Reviewed: November 6, 2008
Reviewed by: Mark Smith

Publisher
Activision

Developer
Vicarious Visions

Released: November 4, 2008
Genre: Action
Players: 1

7
7
8
6
7.0

Supported Features:

Unlike the gun-centric focus of the console versions, Bond on the DS allows for a more hands-on approach to engaging the enemy with a rather elegant melee component that will have you keeping your gun holstered for much of the game. But the first thing to come to grips with is the DS itself as you will be holding the system in the 90-degree book rotation method. The action unfolds on the touchscreen while a MI6-style map gives you GPS data on your location within the maps.

Everything is handled with the touchscreen from movement to melee, to gunplay. To move you simply touch the screen and Bond will follow your lead. Touch the inventory icon to open the multi-slot storage system and manage your weapons, ammo, health, and other assorted items. A handy quick-access slot allows you to drag your favorite item out to the main screen for instant access without having to open the inventory. This is great for quick reloads, if you prefer gunfights, or quick healing if you prefer to mix it up hand-to-hand style.

As you explore the quasi-3D levels you can touch people to talk, touch doors to unlock, activate lockers, toilets, open briefcases of fallen foes to acquire new items, or automatically jump over or across highlighted obstacles. To actually engage in combat you push any button or the D-pad to invoke the interactive combat system. If you are near an enemy you will automatically engage in fisticuffs otherwise you can tap on ranged opponents to fire whatever weapon you have readied.

It’s an intuitive control scheme that anyone can adapt to within minutes, and yet it becomes so in-depth when you start exploring the world of melee. To fight you simply draw left or right or up or down to throw the corresponding punch. To block you try to anticipate which side the enemy is attacking from then tap and hold that same edge of the screen to block. Blocking can be a bit hit and miss at times (no pun intended). The game doesn't always recognize your block attempt.

Punching and blocking lead to counters and combos, and if you can daze your opponent you can draw a circle around him and throw him across the room or into nearby objects. Likewise, if you can punch your opponent on his unblocked side he will stagger, allowing you to attempt a combo attack by drawing a sequence of moves for powerful results. It’s very interactive and very fun and holds up to repetition since you can always mix things up on the fly. You can even crouch and sneak and perform stealth takedowns.

The gameplay is fairly generic but offers a solid foundation of Bond goodness. You’ll explore some surprisingly large levels, which often end up being mere mazes with a sequence of locked doors forcing you to fight and defeat opponents to get the keys required to proceed with your mission. There is a bit of exploration and discovery as well as a deep upgrade system using poker chips and playing cards.

Throughout the game you will acquire poker chips in various colors and denominations that you can redeem for Bond currency between missions to purchase upgrades for your various abilities like weapons and melee, health, etc. You will also acquire playing cards that you can drag to five slots below your inventory thus creating a poker hand. Various combinations of cards, pairs, flush, straight, etc. will all reward you with useful benefits such as regenerating health.

My one and only complaint with Quantum of Solace, is the distance between (or the frequency) of checkpoints. It is all too easy to get to the very last room or the very last enemy and die and be forced to replay the entire level over. This happened to me countless times, even in the tutorial. Obviously, prudent use of the health packs and waiting to auto-heal between encounters will help, but it is easy to get caught up in the game and forget to monitor that health ring at your feet.

The map works well in identifying the location of enemies and any patrol patterns, that way you don’t walk into an ambush simply because the camera failed you. The menus and interface are excellent with easily identifiable icons for the various pick-ups, a clean inventory screen, high-tech map and menus, and an easy-to-read font in the text boxes.

The character models are really good, especially the model for Bond, although some of the animations come off a bit wonky, especially those of the stereotypical henchmen who all assume the same boxing stance and fight style for every encounter. I’m not sure if it’s the camera angle or the character model but the proportions for the legs and arms can get exaggerated at times.

Kudos to a great movie presentation that uses digitized stills from the movie for the various cutscenes and mission briefings. It really gives this game the movie-cred it deserves. I also liked the down-the-barrel load screens.

The music is classic Bond with all the memorable themes in place. It drops in and out of gameplay, sometimes rather abruptly. And then you have some really great sound effects, not only for the weapons, but all the physical combat as well as the smallest of interactive environmental noises. I have to admit that the tapping of Bond’s shoes did start to wear thin on me after a few levels.