Quantum of Solace : A first person shooter based on the recent James Bond movie and powered by the Call of Duty 4 engine.
Story : Like most video game tie-ins, the story in the Quantum of Solace video game is a random mishmash of plot points from the movie tied together in a way that’s nothing short of incoherent unless you’ve seen the movie(s) that it’s based on. This game in particular goes an extra mile (or should I say cuts off an extra mile) by not even rendering cutscenes acted out by the character models but rather having the story told with phone conversations between the main characters while a computer screen from M16 provides some kind of visual that may as well been done in Flash. This game even doubles the incoherence of the plot; for the first hour or so of gameplay, you’ll play missions based on the Quantum of Solace movie, and right before you reach the final sequence, Bond begins to reminisce about the events that brought him here, and then you play about 3 hours worth of missions based on Casino Royale. Way to break up the flow of the storytelling, eh?
The James Bond that Daniel Craig portrays disposes the cocky swagger, unrealistic gadgets and over-the-top personalities of previous incarnations in favor of an emotionally scarred, cold-blooded killer who operates on his motives over that of his superiors and lost his ability to love. Displaying that kind of development in a video game is a bit tricky, so the Quantum of Solace video game plays less like a character study on the iconic British spy and more like your typical game of “one man army killing hundreds of henchmen.”
Quantum of Solace’s rather shamelessly uses every gameplay convention popularized from the last five or six years; the cover button, the ability to only store 3 weapons, the self-regenerating health bar, the screen changing colours to reflect your character nearing death, the quick-time event cutscenes (actually, melee-attacking an enemy will trigger a quick-time event cutscene that asks you to think fast and press the desired button…but not too fast, as the game gives you a surprising amount of leeway to press that single button), a contrived “hacking” mini-game that simulates breaking into locked doors by pressing the d-pad in the direction the game tells you to, conveniently placed explosive containers that just happen to be placed next to where the enemy guards are hiding, the obligatory gun-turret sequence, several obligatory sniper rifle sequences…
It’s a shooter alright. You could take away the cover button and you could very well be playing an especially uninspired version of Call of Duty 4. In fact the only time the game surprised me with a clever idea was at the final level, when I had to shoot fire extinguishers on the wall to put out fires that were blocking my path. (And I’m sure that’s been done already too and I don’t remember it.)
The exceptions to the above statement are the stealth sequences, where the game decides to break up the pace by using every gameplay convention from the last five or six years prior to the five to six years that popularized regenerating health bars. Enemies that walk the same predetermined patrol routine repeatedly even if it’s just a circle around a scaffolding, security cameras, the silenced gun, the ability to approach from behind and execute a stealth kill…these are the parts where the game remembers that you can’t make a Bond game without trying to make people feel a bit nostalgic for the days of Goldeneye. For better or for worse, there’s little penalty for not being stealthy, as blowing your cover simply means guards with bigger guns appear and you get thrown in the same firefights you’ve been playing throughout the rest of the game. Speaking of which, you may either like or despise this, but if you stay hiding in one spot long enough, the enemy AI will not only chuck grenades at you but will try to flank you and shoot from behind.
The gameplay itself is…mostly solid, but a few odd quirks pull you out of the experience. The training to become a 00 agent must be nothing short of incredible, as Bond seems to have little trouble killing enemies by blind-firing your gun from cover. The game tries very hard to immerse the player, to “experience playing as James Bond” by concocting all kinds of staged events in each level…most of which comprise of things exploding around you and the camera shaking a lot. These events come off as too…scripted, largely in part because, in contrast, Bond will barely flinch if an unscripted grenade just happens to explode on top of him. I’ve got nothing against these kinds of scripted events, and in fact when used properly can really pull you into a game (see the Call of Duty games, in particular Modern Warfare) but the ones here feel too inorganic; they make you feel less like you’re part of a thrilling combat scenario and more like you’re on a stage as gimmicked debris falls down, fireworks go off to simulate an explosion and a trap door opens to reveal the path onward. I guess what I’m trying to say is, the game tries hard to be immersive but fails.
And I haven’t even gotten to the James Bond aspect of Quantum of Solace…which is to say there isn’t much. I understand the lack of gadget weapons from past Bond games, and even the lack of an Aston-Martin driving sequence, but if not for Daniel Craig’s likeness and how the death sequence predictably comprises of blood slowly falling down the screen like in the intros of 007 movies (and Goldeneye…and shockingly, Goldeneye did it better! The “blood” here looks rather plastic), then you may as well be playing a generic first person shooter. I’ll even go on a limb and say the authenticity of the game is severely hurt by the fact that an MI6 operative is still giving you orders like you’re a soldier, despite how this Bond spends most of the movies working in defiance of MI6. The only actual “Bond gadget” is your phone, which acts as another menu screen, displaying assorted facts such as a level map you’re not going to need because the levels are incredibly linear in nature. Linearity isn’t always a bad thing, but this game is plagued with invisible walls in the worst way possible. If you’re not supposed to be somewhere the developers want you to be, you’ll know it.
The Quantum of Solace video game isn’t completely bad. There aren’t any game-breaking glitches or bugs like in most movie tie-ins and the online multiplayer is decent enough that you can find and play about 3 or 4 matches in the same it takes to even try setting up one match in Gears of War 2. But being functional shouldn’t be the nicest thing I have to say about the game. It’s a run of the mill shooter that you’d miss absolutely nothing for if you elect not to play it, and doesn’t even fare well as a James Bond game. If you haven’t played a shooter within the last 7 years, then Quantum of Solace has potential to blow your mind, but if names like “Halo”, “Gears of War” and especially “Call of Duty” mean anything to you, then there’s nothing about Quantum of Solace that’ll shake or stir you up.
Pros : “The Man With The Golden Gun” multiplayer match type is blatantly ripped out of Goldeneye and appears here.
Cons : Otherwise, there’s nothing in multiplayer that hasn’t been ripped out any other game. Activision couldn’t even be bothered to acquire the rights to the actual Quantum of Solace theme song from Alicia Keys…well I guess they didn’t have a problem licensing it for Guitar Hero as a downloadable song people have to pay for.
3 stars
I’d like to apologize for the painfully predictable line about shaking and stirring.
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