PS3 Review: 007 Legends (2012)

This one's a bit late. I had originally planned to review 007 Legends in tandem with my review of Skyfall last fall, but you know, things happen. Better late than never, I guess. Keep your eyes peeled for more 007 coverage from your fellow spy enthusiasts at Code Redd Net.

I liked the first Die Another Day game I played better. You know, Nightfire.

I had been hoping for a game like 007 Legends for a long time. It seems like an easy project: to collect the best action set-pieces from the best James Bond films in one game and to serve it up in a competent shooter with a few multiplayer options. From Russia With Love had the right idea, successfully converting the classic '60s spy film for PS2 in the Everything or Nothing model. It was a solid Bond game that captured the look and feel of the film while simultaneously bringing it up to speed with the more stunt-heavy recent Bond films. 007 Legends also has the right idea, as it incorporates the most spectacular scenes from five Bond films and ties them into the plot of Skyfall: those films being Goldfinger, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, License to Kill, Die Another Day and Moonraker. This is an excellent idea well suited for today's generation of games, but 007 Legends falters somewhat in execution.

The game has a real flimsy narrative excuse to revisit all these old missions. It begins with a cinematic adapted from the pre-credits sequence in Skyfall, where Bond is shot by another agent while fighting an adversary on the roof of a speeding train. As Bond hits the water, he is reminded of his previous encounters with Goldfinger, Blofeld, Jaws and others. The game proper begins with a scene from Goldfinger in which Bond finds that girl dead, covered in gold paint. What makes this recreation of Goldfinger odd is that you play as Daniel Craig instead of Sean Connery, and you have access to a smartphone device and other contemporary technology/weaponry.  This is in contrast to the architecture, as well as the design of the surrounding characters, virtually all of whom retain their 1960s clothing. It's an odd inconsistency in art direction spread throughout the entire game, and it never feels quite right. I would've liked to have seen a total commitment to each era, all the way down to its rudimentary gadgets, or a total process of bringing-up-to-date rather than the hybrid nostalgic-contemporary setting provided instead. That's not to say, however, that the structure of 007 Legends is without benefit: those five Bond films, bounded together, make room for considerable variety in setting and gameplay mechanics. Throughout the game, you switch between several styles of gameplay, including the straightforward shooting portions, stealth segments, sleuthing, vehicle combat, and fisticuffs. Unfortunately, these styles are highly organized and segregated in your missions. In other words, a bit of hand-to-hand combat is always bracketed by a cinematic that cues up the switch to this style, and stealth often becomes mandatory to mission completion upon entering a particular room rather than being simply a strategic choice with consequences. Nonetheless, each mission draws on particularly strong action scenes from its respective film to keep the game moving at a commendable pace.

I was also impressed by other improvements over the previous GoldenEye: Reloaded, particularly a dramatic increase in replay value. Whereas more recent Bond games have suffered from a weak single-player experience that did not invite multiple playthroughs, 007 Legends has a strong set of weapon upgrades and unlockables for multiplayer, based on finding objects and overall mission scores. Furthermore, I was impressed by Legends' customization options. Like most modern first-person shooters, on the default option health regenerates after a few seconds: thankfully, though, Legends gives you the option of switching to an old school system in which health does not regenerate and you must rely on body armor spread throughout the level. This is a nice addition that makes the game considerably more challenging, in many instances artificially so as body armor is unevenly distributed in these missions. Multiplayer support is fairly strong, though the lack of AI bots hurts this feature substantially, as online multiplayer is sparsely populated.

Overall, 007 Legends is only a fair-to-middling entry in the franchise, one that does a decent enough job with a promising idea but nothing more. It's much better than the other Bonds released in the last few years, yet nowhere near the level of PS2-era shooters like Nightfire, Everything or Nothing, or From Russia With Love. Fans of the super spy should give it a spin with a weekend rental, but this is probably not one you will want to own.

