James Bond: From Russia With Love
Some of the film’s best moments are replaced with mediocre gameplay.
Tags: James Bond: From Russia With Love Categories: PS2 Reviews, Reviews
Posted by David Hinkle on Dec 2nd, 2005
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| James Bond: From Russia With Love (title page) | 1 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Action | No | ||
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It’s about time they decided to go with a James Bond title starring the best Bond, Sean Connery. While some of his other exploits as MI6’s 007 might’ve been better suited to be transitioned to the realm of video games, From Russia With Love has enough juicy story and bare-knuckled action sequences to comprise an enjoyable game. Sadly, the developers decided to totally disregard a lot of the film’s content to create a game that’s just about average. Jake, in his review of the Xbox version, suggests that maybe EA is “on autopilot” with regards to developing Bond games, and that doesn’t seem to be very far off the mark.
The story of the film From Russia With Love, if you’ve never seen it, and let’s be honest, you should have, is based around a Russian defector who, in exchange for meeting James Bond, will hand of a Lektor. This Lektor is a machine that will allows the deciphering of Russian codes and in the hands of MI6, a very valuable asset. So MI6 has no choice but to send Bond to Istanbul to extract this would-be defector and the Lektor. This is all just a cover to get Bond to Istanbul though so the evil SPECTRE syndicate can get their hands on him.
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While the story of the film is somewhat maintained by the game, each scenario that Bond finds himself in during the game is rewritten differently from how things played out in the film. In the game, SPECTRE is renamed to Octopus, the thrilling train scene has been totally redone (for the worse), and the scene where Bond is trying to escape the helicopter has been completely removed. Some scenes have thankfully been more or less unchanged in transition to the game, scenes like the memorable boat chase and sneaking into the Russian consulate to steal the Lektor. These accurately unchanged sequences of gameplay manage to keep the game from being unplayable.
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Much of Bond’s usual arsenal of high-tech gadgets can be found in From Russia With Love, like the famous jetpack, his tricked-out Jaguar, and the Q-Copter. Utilizing these gadgets is really up to the player, because the game doesn’t necessarily force you to think about using them at anytime. The game itself can be run through if you choose to just shoot everyone in your way and ask questions later. Sure, you can stop and meticulously go through the title, looking for every Bond Moment that you can, but the game’s ease simply doesn’t demand it be done in order to progress. While in the last title the Bond Moments were like the icing on a tasty cake, here there’re more like Easter Eggs.
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Playing through the game’s vehicle sequences follows the same apathetic tones as the rest of the title. Getting from point A to point B to progress to the next level is a simple affair, almost a chore if the subject matter weren’t good and the visuals weren’t as strong as they are. Mindless violence will get you everywhere here, whereas it could’ve made for a much more enjoyable experience to request the player take a more thoughtful approach to these sequences by allowing Bond’s pursuers to be more tenacious and intelligent. Instead, the overall air of ease instead creeps into every fiber of the game, making for an experience that’s going to last between 5 and 10 hours, depending on how many Easter Eggs you look for.
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From Russia With Love incorporates a multiplayer mode into the mix, allowing for some 4 player split-screen action. This action, though, is on the boring and repetitious side. While there are variants of game types, such as deathmatch and dogfight, and Bond Moments strewn about for you to take advantage of, the lock-on targeting precision makes the game types boring as being locked-on equals death every time. Once you lock-on to someone, it’s just a couple of shots until they’re dead, every time, causing copious amounts of frustration. Dog fighting in jetpacks can be somewhat fun for a short time, but that even loses its luster soon after.
Bond looks and moves excellently as he and the era in which the film was made is accurately replicated. EA even managed to bring Sean Connery back into the sound studio to do the dialogue for Bond again. While they could’ve just lifted dialogue from the film, having Sean come in allowed them to change some things with the original script, which sadly isn’t for the better. It’s a shame to have the original, best Bond come back to reprise his role in such a hack job of the original script. Regardless, the graphics and sound work is top notch and the production values are very noticeable.
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From Russia With Love might not be as good as Bond’s last outing in Everything or Nothing, but it’s still a somewhat above average title that just needed some more time in development. The apathetic approach to gameplay and disregard for some of the film’s better plot points and action sequences end up hurting the game more than helping it in the end. In all though, From Russia With Love isn’t a bad rental for those who like their Martinis shaken, not stirred.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ The film sequences that haven't been rewritten are good + Graphics + Bringing back Sean Connery to voice himself |
7.2 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- Multiplayer is pretty boring and pointless - Apathetic AI and gameplay - Rewriting key sequences from the film |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Not totally true to the source material, From Russia With Love isn't a bad rental, but by no means is worthy of purchase. | |
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Tags: James Bond: From Russia With Love
Posted by David Hinkle on Dec 2nd, 2005 and is filed under PS2 Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
