n the few seconds it takes an Aston Martin DBS to accelerate from zero to 120 miles per hour, James Bond can flip from a debonair womanizer who can charm his way into any dress to a remorseless killer who can put a bullet between two eyes. Theatergoers have come to expect this dual persona since Sean Connery popularized it in the 1962 film, Dr. No. Unfortunately, gamers won’t be seeing this Bond in Activision’s first 007 title, Quantum of Solace.
In this game, the Bond you control is a sympathetic coward. You almost feel sorry for him as he shoots brainless foes so dense they fail to realize that they are “hiding” with their heads fully exposed. His spinelessness is established by his need to duck behind every object in his path. These elements form a botched game of cover and shoot that distills Bond’s persona to that of a generic video game character.
The title, Quantum of Solace, is equally disingenuous. While the feature film of the same name inspires some of this game’s stages, an equal number are stripped from the previous film, Casino Royale. Rather than walking the player through these films in order, developer Treyarch mashes the two stories together. The result is a plot that bounces chaotically like a super ball in a stairwell. It’s impossible to comprehend what is going on in this game unless you have seen both films.
The experience is diseased in numerous ways, but the gameplay behind the turmoil is fantastic – thanks largely to Treyarch’s firm grasp on exploiting the Call of Duty 4 engine. Weapon play is particularly strong, player movement is silky smooth, and the intuitive third-person cover mechanic blends nicely with the lightning-quick firefights. But sadly, these standout qualities fall into the “what could have been” category. The battles rarely deliver a spark of excitement, largely due to the problematic enemy AI and the by-the-numbers design of each fight. All the battles blend together into the same pop and shoot structure, and the break out gameplay, like the quick button-press boss fights and free running chase, lack excitement and are far too simplistic in their implementation.
Enjoyment is fleeting for solo players, but Bond delivers moderate thrills online. Aside from the standard mix of deathmatch, team deathmatch, and conflict modes, two others stand out: Bond Versus and Golden Gun. In Bond Versus, human-controlled henchmen are pitted against a human-controlled Bond (control over the double agent is passed to different players after each round). Taking down Bond is an empowering experience, and conversely using him to mow down intelligent foes is a praiseworthy feat. Golden Gun is fun solely because the gun (which one player tracks down and wields) is ridiculously overpowered, making for high kill counts. If you get into the multiplayer component, which shares the solid single-player gameplay, you can log countless hours to earn the cash needed to buy all of the weapons, attachments, and Call of Duty 4-like perks. The only huge setback for online play is the fact that every avatar yells “target eliminated,”“reloading,” and “flash” far too often.
Bond has had a tough stretch in video games, and Quantum of Solace isn’t a step in the right direction. The gameplay shows potential, but the rest of the game isn’t strong enough to lift it up into an experience that any gamer needs to see.