007: Quantum of Solace

"GoldenEye 007" for the Nintendo 64 set the bar high, for both movie tie-in games and James Bond games. Since then, "Everything or Nothing" and "From Russia With Love" have done an excellent job of allowing gamers to feel like they were James Bond. "Quantum of Solace" for the PS2 is the latest in a long line of James Bond games, and it's decent, but doesn't meet expectations.

First of all, there's a difference between the QoS game for the PS2 and the QoS game for next-gen consoles. While the next-gen version of the game is primarily a first-person shoot, the PS2 version of the game is exclusively third-person, offers a smaller arsenal of weapons, and has much weaker graphics. James Bond looks remarkably like Daniel Craig, but the other characters look more like something from the Nintendo 64 game. Particularly, Olga Kurylenko's character, one of the most beautiful Bond girls in decades, looks decidedly unattractive here. Also, the PS2 game is missing several of the levels from the next-gen version, including only one new level, the Haitian docks, as a consolation.

Level design in other Bond games wasn't exactly complex, but in QoS the missions are far too linear. Most of the game play in the PS2 version of the game consists of running into a fire fight, ducking behind cover, then either "blind firing" from safety or peeking out to try a more precise shot. In some instances it's possible to execute a stealth attack, but rarely worth it. Melee attacks, unlike EON or FRWL, consist solely of a pistol whip, which can be effective, but if you miss you will almost certainly die. There's no departing from the beaten path to execute "Bond moves", no playing with fancy gadgets (fair enough, since Q doesn't appear in either of the movies the game is based on, "Quantum of Solace" or "Casino Royale"). Bond isn't even able to carry grenades, though several enemies are able to lob them at him. There's also absolutely no vehicle levels, which is a shame since the source material provided plenty of great moments to drive an Aston Martin, motorcycle, boat, or a DC3 plane.

The game is at its best when its letting you reenact moments from the films. Locations like the Madagascar construction site from CR and the Sienna rooftops and Perla Las Dunas Hotel from QoS are recreated accurately in the game, so that it feels like you are actually playing through the events of the movies. These are the moments the game makes a worthy movie tie-in. On the other hand, the worst aspects of the game is when it differs from the movies. Across consoles, first of all, rather than traditional cut scenes, most of the story is told through graphics like those on M's computer module in the QoS film. Plot points are quickly communicated through conversations between M and other characters following Bond's progress. Granted, the game has to combine the stories of two major films, but in the end it's still far too brief, and there's no excuse for the "tell, don't show" approach that skips over huge chunks of the plot and doesn't allow the player to be present at events such as Bond's assault on an embassy or the climactic card game in CR.

Major characters are excluded from the plot altogether. While Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelson, and Judi Dench all provide their voice and likeness to the game, memorable characters like Gemma Arterton's Agent Strawberry Fields, Caterina Murino's Solange, and Ivana Milicevic's Valenka fail to appear at all. The characters of Renee Mathis and Felix Leiter, major players in both movies, are left out entirely. Instead, forgettable characters like Elvis, Kratt, and Dimitrios become major boss fights. Apart from Craig and Dench, the other talents from the movie (at least in the PS2 version) are underutilized, only getting a few lines a piece. Also, scenes from the movie like the Bregenz Opera House and the Miama science museum have been changed for video game reasons. While both scenes in the movies were open to the public and crowded with civilians, the game has the locations closed, forcing Bond to sneak around them after hours. Once Bond is finally in the science museum, instead of the movie's captivating body works exhibit, the room contains a few model helicopters and some boring artifacts. The game's credits even spell Judi Dench's name wrong. (They credit "Judy Dench" as the voice of M.) The game is fun while it lasts, but it only takes a few hours to play through once. With no unlockable content and no multi-player for this console, the game has very little re-playability. While fun while it lasts, QoS, particularly on the PS2, doesn't quite capture what it means to be 007, and is worth only a rental, even for hardcore 007 fans.

Welcome to 007: Quantum of Solace. I played this game on agent which is a difficulty down from 007. Reasonably easy game, even at the agent difficulty, but be aware of the cover system.

With the cover system in this game? You will find at times you have to fiddle around and maybe say the odd swear word or two when the game messes up your play.

Other than that, a nice tidy game with online play, if anyone is out there playing.

