Blood Stone Review

James Bond 007 is back, featuring an original story and the voices and likenesses of the movie cast

Posted by Alex V on November 9, 2010 - 1:55pm EST

Aside from weapons, the only item Bond carries is his smartphone. It is used throughout the game as a tool to collect intelligence and break through electronic security measures. It’s often used similarly to the Detective mode from the latest Batman game. The phone can be activated any time, and transforms the player’s view to an informational dashboard that displays nearby enemies, weapons, and intelligence to be collected. The phone switches off if Bond is engaged in combat, but otherwise it makes it easy to spot your enemies and their alertness level through walls and other obstacles. It seems like a missed opportunity not to include more items in the game, as the phone only allows for a few interactions with the environment.

There are some parts that try to break up the non-stop explosions, namely the stealth sections. Though not explicitly identified as such, Bond often has the option to sneak by and silently disable his enemies, rather than go in guns blazing. Given that Bond can’t crouch, there isn’t a sneak element – as long as the player isn’t sprinting, you can walk up and take out enemies with a melee move. Each melee kill earns you Focus Aim – up to three of them – that works nearly the same as the “mark and execute” feature from the recent Splinter Cell Conviction. These action kills can be used at any time, as Bond’s aim snaps to the nearest enemy, providing opportunity for an instant one-shot kill. Outside of open battle, Bond can also perform melee takedowns from cover. These takedowns are neat, but given that they often cause Bond to leave his cover, they sometimes ruin stealth. Enemies also have a basic alertness meter that fills and subsides quickly if they spot Bond in the distance. Overall, it feels like the melee system is extremely simplistic and underdeveloped, as it is a single button that causes Bond to take down any enemy in range.

Some significant and action-filled parts of the game actually take place with Bond behind the wheel of a vehicle. There is a chapter on each level that has you driving a car or a boat. These sections again work to break up the flow of the game, but don’t play out all that well. For one thing, the cars look fantastic, but that’s expected from a developer who usually focuses on racing games. On the other hand though, the controls have been tweaked to the minimalistic, becoming overly unresponsive and not that much fun to use. All of the races take place on set courses, even though the game does its best to showcase that the player’s path is not limited by simple invisible walls. Instead, things blow up all around you, and a track is carved into the environment. The driving is usually either chasing someone or escaping, but both are heavily scripted so there’s no point to fret if you’re unable to catch up with your opponent – you will when the game tells you to. The chase ends if you fall behind too far or hit a hazard – and this is harder than it sounds. Most of the game’s races are actually trial and error, making them a rather frustrating experience.