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007 Legends

007 Legends

The namesh Bond. Jamesh Bond.

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I like 007. I own all the films. I've read a couple of the books. I'll likely go see Skyfall at the cinema when it's released later this week. I am, therefore, the kind of person likely to be interested in picking up 007 Legends, the new James Bond-themed FPS from Eurocom and Activision.

The opening credits reek of promise. Bond is accidentally shot by a colleague, dropping from his precarious perch on a speeding train into cold water and a deep coma. We sink into his subconscious, drifting into the promise of fresh encounters with old adversaries. It might be a simplistic premise, but it holds together well enough.

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Across five missions based loosely on classic films, Bond tackles a variety of different opponents in this fairly traditional first-person shooter. Old favourites Goldfinger and Moonraker are joined by Die Another Day, On Her Majesty's Secret Service and License to Kill (a sixth mission, Skyfall, will be available as DLC shortly after the release of the film). The current Bond, Daniel Craig, reprises his role as Britain's most famous secret agent, assuming the poses first struck by Connery, Moore, Lazenby, Dalton and Brosnan.

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Purists (like me) may struggle with some of the changes made to the various narratives. The idea behind Legends has real promise, but the execution of it feels too disjointed. Perhaps they've tried to condense too much content. The plot lines themselves are certainly reminiscent of the films that inspired them, but so much has been cut away and altered to make them fit the Legends concept.

007 Legends

First appearances are encouraging. The graphics, whilst not being particularly impressive, hold their own in a marketplace crowded by similarly styled shooters. The character likenesses are all sound. Pussy Galore looks great, Goldfinger looks greedy and Odd Job looks, well, like... Odd Job. It's a trend that continues right through to the very end, when Michael Lonsdale reprises his role as Drax, and once again we clap eyes on Jaws.

The level design is straight forward, but there's nothing very dramatic going on. It all feels by-the-numbers and calculated. Action rarely strays away from go here, shoot him, scan that, go there, shoot them, repeat, rinse, repeat again. Environments echo locations from the films, but objectives themselves are simplistic, and apart from a few moments of variation such as a zero gravity gunfight and a skiing sequence, there's not much to inspire a replay other than secondary objectives missed during the first round.

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Normal gun-led action is complimented by basic stealth gameplay. The stealth itself is passable, sticking to shadows and crouching keeps you from blowing your cover, and there are often multiple routes around the environments. But there wasn't enough of it, and the level design didn't feel suited to that particular style of play. Short-sighted troops and simplistic implementation detracted from some promising ideas.

One positive element is the way that it's possible to recover from a mistake when sneaking around, should the need arise. It doesn't work all the time, but often if you stumble upon a patrol, acting with deadly speed can mean taking down opponents before an alarm is raised. In these heart-pounding moments 007 Legends is at its best. It's a shame, then, that these moments are all too fleeting.

007 Legends

Whilst the loading times are pretty substantial, the first major issue that really interrupted enjoyment of the game was the screen tearing. We reviewed the Xbox 360 version of the game, and there was constant issues with picture quality. Given the proximity of the launch of 007 Legends to the forthcoming release of Skyfall, it's obvious that the game was rushed out before some basic technical issues could be ironed out.

Before the campaign starts there are a couple of options to consider. Beyond being able to adjust the difficulty of the game, you can adopt a classic health system, whereby damage is repaired by health packs instead of replenishing over time. For fans of old-school shooters it may well be worth considering as an option. It's nice to have the choice, even if it isn't taken advantage of by everybody.

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During the first mission we are introduced to hand-to-hand combat. It's basically a QTE - swiping the analogue sticks in the right direction and at the right time ensures contact with the relevant part of your opponent's body. Sometimes they come at you with a weapon, which requires dodging and parrying before your enemy can be disarmed and the fistfight can be resumed.

The first time this exchange is played out it's all well and good. The second time you experience it, less so. Each and every subsequent time you have to go through this banal routine it becomes a little bit more tedious. If you only had to do it once in a while it wouldn't be a problem, but a variant of this basic encounter is rolled out EVERY TIME you meet a new boss and at other times in-between. Iconic encounters with classic characters are boring, repetitive and unimaginative. That's a fairly major problem.

The five classic missions aren't particularly long, and aside from a few enjoyable moments of stealthy action, and the occasional frantic gunfight, there's not a lot going on in 007 Legends that can't be enjoyed elsewhere, most notably in Call of Duty. I mention that particular franchise, as in many ways Eurocom's game nails its colours to the same post. If you cut away at all the Bond-specific trimmings, all you're left with is a CoD clone, and not a particularly good one at that.

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If you're still intent of picking up 007 Legends, you'll likely extract much of the longevity found in the game from the multiplayer modes and from the challenges. When it works, multiplayer drags the overall quality of the package up a notch. Combat is entirely reminiscent of that found in GoldenEye 007 Reloaded, and whilst there's other, better shooters out there, there's still fun to found on the Legends servers. You will have to hunt for games though, as you can spend a lot of time waiting for opponents on even the most popular playlists.

There are a variety of different game modes, including returning favourites such as Golden Gun, as well as your standard Conflict and Team Conflict modes. You can play with some of the legendary characters that appear in the campaign, and on the whole the maps are reasonably well put together, even if they're not particularly imaginative. Sadly, there were some modes (such as Icarus and Escalation) that we can't tell you much about: no matter how long we waited there wasn't anybody to play. There are plenty of different game modes, and if people venture on long enough to play them, there's certainly potential here. It's a big if, though.

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Challenges compliment multiplayer and campaign modes. Think Call of Duty's Spec Ops and you'll have an idea of what Eurocom are aiming for. There are Escape, Defense, Infiltration and Assault missions to be unlocked for both Bond and the legends, and getting a full collection of stars will take some dedication.

Across all three modes the guns are consistently well weighted. There's a decent selection of weapons, and they can be upgraded in different ways. Each handles differently, and each can be tangibly refined and improved as you progress through a level. In fact, the arsenal at your disposal is probably one of the highlights of the game.

Enemy AI is a bit of a mixed bag. Sometimes your opponents feel like they're working together to out manoeuvre you, edging for your flanks and pelting you with suppressing fire, but at other times they're incredibly stupid, often running into walls and offering very little in the way resistance.

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Overall, it's difficult to recommend at its current price. It's a rushed build of an average game, and there's far better out there to scratch the exact same itch. Released and priced as a digital title, this might have had some legs, but it's too rushed and too broken to justify a substantial investment.

007 Legends is a disappointing game. Bond fans will likely get a thrill from revisiting classic locations from the franchise's past, but many will, like me, be left cold by narrative changes and uninspiring set pieces. Whilst we await the arrival of the final Skyfall mission in the wake of the film's imminent release, all we can do is judge what we have so far: a rushed game, insulting boss fights and a sparsely populated multiplayer experience where matches are not always guaranteed.

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05 Gamereactor UK
5 / 10
+
+ Character likenesses + Arsenal of weapons + Potential in multiplayer + Stealth has its moments
-
- Technical issues - Appalling boss fights - Long waits for multiplayer - Some suspect narrative alterations - Loading times
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