Quantum of Solace (Xbox 360)

For fans of Jimmy, this game is fun, real fun.
11/12/2008 8:01 PM | 0 Comments | Page 1 of 2

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.

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 à 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.

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 the left trigger for iron sights.

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.

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).