Quantum of Solace

Nov 10, 2008

Thanks to 1997's N64 smash hit GoldenEye 007, the venerable James Bond franchise is almost as well-established in games as it is in film, and Quantum of Solace is the new installment in each medium. Contrary to its name, the game incorporates not only the latest film but also a chunk of Daniel Craig's first outing as 007 in "Casino Royale."

Developer Treyarch is no stranger to Solace's run-and-gun style of gameplay, with Call of Duty 3 and World at War on its resume. And there's no question that no effort was spared to deliver a cinematic and authentic Bond experience to gamers. The problem is, there's just not very much of it. Solace's single-player mode is barely as long as the movies it's inspired by, and with a price tag that's much higher than a pair of movie tickets, it simply doesn't deliver enough bang for the buck.

Quantum of Solace is the first opportunity to play as the Daniel Craig James Bond, and the character model is spot-on. Although Solace is a first-person shooter, its frequently used cover system is designed to give a third-person view of Bond. It's a clever bit of game design that avoids the mistake made in 2005's From Russia With Love, which saw a wheelbarrow of cash forked over to Sean Connery so that the back of his head could be featured prominently in the game at all times.

The game's voice acting features the same big-name actors as the film, including Craig as Bond, Judy Dench as M, and Eva Green as Vesper Lynd. Its cleverly designed (if linear) levels showcase a great variety of beautiful old European locales, including Montenegro, Venice, Bolivia, and Austria. All are rendered in lush detail to create a truly gorgeous and cinematic experience.

License to Kill

Quantum of Solace runs on the Call of Duty 4 engine, which is more than up to the task of throwing wave after wave of bad guys at you. It also incorporates a new cover system similar to the one seen in Gears of War and Dark Sector. You can run or sprint to cover and duck behind it with a button press, popping out occasionally to pop villains. The cover system is generally very solid, with only very occasional glitches. And considering how smart and aggressive the enemy AI is, that's a good thing.

Solace also features a regenerative health system, like practically every other shooter out there these days. As long as you can stay out of enemies' direct line of fire and avoid their thrown grenades, you should be able to press forward through each level without too much trouble. You can also pick up weapons dropped by fallen enemies and can hold up to three different weapons at a time.

Many levels also give you the option of sneaking through stealthily, putting the "secret" back into "secret agent." You can cautiously tiptoe through areas crawling with bad guys, whacking them discretely with a silenced pistol and surreptitiously hacking doors to proceed. However, the AI detection can be unforgiving, especially on higher difficulty levels. One wrong move and you'll quickly find yourself pinned down and flanked. The stealth mechanic adds a bit of variety to what is otherwise a pretty conventional shooter, but only hardcore fans of stealth-based gameplay will consistently use it as an alternative to fighting.

You can also charge toward enemies and take them down with a well-timed button press, one of many times that these quick timer events (QTEs) are seen in the game. Each disappointing boss fight is essentially one long QTE full of random button presses, and other critical actions are performed via simple, generic mini-games that are no substitute for actual gameplay.

And that's the central problem with Quantum of Solace: As good as it looks, its gameplay is simply not very compelling. The objective of almost every level is to proceed to a goal by shooting or evading hordes of generic enemies, all of whom share the same animations and a limited selection of models. There's no real hand-to-hand combat, no puzzle-solving to speak of, and all of the best vehicular action is limited to cut-scenes.

Solace's single-player mode starts feeling incredibly repetitive long before the end. And that's saying something, because the adventure is four or five hours long at most, with no incentive to go back and replay.

The World is Not Enough

Quantum of Solace attempts to add some value with a handful of standard multiplayer modes and three new ones. The first is Bond Versus, which pits two teams of MI6 agents against each other, each with a Bond who must be protected while the agents attempt to assassinate the rival Bond.

Bond Evasion has one Bond on the map, with the rest of the players assuming the roles of foot soldiers in the shadowy Organization network. Bond has two lives to lose and can see his enemies on radar. The Organization goons can only die once and must visually locate Bond. Whichever side is still standing at the end of the game is the winner.

And finally, the requisite Golden Gun mode is a free-for-all, where one player has control of the phenomenally powerful golden gun. The other players try to kill them and take it, scoring significantly more points for golden gun kills.

There is an attempt to add some depth to the multiplayer modes by letting players earn cash during online bouts, which can be spent on weapon and equipment upgrades. But ultimately Solace's multiplayer is a shallow overlay on top of a fun but generic multiplayer shooter experience. You'll experience everything that Solace's multiplayer has to offer in the first couple of hours, and be done with it in a couple of days.

It certainly doesn't live up to the legend established by GoldenEye 007, but that's not surprising. Most gamers would agree that no Bond game since has really met that high-water mark, even accounting for rose-colored glasses and nostalgia.

In fact, next-gen consoles might be a mixed blessing for the Bond franchise. The temptation is to make sure that the environments and models match the movies as closely as possible, but doing so takes more time and resources with each technical leap forward, and there are only so many months in the development cycle. Hopefully Bond's next foray into the gaming world will deliver an authentic and compelling Bond experience, not just a decent but too-short shooter with some fancy window dressing.