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  News > Gamespy: James Bond 007 In Quantum Of Solace (ps3)

In James Bond 007 in Quantum of Solace, you'll take on the role of the ageless James Bond, as played by the remarkably popular Daniel Craig. He's no Sean Connery, but we'll begrudgingly agree that he's done a good job with the role. His take on Bond has been more "deadly intelligence operative" and less "martini-sipping playboy," though those aspects of the character are still part of what defines him. In any case Craig's Bond doesn't shy away from gunning people down, and thus makes for an ideal videogame shooter character.

Quantum of Solace takes a cue from Rainbow Six: Vegas, blending first-person shooting with a third-person cover system. You can duck behind boxes, take position to peek around corners, and sprint from cover to cover with ease. It's interesting that a proper cover system was implemented, since it's been developed by re-engineering the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare engine, which lacked a proper cover system.

While it differs from a thematic standpoint, and makes use of the cover system, we can also see where the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare engine came into play. The visuals are quite impressive, from the running and gunning character models to the varied and detailed environments.

The premise of Quantum of Solace is more of a catch-all "Daniel Craig as Bond" game than it is a straight rip of the upcoming film. The game will combine scenes and scenarios from the upcoming "Quantum of Solace" film with those from the last picture, "Casino Royale." We wanted to check out some of the levels based on the forthcoming film, but were limited to those based on "Casino Royale" for fear of spoilers leaking out. Oh, those overprotective film studios. Don't they want us to get the word out?

The single-player level we played took place on a speeding train, with Bond taking out the bad guys aboard. He was lead from area to area by a mysterious voice on the other end of the cell phones strewn throughout the various train compartments. It was in these areas that we noticed how effective utilizing the environment was in combat. We were able to shoot fire extinguishers to make them burst, blinding nearby enemies, while shooting at a more volatile target, like a gasoline drum, would very nicely explode, taking out multiple targets in one shot. We liked using the powerful magnum for this kind of work, though we spent a lot of time using submachine guns and laser-sighted automatic pistols as well.

At the end of this stage we faced off against the head bad guy on top of the train, tossing aside our weapons and going at it fist to face. It's in situations like these where the game's "quick timer" button-pressing events kick in. We had to watch as we grappled, slipping and rolling around on the train's roof like a pair of mudwrestlers. At every key defining moment of the battle, we had to press a particular button, or mash it really hard. Succeeding allowed us to win that particular move, and move on to the next. It wasn't particularly challenging, and we wonder if having a proper hand-to-hand fighting system would not have been a more satisfying option.

Our multiplayer experience was altogether more fulfilling than that battle. We took on about a dozen other games journalists in multiple rounds of heated team deathmatch and solo deathmatch battles. Regardless of how well the single-player experience turns out, we're convinced that multiplayer Quantum of Solace is where the game will truly shine. Just like in Call of Duty 4, you can customize your character by assigning them special abilities and custom weapon loadouts. You can go for increased health, higher bullet damage, faster reloads, extra ammo, and so on. You have two special abilities to choose from, as well as unique grenades, armor, and sidearms. It played like Call of Duty 4 with a cover system, which in itself is a tantalizing proposition.

Unique gameplay modes set things apart from these matches being just another round of team deathmatch. One mode was called "the Golden Gun," fitting right in with the Bond mystique. Here, players competed to kill each other and claim the floating golden gun power-up, which in turn gave them the most powerful weapon on the field. The drawback? If you've got the Golden Gun, you always show up on enemy radar, so you're the most obvious target.

Another mode that was good fun had each combatant start off with pistols, but all sorts of weapons were strewn across the map. We didn't have access to our custom loadouts, but since the environment was a multi-stepped rooftop section of Venice, we had a great time climbing through open windows, racing across rickety plank bridges, and ducking behind planters as we picked each other off at will. Finding the powerful grenade launcher led to lots of kills, of course, but sniping was pretty difficult, what with so many combatants racing around a relatively small arena. Still, it was good to see that even without the custom character options the core shooting gameplay was still great fun.

The first-person shooter market is incredibly crowded, and games like Gears of War 2 will continue to elbow out the competition for players. For Quantum of Solace to attain a respectable audience it has to do more than just present a passable single-player game, and from what we've seen it will. We're looking forward to playing more of the multiplayer when the game launches this November. The tough question is, where will we find time to level up all these characters in all these games?

http://ps3.gamespy.com/playstation-3/james-bond-007-project-activision/917060p1.html