First off, I must say that I am not a big fan of the James Bond series. After Goldeneye for the N64, they have all been pretty much the same and have never been able to keep my attention for more than a few hours, especially with all the better games out there. So knowing that, here is my review.
The game starts off very nicely, in a movie like sequence where the game starts without even getting to a start up screen. Right away, I was impressed. The voices are the real ones and the characters really look like their movie counterparts. Pierce Brosnan, Shannon Elizabeth and Heidi Klum are almost flawless copies of themselves. The story is also an original one, not in the sense that it is unique, but in the sense that it is not a retelling of one of the movie, but a story made up specifically for the game. As usual, it starts off with the bad guys, from another country (yet all speaking English), who got their hands on a weapon and you have to get in back.
The first chapter involves a tutorial within the action. Pausing now and then to show you the ropes and then the next level is more of a full fledged tutorial (which is optional). The game is presented very well and includes some nice extras. In every level you are able to perform "Bond Moves" which are special situations where you can use you skills or gadgets to escape in an original fashion (such as grappling down a building instead of taking the stairs). At the end of the level it gives you a complete rundown of your stats. Including how many Bond Moves you made, kill rate, accuracy and then an overall score. I've always liked to see my stats, so I thought this was a nice addition. And as usual, you have a lot of gadgets and nice cars to drive.
That is the main draw of the game, now the downside. The aiming system is terrible and provides little excitement. Basically, all you have to do is use the left trigger to lock on and then shoot, no aiming required, which I always found was a terrible system. This takes away from the skill that would be needed to actually aim and makes the shooting scenes very repetitive. There is also very few save points within levels, so get ready to redo a lot of parts, but at least you can skip the video sequences.
The is also no auto center button, so you find yourself looking to the side and getting shot from the front a lot. When you get killed, the screen goes black and white and rotates around you, a nice little effect. It also take three to four buttons to use a gadget, far too many, and the game pauses while you switch weapons. This is due to the Bond Senses that you have, special skills you can use in the game. It seems that a keyboard might be better for this game, since there are so many buttons to use.
Finally, the multiplayer, this should and some excitement, but since developers seem to think that players want to play through the whole game before being able to play with their friends, every single multiplayer option is locked except for one map and a few characters. So needless to say it gets old quickly.
There is also a co-op mode, but not for the regular story, it is more of a multiplayer mode mission based co-op. But this is mostly locked as well and I got bored of the game before I could unlock all the levels.
If you're a Bond fan, rent it first and check it out. If your not, let it pass like you did Nightfire. If you want a stealth game, play Splinter Cell.
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