What do you do when everyone hated the last James Bond movie, and the studio holding the rights to it is about to go into liquidation? You get Bizarre Creations, creators of Project Gotham Racing, to make a Bond themed game and Activision to publish it.
A key researcher in a top secret government bio-weapons research program is kidnapped and M (voiced by Dame Judi Dench) sends Bond (voiced by Daniel Craig) in to rescue him, and stop whoever is responsible before they can use the research to create weapons of mass destruction. So it’s off on a globetrotting trip to race fast cars, shoot up scenic locals and say “Bond… James Bond” a lot (Okay now that I think about it I don’t think he said that once…)
Stirred, not Shaken
Blood Stone is a generic third-person cover-based shooter that borrows a lot from a variety of games but is unable to shake things up and make these mechanics feel fresh. It has a cover system very similar to older Splinter Cell games. Pressing the action button makes James take cover. Approach a corner and hold down the action button to have him go around the corner while remaining in cover, and approaching a gap in cover combined with a quick tap will have Mr Bond switch between cover.
Since the latest Bond liked to get physical, there is also a close quarter take-down that comes in both stealth and regular flavours which also seem heavily influenced by the latest Splinter Cell. Each take-down also earns the player 1 focus aimed shot, a mechanic similar to Splinter Cell: Conviction’s Mark & Execute system, except there is no marking. Each focused shot is a once off a fair. It is possible to rush a target, do a take-down and then fire a focused shot in very rapid succession which can be incredibly satisfying, unfortunately the novelty wears off quickly.
Those hoping Bloodstone would see a return to the old days of gizmos and gadgets will be disappointed. Bond has access to a smartphone, which shows waypoints indicating where the player is supposed to be going, as well as enemy and weapons locations. It can also gather intelligence and unlock terminals via a short, time based mini-game. To balance the fact that Bond will now know exactly how many people are waiting for him in a specific room, he is unable to run or fire with this feature on. Regardless, being able to see enemy locations does cheapen the experience since there is little use for caution when players know beforehand that there are only 2 enemies around the next corner.
Although the missions vary in location they tend to follow a similar formula. Infiltrate, retrieve item X, kill person Y, shoot your way out, escape or give chase in either a classic DB9 or a modern DB9. Oh yeah, there is one level where you drive a Koenigsegg CCX. The level are also a series of extremely linear corridors with little or no space for the player to approach an encounter his or her own way.
There are times when the player can choose whether to take the stealth approach, or go in guns blazing, but even if the player chooses the stealth approach, sooner or later the game will force them to take the more confrontational option.
The poor enemy AI also makes the combat encounters extremely easy, even on the harder difficulties. During one particular stealth encounter, I managed to sneak all around the room, performing stealth take-downs while another guard patrolled happily along, oblivious that the 3 companions he was stationed with had somehow vanished.
During firefights all the player needs to do is wait, and the NPCs will come close enough to be taken down CQC style.
There are 16 weapons for the player to pick up, from Bond’s silenced Walther PPK to a series of samey assault rifles and the odd grenade launcher. The ability to throw regular frag grenades is strangely absent although this could have made the already easy combat encounters even easier.
The driving sections, though fast paced and a welcome break from the regular gameplay, feel sub-par, especially considering this comes from the creators of Project Gotham Racing. Cars all handle the same, even the tow truck used in one mission feels like all the other cars. The crash physics are almost comical since a full throttle head on collision results in nothing more than a sudden stop which allows the target to get away.
Controls are the standard third person shooter fair, except that the jump or vault key is assigned to the B button on Xbox and circle on PS3, which makes the acrobatic sequences feel cumbersome and removed from the gameplay which isn’t helped by the fact that Bond can only jump when the prompt appears on screen.
Though Bloodstone is by no means an ugly game, it is visually static, which little or no dynamic items scattered about the game world and dated looking textures and animations. The character models are nothing stellar and the endless supply of identical enemies does little to deepen the experience.
As is customary nowadays there is a multiplayer element which feels like a last minute addition. There are 3 run of the mill game modes to try; Team Death Match, Last man Standing and Objective. Players can level up and unlock new skins, but overall this lack lustre offering won’t extend the game’s life by more than a few hours.
Closing Comments
James Bond 007: Blood Stone is a bad game its just average with little or no unique elements and a personality akin to that of Craig’s Bond, boring and one dimensional, there is nothing here than another title has done and done better.
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