Quantum of Solace (PS3)
It's not for nothing that this new James Bond game is, for the most part, a first-person shooter. The good memories of 1997's GoldenEye 007 -- an FPS based on the movie of the same name -- are still fresh in gamers' minds, as evidenced by the hubbub earlier this year when rumors circulated that it might be re-released. But while Quantum of Solace isn't GoldenEye, it's not GoldenEye: Rogue Agent, its misfire of a sequel-in-name-only, either.
alt="Quantum of Solace review for PC"/>Despite what the name suggests, Solace is actually based both on the new Bond film and the previous one, 2006's "Casino Royale." But the game doesn't just cover the action scenes of the two films; it expands upon them, not only by making the gunfights bigger and longer, but also by restoring an action sequence from the train scene in "Royale" that was cut from the movie.
For most of these scenes, the game is a cover-based first-person shooter, as you can run and gun if you like, or you can duck behind a barrier ? la Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas or Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway, with the perspective changing to the third-person. This isn't always necessary, especially on the lower skill levels, since Bond's enemies aren't crack shots like the terrorists in Vegas or the Germans in Brothers, and your health regenerates over time. But if you've played either of those games much, you'll be surprised how often you use the cover mechanic anyway, in part out of natural gamer instinct, and in part because this maneuver is still novel and thus still fun.
alt="Quantum of Solace review for PC"/>Of course, it helps that this mechanic works far better here than it did in Brothers (though not as well as does in either Vegas game. Or either Gears of War game, for that matter). In fact, because it uses the same engine that powered Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the game's controls are fluid and responsive. Quantum of Solace even employs that game's penchant for automatically locking on enemies when you're pointed in their general direction and hit L1 for iron sights. Best of all, there's no point at which the game forces you to use the Sixaxis controller's motion sensitivity, when hitting a button would work just as well.
Solace isn't just a first-person shooter, though; it also employs elements from another spy's game as well -- the third-person mechanics from Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy. Not only does the game switch to third-person in certain situations, such as when you're shimmying along the ledge outside a building, it also makes the switch when you do a takedown maneuver, which kicks in when you run up to someone. The game then gives you a Bourne-like button prompt, which results in Bond doing something to the bad guy that -- while not as viscerally satisfying as the melee in Bourne -- is still something you wouldn't want anyone to do to you. Ever. Even if you were a bad guy.
alt="Quantum of Solace review for PC"/>Solace also changes things up by including online multiplayer, a rarity among movie-inspired games. Accommodating a dozen people on as many included maps, the game boasts three Bond-themed modes, including the "V.I.P." variations "Bond Invasion" (in which one player is Bond and everyone else is trying to protect or kill him) and "Bond Versus" (in which one player has to defuse two of three bombs, or eliminate his enemies, while said enemies try to take him out).
But the most fun one, if only because it's the most over-the-top and silly (and just a little like the similarly named mode from GoldenEye), is "Golden Gun," in which one player has the titular firearm, only it's more like an RPG, and killing anyone with it gives you multiple points. Since normal kills are just one point, and the winner is the one who gets to a hundred first, it's no wonder why everyone else is trying to kill the guy with the ball, er, the gun. Further throwing things for a loop, everyone can see the Golden Gun owner on radar, but due to a manufacturing error, the shiny shooter interferes with the holder's radar.
alt="Quantum of Solace review for PC"/>It should also be noted that while the graphics in Solace are good, the game deserves more praise for what they visualize. Solace has many more, and more varied, environments than a typical first-person shooter, as well as a wider and brighter color palette than most (save for the first Vegas), which really makes them pop. There are also some movie-like slow-mo scenes that add to the game's cinematic quality.
None of this is meant to imply that Solace is, by any stretch of the imagination, a great first-person shooter. It's not without its problems. The button layout is, well, unnecessarily (though just slightly) complicated. Pressing X will get you into cover, even if it means sprinting a bit, but it won't make you sprint normally; pressing down on the right stick does that.
alt="Quantum of Solace review for PC"/>The bigger problem is that Bond is facing even stiffer competition than if S.P.E.C.T.R.E., S.M.E.R.S.H., K.A.O.S., F.I.S.T. and R.E.M. got together to take him out. Not only is it battling for your time against more interesting shooters such as Resistance 2 and BioShock, but also the better-than-you-expect Call of Duty: World at War (which, like Solace, is ironically made by Treyarch). This is unfortunate, since -- and I say this as a devotee of the genre -- this game is actually rather fun, even if you're only a casual Bond fan.
If you are a fan of Bond games, though, Solace is one of the better ones, and the best since 2004's Everything or Nothing. It certainly doesn't have the rushed, unpolished feeling of many movie tie-ins. And while it may not be GoldenEye, or even GoldenEye II: SPECTRE's Boogaloo, I still think your memories of this will be good ones, too.
This review was based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.
