Quantum of Solace: Concluded

I wouldn't normally have played this game, however I felt it would be useful for work purposes so I decided to play it through to completion. This is why I would have passed it by:

• I've been left jaded by countless cash-ins on movie licenses
  
• Everyone's aware of the track record of Bond titles since the hallowed classic Goldeneye on the N64
  
• Quantum Of Solace hasn't reviewed particulary well
  

I saw some research on Bond titles not long ago. One of the top reasons in the 'If you haven't purchased a recent Bond game, why?' column was 'It's not going to be as good as Goldeneye'. Of course it isn't. Goldeneye was released at a time when there were very few first person shooters of any note, and Bond's popularity was at an all-time high. Although it was an excellent game, a lot of stars aligned for the release of Rare's masterpiece, stars that have been decidedly distant for Bond games since (apart from arguably the release of EA Canada's 'Everything or Nothing' which was critically and commercially quite well received).

Quantum of Solace is primarily a first person shooter using the Call of Duty engine, however Treyarch employ a nice third person mechanic when going into cover. It's a little jarring at first, but becomes second nature after a few minutes play. James Bond is of course a spy, so stealth is alluded to by being able to creep up behind an enemy and take them down using a Quick Time Event. Unfortunately QTEs are also used in a couple of other places (mainly to indicate major set piece fights). A lot has ben spoken about QTEs so I don't need to cover the subject here, suffice it to say I don't think they add anything to a videogame, and are a lazy way out for game design.

The only concession to any kind of lateral thinking in the game are so-called "Bond moments" (generic exploding fire extinguishers, barrels and generators). These Bond moments trigger off set-pieces, but it's difficult to tell which are required for game progression and which just do damage to enemies.

I guess the main problem I have with the game is how the idea of Bond as a 'blunt weapon' is taken from it's current realization in Daniel Craig's Bond to another level entirely. One of the levels sees Bond lugging round a mounted machine gun , mowing down literally hundreds of enemies (again probably down to the COD engine), in another Bond is blasting enemies with a shotgun.

I've not seen Craig do this, nor do I remember any of the previous Bonds engaging in such activity (certainly not "Gentleman Spy" Roger Moore).

The audio has it's high and low points. The gun sounds are excellent, from well realised tinny silenced weapons to meaty machine guns, where it falls down however is in the execution of the excellent musical score. Quantum of Solace uses a dynamic audio system where the audio matches the action on screen, however as most of the game is spent shooting enemies at a frantic pace, one gets to hear the "dramatic" score a little too much. "Less is more" is a favoured saying, and it definitely applies in this case.

As the game covers both the Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace movies all the major locations and incidents from both films are represented, but not in chronological order which leads to a lot of jumping around. These jumps are explained by loading screens or cutscenes, but unfortunately they don't always make much sense. I could only follow the game progression because I have seen both movies. Lord knows who you would fare if you hadn't.

I'm aware that I have conflicting opinions of this game, having enjoyed the playthrough on one hand, but struggled with the disparity between the movie and game Bonds. Maybe I was trying to get a certain kind of experience out of the game that I wasn't meant to, maybe I should just take it at Treyarch's face value:

Bond is Rambo.

I don't want to sound too down on this game because I enjoyed the experience on the whole. It did feel a little rushed (down to the movie release dates no doubt), but I doubt a few extra months of polish would have seen it improved much.

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