OXCGN’s James Bond: Blood Stone Review: Bizarre’s Final Mission?

Is it a Goldfinger or an Octopussy?

by : Allegionary

©2010 Alex Hilton

James Bond is about fast cars, weaponised helicopters, silenced guns and rocket launchers, and so it is in James Bond: Blood Stone, MI6′s 007′s new adventure on X360 and PS3.

Blood Stone is developed by Bizarre Creations and published by Activision.  Bizarre Creations are reportedly in real trouble, as Activision is now considering selling the company due to low Blur sales, but other companies are circling with hopes of taking their staff, meaning that this could be Bizarre’s final game.

James Bond: Blood Stone‘s storyline is much like the other games and movies in the franchise. An evil company creates a weapon of mass destruction (WMD) that has the potential to destroy the entire world. The WMD for this game is some sort of biological weapon. James Bond, as usual, is tasked by ‘M’ to eliminate the threat.

• James Bond Blood Stone Launch Trailer

James Bond: Blood Stone is primarily a third person action shooter game that sees Bond going from cover to cover, Gears of War style, to shoot, stay alive and proceed through the levels, which range from Istanbul and Monaco to Bangkok, Siberia and Athens.

You only have a short time when you are out of cover to get back into cover before you are badly wounded or even killed. So James Bond: Blood Stone, at least at higher difficulty levels, is aimed at people who are good at or enjoy shooters.

Throughout the game there are also different types of levels from driving a boat to running from a demolisher, so James Bond is always in a fast-action fray. This is great but it is sometimes suddenly broken up by annoying periods when you die or fail without much or any warning.

For example in the driving missions you get no real message that you are falling behind your target that you are chasing, so it is very sudden when you fail the mission which is frustrating. Also the driving missions are unforgiving for even one crash which frustrates amateurs at driving as well.

There is so much going on around you in the environment it is easy to miss a break in the ice or sudden turn. So overall the driving missions are good when you are doing well, bad when you are constantly crashing or falling behind and have to restart yet again.

The shooting combat is fairly standard but fun. The reason accurate shots like headshots are not as important in this game is because you earn ‘focus aims’ for ‘take downs’ (the one-button melee attack that gives a rather dramatic certain kill) which you can use to get a locked on kill shot for your attacks with a gun.

This is done for the cinematic experience and not the difficulty, but it is good to see that the game rewards you for getting close to enemies and engaging in melee attacks.

There are some glitches in the game unfortunately. Bond got stuck once when he accidentally moved over the edge of a crevice which was obviously not meant to happen. Also when Bond used his stun gun on one occasion, he completely froze the target, which flatly refused to fall down.

This shows that the game was not polished enough probably in the rush to get it out, which would be odd since this game probably came at a time when there were too many other AAA titles coming out and could have used a less crowded early 2011 release.

• James Bond Blood Stone Developers Diary

The control scheme for James Bond: Blood Stone is relatively easy to learn in the shooting stages but when you are navigating through the environment it is not as good.

It is annoying when you have to press a button just to climb up a small ledge when many other games are intuitive enough to know to just move you up. When this is done for a lot of obstacles it starts to get repetitive and annoying, especially when in some cases you have to be exactly at the right spot for your button press to even work.

Although the exploration in James Bond: Blood Stone is non-existent as the game is very linear, the environment that you do see is often very attractive. From the ruins of Greece to the streets of Bangkok the environments are often spectacular and realistic.

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However, what is odd is that during the driving missions Bizarre made great looking scenery you never get to really look at, because if you did, then you’d crash and have to start again.

A problem with the environment is that it is not very interactive. Most objects in the level are static and if you touch or shoot them, only the really obvious objects are destructible. This beautiful looking environment from a distance then gets turned into a mostly solid static environment in close which is not in the league of heavy hitters like Uncharted 2.

The character models look wooden. In fact the voice-work, especially from a seemingly bored Daniel Craig as Bond, is also very wooden.  It’s a shame when such a cinematic type game with real actors from the franchise seems so flat in its characterisation.

However, the music in James Bond: Blood Stone is very good. It suits the moment whether you sneaking around or in an intense fight, so you really feel that you are James Bond and not just a “Joe spy”.  The trumpet music also feels very Bond-like, which is appreciated.

There is a 16 person online multiplayer which involves teamwork and skill (not necessarily fun), but most online shooter fans will be playing Call of Duty: Black Ops. As we’ve stated already in this article there really should have been an offline multiplayer for a James Bond game- even Black Ops has a training mode with bots.

Complementing my whinge about lack of local multiplayer in a Bond game, I’d like to point out that there are very few shooters (or even games on 360 and PS3) that carry less than a MA15+ rating these days.

At least this one is unusual in that it doesn’t get into the blood splatter-fests of most shooters, and is okay for younger gamers.  This is a plus rather than a minus in my book because having only just turned 15 I’ve had very few shooter games I should be ‘allowed’ to play (whether or not I actually played them…).

I wonder if some of the lack of polish shown can be blamed more on Activision than Bizarre Creations because Activision would obviously put more money and effort into the much anticipated Call of Duty: Black Ops, which strangely was released around the same time.

If Bizarre does disintegrate as a studio now, this will be a shame.  The Project Gotham Racing games were fantastic and their only other shooter The Club wasn’t half bad either.  It’s especially ironic considering the financial mess MGM Studios (the owner of the Bond license and maker of the films) is in.

James Bond: Blood Stone is a good shooter that suits the James Bond franchise well. It is a shame to see the faults in the game but the overall experience is fun tempered by some frustration.

Frustration is in the form of the driving levels which did not turn out as expected, despite looking great, and fun in the form of the very Bondish levels.

James Bond: Blood Stone is a success for the fans of the franchise who want to play James Bond as he should be, as an action oriented spy.

“8/10

©2010 Alex Hilton

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