Wii Review: Quantum of Solace (2008)

The problems with the Quantum of Solace movie were generic: if we weren't told that Daniel Craig was playing James Bond, how could we tell? It was just another action movie, as far as I could tell, and the 007 license (to kill) was incidental. And this problem has been transplanted onto its ancillary products. The Wii version of Quantum of Solace is a solid enough first-person shooter, but as a 007 game, it lacks that distinctive Bond feel. Interestingly, QoS combines the story of the its namesake film with that of the previous (and far superior) entry, Casino Royale. In fact, far more time is devoted to the events of Royale than Solace; the first and last few levels function as bookends, and Royale is sandwiched in between. This is disorienting at first because the initial flashback is poorly indicated (especially, I imagine, for players who may not be familiar with the films), but things pick up fairly quickly. Most of the missions are conducted along traditional first-person shooter lines, although the vantage point switches to third-person once players duck behind cover. This is a neat feature that is tactically useful. However, I must mention that aiming in first-person on the Wii is often wonky. Even if your remote is carefully calibrated, precision aiming is usually difficult. Thankfully, though, precision shooting and stealth are not often called for, and that points us to another problem with this game: too many times the really neat stuff (stealth approaches, acrobatics, car chases) take place either entirely in cutscenes or, worse yet, completely offscreen. Split-screen multiplayer magnifies the same problems with aiming the Wii remote by considerably shrinking aiming area. Online multiplayer is decent enough (including a wonderful recreation of the classic Facility level from GoldenEye) but very few players are online at any given time. You could do worse for Wii, I suppose, but I would recommend sticking with the PS2 Bonds instead.