James Bond: From Russia With Love
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Tags: James Bond: From Russia With Love Categories: Reviews, Xbox Reviews
Posted by Jake McNeill 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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I just don’t get this latest trend of games based on old movies. The Godfather, Scarface, The Warriors, From Russia With Love… anyone old enough to have seen these films when they came out likely either doesn’t play videogames or at least knows that licensed videogames have a less than shining reputation. I suppose James Bond has a little more traction here, with films in the series still being released. Still, there have been more memorable Bond films to tap, particularly those starring Connery.
Ah, yes, Sean Connery. It was quite a momentous occasion when EA announced they had signed on good ol’ Mr. “the game is afoot!”, especially considering that Pierce Brosnan’s contract ran out years ago and EA has had to resort to other ways of exploring their Bond license (their last title, the terrible Goldeneye: Rogue Agent, made you an ex-MI6 agent partially responsible for Bond’s death). Odds are, the only reason they opted to recreate one of the older films is because they are no longer contractually able to make games with Brosnan’s likeness.
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To their credit, this part of the game is pretty well-done, with the character model looking like a pretty good representation of the actor in his younger Bond days, and most other recognizable actors reproduced in pretty good detail. Furthermore, the game often makes use of extravagant setpeices and uses some real nice camerawork in the cutscenes. Unfortunately, the environments and all the average thugs you’ll fight are pretty bland and boring, and every now and then, the game’s otherwise-clean framerate will take a spill.
It also bears mention that the voice acting is good enough that I can’t tell if they’re using old voice clips or if they actually had Connery come in to do voicework (we know it’s the latter in Bond’s case but not so with the others, given that one of the actors whose voice is in the game, Desmond Llewellyn, died six years ago). The character models usually do a good job of looking like they’re speaking the lines, too, although the lip-sync is inevitably not perfect.
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Anyways, the game more or less follows the events of the film (a bit more about that in the PS2 review), mostly in the form of a third-person shooter. And while there are a few occasional instances where you’ll have the option of resorting to some light stealth, and every now and then you have the need to perform some context-sensitive tasks, like repelling up walls or hopping across chandeliers, generally your third-person shooter experience will consist of mostly a lot of shooting, naturally.
While this may seem like a given, the problem is that this game really isn’t built to be a shooter. The game lets you lock on to enemies and dispatch them with great ease in a matter of seconds, and as long as you can keep moving, you don’t even really need to involve a lot of tactics. Acquire target, dodge back and forth left and right, and keep firing until they’re dead. Then repeat with the next guy. Mix in occasional ducking behind cover while your weapon reloads, and you’re an automated killing machine. No wonder Connery was the best Bond – all he needed to do is lock on to enemies and his innate awesomeness killed them for him!
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To the game’s credit, the occasional driving missions scattered throughout the game are pretty good, giving you a real feel of the classic James Bond “casually driving through the countryside one minute, using my car’s wacky built-in arsenal to take out tons of enemies the next”. It’s just a shame these areas are so short and under-developed. This really seemed like it had a lot more potential than what it was given a chance to do here.
And naturally, there’s the requisite online play. Now, multiplayer deathmatch in a game with lock-on mechanics can be done. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes proved as much. However, in most games, usually it results in instant death the moment someone gets a lock. From Russia With Love is one of these titles, and as a result it really isn’t the kind of game you’ll want to play in multiplayer.
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Or at all, really. The game feels like it’s on autopilot, with little in the gameplay department that requires much thought or effort. You’re just going through the motions to move on with the game and see the story unfold, and while the game’s presentation is generally pretty good, you might as well just go back and watch the actual movie. All the story of the game (and then some), without the boring, repetitive lock-on gunfights. Besides, after playing this game I’m just dying to see the real Sean Connery’s lock-on skills in action.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ The recreations of the main characters, and the overall feel is spot-on + The driving portions of the game are very good, while they last + Connery!!! |
7.2 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- The lock-on combat makes the single player game a repetitive excercise in effortlessly killing hundreds of inept enemies - It pretty much kills the multiplayer, too - Aside from the main characters and the overall atmosphere of the game, the graphics are really unimpressive |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| The presentation does a pretty good job of recreating the film, but there's so little gameplay you may as well go and... just watch the film | |
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Tags: James Bond: From Russia With Love
Posted by Jake McNeill on Dec 2nd, 2005 and is filed under Reviews, Xbox 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.