007 Legends Gets Goldfinger

I was wrong; the fifth classic mission to be featured in 007 Legends is not Dr. No. You probably already know this, seeing as how it was reported three days ago and all. I've never really been the most punctual bloggers in the world, but if you haven't been privy to the news, take a look:

If it couldn't be Dr. No, then I suppose Goldfinger is the only other option. For the time being, I'm assuming there's not going to be a golfing mission against Auric. Nonetheless, this looks perfectly acceptable, with most of the key moments from the film remaining intact, for the most part. Why, Bond even jettisons some poor guy from the seat of his car, even though the car this time is something glossy and new, and not the vintage Aston Martin DB5 I prefer.

(Curiously enough, the comments section for that video is filled with youtubers clamoring for a game more like Nightfire or Everything or Nothing. I'd like to endorse that viewpoint.)

So there you have it. On October 16, get ready to take digital Daniel Craig through Moonraker, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Licence to Kill, Die Another Day, Goldfinger, and eventually a downloadable Skyfall mission.

Nobody Reviews the Games Better, Either

Now that our James Bond retrospective film series is in full swing, I thought I would take this time to remind all of you of the considerable collection of Bond game reviews we have just hanging around Code Redd Net.

First, and certainly foremost, we have my review of Everything or Nothing, a game which cleaned up at the Code Redd Net Awards in November, winning both Best Co-Op Multiplayer and Best Bond Game honors. Not only that, but Chicken Man and I put it on our respective Top Ten Video Games lists in February. EoN is truly one of the most honored games in our history, and deservedly so. Get yourself a copy.

Chicken Man has the unofficial EoN "sequel," From Russia With Love, covered for PS2.

You can also read a few archival pieces from the Geocities days, specifically our reviews of Agent Under Fire and Nightfire.

If you're in the mood for The World is Not Enough -- and really, who wouldn't be? -- you can always check out Chicken Man's thoughts on the N64 TWINE, or my own on the PS1 TWINE.

Boy, GoldenEye: Rogue Agent sure was horrible, wasn't it?

And should you get sick of gushing praise, you can refresh yourself with the faint praise in my Quantum of Solace, GoldenEye 007, Blood Stone, and Tomorrow Never Dies reviews.

We even dedicated a whole podcast to the subject! To make things easy, here's the episode embedded:


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Our Second Podcast, Now On iTunes!

Less than a week later, and we have a brand new episode of the CRN Podcast for you. This time we chart the development of James Bond video games, from N64's GoldenEye to the upcoming 007 Legends. Not only that, we can confirm that the CRN Podcast is now on the iTunes store. Just search for Code Redd Net or CRN Podcast and you should be able to listen, and hopefully subscribe, via iTunes.

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Xbox 360 Review: James Bond 007: Blood Stone (2011)

In my estimation, two things made Everything or Nothing great: variety and replayability. These two items seem paramount to a game's success with our staff, and EoN, in our minds, represents the height of 007 in video games for those reasons (and probably more, because how else do you win our awards for both Best Bond Game and Best Co-Op Multiplayer, as well as selections to both my own and Chicken Man's top ten lists?). It's strange to reflect on the evolution of Bond games in the eight years since EoN and see nothing less than an outright rejection of variety and replayability, much to the detriment of the games, and despite their increasing graphical sophistication.

Blood Stone does seem quite similar to EoN, at least initially. It's a third-person shooter with an ostensibly original story, featuring big, cyberscanned stars like Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, and Joss Stone, emphasizing gun fights, and utilizing many of the same gameplay techniques, like the ever-ready tactical stand-by, wall-hugging. For the first few stages, Blood Stone is a fun reminder of what made EoN so refreshing. The graphics are wonderful, especially the character models and backgrounds. Gradually, however, it all starts to get really repetitive. Only a few levels call for stealth, and only a few levels let you step away from the gunplay to pilot something fast, and only a few levels put Q-labs to work with the requisite gadgets. No variety, and no real replayability, either. Complete the game and you have achievements to earn, sure, but there's no gold, silver or bronze awards to chase after, no medals to achieve, no 007 bonuses to collect, there's not even tedious time trials to slog through. There's really no reason at all to play through this game again unless you play online or want to relive the story, but the plot is so barely there I'm hard pressed to remember anything about it. Bond fans could do with a weekend rental, but that's about all.

Thrasher Presents: Thrasher's Top Ten Video Games, Part Four

Looks like the old Code Redd Net synchronicity is kicking in today. Earlier, Chicken Man picked Everything or Nothing as his next game of choice before I could. I would cry copycat, but the truth is we spent almost as much time playing that game together than we did individually. Hopefully this won't be the only time our picks match up.

