I've always believed that the Hitman games provided a solid blueprint
for a rejuvenation of the James Bond franchise in games. Tone down the
violence a bit, make it more espionage-like, and add Russians, and and
the Hitman series is practically James Bond. However, Activision owns
the James Bond license, and Call of Duty outsells the Hitman series.
Thus, we have Quantum of Solace, a first person shooting game that
really does little to embrace Bond's style.
The actors from the
movies provide their voices, in a
"well this was in the contract, let's get it over with" kind of way.
Specifically, Daniel Craig, who sounds like he's sleeping through the
role instead of dealing with international terrorists. Although the
game is named after the 22nd Bond film, most of the missions are taken
from Casino Royale. In general, the missions follow the "around the
film" style of Rare's classic Goldeneye.
Further
comparisons to that N64 classic end there. Where Goldeneye was a
groundbreaking FPS title for consoles at the time, Quantum shadows
genre leaders like Call of Duty and Rainbow Six: Vegas, often blatantly
so. Quantum's cover system seems stolen directly from Ubisoft's
tactical shooter. The scripted shootouts and the way grenades seem to
always appear under Bond when the player isn't moving enough are just
as obviously stolen from Call of Duty.
Don't necessarily take
those as negatives, though. Quantum is a notch below both of those
games in combat, but the comparison is flattering. It lacks the
tactical side of Rainbow Six, and the explosive scenarios of CoD, but
also thankfully ditches the dull story of the former, and the
respawning enemies of the latter. The game uses a very similar (and
equally excellent) control style to the newer Call of Duty games. I
can't fault this choice - Call of Duty 4 has some of the best feeling
shooting controls on consoles.
There is a surprisingly
substantial Multiplayer mode as well. Experience is gained, weapons are
bought and upgraded, and load outs can be customized. There's a variety
of playlists with typical, and a few unique modes, like Bond versus,
where one player is bond and must complete an objective against other
players assuming the role of guards. Quantum multiplayer is simple,
shallow fun, assuring that few will stick with it for too long.
There
are moments in Quantum where you can see great ideas start to develop,
but as soon as they hit a stride, you're forced back into a shootout.
Missions like the science center and Casino Royale allow the player to
sneak in and outsmart intelligently placed guards and cameras... before
being told to kill everyone in the room. This may be closer to Bond's
film style, but I found myself really missing the open nature of
Goldeneye's missions, where both stealth and combat were viable
options.
What Quantum does offer is is a mediocre, but fun FPS
that probably has about as much to do with James Bond as Call of Duty
does with real war. There's a base here for something great, and I hope
that Activision's next title explores making a game that excels at more
than shooting. At least Activision did far better than former license
holder EA's miserable PS1 Bond debut, Tomorrow Never Dies.
