Quantum of Solace

QUANTUM OF SOLACE
(Activision, Xbox 360 and PS 3, Teen)

The game industry's long pursuit to cook up a worthy successor to Goldeneye 007 — a fan favorite most regard as the best James Bond title ever — has officially crossed over into serial madness. Take a close look at the names of the Achievements in the Xbox 360 version and you'll notice that many are named after Bond flicks. Dr. No. Thunderball. Moonraker. Tomorrow Never Dies. One movie, however, is conspicuously absent. As if it's now bad luck to even mention its name, Goldeneye is the only one of the 22 Bond films not included.

Then again, it could just be that this game has a problem with names. Another peculiar thing about Quantum of Solace: The Game is that it has relatively little to do with Quantum of Solace: The Movie. Yes, the game starts and finishes where you would expect, but most of the levels take place in past events seen (and unseen) in Daniel Craig's last 007 adventure, Casino Royale. There never being a game based on that movie, you probably won't mind re-enacting Bond's famous foot pursuit of a bomber through a construction site. Elsewhere, the game stretches out the movie plot by concocting outrageous situations we are told happen off-screen. That train to Montenegro during which 007 first flirts with Vesper Lynd? We learn there was a small army of drug dealers running amok. And are now given the opportunity to eliminate them.

QoS isn't as polished as the prominent first-person shooters out there (including Call of Duty 4, which lends it's stellar graphics engine to this this), but as far as giving you a taste of what it feels like to be Bond...James Bond, well, mission accomplished. It also isn't going to make gamers forget about the Game-That-Must-Not-Be-Named. (It tries its best, even going so far as to re-create the Golden Gun deathmatch, an FPS version of hot potato in which players find the gilded firearm and try to survive while in possession of it.) Though the graphics may look light years better than those on the 64-bit GoldenEye, Quantum of Solace is just another Bond game that comes up a bit short in matching the spirit and high-adrenaline thrills of the 11-year old classic. — Gary Eng Walk

GRADE: B

Originally posted Nov 17, 2008
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