Quantum of Solace (Xbox 360)

For fans of Jimmy, this game is fun, real fun.
11/12/2008 8:01 PM | 0 Comments | Page 2 of 2

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.

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 A 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.

The bigger problem is that Bond is facing even stiffer competition than if the CIA, the FBI, the ATF, the IRS and the Teamsters Local 560 got together to take him out. Not only is it battling for your time against the vastly superior Gears of War 2, 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 is based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.