Quantum of Solace: The Game Review

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Once in a while though, it hits upon something genuinely interesting, like a good set-piece. Having to guide a drugged-out Bond out of Casino Royale itself is a particular highlight, as is the Venice level set in the crumbling building and the one set on a train. But these bits are far too rare to elevate the overall quality of the experience and distract you from the mediocrity surrounding them, and for the most part you're funneled through corridors instead, dispatching brainless enemies and wondering whether EA would have done a better job after all.

To give Treyarch credit where it's due, Quantum of Solace does at least look presentable throughout, although it's a dinner jacket rather than a dinner jacket. Daniel Craig's likeness is genuinely excellent, and the seamless way the game employs the cover system is a useful (and convenient) means of ensuring the star gets enough time on-screen. The levels are also reasonably detailed, with a good deal of variety ensuring the Call of Duty 4 engine is given a run for its money, with over-the-top explosive effects and loads of destructible objects throughout, so you won't be complaining much about the way it looks, or the way it sounds either.

In fact, the audio chaps can skip detention entirely, with an array of excellent voice talent contributing to slick mission briefings, mid-mission chatter and plenty of incidentals. The soundtrack's great too, so in certain respects the game does its job of creating a suitable atmosphere. It's just a shame the core gameplay's so vapid and uninspired, and not helped at all by the utterly confusing way the narrative flits around the timeline of both Casino Royale and its sequel. If you're not a student of Bond, you will neither know, nor probably care why, in the middle of the game, you're suddenly thrown into flashback, or playing bits of the Casino Royale timeline which didn't make it into the film.

Use some cover Mr. Terrorist!

And while we're not ones to complain too much when games are short these days, in this case Quantum of Solace is unacceptably brief. Clocking in at around the five to six hours even for cack-handed old grumps like me, you could clear the single-player campaign in a single evening without breaking a sweat. Sometimes it's great for a game to be on the short side if it's crafted and poetic (ICO, for instance), and massively replayable (Portal), but that's never the case here. Some of the Achievements (like taking out a posse of snipers with one bullet each) are a nice touch, but enough to make you want to play it again?

Inevitably at this point there's always a chance for the multiplayer to help save face, and Bond does passably. Among all the standard modes are a couple that stand out - there's Bond Vs, for instance, where one person plays as 007 trying to disarm bombs placed by players representing the 'Organisation' - and the popular Golden Gun mode also makes an appearance, giving one player Saruman's one-shot-killer and everyone else the rank-and-file. Meanwhile, Bond Evasion mode is pretty good, with players trying to escort a VIP between locations. The weapon upgrade system, meanwhile, gives the multiplayer side a bit of longevity, with cash-based unlocks allowing you to customise weapons with a series of attachments, and improve reload times and damage levels. It's all too little, too late, though, and struggles to escape the stigma of the rest.

If Bond walked into his local Sainsbury's he would probably find at least 16 things to blow up. It's the rule of 007, apparently.