241: Why Gaming Owes Bond

[Graeme Virtue]

Why Gaming Owes Bond

James Bond is an icon of escapist literature and the silver screen. Bond's influence spreads into gaming as his mission briefings, weapon upgrades and suave car-jacking skills are apparent in any AAA action title. Graeme Virtue takes a look at what videogames owe Bond.

Read Full Article

 

[Woodsey]

Good article, although I must disagree with one, quite large, point that you made.

One of the main problems with the last Bond game was that you were a one man army. The casino staircase scene from the film was turned into a QTE and then they threw in 100 enemies to shoot up the entire place (before returning to play poker!).

Imagine how amazing that could of been in-game if they hadn't put in a huge stupid fight, and instead worked on proper fight mechanics with you wrestling up and down the stairs blocking machete attacks, etc.

Bond games need to reach a balance between the Hitman games and Splinter Cell.

 

[Aura Guardian]

What an article but I gotta disagree on one thing. I loved Goldeneye's single player more than the multiplayer. Don't get me wrong, multiplayer was a blast, but actually being Bond in the missions, using the gadgets like the Laser watch and the magnetic watch for example, I was amazed that I was Bond. And the replay value in the single player was high thanks to the unlockable timed cheats. Once I got them all, single and multiplayer became awesome.

 

[Aura Guardian]

One of the main problems with the last Bond game was that you were a one man army. The casino staircase scene from the film was turned into a QTE and then they threw in 100 enemies to shoot up the entire place (before returning to play poker!).

Was it the Quantum of Soloce? I only played a bit of it on both the Xbox 360 and Wii and found both versions to be bad mostly due to the lack of challenge and dumb AI..Then again, I only played one level.

Bond games need to reach a balance between the Hitman games and Splinter Cell.

Ooh..now there's an Idea!

 

[Woodsey]

One of the main problems with the last Bond game was that you were a one man army. The casino staircase scene from the film was turned into a QTE and then they threw in 100 enemies to shoot up the entire place (before returning to play poker!).

Was it the Quantum of Soloce? I only played a bit of it on both the Xbox 360 and Wii and found both versions to be bad mostly due to the lack of challenge and dumb AI..Then again, I only played one level.

Bond games need to reach a balance between the Hitman games and Splinter Cell.

Ooh..now there's an Idea!

Yes, and tell me about it

 

[a_thousand_pins]

While Goldeneye was a fantastic game I absolutely loved "Everything or Nothing". It had shooter aspects, gadgets, car missions, and the coolest motorcycle mission which brings me back to the game over and over again. (because i can select just that mission)
The voice acting was good, the helicopter level was HARD! and the gameplay was fun, especially if you opt for all head shots with manual aim.
The end boss was disappointing but the gameplay up to that point made up for all of that in my opinion.

 

[a_thousand_pins]

But Rouge Agent was a pile, it was pretty much a warehouse juggernaut of badguys in the rafters. BOOOOOOO!

 

[BlindMessiah94]

What an article but I gotta disagree on one thing. I loved Goldeneye's single player more than the multiplayer. Don't get me wrong, multiplayer was a blast, but actually being Bond in the missions, using the gadgets like the Laser watch and the magnetic watch for example, I was amazed that I was Bond. And the replay value in the single player was high thanks to the unlockable timed cheats. Once I got them all, single and multiplayer became awesome.

Yes, I miss the single player days of bond games where you knew were every enemy was in every level, could pick them off if you wanted or run in guns blazing earning time cheats. I miss feeling like that secret agent in single player games. Nowadays everything is so hellbent on realism that they forget that the point of a bond game is not to be realistic.
You really did feel like Bond in Goldeneye, which is a point a lot of games missed out on in further bond releases. Though many of those games were half decent (I liked Nightfire if I recall), I never felt like Bond.

 

[Squilookle]

What an article but I gotta disagree on one thing. I loved Goldeneye's single player more than the multiplayer. Don't get me wrong, multiplayer was a blast, but actually being Bond in the missions, using the gadgets like the Laser watch and the magnetic watch for example, I was amazed that I was Bond. And the replay value in the single player was high thanks to the unlockable timed cheats. Once I got them all, single and multiplayer became awesome.

This. Definitely this. Anyone who thinks Goldeneye was all about multiplayer might have played it, but they never actually OWNED it. By having well thought out objectives, non linear level design that made the places feel like actual places, and a no-nonsense punishing difficulty that made you really feel like you were the super spy when you got through (unlike the patronising handholding approach in all bond games since), Goldeneye's singleplayer has stood the test of time and is still played around the world to this day. Mostly because it still hasn't been topped. (Though Perfect Dark has a much better multiplayer by comparison).

It's also because the control and gun gameplay just feels perfect for a console, and began steering it in a non-locked-to-centre format that suited consoles with gamepads. Between Goldeneye, TWINE, PD and the timesplitters series, it looked to really hit a stride with the way console shooters differentiated themselves from PC shooters that made use of the mouse.

Then, of course, Halo came along...

 

[Jared]

Actually, thinking about it like that it does bring up a good point. Bond really does fit into the archtype video game character.

I never really thought of it like that but, it does have all the hallmarks.
Main Character, Mini-Bosses, Main Boss, Different locations and different weapons and also the girls, heh.

Enjoyed the article greatly and actually has got me thinking about this kinda thing and trying to assign with other films

 

[Flying Dagger]

I may have only played Nightfire on other people's consoles but i loved playing it at the time.
the multiplayer was awesome, and the story missions seemed fairly decent, from what i'd played of them.

 

[Eagle Est1986]

I'm kinda surprised that I've never made the connection before. I'd only gotten a few paragraphs down before I realised just how obvious it all was. Most older first person shooters could have easily been Bond games, with only a little bit of dressing up required.

 

[Dr. Crawver]

I would like a new James bond game, but I would hope it would be better than almost all other licenced games, which are mostly rather lackluster. The character deserves it (and no blonde hair, it looks wrong)

 

[Mobius Ace]

i pretty sure that me and you are about the only two people that have ever played that game. and i agree with you fully, it was a bloody gem on the PS2 that EVERYONE missed out on because they were too busy with... i donno medal of honor, and the Ubisoft dominate games, and the shittiness of xbox (original). but that game dominates any James Bond game, as it could be considered as a movie considering its original story line and all star casting...mmmmmmmmm Shannon Elizabeth.

in terms of one problem that i have with this article is the idea of no character development. well yes the movies are shallow action tittie fest, which i wont complain about, you dont learn much about bond himself, but my question is, why are you watching the movies without reading the books, it seems asinine to me to think that the two go hand in hand, and you learn much more about bond himself.

id personally like to seen another Daniel Craig Bond game with more thought and less Treyarch in it, that game certainly didn't receive poor sales because of WaW, it received poor sales because it seemed to suffer from bored desk clerk syndrome, much like 2k's borderlands did, these games come out right before big name titles such as World at War and Bioshock 2 respectively and are made by the interns who think they have a big shot, but inevitably fail due to retardation. which has seemed to plague the James Bond games, will this new James
Bond change that? not likely with CoD Vietnam on the horizon but one can only hope. i got me N64 specifically for Goldeneye and since that day ive been waiting for that one Bond game to break through and be the God send the gaming world deserves.

 

[Stefan Hall]

If you are interested in Bond and video games, please purchase (or find a copy at your local library) of The James Bond Phenomenon: A Critical Reader, 2nd Edition, edited by Christoph Lindner. I wrote the chapter "Shaken, Stirred, Pixellated: Video Gaming as Bond".