Thread: 007 Blood stone

A game of 2 halves. A decent solid shooter spoiled by terrible driving sections. The car sections handle well enough, the controls are smooth and the car steers well its let down by the environment. In one particular section involving driving very fast on a frozen river where the ice and water colours are so similar at speed it makes it impossible to actually tell them apart.Queue 20 deaths on a 2 minute section. GRRRRRR

Once past these shit parts the game picks it self up and gets going. In typical bond fashion your a bit of a bad ass gun toting mean machine. Overly similar henchemen and underlings die in impressive numbers from guns, take down or stealth moves. Takedowns and stealth moves grant you an instant kill and you can have up to 3 at 1 time allowing you too quickly clear a room or get you out of the shit.

The guns are good ranging from a small pistol to assault rifles and a pretty sweet sniper rifle. With few exceptions i stuck with the pistol for headshots and the MP5 for everthing else. I always went for the up close takedowns which you can chain together and just break necks all the way through a level.

If it wasn't for the dodgy driving sections i'd hand this little bad boy an 8 its solid fun and pretty decent. I didn't sample the online play as i couldn't frankly be arsed but i did play through most of the chapters several times just pissing around and having fun going through some levels without firing a shot. Its that sort of game forget how they want you to play and just explore what bond can do.

Rent this game or get it on the cheap for 10 hours of mayhem and corny one liners.

Single Player 7/10
Multiplayer N/A

Makes me nostalgic for goldeneye

Its odd how a company known for a genre gets it so wrong near the end... Is it complacency or inability to alter from the previous formula?

Bizarre Creations, we can look back at you and be thankful for MSR & PGR and perhaps blur (the start of your downfall?)

Reading your review Joe, makes me think of Bourne Conspiracy, & yes, theyre both Bond style protagonists (literally in one case!), but reading your description of the shooting levels could be the Bourne game just as easily.

A question I'd love to know, but wont be answered, at which point did BC know they where heading down the swanny; was it after Blur tanked, or after bloodstone tanked?
If it was after Blur is that why Bloodstone appeared to be a lazy half assed attempt? (ie, creative people where jumping ship, or planning to & just not bothering about the final game).

I dont know mate its a proper shame loosing another British Developer Rare would be next if they weren't MGS. I wouldn't say the game is half arsed the similarities with bourne are coincidental 007 is a much much better title but it does feel unfinished and just sort of faded out at the end.

Seem sad to me PGR was the racing series on the xbox and for such a clearly talented dev to fold is a real shame. Blur and the Club IMO were absolutelyt tip top.