I know, I know, every 007 game since Goldeneye of the old N64 has sucked big ones. It's like the law. Oxygen is a must, Water is needed, and Bond games after Goldeneye are terrible, you know...? I must admit, I gave it a miss upon it's release, thinking it would be awful but my partner bought it for Xmas and I gave it a fair chance. I went into this one expecting it to be the same old but was pleasantly surprised.

I'm a big fan of FPS games: Black on PS2, Call of Duty 4 was the daddy but the servers have become noticeably poor since they released COD5, which, despite it's superior graphics and great gore, is sadly held back by it's WW2 weapons and setting(it's just not as fun, guys!), not to mention the MASSIVE maps online meaning it's harder to find the opposition and leads to endless running around. Farcry II has possibly the best graphics I've ever witnessed, but again the online play kinda sucked a bit, I dunno, something was just missing for me, and the story mode spoiled by too much real-time driving (fun for the first play then it so drags the game down)... The likes of Resistance 2 sucked for me also, poor graphics and aliens never really were my thing to be honest.

I, like many other PS3 owners, just want rid of all the aliens/WW2 nonsense and to have, for a change, a good old-fashioned Rambo style one-man-war mowing people down action game.

So Bond wasn't really expected to match up to any of them, and boy did it. The story mode is better value than the COD games, it is longer, although I ain't seen the movie so was left a little confused by all the twists at times.The action is the best thing I've played since Goldeneye, bar possibly COD4 when it was first released. Sure, the graphics are great in places but on the whole they aren't in the same league as it's other competitors, however, the game's main strength lies in it's sheer fun.

The cover system is a cool add-on which I think most FPS games could benefit from adding in in the future. The likeness to Daniel Craig is fantastic. The 007 pistol with silencer makes you FEEL like you're James Bond. For instance, if you're playing, say, Call of Duty online and you run out of bullets and are left with just a pistol, your first thought would probably be along the lines of "Stick a fork in me, I'm done" but as Bond you don't mind, it's actually quite cool headshotting your totally unaware victims with a silencer whilst in cover haha! For me, this is the best online game out there since COD4. Even more impressive when you take into account that there is no gore at all (NONE!!!), there is not even a ranking system (???wtf???), there are less than 100,000 players on the whole leaderboard, the environments are non-destructible and the cool spy-like mêlée scenario you can do in the story has been replaced by a kinda lame rifle-butt strike for the online modes. There is just something about the pump-action shotguns, p99 silenced pistol and big-ass Rambo guns that make this game a hell of a lot more fun than all those big name titles I listed above, I don't know how they've done it, but Treyarch have taken a franchise that everybody had written off as irrelevant and they've produced one of the finest games they possibly could have done, and I for one will be playing this game from now on until Call of Duty:Modern Warfare 2 comes to us. Shove your Resistance, mate.

Pros:Fun Gameplay gun selection is pretty big game looks gorgeous for a 2008 release takedowns are awesome James bond.

Cons:Sadly storyline is completely nonsensical and seems to be a combination of Casino royale and Quantumn of solace but its just incomprohensible A bit repetitive sometimes.

Enemies have limited lines (i swear they literally only say We need Backup Over!) One shotgun only some parts are kind of bullcrap (sinking chapel and a spotlight section for example) one or two gadgets would be nice.

Verdict 5.5/10 (7/10 if you dont care too much about the story) Well i know that i mentioned alot of positives but the fact that the story is so BAD it makes no sense just kind of ruined the game for me. Other than that the game is fun especially the gunplay also lost of things to explode which is also Fun. As i also said the game contains some Parts that are kind of bullcrap and come with no warning and require a few retries definetly,Some timed sections seem unnecessary,And in the first level when stuff is exploding at the end the game actually lags a bit aswell! Other than that its not that bad but the story is.

I came to look at the reviews of this great video game adaptation of the Quantum of Solace movie, only to find a plethora of bumbling idiots who mistook this for the movie back in 2008! The rating of this game should be much higher.

It's made by Treyarch who by now are veterans in the video game industry, making classics such as Call of Duty: World at War and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. This game will surely also be regarded as a classic. Gun play is smooth and satisfying, the story mode is a great mix of the Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace movies making for some of the most enjoyable FPS missions I've ever played. I played the multiplayer (although it was nearly a decade ago when I was 7 or 8 lol) and it was surprisingly enjoyable and I found myself playing it more than the Cod of that year. There's even a gold camo grind for those who are interested.

Great game!

8/10.