James Bond 007 Quantum of Solace PC GAME

Bond. James Bond. Ah, the British secret agent for MI6 has thrilled movie goers since the 60's and next week, the new Bond film (the 22nd actually), Quantum of Solace will finally be released. Activision, acquiring the video game rights has allowed Treyarch to design a game based on both the new film and its prequel, Casino Royale using the Call of Duty 4 Engine. The result is a good game, that's marred by a few blemishes and its short playtime. The story picks immediately after the events of Casino Royale where Bond is chasing after the mysterious Mr. White. Assisted by Bond Girl Camille, 007 tracks one of the leaders (Dominic Greene) of the mysterious organization known as Quantum.

There are also flashbacks to the events of Casino Royale. The story of the game is actually somewhat of a jumble, taking only the major action setpieces of the film. You get the overall gist but none of the details. If you're looking to know the story of Quantum of Solace the film, you won't find it here. 10 out of the 15 levels focus on Casino Royale, probably done as to not spoil too much of the upcoming film. The game is a first person shooter but with elements of Rainbow Six Vegas melded in. You have a cover system (E Button) where you will snap to cover or if you're too far, dash for it. With the right mouse button, you can pop out of cover and take out your enemies. While the health bar seems rather large, you'll actually die from sustained fire after 5 seconds so cover is crucial. There are also quick time events where if you melee an enemy (Q and Left Mouse Button), a cinematic shows Bond performing the move and you must move the white target over the designated circle and press. Done right, the target will glow green and Bond successfully performs the takedown move. Some of the one-on-one battles are also done this way and it feels like you ARE Bond.

Despite using the CoD 4 Engine, the graphics are somewhat mixed with the character models looking great (especially Bond who looks just like Daniel Craig) but the environments and explosions somewhat bland. They're not bad looking, but a little more oomph wouldn't have hurt in the visuals. Sound is the best with the Bond Theme playing at all the appropriate times. Voice acting is done by all the actors and actresses from the films including Judi Dench, Eva Green, Olga Kurylenko, Mads Mikkelsen, and Mathieu Amalric. However the pacing the game feels rather rushed; it can be completed in 5 or 6 hours at most. There is multiplayer with modes such as Bond Vs., Golden Gun, and Bond Evasion but they're not really that big of a draw to keep people playing. It also uses Games for Windows LIVE (which is now free!) so you can get achievements just like the Xbox 360 version.

Despite not breaking any new ground and feeling somewhat rushed at times, Quantum of Solace is still an action packed game that gets most of the stuff right when movie-to-game adaptations usually get it all wrong. Bond fans should check it out!!!

Minimum System RequirementsOS: Windows XP/Vista
Processor: Pentium 4 @ 2.4 GHz / AMD Athlon XP 64 2800+
Memory: 512 Mb
Video Memory: 128 Mb
Video Card: nVidia GeForce 6600 / ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
DirectX: 9.0c or 10
Keyboard
Mouse
DVD Rom Drive