that doesn't stop the roots of Infinity Ward's
from being the silver lining in the package. Every other mechanic just
falls a little bit short. There's the balancing act where players need
to keep a wavering dot in the center of the screen with the left analog
stick, there's a hacking mini-game where you'll need to match
directional button presses in a kind of Simon Says variant, and then
there are the quicktime melee events which get stale after a few uses.
Again, none of it is bad, but the mechanics just aren't compelling.


Aesthetically the game is pleasing to the eye but can also be
annoyingly bad at times. The overall look of the game from Daniel
Craig's Bond character to the environments are well detailed and fit
just fine with the Bond lineage. Where QoS stumbles is in the enemy
design and a few of the frills that COD4 delivered so well. Every enemy
you see in the game is the same. Not only do they look the same, but
they act the same. They pull off the same death animations, the same
rolls and slides to get into cover and the same intelligence (which is
lacking at times) throughout the game. At first it's cool to see guys
jumping over tables and sliding behind a box, but when they do it for
the 213th time and it looks identical to the rest of the game, it gets
a little grating.


The explosions don't look good. At all. They almost look cartoony
at parts which is a real shame because there are explosive canisters everywhere.
Even where they don't make sense, like on the inside of a museum or at
a construction site, there will be a bevy of explosive options. They
have a nice, unrealistic sheen so it's extremely obvious what can be
destroyed and what can't. Not exactly the most organic of play
experiences when you have a hydrogen can gleaming at you.


[Trebuie sa fiti inscris si conectat pentru a vedea acest link]Surprisingly enough there are no explosive containers in this scene.




The most disappointing thing wasn't the enemies, it wasn't the
cover system and it wasn't the incredible amount of explosive objects
around the environment; instead it was the sheer length of the game. I
enjoyed most of my time with the missions -- stumbling out to your car
to electrify your heart back to life is cool and the gun play is fun
enough -- but it's all just too damn short. You can beat [Trebuie sa fiti inscris si conectat pentru a vedea acest link]
in around five hours, maybe four. And it's structured in a way that
puts you through most of the events in Casino Royale and then only
touches on the plot of Quantum of Solace. It feels like they intended
to make this a Casino Royale game but didn't make the first movie so
decided to tack on a few QoS locations and slap a new name on the box.


The multiplayer offering is standard with plenty of Bond-themed
modes. There's one where everyone is playing as Organization members
with one Bond on the map, there's one where two teams each have a Bond
VIP that must stay alive and there's the requisite Golden Gun mode.
There are other, perhaps more standard multiplayer varieties but it's
the ones that bring you into the Bond universe that are the stars of
the show. Multiplayer performed well and was fun enough during my time
with it. There was some noticeable lag at times and the fact that
there's no perks or reward system beyond standard cash-based equipment
and weapon unlocks is disappointing.

[Trebuie sa fiti inscris si conectat pentru a vedea acest link]The famous chase scene.


Closing Comments
Quantum of
Solace isn?t the game that it should have been. It?s not bad by any
means, but what brings it out of the pits of despair is the foundation
of a much better game that we all know and love. The action is less
compelling and the world that?s built around Bond doesn?t do much to
enhance the fun factor. All of the additions do nothing to push the
game ahead of other first-person shooters and instead take you out of
the world of being Bond.
If you?re looking for a game to reveal the plot of Quantum of Solace
before the movie?s release, this is not it. If you?re looking for the
answer to GoldenEye, this is not it. Instead Quantum of Solace is a
respectable shooter with little that sets it apart from the rest of the
field.


IGN Ratings for Quantum of Solace (X360)



RatingDescription

out of 10	[Trebuie sa fiti inscris si conectat pentru a vedea acest link]
7.5	Presentation The menu design feels like it?s ripped from the DVD. The world feels like Bond and it helps to have Daniel Craig staring at you every six seconds.
7.5	Graphics Some environments look better than others but they do stay varied. Explosions are lacking and animation repeats happen all too often.
8.5	Sound Cool voice work by Daniel Craig and the same Bond theme help legitimize the experience. You?ll have that damn theme in your head for months, though.
7.0	Gameplay The gun play is decent but forgettable and the additions that have been made to COD4?s formula don?t exactly pan out the way Treyarch was hoping.
6.0	Lasting Appeal You?ll come for the single-player and four and a half hours later you?ll be playing multiplayer. That?ll last for a few days and then this one will likely be kicked to the curb.
7.0 Decent	OVERALL (out of 10 / not an average)