Bond is back and he wants blood… the blood of an organization that no-one knows about, the group that’s responsible for the death of his beloved Vespa. The Quantum of Solace game was based around the events of both Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace movies. How this was done was by making Casino Royale a flash back during the Quantum of Solace time period, and thankfully the transitions between Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace game play is smooth and efficient.
- Quantum of Solace / COD4
The game engine is the same one used for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Graphics are sometimes a bit sluggish on the up take but are reasonable quality once they get going. Unfortunately, detail in the environment is pretty average but in the cutscenes you can at times feel almost a part of the action.
The storyline and gameplay follow the movies extremely well, though it has been modified in parts to give you a more action-based story. It’s easily one of the best movie-to-game adaptations I’ve seen, although I sometimes wished I was the one driving the car or flying the old Russian plane. The AI in the game was very rarely dumb or clueless as to where you are and would always sniff me out, not matter how hard I tried to avoid them.
The hand-to-hand combat scenes are great, in fact in order to deal with an enemy you can’t just stab him, etc. and move on – you actually have to follow a sequence of moves that follow the movie scenes almost perfectly.
The third-person cover and first-person shooter components complimented each other really well. I found that ducking into cover becomes a fast and simple exercise, however with all good things come bad. I personally hated how your health would regenerate almost straight away and was extremely hard for you to die. It would have seemed better had you have to use health packs or something instead of the instant health regeneration. The campaign is, on the whole, a bit too short but is still a fair bit of fun, but I recommend playing it on the hardest difficulty first otherwise there isn’t much of a challenge because enemies are weak and you’re basically indestructible. There is also the small problem of the game occasionally being glitching and slow to react – though this doesn’t happen often, it is extremely noticable and annoying when it does.
- “…But i swear I hit him…”
The Multiplayer is pretty average but is still lots of fun and allows hours of more enjoyment from the game. It supports up to 4 players online and offline, with a range of modes:
- Bond Versus: A lone Bond plays against six other members of the ‘Organization’. Bond will win if he defuses two of the three bombs, or else eliminates every member of the Organization. To make the game fairer Bond has two lives, can see all enemies, and can use any weapon set (whereas the members of the Organization have only 3 basic options). The Organization wins if Bond dies twice or if he cannot defuse two bombs in the time limit.
- Team Conflict: Basic Team Deathmatch of MI6 versus the ‘Organization’.
- Golden Gun: This is a standard free-for-all conflict, which the main aim is to score 100 points. One point is scored for a kill with normal weapons, or for picking up the Golden Gun, while kills while holding the Golden Gun (or killing the person with it) scores 6. The winner is the first to score 100 points, or the highest amount of points in the allotted time limit.
- Bond Evasion: There are two teams, MI6 and The Organization. One player from the MI6 team is randomly designated as Bond, and therefore as the VIP. MI6 wins the round if Bond can get to the escape point, or if all of the Organization are eliminated. The Organization wins if Bond is prevented from escaping within the time limit, or if he dies.
- Territory Control: Basic match of one team having to control a point to gain points for their team.
When playing in Multiplayer, credits are earned based on the number of points won. These are used as money to purchase better perks and upgrades. It can be spent on unlocking new weapons, explosives, gadgets (such as increased health or better accuracy) and attachments for weapons. The upgrades can be earned in any order, instead of in a set order, and are able to stack.
I say well done to the way Activision made this into such a great game full of epic gun fights (even though it’s a bit short) and sneaking around it gives you the full James Bond experience. It’s worth a look-in, especially for fans of the series, but if you’re after more than just a one-off single-player shooter, unfortunately you may be better looking elsewhere.
