The Bourne Conspiracy Review:- Is it just another Movie-game cash-cow . . ?

Or a legitimate attempt at a decent game that you will enjoy playing.

by dkpatriarch

© 2008 David Hilton.

“`Who couldn’t watch a Bourne movie and imagine playing it as a video game? The fast pace, fantastic ‘who am I’ storyline, brutal combat, and shaky cam are tailor made for a game. Luckily High Moon Studios and Sierra agreed, and went about making The Bourne Conspiracy. The problem is that most movie-to-game conversions are abysmal cash-ins that only make you think of what could have been. So, is Conspiracy another crappy tie-in or is it a genuine “bourne again” movie-to-game experience?

Okay, I’m going to get this out of my system right away so that the cringing and groaning at my pathetic puns don’t last the whole review. The story goes: Jason Bourne is a “bourne in the U.S.A” trained black ops assassin (man the U.S. have more black ops that legitimate ops according to film, books, and games…) who is plucked out of the water, “re-bourne” as it were, with total memory loss and no identity. The U.S. government’s Treadstone unit doesn’t want to let its malfunctioning property go free though and so tracks him down as he struggles to learn who he was. What follows is a roller coaster ride as Jason is “bourne to run” from everyone trying to kill him and “bourne to be wild” both with a sympathetic girl and a Mini in Paris.

More review and pics after the jump:

Click on any image for full rez view:

Okay…out of my system now. The game follows the first Bourne movie with flashbacks to previously unknown missions he had to conduct as a Treadstone agent. As he follows the movie’s plot of re-discovering who he is and being none too pleased about the results, he also has to fight his way through various locations in France, Switzerland, and Lithuania. Of course if I was a black ops assassin and I left a trail of destruction and death as enormous as Bourne does in this game I think I would have been ‘retired’ a long time ago…Still silent assassinations are not as fun, are they?

The gameplay is divided into two basic styles, with a driving mission thrown in for good measure. There is shooting and fist fighting, with some areas focusing on one or the other. Luckily if you get tired of trying to play cover-and-shoot using the game’s imperfect aiming and terrible ‘press A’ covering system, you can sprint shaky cam-like up to the baddie and seamlessly start a fisticuff session.

This is where you truly feel like Bourne and High Moon has done a great job of re-creating the visceral feel of the fighting style used in the movies. Occasionally these are marred by the camera getting stuck above you while you and your enemy go invisible near some environmental object or other and the boss fights can be hard on your fingers (and sanity), especially on the harder difficulty settings.

This is no bash X and Y fight though. You need to time your defence, movement, and hitting style to suit your enemy and there are some nifty and gratifying ‘take down’ moves you can do with the B button when you have built up the hit-o-meter.

The ‘take downs’ depend on where you are in your environment, which is really well implemented. You hit your foes into statues, signs, windows, furniture, nearly drown them, hit their heads into photocopiers or vending machines, and there even is the infamous pencil stab into the hand scene you can recreate as well. It all feels genuinely hard hitting and painful and most of all, fun

This could get boring if it was all the game had to offer though. High Moon has really done a great job of rotating the styles and locations so that you don’t tire and lose interest. The third person shooting may not be nearly as well implemented as Gears of War, say, but it does take place in attractive destructive environments with exploding cars, fire extinguishers, and gas tanks, books flying everywhere, wood and glass shattering, tvs smashing, and statues chipping and breaking. Oddly, like too many video games, the street lamps still are bullet proof.

While you can sneak behind some enemies and knock them out, they tend to see you very easily (even when looking somewhere else) and the shooting begins. The enemy AI isn’t too advanced, but does the job. I had a good laugh when one guy, yelling “use the cover!”, ran into the middle of the street where I promptly made him into swiss cheese with my machine gun. The diversity of guns is good and you can pick up enemy weapons when you have run dry of ammo.

This can be frustrating though when you need to pick a gun up that is near something that is used as cover, and you end up dying because the A button puts you in cover instead of getting the gun. It is also very distracting to have the green A button prompt constantly coming up near cover environments because the game has a lot of quick-time events and you might rush to press A thinking you are in one, only to find yourself stuck in cover again.

Quick-time events are spaced throughout the game. They are used in cinematic cut-scenes (so be ready!), fights, the driving section, and even for special marksman shots and fight take-downs. I can see how High Moon wants to keep the cinematic feel by using interactive cut-scenes, and they usually do a good job of not overdoing it for too long, but the game does seem to have a great deal of them.

The good thing at least is that if you fail you get treated to a fair variety of cut-scene ends like various ways of dying or getting arrested. The problem is that the quick-time events mean that you miss most of the visual effect of the cut-scene as you are watching the screen for the correct button to press all the time, even if there isn’t one in that scene. If you get too caught up in the cinematic, you miss the button press.

This ‘no time to look’ effect also pervades the sections with a time-limit or where you are running from snipers or helicopters. You are so busy running in shaky-cam mode with the awesome Bourne soundtrack pounding that you miss the scenery they worked so hard to make attractive.

“`You also miss the ‘passports’ you are supposed to collect for achievements. I can understand that pace and intensity in the game is important and does make it feel very like the Bourne movies but the graphics are worthy of some exploration time. That is, except the cut-scene visuals which are much lower in quality.

“`High Moon wants to push you forward and have implemented various methods to do so. There’s nothing like being unarmed and have a bunch of gun-toting soldiers chasing you to keep you running. Mind you, if you ever do get stuck wondering what to do, press Y and you’ll get Bourne ‘vision’ which tells you what to shoot, and where to go. This is a very linear game. It has so many objects blocking your way that you often get stuck on them when running, and also serves to deter you from exploration when you are not.

The driving sequence through Paris in a Mini has been heavily criticised in forums after the demo was released, but it is a welcome respite from all the shooting, fist fighting, and timed button pressing. The section looks fantastic and even though the car is rather ‘floaty’ and the level again pretty linear with time limits applied, those who like being chased and crashing their way to the next checkpoint will have fun with this.

“`It isn’t meant to be a challenger to Burnout or Project Gotham Racing, it is meant both to recreate the film’s chase scene and to give the game longer legs, and though it doesn’t quite do the former it does do the latter well enough.

“`The overall presentation of the game is good but there is some clipping and blurry blocky graphics sometimes when you die rag-doll-like. Also the camera swings around annoyingly at times, particularly in close combat, so that you don’t know which way you are facing. They got the transition from ranged combat to close combat perfectly though, unlike games like Dark Sector.

The game isn’t as long as some might want, but much longer and it would get too repetitive. High Moon have done a great job of trying to keep the game changing up enough in environment and gameplay so that you don’t feel bored as in so many other games.

The Bourne Conspiracy (proudly brought to you by MasterCard- you can tell from all the in-game advertising) doesn’t add much to the existing story of the first film but it does give you a great deal of fun while you play it. It actually does the job of ‘feeling’ like the movies, even without the likeness of Matt Damon.

It is let down by the fidgety aiming and cover system, some difficulty in vision when holding a gun as it zooms in too far for you to see around you properly, a poor use of the shoulder button for both swapping weapons and going to gunless mode, and by distracting you from the cinematics to the extent you are always watching for quick time buttons. While the game doesn’t get everything done right, it is a fun romp through the Bourne world, and I personally hope we get another even better one in the future.

“7.5

© 2008 David Hilton

Filed under: Console gaming, Xbox 360, Xbox 360 3rd Party Games, Xbox 360 Game Reviews, Xbox 360 News Tagged: | Jason bourne, Robert Ludlum, robert ludlum's bourne conspiracy, Robert Ludlum's The Borune Conspiracy review, the bourne conspircay review