A recap of my choices so far:

Freedom Fighters (PS2)
Crazy Taxi (PS2)
NHLPA '93 (SNES)


What a dumb question.

Everything or Nothing (PS2)

Talk about accolades; EoN won our awards for both Best Bond Game and Best Co-Op Multiplayer, and was also nominated in the crowded, highly-competitive Best PS2 Game category. In many ways, EoN is like the Citizen Kane of Code Redd Net. It's the rubric by which we judge other Bond games. It's canonical. As I stated in my review, no game with the license to kill can touch this one in terms of, for lack of a better term, 007ness. This game feels like James Bond, especially, as Chicken Man so precisely observed, in the hand-to-hand combat, which perfectly captured the brutality and creativity of the films. And Chicken Man will attest to this, some of our fondest memories are of playing co-op together for hours. I may have to go back and play a round or two of this tonight. I assuaged my own Curse of Completionism with this game last year, and consequently I haven't had a reason to pick it back up since. This seems like the perfect opportunity to do so.

For Your Viewing Pleasure, Chickenman's Top Ten Video Games (Part 4)

To Recap: Day one was The Sims (PC), day two was Star Wars: Battlefront, day three was Hitman: Blood Money. But today, nobody does it better.

Everything or Nothing is the best game of the world's greatest spy. Better than any other it captures the James Bond experience. Though most famous for first-person approaches, anybody can shoot a gun. It is only EoN that has any semblance of capturing Bond's martial arts skills. Also irreplaceable is the ability to jump off of ledges with reckless abandon (with or without a rappelling device). EoN offers some of the best and most challenging co-op gameplay as well. Check out the review here.

Honorable Mentions:

The World is Not Enough (N64), GoldenEye (N64), From Russia With Love (PS2)

PS2 Review: GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (2004)

Chicken Man once said, in his preview of GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (dated June 6, 2004), that "I also like the idea of the game itself. Even though, I must mention, that if you've read the novel, Goldfinger, you'll know that Goldfinger only hires Koreans for henchmen because of their loyalty. But no one cares." Too true, my friend. Evidently we didn't care enough for this game to follow up our preview with a proper review, even though we beat the game soon after it was released. And why not? Because Rogue Agent was one of the biggest disappointments in the somewhat checkered history of Code Redd Net. From jump this was a flawed concept, one that tried to associate the storied N64 classic of the same name with another sub par semi-Bond shooter. You can just sense the exploitation and manipulation at work in the game's conceit, practically see the accountants and designers grasping at straws to find any narrative reason to affix the magic words GoldenEye to this product. Like children, they go literal. Hence why our protagonist, a disgruntled MI6 employee who fails to protect 007 in a training exercise, has a prosthetic "golden" eye that gifts him with all kinds of powers. You subsequently join up with Auric Goldfinger to duke it out with his rival, apparently, Dr. No. Kudos to the people who pitched this one for coming up with such a far-fetched idea and really making a go at it (no weirder than the plots for most Bond films, anyway), but they forgot one vitally important thing: we want to play as Bond. That's what we're doing here, that's why we play Bond games. Instead, Rogue Agent forces us to step into the shoes of a flat, uninteresting and forcefully presented "evil" character, one who has no predisposition for stealth or vehicular combat. While this might sound appealing to some players, and indeed the whole game is tailored for maximum shooting and minimum thinking, what this does is rob players of variety, whereas games like Nightfire and the excellent Everything or Nothing break up the firefights and keep you from getting bored. Rogue Agent gets old fairly quickly and only gets worse, especially once that mounting tedium mixes with some frustrating and unevenly paced missions later on. Bond fans might have some fun in visiting or revisiting classic movie locales, especially some of the multiplayer maps, but the lack of CPU bots puts a serious damper on things. Stay away from this one.

Code Redd Net Awards: Best PS2 Game

PS2 is certainly our favorite console, so it is only fitting that our Best PS2 Game award closes out the gaming prizes for today. And the nominees are...

