Review: Blood Stone 007

James Bond puts butts in seats every time a new movie hits theaters. Unfortunately, his name doesn’t always rally the same kind of support when a new Bond video game releases. While there is certainly the occasional diamond in the rough, Bond has had it’s fair share of debacles and hasn’t really found it’s footing since the explosive success of 1997’s Goldeneye. With that said, Activision hasn’t let that stop them from striving to find a formula that can stand toe to toe with the wildly successful “Casino Royale”. This month, Activision released a remake of the original Goldeneye from British developer Eurocom in addition to a completely original game developed by Bizarre Creations. In the end, I was surprised to find that both titles were surprisingly solid but it was Blood Stone that ended up delivering an experience that I couldn’t have seen coming.

Blood Stone 007 (PS3, Xbox 360)
Developer: Bizarre Creations
Publisher: Activision
Released: November 2, 2010

Appreciating a James Bond game can be difficult, especially for game snobs who prefer titles with certain artistic qualities. For the same reasons that Bond never wins an Oscar; Bond games rarely earn the respect of game enthusiasts and press alike. While I’m sure my pleas may go unheard, understand me when I say that Blood Stone has set the bar just a tad bit higher for original 007 games (Notice my choice of word there). Blood Stone is not a game that intends to set the precedent for third person action games by introducing new mechanics and features; it is a game that simply uses what came before it to craft a better experience for fans of a beloved series.

Since its inception, 007 has been handled by many different studios including Eurocom, EA Redwood Shores, Gearbox, and Rebellion and has now finally found it’s way into the hands of Bizarre Creations, the team responsible for Geometry Wars and this year’s Blur. What originally began as a Bond racing game was eventually molded into a combination of third person action and fast-paced driving sequences. The resulting game looks and feels like a real James Bond film; more so than any game that came before it. What will likely be dismissed as a standard fare third person shooter should be recognized as a package that delivers exactly what I and fans have come to expect from anything else brandishing the Bond brand name. Slick, well-choreographed (and over the top) set piece moments litter the experience and serve as exclamation points on the otherwise typical shooting mechanics. From a dramatic and fast paced romp through catacombs in Istanbul to a high-octane race to board and halt the departure of a flying battleship, the game certainly does a lot keep things interesting from beginning to end.

Where Bond has tended to be hit or miss in gaming, Blood Stone managed to establish a formula that is just good enough to be considered passable while making sure not to break the illusion of being Bond. Shooting is aided by a snap-to aiming reticule and a well designed and effective cover mechanic. Thanks to some satisfying physics and character animations, fire fights feel fluid and visceral, if not a bit too easy at times. Weapons are accurately portrayed with quality sound effects and appropriate kick back and ammo is never an issue thanks to the abundant supply of mobile-meat-targets.

Borrowing elements from this year's Splinter Cell Conviction, Blood Stone implements a simple but incredibly satisfying take down mechanic. When in close proximity to an enemy, a simply button press sends Bond into a surprisingly complex and oftentimes, brutal, hand-to-hand take down animation. Even in the second to last level of the game, I was still occasionally stumbling upon brand new animations that I had never seen before. For every successful take down, players are rewarded with the ability to take down multiple targets in quick succession with the currently equipped weapon. By the end of the game, these become life-savers in situations when unexpected fire fights are triggered or when Bond is overwhelmed and low on ammo. While balancing can become an issue due to the ease in which these kills are initiated, shooting is satisfying enough to ensure that most players will naturally use a balanced mix of both melee and shooting.

On paper, Blood Stone seems like a pretty typical Bond game but its the driving sequences where Bizarre Creation's mark begins to shine through. With only a few exceptions, most levels in Blood Stone feature at least one major driving sequence. These sequences are not only smooth to control and well choreographed (in most cases) but they serve as a welcome change of pace from the typical shooting gallery sequences. Unfortunately, the point of these sequences can usually be boiled down to mere scripted story sequences since at it's core, the track is set and the player has little to no control over how the sequence finally pans out. Players are merely left to hold down the accelerator and dodge obstacles until the sequence ends in some kind of crash or explosion that ultimately transitions to the next shooting gallery.

Perhaps the most glaring issue that Blood Stone suffers from is the inclusion of a painfully annoying investigation mechanic. By scanning the environment with a smart-phone, Bond can gather Intel from unmanned lap-top computers. Unfortunately, that is the extent to which this mechanic is used. It is as if the mechanic was created but never finished but left in the game anyways. Not only is it shallow and unnecessary, it creates this awful green filter effect on the screen that can be terribly disorienting when moving through an environment. This kind of mechanic certainly has a place in a game like this but in it's current form, it is far from finished and does more to hurt the experience than help it.

I fully realize that my opinions of Blood Stone are likely to be considered the minority given that the game doesn't do much in the way of introducing anything fresh or new. The game is merely a culmination of many of the things I liked about various Bond/action games over the past few years. A new coat of paint certainly serves as eye candy but many players or critics require more from there games, at a gameplay level, before they relinquish praise. Thanks to some minor balancing issues, a mostly forgettable multi-player experience, and a fairly short single player campaign (6-7 hours), the game is definitely not without its faults. In the end, Blood Stone is a well crafted, surprisingly beautiful, game that delivers what most fans of Bond yearn for; unbridled action and style.

Score: 83 out of 100
(80-89%: Great - Only very minor issues get in the way of greatness.)