Worthy of Double-O status?
Put a nice guy in a hot sports car, throw in a fantastic tax for him to boink and then keep a flock of would-be henchman to stand in between our whole and his goals, and you have the recipe for nearly every Bond film in history. With many of the newer films have made a game of the same name and Quantum of Solace is no different. It takes Call of Duty 4 engine and hidden it around the James Bond universe with a few new trimmings to try to keep the action feeling as fresh as possible.
It's just a bummer that virtually everything that was added in an attempt to keep the game feeling fresh is not done all that well. They are not bad additions, they just do not sign or work especially well with the rest of the game, and therefore comes out feeling very forced and artificial.
As you'd expect, Quantum of Solace is played almost exclusively from a first-person perspective. The major deviation from the COD4 gameplay formula is actually one of the few moments when you will be removed from Daniel Craig's point of view. Treyarch, reckon that they had a star that most want to look at, decided to implement a cover system in standard first-person shooter gameplay of QoS. It works similarly to what we've seen from the likes of Gears of War and others.
Basically, any surface can be by pressing E and you can even strike out in a piece of cover by holding the key. The cover system is better than some (Kane & Lynch), but not as functional as others. There were times when I felt I should be able to cower behind something in front of me and I could not. Only to find out that I was perfectly adapted, and it was the cover system screwing me up. It was not a huge nuisance, but the few deaths that I was able to chalk up to the defective cover was a nuisance.
Another problem with the cover system is that the levels are built around the mechanic. This means that the free-flowing way of dispatching enemies from different angles, as was available in COD4 is no longer available. Instead, there are too many situations referred to the standard stop and pop gameplay. It's fine when things are bright and flashy with lots of blood and guts, but when you are fighting a bunch of henchmen things can feel a bit tired.
Fortunately, there are moments when things are not so simple. When the game trying it does do a good job of delivering intensity and flare but these moments are spaced too far apart. Also try to keep the action fresh is the levels of stay varied throughout. They are all a bit predictable - there is the necessary faster trains and museum levels - but at least you are not running down the hallway again and again.
You can tell that the developers really wanted to make this game different from COD4, but it does not stop the roots of Infinity Ward's blockbuster from the blue sky in the package. Each second mechanic just falls a bit short. There is a balancing act, where players have to keep a wavering dot in the middle of the screen, a hacking mini-game where you must match the directional keystrokes in a kind of Simon Says variant, and then there are the QuickTime melee events, which actually fare a little better on the PC. Instead of a simple press the button you must adjust your mouse reticule with a spot on the screen. None of them are bad, but the mechanics just not convincing.
Aesthetic game is pleasant to the eye, but can also see a plain bad at times. General appearance of the game, from Daniel Craig's Bond character that the environments are well detailed and fits perfectly with Bond descent. When QoS stumbles is in the enemy designs and a few of the frills that COD4 delivered so well. Each enemy that you see in the game are the same. Not only do they look the same, but they act the same. They pull off the same death animation, the same towels and slide to come in and cover the same intelligence (as lacking at times) throughout the game. At first it is exciting to see guys jumping over desks and sliding behind a box, but when they do it for 213 time, and it looks identical to the rest of the game, it becomes a little grating.
Explosions do not look good on the PC, but at least they are better than what's available on consoles. Yes, there are explosive canisters everywhere, but this time they did not look quite so cruel to burst. Even when they do not make sense, as on the inside of a museum or on a construction site, there will be a bevy of explosive possibilities. They have a nice, unrealistic Sheen so it's very obvious what can be destroyed, and what can not. Not just the most organic of playing experience, when you have a hydrogen can gleaming at you.
The most disappointing thing was not enemies, it did not cover the system, and it was not the incredible amount of explosive articles about the environment instead it was the sheer length of the game. I enjoyed most of my time with missions - stumbling out of the car to electrify your heart back to life is cool and gun play is funny enough - but it's all just too damn short. You can turn Quantum of Solace in about five hours, maybe four. And it is structured in a way that takes you through most of the events in Casino Royale, and then only affects the plot of Quantum of Solace. It feels like they intended to make this a Casino Royale game, but do not make the first movie so decided to tack on a couple of QoS places and battles a new name on the box.
The multiplayer offering is standard with plenty of Bond-theme modes. There is one in which everyone plays by its members with a Bond on the map, there is one, where two teams each have a VIP Bond, who must stay alive and there is the Golden Gun mode. There are other, perhaps more standard multiplayer varieties, but they are the ones who put you into the Bond universe, there are stars in the show. Multiplayer performed well and was fun enough during my time with it. There was some noticeable lag at times, and the fact that there is no perks or reward system beyond the standard cash-based equipment and weapon unlocks are disappointing. It was good to see the PC version perform as well as it did through Games for Windows Live.
Closing remarks
Quantum of Solace is not the game that it should have been. It is not bad in any way, but what brings them out of the pits of despair is the foundation for a much better game, as we all know and love. The action is less convincing and the world, which is built around Bond does not do much to improve the fun factor. All the additions do little to push the game in front of other first-person shooter and instead take you out of the world to be Bond.