James Bond 007: Blood Stone

Jacob Singer, Looks cool, but not as good as the upcoming...James Bond 007: Goldeneye. I would love to see...Capcom get the Bond License, and adapt their...Street Fighter engine, to make a...2.5D 007 game! I would love to see more...2D or 2.5D games.

I'm interested in the Golden eye re imagining, but what I want from new Bond games is the Modern Warfare franchise. This is as close as it gets I guess.

Nice action filled trailer. I found the Quantum Of Solace game to be decent enough, so I'll definitely be picking up this game.

Looks like Everything or Nothing, which was by far the best Bond game (yes, including Goldeneye), so I'm intrigued.

That game had Heidi Klum, Shannon Elizabeth and Mya though... so this one needs to step up it up big time from Joss Stone.

(Plus, EoN also had John Cleese, Willam Dafoe and Richard Kiel... ya know, for the ladies.)

This.

This so very much.

I'm still mad that EoN isn't Xbox backwards compatible.

Looks fun... re-watch that trailer and go to the 1:02 mark. Is Bond flapping his arms to fly away from the blast?

If this game is like Everything or Nothing, that is a good thing. EoN was a really fun game that mixed up driving and on foot levels pretty well. My favorite level was probably the one where you are on a motorcycle chasing down a truck through oncoming traffic on a raised highway.

Even though it was mediocre, my friend and I loved to play Agent Under Fire back in the day.

BTW, Everything Or Nothing looks INCREDIBLY fun. How did I miss this?

I'm one of the freaks who really, really, liked Nightfire so I'm a sucker for James Bond games. I also kind of liked the Quantum of Solace game, so I'm definitely interested in this game. Interesting that it's by Bizarre Creations, it should mean the driving sections are fantastic at least.

I'll be a very happy camper if this is as good as 'Everything or Nothing' was.

Kinda hate the name, but yeah, this looks like quality.

Everything or Nothing doesn't need cheerleaders in this thread apparently, but I will echo that Quantum of Solace turned out surprisingly well.

EVERYTHING OR NOTHING is my favorite Bond game to date. I've said it before and I'll say it again: It's better written and more entertaining than some of the movies.

I think what makes GOLDENEYE still so amusing for me (in memory at least; I haven't played it in years) is the primitive-yet-effective A.I. of the other characters and enemies. It was the first time I had played a game where your computer opponents seemed to have lives of their own. And I liked that you could live in this game a bit and not have to race through time-sensitive missions.

Never played QUANTUM OF SOLACE. I hated the movie so much, I had no interest in immersing myself further in that title or storyline. Is it seriously a good game or is it just better than people were expecting given the movie's dubious quality?

It's an attempt to capture the Call Of Duty 4 style while also including a cover mechanic that shows your character ala Rainbow Six Vegas. It's probably worth the five bucks you could find it for.

I suppose they probably won't use the Judas Priest song... but they should.

This was seriously one of the top highlights of the last console generation for me.

The only thing holding EoN back from being my favorite is that I generally don't like third-person shooters. That motorcycle on the bridge stage was amazing though. There was a GREAT sense of speed as I recall, that only Burnout could match.

I loved that level in EoN where you free fall down the side of a cliff, shooting henchmen off ledges as you go. I also remember it had a nifty grappling hook mechanic.

Shit, I'm going to have dig out my old Xbox now...

It's Call of Duty 4 with James Bond in it. It's good, I assure you.

Also, 2/3 of that game is based off Casino Royale, if that seals the deal any.

Good to sound it holds up. Is there still some kind of Multi player experience?

I picked this up yesterday, and am having fun so far. It reminds me of EVERYTHING OR NOTHING (though the driving sequences have yet to top anything from AON, and there have not been any classic moments like that game's infamous cliff jump), and so in that sense it's a welcome blast from the past

 

I very much enjoy getting to play as Daniel Craig, but IMHO one of the game's big problems is that his AVATAR suffers from what I've deemed "Yun Fat Chow Face Syndrome"

 

This refers to the game STRANGLEHOLD, where the model for Tequila never looked much like CYF whenever he was grimacing or furrowing his brow, yet when non emotive and relaxed, the resemblance was uncanny. Unfortunately Tequila grimaced his way through much of the game

 

Here in BLOOD STONE, Digi-Craig walks around with his mouth partially agape, and it just looks odd. In QUANTUM OF SOLACE the Craig model had it's mouth closed, and IMHO it more closely resembled the star

 

This Craig looks good when viewed from the back and the sides or in low light, but when seen straight on his face has an off putting dead eyed quality to it. It's unfortunate because his piercing blue eyes and intense stare are some of Craig's most well known and admired attributes

 

EDIT: I found QOS to be fairly forgettable, but I was still looking forward to another FPS Bond adventure when I purchased this. Imagine my shock when I boot it up and there is Craig, existing in the third person

Really underrated game. Story is vintage bond, filled with action, globe trotting, chases, girls, gadgets etc. And it has some awesome melee animations, for awhile it seems like no melee you do is the same as the last. Also the driving sections are fantastic, which comes as no surprise given that it was developed by Bizzare Creations.

