Quantum of Solace 360

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Many people I've played with had incredibly different views on this game, which makes it hard to know how to review it fairly. The lack of local multiplayer makes it hard to love, but the James Bond-y bits are hard to hate.

I suppose the outcome of whether you'll like this game or not depends on three things. Do you like previous bond games or other first person shooters. Do you like even vaguely realistic things, or just complete fantasyland where people naturally heal from being peppered with bullets in a matter of seconds. Do you like any form of followable plot line, or are you happy with cheap clips to tenuously string together levels.

If the answer is yes to all of the above, I would bet on you disliking this game.

So I get home from school, luckily with a friend that day, and yes, there's a package from Game People! Well, that's our evening's entertainment sorted then, with the added bonus of hopefully get some good one-liners to report from my friend, as he is usually full of them.

Naturally, being a Bond game, we threw it in the machine and expected a really fun multiplayer mode (as Goldeneye N64 is possibly the most fun shooting game ever). Well, first disappointment on the way, there was no local multiplayer mode not even for two players - crazy! Personally I couldn't quite understand why they'd make this option only available over the internet, as the whole point of Bond games have always been to shoot your friends more than actually completing the storyline, and far more important than how nice the game looks or anything like that.

I had hoped for a fantastic game as it was built using the same engine as COD 4 - it promised to be as good. Unfortunately, these promises just highlight the flaws.

So we get down to taking turns on story mode. Immediately we-re right where the last film leaves off, quite cleverly. Unfortunately, neither the scenery nor the computer characters are intelligent. By that I mean that a small shrub offers perfect protection from any number of bullets shot at you, and guards are programmed to just kill you without being too worrying about being shot themselves. If you put the difficulty up they get tougher and therefore harder to kill, but still seem happy to just stay in one place shooting at you. Therefore, once you work out how to play this game in a style that suits it, the game is simple.

Possibly even more aggravating than the artifical intelligence are the characters. Bond himself is easily killable, with nice and strangely pleasing-yet-irritating Bond-esque blood dripping down the death screen. However, stay safe for two seconds and you will be right as rain once again! We seem to have an invincible Bond! I mean, we all knew Bond was hard to kill, but the speed at which he returns to full health is just ridiculous.

There were several nice touches in the game, the controlling system was pleasant to use, and occasionally there are sort of meta-games like opening a gate by thrashing a button-press pattern. In between shooting all of the bad people (which is, admittedly, fun to do) players will have to hack computers, dismantle security cameras and if so desired sneak up to said baddies and silently do away with them. In these silent up-close fights the camera spins out so you can see Bond doing his stuff in a flashy fashion.

In light of this I'd label this a kids' game - but one with a fair amount of violence, so not for the average young gamer. Or, as in my friend's case, one who loves the opportunity to go back to his childhood and pretend he's James Bond once again.

The game is fun, but disappointing. The seamless transition between playing mini games, shooting all of the evil henchmen (can you tell I find the pointless killing of artificial characters a bit too enjoyable? They shot at me first! I swear!) and the third person coverage of events does make the game enjoyable to be part of. Unfortunately it just wasn't good at any of these point.

Written by Rowan Brown

You can support Rowan by buying Quantum of Solace



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Rowan Brown writes the Teen Gamer column.

"I write about my favourite games from a younger person's perspective. It's often surprising how different this ends up to other more grown up reviews."

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