James Bond: Quantum of Solace
Review
Bond is Back
by Chris Scott
reviewed on X360
Disjointed
Unfortunately the core gameplay mechanics don’t do enough to overcome the problems with the game. The biggest is the extreme modification of the story and the disjointed way it all plays out. If you have seen either of the two Bond movies that this game is based on you would notice that while they are high on tension and there are a couple high octane action sequences the stories don’t feature hordes of enemies to mow down. While I understand the reasoning behind beefing up the action sequences in the game, it is sometimes ridiculous (the Opera House and Cave levels in particular) and you actually feel like you are playing something entirely different. Furthermore the game plays almost all the way through the Quantum of Solace story before placing you in the Casino Royale story and then abruptly drawing you back to Quantum of Solace making for a very, very disjointed feeling story.
Multiplayer
That all brings us to the multiplayer… a different beast entirely. Quantum of Solace has all the standard modes that players have come to expect from an online multiplayer game. The most intriguing are the Bond specific game modes like “Bond vs.” where one player as Bond takes on a team of other players. But the online modes are not going to be enough to draw anybody but the most diehard of Bond fans away from the other online shooters available today. It all feels very generic and it is done better on almost all fronts by other games including the leveling system, which is a direct rip from the Call of Duty system. On top of the pretty generic multiplayer the game controls seem quite loose compared to the single player which may drive some players away as well.
As I mentioned previously Quantum of Solace runs on the Call of Duty 4 engine but unlike the gunplay which generally plays well the game doesn’t look all that great. The levels are fairly generic, although there are a couple that do stand out (ie... the Spa) and aside from the Daniel Craig modeled Bond and a couple other named characters, character models are weak and repeat quite often. However, while the game looks pretty generic it sounds above average. This is mostly due to the fact that the game features voice acting from the real actors and actresses from the film.
No match
Quantum of Solace is not as good as Goldeneye 007 but nostalgia has tainted that game completely and any game matching up against it is in for unfair comparisons. Regardless of the comparison Quantum of Solace is a mediocre game that has some fun moments. However, overall the game does not have enough going for it to recommend it over other current first person shooters. Shooter fans are going to be put off by the generic gameplay and hardcore Bond fans by the overabundance of shooting and the heavily modified story but maybe Treyarch and Activision were aiming for a different group of gamers entirely with Quantum of Solace and maybe, just maybe they will love it.
6.0
fun score
No Pros and Cons at this time