I am definitely enjoying this, as it's very pick up and play - I am going through the story in little half hour starts and stops. Unfortunately IMHO there are still alot of sharp edges that were left unsanded

1) It is hard... too hard. There are alot of bottlenecks in the combat, and specifically the driving sections (though I will get to more of those later), where survival depends on having the twitch reflexes of a 12 year old COD addict

Being Bond should make you feel like a bad ass, not a 'noob'. I am not the best in the world at videogames, but I don't suck either, and this game (I am playing on NORMAL DIFFICULTY, perhaps I should have done EASY) frequently grinds to a halt as I replay the same 2 minutes of gameplay 15 times before I can progress

2) I love driving the DBS, and the car combat is generally attractive looking, but IMHO it's far far behind EVERYTHING OR NOTHING. In that game, every single driving level was a joy. The motorcycle chase through the rooftops, apartments and ancient temple causeways in South America? The green SUV with rockets? The awesome open ended NEW ORLEANS street driving sections? The iconic MOTOR CYCLE BRIDGE CHASE against Jaws? All of those had infinite replay value, and offered a way to participate in the action since your Q-Cars were weaponized

There were frequently sections of the game where you could just tool around, having fun with the car physics and models, enjoying the environments and generally cruising around as Bond

 

The driving in BLOOD STONE seems to be centered around 'blink and you'll miss them' turns and the like. Make the tiniest of errors and you're back at the last check point. There is no room for creative driving, or even small but cool looking mistakes. One egregious section involved driving on an icy river, where the ice and the water were the virtually the same color, and you never knew what would be around the next bend. I spent 15 minutes grinding through that stage by trial and error, when what should have been fun and exhilarating was instead deeply frustrating. In a game like this, I'm all for break away ice ETC, but it should be easy to avoid and there as spectacle, not an obstacle

 

3) Less interactivity in the combat

The shooting is all fine (I could have used some blood, but whatever), but there are fewer 'Bond Moment' type things, like in EVERYTHING OR NOTHING or in STRANGLEHOLD, where if you're quick on your feet you can get the environment to destruct your enemies for you

I've counted only one of those moments so far, where I dropped an elevator of reinforcements

On the plus side? This game has some beautiful environments. It's alot of fun sneaking around some of these places, though my favorite moments always come from just standing around with civilians, pretending to be under cover

It's fun playing as Bond, and I hope there is more goodness to come as I move into the game (I just caught the guy after the Aquarium level), but definitely not as good as EON so far at least

PS Oh, and one other area it falls short? No truly memorable, stand out gameplay moments remotely close to the cliff jump sequence in EON, or even the fast roping exploding building section of that game

SPOILERS

 

Last night I got around to fighting the second nearly impossible helicopter in an hour, and so I decided to bring up a walkthrough.. only to discover that I was basically at the end of the game

 

So, I feel now ready to offer up my closing remarks on BLOODSTONE. This was a good game, but it needed more. In some ways it shares that in common with DEUS EX HUMAN REVOLUTION (which is still one of my favorite games ever). There was simply not as much variety as EON, not as much of a 'wow' factor (compare the opening sequence between the two games), and it just never quite reached that level of awesome despite being consistently good. I also am pretty sure it's a much shorter game. I feel like I'd hardly started to play before the game was already over

 

Anyway I am up for more Bond games with Craig in the lead (or they could bring back Brosnan or Connery too, if they'd like), seeing as I got this one for 24 dollars. I hope next time there is more to do though, and more free roaming (both on foot and in car)

Another complaint: the game world feels much less cohesive and immersive because of the fact all the driving levels are interrupted by loading screens and as previously stated, there is no way to just cruise around and see the sights. In EON, Bond could get out of a car, or walk up to his BMW and get in without the game missing a beat. It felt more like Bond was actually hopping in the car for a chase, rather than simply "oh, time for another driving stage!"