Games Journalism Or Bust!

Something Of Boris

Excuse the Adam & Joe reference, but their songs were spot on. Particularly Adam’s.

I’ve been rather foolish. I’ve been so concerned about the new James Bond film after the remarkably good Casino Royale, I completely forgot to worry about the game. I became complacent believing things such as ‘COD4 engine’ and ‘not EA’ guaranteed quality.

First of all, Quantum Of Solace is a bit of an exaggeration. It’s more like a Quantum Of Quantum Of Solace, meaning you only get a minute portion (ah, the joys of living with a physicist when terms like Quantum are thrown around by the media) of the new movie.

Of the 15 missions available in the Wii version of the game (and presumably the other versions too, but I’ve been unable to check), only five seem to be from Quantum Of Solace itself. And only four of them actually happened, with the first being a tutorial mission bridging the two films. The rest are from Casino Royale and admittedly draw you back into the events of the first film rather well.

The story of the film is presented, and partly ruined, between missions by cutscenes based on the interface used to make phones calls throughout Bond’s cinematic return, but they seem to skip huge chunks of the film, putting gamers in the movie’s second hour after only four missions.

Granted, the film is more chase-centric than trigger-happy, but with the effort put into working gunfights into various Casino missions, you would have thought Activision would extend the same courtesy to Quantum. The Miami museum in Casino appeared for no more than two to three minutes in the film, but has been strung out across two decent missions. Quite why they couldn’t apply this approach to the new film, rather than skipping scenes and entire locations, is beyond me.

It’s this that brings me on to my second point: consistency. There doesn’t appear to be any. While the first two Quantum missions are solid enough, the next two feel a little lacklustre, as if less time was dedicated to them than their predecessors. Likewise, when you see how much time and effort went into Miami, you’ll wonder why this couldn’t have been spent on the rather fragmented Madagascar mission, although the chase through the construction site is recreated well.

More importantly, visual consistency is practically non-existent. We know the Wii can’t handle next-gen graphics, but it can do better than Quantum Of Solace. I refrain from saying ‘much better’ because sections of the game (e.g. Mr White’s estate, the Siena rooftops and the Miami catwalks) don’t look too bad. They’re not the prettiest things on Wii, failing to match up to Ubisoft’s Red Steel, but they’re certainly not the worst.

Unfortunately, other missions aren’t as pleasing to the eyes, with the Opera House and Sink Hole in particular boasting graphical quality last seen somewhere between Goldeneye and Perfect Dark on the N64. The visuals were never going to be equal to those of Call Of Duty 4 or even the average next-gen shooter, but when the closest comparison you can make is Eurocom’s The World Is Not Enough, something is seriously wrong.

Hell, even Miami (my favourite mission so far) goes from acceptable to less-than-adequate when you climb up from the dark alleyways behind the museum and up to the bland roof, showing a lack of consistency in a single level. Ironically, the darker the level is, the better the graphics are, with the exception of the initial mission through Mr White’s gardens.

Despite all that, I can’t bring myself to hate the game. I won’t be shouting about it from the rooftops, but neither shall I condemn it completely. For the most part, it’s the Bond fan in me, but equally it’s nice to finally have a first person shooter on the Wii that isn’t based in the World Wars.

The gameplay works well. Missions are of a decent length, and it’s good to get behind Bond’s eyes once again rather than watching a constipated Pierce Brosnan waddle around levels beating up thugs in a manner that is rarely seen outside of a drunken pub brawl on a Saturday night.

The controls are good. Granted, they’re not as accurate as they should be – certainly not matching up to the pinpoint precision of Red Steel – and it can be annoying that you can shoot an enemy using cover, even if you can see and hit his legs, but it controls just as well enough to make it an enjoyable FPS on Wii, and ultimately, it is the Wii controls that made me refrain from buying the Xbox 360 version, making you feel more connected with Bond’s hand than a combination of analogue sticks and face buttons ever would.

The multiplayer is fun. Aside from the standard deathmatch, there’s a great little mode called ‘Rush’, which seems to bring every Bond/spy multiplayer mode of the past ten years into one, challenging players to complete a series of objectives to rack up the highest score.

And yet I have to recognise my forgiveness is due in large part to the 007 license on the box. Remove Bond from the equation and this is an extremely average Wii title, with flaws notable enough to put off most gamers. If you are a Bond fan or in desperate need of another FPS on the Wii (assuming you’ve forgotten COD:WAW is out next week), it will keep you happy for a few hours.

Be sure you want it, before you buy it. I confess myself disappointed.