The Bourne Conspiracy
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The Bourne Conspiracy
If you are familiar with the movies starring Matt Damon or even the Robert Ludlum novels, slipping into the game The Bourne Conspiracy is a welcome experience. For those who are not familiar or even fans of the movies or books, shame on you as both are excellent and the game will still be exciting and fun, but story wise it might not exactly make total sense to those who are unfamiliar with Jason Bourne.
The Bourne Conspiracy game is about Jason Bourne, a 30 million dollar assassin, who has amnesia after failing one of his most important missions. During the game you play his current missions as well as older missions in his past in various locations across the globe. Using different weapons, hand to hand combat and driving a car, Jason takes down everyone he can in amazing ways.
But is this game a worthy companion to the novels and movies? In many ways yes, but at times you’re left wanting more in story and gameplay.
Gameplay
The Bourne Conspiracy’s gameplay mechanics are not perfect, but they are designed well enough that they are a joy to play through almost the entire game. Where they are not so great are in the cover tactics and driving, when you take cover it is very easy to lose that cover by simple movements, sadly it is no Gears of War. Driving is also a bit of a pain as the Mini-Cooper you operate over steers slightly and you often hit walls and corners.
Where the actual gameplay is solid and works well is shooting, but it could be better as you must be very accurate, but once you get used to it, shooting feels very well done. Other mechanics include the hand to hand combat which uses a variety of punches, kicks and blocks with some hard and fast take downs that knocks down or kills those who are unfortunate enough to engage you. Learning how to block is the best way to get through all hand to hand combat fights, especially those with a lot of enemies, but mostly for the boss fights which are tough and the bosses can easily over power you with their own take downs.
Graphics
Graphically the game fails to live up to the next gen bar set by other similar action titles, such as Gears of War. But of course graphics and the quality depend on the art style and vision the game is attempting to achieve. Bourne does not look that good at first, but once you see the game in motion, actual interactions with the environment and everything else they begin to look good, not great, but good enough for a next gen game.
The best aspect to the graphics is the animations of each of the characters, each one moves, reacts and fights in a very realistic manner. Every hand to hand combat move almost looks like it was pulled from the movie and it reacts very seamlessly with the action and camera work. This is one of the better cinematic action games for its camera and animation work we have seen.
Level design is very well done, but not all of the time. Some of the levels are just not done well and have a room followed by another room with a small side room off of one of them feel to them. The levels that are well done, are very well done and become memorable, many are worth playing a second time. At least the good and bad cancel each other out in the terms of level design.
Audio
Great sound effects and voice work are all over this game with a movie level of quality for everything. The voice over work is entirely professional, something we all know as hit or miss in video games, sound effects are amazing from gun shots, boxes breaking to bullet impacts and the like. But what I found most gratifying is the music, especially some of the music you unlock in the game. Sound track quality and well performed the music is excellent in every way.
Value
With a game like this usually once through is enough because the action is always linear, but because of the hand to hand combat, it adds some real replay fun to the game, especially after you are very proficient at it. Once you start walking through groups of guys and seeing all of the amazing take downs it is really worth going back and seeing again.
Bottom Line
I was completely expecting this game to literally suck, but in fact it is well done and very fun game that does the Bourne name justice. A buy for Bourne fans and action game junkies, or at least a rental, but it turned into a sale in the end for me.
Pros
Hand to Hand combat makes you feel tough
Takedowns are amazing
Great addition to the Bourne books and movies
Sound Effects and Voice Over work is great
Most of the game controls and game play mechanics are well done
Plenty of great action sequences for you to enjoy, though linear
Cons
Short game
Weird break up of the story with huge gaps is weird if you know the actual story
Graphics are not really that next generation
Shooting controls are weak
‘Boss’ fights can be annoying due to difficulty but are beatable
Final Verdict
Here's a small guide to help you understand our evaluation of games.
PRESENTATION GRADE
Can be from the game's box to the contents of the booklet, and even the game introduction. (Intro, menus, options, etc)
GRAPHIC GRADE
Up to what point the graphics have been worked on my the developper. The design type, the effort used for textures and environments, as well as animations and framerate.
AUDIO GRADE
Is the soundtrack a good match to the game's style, he ambient sounds keeping with the gameplay and the sound effects clear and convincing?
GAMEPLAY GRADE
Placement of the controls and the inferface that the player with be using during the game.
REPLAY VALUE GRADE
The most important factor in the evaluation of a game. It identifies the lifespan of the game and the fun of coming back again and again.
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