Quantum of Solace Review

BY Ali Malik | POSTED: 03 January 2009

Lacks the double-oh seven factor.



James Bond… the name has become synonymous with action-packed movies in the same way it has with disappointing games. After Golden Eye, a legend in the FPS genre, every game has promised to build upon this solid foundation and bring an even better experience to the table, and it is for this very reason that every Bond game fails as it is compared, sometimes unfairly, to its great ancestor.

Quantum of Solace, the latest installment in the Bond series, is no different. Developed by Treyarch, this game was meant to break the trend for this ailing series, and match Golden Eye, which any gamer would know is easier said than done. But is Treyarch being over-ambitious? Or are they able to recreate that winning formula which was used by Golden Eye so effectively?



One department, you would expect a James Bond game to be sound in would have to be the story. After all, the story is present in the movie and all you have to do is copy and paste… but unfortunately that isn't the case with Quantum of Solace as the story swings between Casino Royale, the previous film, and Quantum of Solace. Infact the story is mostly from Casino Royale with the locations adding a welcome touch of Quantum of Solace, as if they had totally forgotten which movie they were developing for and suddenly remembered a week before release. Other than being hypocritical it occasionally proves to be confusing, as it takes some effort figuring out who you are supposed to kill. So it would be recommended that you watch both movies before playing the game.

The first thing you'll set your eyes upon will, obviously, be the graphics. And they really are worth a good look. The character models are impressive, and there is a lot of special effort put into Daniel Craig, James Bond, as you can see that Treyarch wanted him to look as identical to the real deal as possible, and I must say that they have done a grand job. You can actually see the tiny details such as the bending and folding of the skin on his face, the wrinkles etc. The environment isn't too shabby either, the intricately detailed and thankfully varying environments provide a fitting background to your killing sprees, though there is the trademark museum and train level. However I can't say the same about the adversaries.



The enemies are twins of each other; actually I would say that they are clones. They look the same, think the same, act in the same way, make the same stupid mistakes which cost them their lives, replay the same death animations and probably have the same fingerprints. Their slides and jumps over obstacles are momentarily cool but they quickly decay into a boring repetition. They are, bluntly, quite pathetic. If only a little less effort had been put into putting e-makeup on Daniel Craig, and a little more had been put into making the enemies act less like clowns and more like dangerous henchmen, the game would have been twice as fun and wouldn't have put such a dent in the gameplay.

That brings us to the gameplay. Having the COD4 engine would, in theory, mean that the game would excel in this department. But unfortunately it doesn't. In an ambition to make something better and different than COD4, Treyarch has introduced a unique mix of ingredients which ironically spoil the experience and seem as if they were added for the sake of adding something new.

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