Skip to content
DVDfever.co.uk – James Bond: Quantum of Solace Xbox 360 reviewDom Robinson reviews
Activision
- Price: £49.99 (Xbox 360; check above links for other prices)
- Players: 1; Online: 2-16
- Widescreen: Yes
- 60Hz: Yes (only)
- HDTV: 720p/1080i/1080p
- Dolby Digital 5.1 sound: Yes
- Xbox Live-enabled: Yes
- Vote and comment on this game:View Comments
Taking missions from bothCasino Royale andQuantum of Solace movies, starting with being disturbed while you’repicking up Mr White at his house – which happened at the end of CR, your first job is to find and pick up the cash from thatfilm’s baddie which White has his hands on.
In fact, there are missions like this inbetween the things we did see in the film, so it’s like you’re getting to see howBond got from A to B in certain situations and it fills in the gaps a bit and adds more to the gameplay. On that subject, though,it is one which for the most part of very linear in that it’ll stop you from doing even the most minor of jumps if it doesn’twant you to go a certain way. As you progress, you’ll use gadgets to unlock gates and other things in very simple puzzles,eg. push a directional button when the automatic device you’re using finds part of the code to unlock it.
On the plus side, there is authentication in the form of Daniel Craig’s voice as James Bond as well as others such as JudiDench in between-mission segments, and glorious openign credits with a far better theme tune than the Alicia Keys and JackWhite dirge the cinema release got. Bond also can carry three different weapons available at any time, one of which is histrademark Walther P99. To help with being shot at, just as you’re about to die, just hang back and take coverand you’ll soon heal yourself. It’s clever as you lose energy that the Bond-style opening camera-click comes into viewas the picture goes black and white… go one step further and when you die the screen goes all red like the opening to afilm featuring this character.
The graphics in the cutscenes are similar to those used in the film as part of MI6’s own computer system so that helps blendin with the film.
The fights within this title are like theBourne Conspiracygame, pressing buttons at the right time to carry out the given moves. I could record footage from that game, so if you check outthe videos (particular “Fighting with Castel”) you’ll see what I mean.
Random irritations about this game…
- Bond running about feels a bit stilted when it goes into first-person mode as if he’s regressed to the old Doom-style of movingabout from the 90s which does feel a bit odd but I guess it gets the job done. The third-person ‘cover’ mode when you’rehiding between walls and sneaking a peek now and again to shoot at the baddies comes across as fun but is rather too easy.
- There’s the occasional option to press a button to dash a short distance and hold yourself against the wall that you can seedirectly in front of you but I prefer to run myself rather than let the game automate everything.
- Minor baddies have a tendancy to hang around next to explosive things that can kill them, which is reminiscent of the Bourne gametoo.
- Situations like running after the rogue agent early on are peppered with random bad guys popping up like a duck shoot, sincethey weren’t in the film itself.
- It’s rather odd to see so many mobile phones left around with various pictures and phone conversations to listen to, althoughthis is just like finding scraps of paper in other games that contain similar info. Here, of course, they’re all coated inendless product placement for the brand of mobile phone.
All this said, this game does feel like a fantastic bit of fun with gorgeous detailed levels and it’s nice to see how it tiesin with both of Craig’s films so far, and it also features Mads Mikkelsen and Eva Green from Casino Royale in flashbackscenes. Overall, it looks fantastic, especially in HD, and the explosions are LOUD, but the mechanics of moving about can be abit odd and you cannot escape the comparison with the Bourne game.
This game does not play in 50Hz mode so I couldn’t record any footage from the game directly, and rather than use my camcorderpointed awkwardly at the TV – which doesn’t always gain great results – check out theBourne Conspiracy footageonline and know that it’s like that but with James Bond running about instead of Jason Bourne and also a bit more polished.
SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC
PLAYABILITY
ENJOYMENT
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.