Rise to Honor (2004)
Freedom Fighters (2003)
TimeSplitters 2 (2002)
TimeSplitters: Future Perfect (2005)
Everything or Nothing (2004)

And the winner is...

TimeSplitters 2

Code Redd Net Awards: Best Co-Op Multiplayer

The award for Best Co-Op Multiplayer is designed for those games which support teamwork between players in completing missions/levels together, whether through the main story or through a specific set of missions/levels set aside for co-op play. And the nominees are...

TimeSplitters 2 (2002)
TimeSplitters: Future Perfect (2005)
Everything or Nothing (2004)
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (2005)
Rainbow Six: Lockdown (2005)

And the winner is...

Everything or Nothing

Code Redd Net Awards: Best Bond Game

In the category of James Bond, we have two awards to give out today. Up first, the award for Best Bond Game. And the nominees are...

Nightfire (2002)
Everything or Nothing (2004)
From Russia With Love (2005)
GoldenEye 007 (1997)
The World is Not Enough (2000)

And the winner is...

Everything or Nothing

PS2 Review: From Russia With Love

On its face, FRWL seems like the Sean Connery version of Everything or Nothing, being based on the classic movie. Is it a worthy successor to what may be the best Bond game? There are quite a few similarities: obviously the fact that it's third person, there is gunplay, hand-to-hand combat, some driving, and the difficulty is on par.

There are some things that are better. By far, my favorite is that there are different outfits that can be found throughout the game (the classic white tux, the black tux, Connery's gray suit, the black outfit he wears for stealth applications, among others) and Connery is your Barbie, at any time in the game. The Gold/Plat system is done away with, and replaced with objectives that must be completed to purchase unlocks. It may be positive or negative based on your tastes for difficulty, but I find this to be an easier system, as the objectives need not be completed simultaneously. The unlocks themselves are quite useful, as they can be used to upgrade weapons (whereas in EoN, they gave you longer battery life, which was useful though hard, for me at least, to notice). Multiplayer also feels like a little bit less than the simple diversion that EoN was, if only for the fact that not a single-camera for everyone, which allows more of the single player mechanics (such as wall-hugging) to come into play. Oh yeah, and you get jet packs, which are pretty cool.

"Jetpacks, you say?"

However, there were a few things that didn't measure up to EoN standards. The most glaring omission is co-op. Whereas Eon had top-notch two player action, FRWL totally neglected this. Why? The hand-to-hand combat is less satisfying because instead of it having its own buttons, melee attacks come about when you are pressing the same button to shoot but happen to be closer to the target. Also, the joyous abandon of jumping off a ledge and immediately rappelling was done away with, only to be replaced by the hand-thrown grappling hook (which is cool in its own right, but doesn't seem to fit with a fast-paced, technologically inclined member of Her Majesty's Secret Service).

Comparisons aside, FRWL is a solid game, not just something with a Bond logo like GoldenEye: Rogue Agent. It offers plenty of gameplay in terms of length with enough of a challenge along the way for shooter veterans. Though I haven't gotten there myself, it seems to have a place in the trophy case of the moderate completionist. Although it is not on the same level as EoN, at its current price, FRWL is a thumbs up.

Creative Control: Bulls vs. Blazers, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, and TimeSplitters: Future Perfect

A few weeks ago, Chicken Man wrote an interesting piece on what he dubbed the Curse of Completionism, that curiously persuasive pull players often feel to plumb the depths of games for every award, arena, and accessory, however inconsequential. And he was quite right in asserting my relentless quest to finally complete Everything or Nothing, though I theoretically and very kindly refute his claim to being in "rare form," because what I did is more readily attributable to obstinacy than ability. Nevertheless, I finally finished the game after seven discontinuous years and felt what Chicken Man described as "emotional satisfaction" upon seeing that wall of gleaming and indisputably platinum 007 logos below each level. Knowing I had finally conquered the game mattered much more than the meager physical rewards for doing so, all of which amounted to little more than a gallery of concept art and a few extra characters.

