| Product: |
From Russia With Love (PSP) |
| Date: |
15/07/08 (99 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: True to the Bond film
Disadvantages: No driving sequences at all.
The original James Bond returns in a game based on one of the greatest and most loved Bond films of all time. When I say James Bond I do actually mean James Bond as Sean Connery has actually voiced the character in this game!!! As is always customary with a PSP game, you place the encased disc in the back of the machine and wait for it to load and off we go...... The game play closely follows the plot of the film throughout and you do get to see the characters from the film as well such as Red Grant and Rosa Klebb who both play quite large parts in the plot.
The plot revolves around Bond being lured into a trap based on a photo of a lady called Tatiana Romanova, M sends bond in knowing what he is walking into as a carrot, in the form of the Lektor Decoder, has been dangled as the prize. To lengthen the game some additional levels that were not featured in the film have been inserted into the plotline at various points, these include the chase through the Houses of Parliament. This is at the start of the game where the well known pre-title sequence would occur in a Bond movie. Bond is given the task of protecting the Prime Ministers daughter, Elizabeth Stark, as you can imagine Bond is in the right place at the right time and throughout this sequence you play the part of Bond in third person and must rescue Ms Stark from the operatives of Octopus. Elizabeth Stark is voiced by pop star Natasha Bedingfield.
It seemed that Electronic Arts, the makers of the game, were not allowed to use the name of Spectre for legal reasons that had yet to be resolved and so had to invent a new Spectre-like organisation.
There are a number of immediately recognisable locations lifted directly from the film include the Gypsy Camp, the Russian Embassy to grab the Lektor Decoder and the Garden sequence that was originally based on Spectre Island. What seemed strange to me was that Bond was given the gadgets to assist him in this mission, only trouble was that these were the Aston Martin from Goldfinger and the Jet Pack from Thunderball. Strange because the missions that Bond used these on were actually set after From Russia with Love, minor I know but as a Bond fan it was somewhat confusing.
The ambiance of the early sixties has been captured to a tee in the lighting and the details that have been put together, in fact at some points early on the details do tend to take your eye of the action. The look that has been given to the characters are totally spot on, Bond's clothing and movements have been captured in some quite amazing detail of how he looked in the film, and this has continued with the remainder of the cast as well, as the rest of the cast are the spitting images of her screen character. In fact the motion is incredibly impressive, even with the Jet Pack at full blast there is no blurriness and the picture doesn't jolt at all. The explosions do speak for themselves and the sounds that are produced from these are clear and crisp while also conveying what the size of the explosion actually is. If a factory goes up then the sound backs it up to the extent that you do realise the scale of what is happening in the game.
The feel of Bond has been replicated to a high degree, the soundtrack from the film sounds truly amazing and the title sequence opening the proceedings is totally Bond, presented in just a rich red and Black that is eye catching to say the least.
Not all the locations and levels are the same as throughout Bond has to do certain actions such as rescue colleagues and cross obstacles to reach the other side of the room. Sporadically there are a number of reaction tests that you literally have to react to quickly to win the challenge. The arsenal that Bond has consists of his Walther PPK as well as AK47's and grenades that can be utilised at the correct time and place, also the placements of body armour has been well thought out as some are hard to find yet others are there in front of you when you may not realise you need them.
Overall the early parts of the game really do enthral and entertain, as the newness and originality shines through, if you do get killed you really want to continue the game. Unfortunately towards the end, the levels and game play does become a little bit repetitive as it is just a case of shooting your gun in the right place to resolve an issue, also the levels matching the film have also stopped by now as you have parachuted in the island base of Octopus. The feel that I got from this part of the game was that the game was behind schedule as the Octopus facility that you are inside doesn't seem to have a personality and is bland in looks as well as story and on the whole is rough and not as stylish as the first half of the game. I think that the removal of the driving sections to facilitate the limits of the PSP doesn't make for a good decision as I would like to have seen more of the DB5 than just being used in the cut scenes between levels.
I enjoyed playing this as the game itself is a blast to play and once you get used to the targeting system then the game does open out but does end on a spark rather than a crescendo of explosions. Completion of the game took me just over 20 hours, playing across 6 nights. This is easily the best Bond offering from EA in some time. Personally the best thing for me was that Connery had returned to the Bond universe for the first time in over 20 years and that for me is a big selling point for the game itself!!
Summary: One of the best relases from EA in a long time.
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