'James Bond: Blood Stone 007' Review - Licence To Shill

The history of Ian Fleming's MI6 super-spy James Bond in video games is almost as old as the interactive medium itself, entering the biz in 1983 with the release of "James Bond 007" for Atari 2600, ColecoVision and Commodore 64. Close to three decades and 23 (!!!) games later, Bizarre Creations (High Moon Studios handled the PC port) and Activision have cooked up Bond's latest adventure, an original tale by "GoldenEye" screenwriter Bruce Feirstein, "Blood Stone 007." Daniel Craig, Dame Judi Dench and Bond Girl of the Moment, Joss Stone, lend their voices and likenesses as well, giving the game plenty of star power. The question remains however: Is there enough shake in this martini to satisfy fans of the suave secret agent?

The Basics

James Bond Vs. WMDs. That's simplifying, but it's basically what is going in in "Blood Stone 007." Shady characters are producing a crapton of biological weapons and only MI6's top agent can stop them... with some aid from a sexy spy, of course. It all unfolds from a third-person perspective as Bond shoots and drives his way to victory in a series of increasingly exotic locales. Apart from the single player story, "Blood Stone" also features a competitive multiplayer mode with XP-driven weapon unlocks.

The Highs

Plot Points

Structurally, "Blood Stone" is very much a James Bond adventure. The story begins in typical fashion, with players coming in at the tail end of a mission in which 007 must race to prevent a bomb from reaching a G-20 delegation at the Acropolis. The action then moves from Greece to Turkey as Bond is dispatched to investigate the disappearance of a British weapons engineer. Of course, nothing is as it first seems. To go further would spoil the story, but rest assured: this feels like a Bond adventure, right down to the dazzlingly animated, Joss Stone-backed opening title sequence.

Sneak-Shoot-Drive

The 8-or-so hour game quickly settles into a rhythm: Bond goes to location X in his secret agent guise, sneaking around and stealth-killing guards as necessary. Upon reaching his destination, all hell breaks loose and the silencer comes off. Following a series of cover-driven shootouts, Bond hops into a nearby fast vehicle and proceeds to escape or chase his way to the next stage of his adventure. It's simple, sure, but the action is broken up enough that it never quite manages to feel repetitive.

Welcome Inspiration

Strip away the driving elements and it's hard to avoid comparing the action-heavy stealth elements in "Blood Stone" with those "Splinter Cell: Conviction," right down to the latter game's Mark and Execute feature. It's called Focus Aim here, but the function is roughly the same: each enemy you take out with a melee attack fills a meter which can be "spent" on up to three successive line-of-sight insta-kills. It was fun in "Conviction" and it remains fun (though admittedly less so) here.

The Lows

Tactical Failure

Roughly two-thirds of the game is focused on gunplay and foot-based action, so it's unfortunate that the enemies Bond faces are so disappointingly robotic in their tactics. During the stealth sequences -- it should be noted that there's no penalty for going loud in these situations -- enemies stick to static patrol routes and are often arranged in such a way that there's an obvious order to take them out in, quickly and quietly. Once the bullets start to fly, the baddies mostly stick to firing from behind one or two different points of cover. Occasionally they'll try to flush you out with a grenade, but mostly you'll just sit back and line up your headshots from safety. The only "challenge" is the frequency and suddenness with which enemies spawn.

Crashed Course

Driving is the final third of the gameplay in "Blood Stone." While it certainly does lead to some cool set pieces, the challenge is pretty minimal here as well. The most frustrating bits require more in the way of memorization than any sort of skill, so repetition (and not a whole lot of it, really) will eventually win the day here.

A Movie Game... But Where's The Movie?

I said up above that "Blood Stone" is structurally a James Bond adventure. And it is. In the same way that the old N64 classic "GoldenEye" was structurally an adaptation of that movie. It wouldn't be your first choice for getting a full, coherent story, but it was fun to revisit and interact with those locales. "Blood Stone" is very much the same sort of experience... only in this case there's no movie it's tied into.

Taking The Multi Out Of Multiplayer

"Blood Stone" features three competitive multiplayer modes with persistent stat-keeping and unlockable weapons. Joining Team Deathmatch and Last Man Standing is the centerpiece objective-based mode -- originally titled "Objective" -- in which teams must complete three missions before taking on a final task. That is all well and good, and sounds like fun. The problem is, you can't play it if no one is online. I tried numerous times over the past bunch of days to play online, and only ever managed to get into a single 5-on-4 TDM game. It should be noted that this review of "Blood Stone" is based on a playthrough of the PC version of the game, so Xbox and PlayStation gamers may have better luck.

The Verdict

"Blood Stone 007" is a fun romp at times, but it's mostly just a franchise cash-in. There are much, much better games out there. There are also much, much worse. Like another of Activision's 2010 franchise releases, "Transformers: War for Cybertron," "Blood Stone" serves the fans reasonably well but also falls short of delivering a memorable gameplay experience. Worth a rental if you enjoy shooting galleries, but even the die-hard Bond enthusiasts will want to think twice about dropping $60 on this when there are so many more fulfilling releases to play this holiday season.