Review: 007 Blood Stone
Nobody does it better? Well, based on this effort, I wish somebody would. Yet again Bond is let down by a lacklustre game when he deserves so much more.
Lets face it, if there’s one film franchise that should seamlessly cross over into gaming, then it’s Fleming’s super-spy.
With guns, girls, fast cars, exotic locations and over-the-top villains, James Bond has it all. And yet there are precious few games that have done him justice. With the exception of Goldeneye on N64 years ago, we’ve really had everything or nothing to keep us going.
The recent Quantum of Solace was a rushed cash-in, despite the Call of Duty game engine…so an original 007 adventure, with decent voice talent and scriptwriters – with a blend of action, stealth and driving – sounds about as perfect as Vesper in her sexy purple dress.
And in parts, Blood Stone succeeds. Daniel Craig is modelled in all his intense glory, and voices the role brilliantly. After a rip-roaring pre-credits sequence in Athens across land, air and sea (culminating in a race to the Acropolis in Bond’s trusty Aston Martin), we’re thrust head-first into a cracking global adventure involving bio-terrorism.
Licence to thrill, then? Initially, but several levels later we haven’t seen anything else that’s fresh and the repetitive combat quickly becomes disappointing. A half-hearted, Batman-style detective mode prevents any sense of puzzle in the game and the on-rails driving scenes lack any sense of danger – despite the impressive scale of the set-pieces.
The single-player is all very cinematic and certainly feels like a movie – the problem is, we need to also enjoy the game, spoilt as we are now by the likes of Call of Duty: Black Ops and Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit.
Multiplayer is also a let-down, with poor graphics, weapons handling and game modes. The recent wii re-imagining of Goldeneye is actually more impressive – crucially adding ‘fun’ into Bond’s online kit bag. Unfortunately in Blood Stone, you’ll be left shaken and stirred for all the wrong reasons.
That said, if you have ever dreamt of being an MI6 agent, then you’ll certainly enjoy this for several hours. This could have been the 007 equivalent of Arkham Asylum…shame the developers took their eye off the thunder-ball.
Version Reviewed: Xbox 360
Release Date: Out Now
Review Overview: “More Die Another Day than Goldfinger, there’s fun to be had here for the right price – so let Gamecrawler save you some money / pennys”
Overall Score: 6/10
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This entry was posted on Friday, January 14th, 2011 at 9:00 am and is filed under General Gaming, Nintendo DS, PC, Playstation 3, Reviews, Xbox 360. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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