Quantum of Solace (Xbox 360)

Married to the solid gameplay and controls is a high level of graphical detail and polish. In terms of level design the game is presented as a linear format but you are given a few places where you can approach an obstacle from a different vantage point, such as taking a slightly round-about route that will give you the drop on the guards rather than face them head on. There is a great attention to detail in terms of architecture and design with each location looking superb and offering numerous tactical positions in terms of cover.

The character design for Bond is excellent, with the likeness of Daniel Craig being captured near-perfectly. The rest of the character designs are likewise extremely well done, from minor characters to major, the game brings them to life. Dame Judi Dench as M and so on lends her likeness and voice to this project as well.

The animation is excellent, from taking cover to the enemy movements. Synched well with the AI that knows the environment and can use cover, ladders and other vantage points. It will attempt to flank you and can hurl grenades with a devastating accuracy. The whole package in terms of animation and AI is beautifully delivered by the tweaked Call of Duty 4 engine and provides a decent level of challenge. Even the weapon animations are well done; reloading is solid and the weapons including the Walther P99 are animated beautifully.

Sound design is solid in the game with good spot effects and ambient effects. The music is of course drawn from a mix of Quantum and Casino, with a few surprises here and there. The voice acting is excellent, Daniel Craig and Dame Judi Dench throw themselves into their video game roles with the same kind of gusto they do on the silver screen. The rest of the cast delivers a surprisingly good performance as well.

As one might expect from the Call of Duty 4 engine, the game maintains an excellent frame-rate throughout and there are only a few minor glitches that are hardly worth mentioning. There was a moment where the game froze during the first mission when I opened Bond’s cell-phone map and that was the last I saw of that glitch for the entire play-through. The game check-points fairly regularly and since it uses a regenerating health-meter, as long as you can find cover you don’t have to worry about dying overly much on the easier difficulties.

Outside of the single-player game of course, there’s a rock-steady multiplayer element that’s familiar to the players of Call of Duty 4. There are of course various game modes that are available and themed towards James Bond. Golden Gun mode sees the return of Scaramanga’s trademarked Golden Gun, the model and design taken from the very gun that graces the original book cover. There’s a mode that allows a player to play as Bond as he’s hunted, there’s tonnes of weapons to buy/upgrade and so on. Quantum of Solace is pretty packed in terms of multiplayer content and of course coming from the Call of Duty 4 engine which set the standard for online multiplayer, much as Rare’s excellent Goldeneye N64 did for Bond games and first person shooters in general this is to be expected.

It’s just a pity that the singleplayer segment of the game is so short. A hardcore and dedicated gamer could probably blaze through it in a shorter time than I did and I wasn’t exactly taking my time either.