So why strive for such perfection? What motivates players like us to continue on despite recurring aggravation, repetition, and loss of time? Before I could buy my own games, before I had disposable income of my own, I had to ask, beg, and wish for them. Getting a new game was a cause for celebration, there but for the grace of God. I had to make the game last until another gift-giving holiday afforded me the opportunity to pump my relatives for the latest obsession, so I became an expert on that game until the next family gathering rolled around ever so slowly. Ask anyone who had the misfortune of challenging me to an innocent game of NBA Shootout '97, Madden '98, or WCW vs. the World on the PS1. I believe this mindset, hardwired by a frugal necessity to master, still informs my approach to games.

In the simplest terms, I look for games that last longer than a weekend rental, that will continue to entertain me months or years after I buy them. And while mastering a game like Everything or Nothing has kept me occupied and entertained for many years, such mastery is often frustrating, tedious, and improperly compensated. Chicken Man was correct in calling this phenomenon a curse.

Yet there are alternatives that charm rather than curse, that engage the creative impulse rather than testing patience. Look, for instance, at those games which allow players to create their own teams, levels, and even entire stories, extending the longevity and value of these games exponentially, and all without demanding memorization and rehearsal. Although many games have featured "create" modes with varying degrees of freedom and usefulness, the following examples demonstrate how even the most modest infusion of creative control within the rigid coding of a game can produce a variety that stimulates rather than exasperates.

Bulls vs. Blazers and the NBA Playoffs (1993)

This was the first game I ever encountered which allowed players to customize their experience to any considerable degree. I spent many enjoyable hours culling together custom all-star squads and matching them up against opposing teams filled with lifetime journeymen and benchwarmers, or composing absurd teams made up entirely of Chris Mullin and Tim Hardaway clones.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (2000)

THPS2 is the deepest and best game ever produced for the PS1, thanks in no small part to its park editor. I made both simple and complex maps, including a memorable one based on a small skate park by my childhood home, as well as countless fantasy parks filled with ridiculous ramps and possibilities. But what really makes the park editor indispensable is the ability to name gaps between objects, thus giving the levels a potential complexity and narrative cohesiveness that anticipates the creative control of later games.

TimeSplitters: Future Perfect (2005)

Likewise, TSFP is perhaps the deepest and best game ever produced for the PS2, and its mapmaker feature is so rich I haven't even begun to unpack its complexities in six years, and yet I still feel satisfied with the maps I turn out. Although I'm more inclined to create multiplayer maps than single-player missions, I appreciate (and I'm frequently in awe of) the possibilities in stringing together objectives and adversaries to create narratives which rival those of other PS2 shooters.

PS2 Review: Everything or Nothing (EA, 2004)

What makes for a great James Bond game? Certainly it must have the feel of the James Bond film or novel, that curious and pleasurably perplexing posture of self-seriousness and self-consciousness, manifested in its multiple car-tank-ski-bobsled chases, its often blatant sexism, heterosexism, racism, colonialism, its abundant violence, its preternatural gadgets and vulgar puns, and its signature music. These sensibilities have been tethered to many games in the past, mostly first-person shooters. And while shooters like the inimitable GoldenEye 007 (Nintendo, 1997) and the underappreciated The World is Not Enough (EA, 2000) still have that James Bond feel to them, to my thinking they were wonderful shooters first, and Bond games second. Everything or Nothing (EA, 2004) reverses that trend, foregrounding the Bond sensibility, that authentic feel, and tailoring its style to fit this amalgam. The authenticity of Everything or Nothing is in its appropriately absurd storyline and its cavalcade of stars (including the likenesses and voices of Pierce Brosnan, Willem Dafoe, Shannon Elizabeth, and Richard Kiel reprising his role as Jaws). Fittingly for the technophiliac themes of Brosnan's Bond, gadgets are front and center, most notably the humorous, but equally versatile, spiderbots. Variety wins the day for this game: players shoot, sneak, skydive and rappel; drive jeeps, motorcycles, tanks, and helicopters. No two missions are anything alike. Everything or Nothing also bucks the trend in regards to its multiplayer support. While previous Bond games have been vaunted for their anything-goes, all-for-one deathmatches, EoN features a co-op storyline instead, and it succeeds, better perhaps than any other co-op game on the market. It's so good one easily forgives and forgets the mediocre, but somewhat charming, arena mode. I dare say no other Bond game, before or since, has come anywhere near EoN in replicating the aforementioned feel of Bond for the video game medium.