Posted in Personal by MB on 04/03/06
Every once in a while I’ll rent a game for the Xbox. Usually for a Sunday afternoon when I have some serious procrastinating to do.
I rented “From Russia With Love” — which is naturally an adaptation of the James Bond movie of the same name.
The game recreates the movie loosely, adding bits here and there (and whole lot of Russians to kill)
It’s a lot fun to play. Which for me means I get sucked in for a few hours without getting bored.
The controls are natural, and you’re rewarded for being smart and stealthy. It’s satisfying, and you also get credit which you can trade in for upgrades and such.
The game succeeds in recreating the feel of a 60’s Bond movie. The “sets” are rich and detailed. The voice acting is good, with new dialogue and dialogue from the film.
You get to fly around in jet packs. Awesome.
One of the fun quirks of the game is, as Bond, you end up collecting tuxedos and dinner jackets, which you can ‘equip’ like a weapon. I haven’t found the official use for these yet. But it’s fun to accessorize a tuxedo with a jet pack.
My only gripe so far is they had to ‘video game’ it up too much.
There’s a great climax (read: boss level) in a government building in Istanbul. After rescuing hostages, disarming bombs, and skillfully shooting rappelers down from their lines, a russian helicopter crashes through the skylights and begins shooting up the place with rockets and machine guns, blasting a hole in the wall, revealing a hidden armory with a bazooka.
The sweeping camera pan indicates that Bond is supposed to hot-foot it over there to the bazooka and take out that helicopter.
Now obviously a helicopter crashing through a steel and glass skylight would probably just crash to the floor. But it is a video game. A James Bond video game at that.
I hoof it over to the secret room. Diving behind pillars, dodging machine gun rounds, just getting to the secret room with the rocket launcher.
This helicopter takes 5 rockets face-first and doesn’t bear a scratch. I mean what? It’s made of glass and aluminum. A rocket would perforate it. I know I’m nerding out here…but when the suspension of disbelief is no longer suspended, SPECTRE wins.
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