Stick to Skyfall This go Around
James Bond is celebrating its 50th anniversary of it’s films this year and it has never been a better time to be a Bond fan. The 23rd James Bond film is due this November so that naturally means that a game has to accompany it. While reviews for Skyfall have been exactly what every major Bond fan have been hoping for, 007 Legends won’t sit as well with advocates of the series.
James Bond 007 Review, Click on video below
007 Legends is a bad game. There is no getting around it. I really wanted this one to be special but it just wasn’t meant to be. The game is plagued with technical problems. Screen tearing is a nuisance from the get go and pretty much lasts the entire length of the 5 hour campaign. This game is supposed to be a celebration of all things Bond but fails in a lot of ways. The game has missions from each of the following films: Goldfinger, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Moonraker, Licence to Kill and Die Another Day, with a Skyfall DLC pack coming later this year. Daniel Craig and his likeness replace every Bond actor in the respective missions. The fact that so many films are used as the backdrop of the missions allows for some of the best (and worst) Bond villains to all play a part in the game. The story isn’t exactly easy to follow even for the most die-hard fan. The campaign missions don’t exactly connect to each other the way they should. You just move from scenario to scenario and no mention of past events occurs at all.
The fact that Activision published the game is quickly noticeable. There are parts of the game that could have easily been part of the Call of Duty 4 campaign. It seems like the developed went out of their way to make sure that anyone playing this game felt like they were playing a less polished call of duty game. The visuals in the game are dated as well. With this generation coming to a close, it surprises me how any publisher would allow for a game to be released looking like this while running as bad as it does. The sound is an issue as well. The guns sound like they are coming from some type of pellet guns as opposed to the heavy artillery other games make it sound like. The game is at its best when it forces you to be as stealthy as possible. There are certain areas where being spotted automatically counts as a death and it makes you pay a lot more attention to how you want to go about a mission instead of running and gunning. 007 Legends also offers multiplayer but I have a hard time recommending it. There are hardly any people playing it and the ones that do try it won’t find any reason to play this instead of any other major first person shooter release coming this fall.
It’s hard to recommend 007 Legends to anyone looking to make a good purchase of a first person shooter this holiday season. There are better options out there. It seems like the game was rushed through development in order to make the November release of Skyfall. The premise is unique and could have turned out so much better if a little more love and care was put into it. I really hope more time and polish go into the eventual next entry into the series. Agent 007 deserves better.