So Bond is back, the longest running movie franchise in history, all 50 years crammed into one game, well all the classic moments at least. Or that is how the game is billed. Don't get me wrong opening to Auric Goldfinger's assistant sprawled across your bed covered in gold paint in a room littered with champagne bottles is a pretty good way to start the game, it doesn't really get more classic than that. On the outside then this is the most innovative and intriguing bond game to date, the weaving together of 6 key Bond films that each shaped his character. From losing his wife in On Her Majesty's Secret Service to avenging Felix in Licence to Kill each of these films played a key role in developing Bond's character and this is what Eurocom were trying to achieve with the game. As a life long Bond fan I have to applaud their efforts in trying to do so much with one game its refreshing to see a company that don't want to just churn out a movie game for the sake of it.
From the outset the game plays and looks like a hybrid of the old and the new, this is the really clever part of it, they have taken the old film settings and villains and recreated them as best they can and in some cases modernized parts of the set. Then they've added Daniel Craig as the man himself James Bond, thrown in the new Aston Martin DBS and there you have it, a modern classic. Is this really what was needed though, I mean would you want them to go back and edit in Daniel Craig instead of Sean Connery in Goldfinger, of course not so why do it with the game. We've all played the modern games, driven around in the new Aston, fired an AK-47 but wheres the excitement in that. Why not give us a DB5 to roar around in and then destroy whilst playing chicken with a large mirror, I can't help but feel that most of the classic moments are lost in the modernization of the game and the lack of back story with each mission.
However these minor issues wern't about to stop me playing the game so my review continues. 007 Legends is not the prettiest game to come out of a box, its more N64 than Win 7 64-bit and there isn't an awful lot to shout about. While the characters look realistic and the areas are relatively well presented there are a number of bugs. Namely scanning lines that appear quite frequently on the console versions at least, I imagine enabling V-Sync on pc would solve the issue. I've also found that on the PS3 at least, there are laggy patches that are a far cry from CoD's widely advertised 60fps. Seeing as this is basically a CoD clone but with Bond playing the hero it's a bit strange that it should have so many issues. My favorite bug by far though occurs during the licence to kill missions where i was attacked by an army of Daniel Craig's. I kid you not, most if not all of the enemies spawning were Daniel Craig clones. With this being such a high profile game and using such low end graphics the fact that you get these errors and more, mostly shadow issues, consistently is almost unforgivable.
Its not all bad though the gameplay in general is a bit of fun, its your standard FPS, run through the level and shoot everything that moves, although there is technically a stealth mode, but more about that later. Right now I want to talk about quick-scoping. With this being almost a carbon copy of CoD the guys at Eurocom have heavily utilised the quick-scope mechanic, which is far to easy in my opinion, allowing you to waste entire rooms of people with no skill at all. The one redeeming feature of the gameplay is the MI6 upgrades shop. At various points throughout the missions you will come across crates that will allow you to exchange xp for either weapon parts or character boosts. This actually does add a bit of fun and a tactical side to the gameplay, choose to silence up and go stealth, or chuck a grenade launcher on your AK and go crazy, it's your choice. That said anyone that can get through this game in stealth mode has the patience of a saint and far too much time on their hands. Not being able to look round corners here is a real disadvantage, in fact the only help you do get is that crouching makes your footsteps silent. The game really suffers from a lack of interactivity with the guards bodies here, being able to hide the subdued guards would make stealth mode worthwhile, but in it's current state, it is not really a viable option.
Overall the gameplay lacks innovation, each mission consists of fighting to the villains office, infiltrating their office, gathering intel and then a quick time event to beat the boss. Even though there are a few car chases thrown in and some different styles of gameplay, namely skiing and zero gravity missions, it doesn't stop the overall game from becoming repetitive. What's more if you don't know the films inside out the overall feel of the story is completely dis-jointed, you are dropped in halfway through storylines with no real clue as to whats happened or why and as a result the game has no real flow to it.
I don't want to completely write this game off though, it does have some positive aspects and it is still fun to play through, especially for any Bond fans out there, they've also brought back the fan favourite MI6 missions which add a bit more of a challenge to the game, You could also do a lot worse if you're looking for something to tie you over untill the next big release. Ultimately this is a game that will be picked up by fans and kids and its success will probably be determined by how many fans want to pick it up brand new and how many are willing to wait for the price to drop.
Verdict : 3/5
While the gameplay isn't particularly bad it lacks the polish of a good game and the innovation of a great game, that said it will still provide entertainment for Bond fans and anyone that wants to pick up an easy shooter and blast away the enemy.
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