STUDIO: Activision
RELEASE DATE: November 4, 2008
CONSOLE: PS3
ALSO AVAILABLE ON: XBox 360, PC, PS2, Wii, DS
DEVELOPER: Treyarch
GENRE: Action
PLAYERS: 12
ESRB RATING: T (Teen)

Activision's Quantum of Solace has some definite gameplay, design, and conceptual flaws, but it's the kind of game that puts a critic in a precarious position. In the same way that critics sometimes give movies a pass under the banner of a "guilty pleasure," I recognize the flaws of the video game version of Quantum of Solace and yet I just don't care. I haven't enjoyed burning through an entire game over a weekend this intensely in a while. I think it's the nostalgic side of my critical faculties that has fallen prey to a game that brings back memories of countless nights spent playing Goldeneye in college and has seen every single Bond movie more than once. I wish Quantum of Solace wasn't so linear, stuck closer to the movies that it's based on, and had a few of its design glitches and multiplayer problems ironed out, but every single minute of this game is F-U-N. It's the Call of Duty engine dropped into the James Bond franchise. For most fans of both of those games, that will be enough. Could Activision and Treyarch have done more? Absolutely. Does that take away from the enjoyment you'll find in what they did do? Nope.

Quantum of Solace is somewhat misnamed. The game actually includes many more missions based on the action of Casino Royale than the 2008 version of the most legendary MI6 spy in history. It's odd that a game that features the same poster as the latest Bond movie is less than 50% based on that actual flick and barely even dents the best action sequences from it. I've seen Quantum of Solace. It's front-to-back action. But the game that bears the same name doesn't include a lot of it. QoS the movie opens with an amazing car chase that I remember actually thinking would be great to play in the game. It's a cut scene. Several other major action set pieces are altered or gone altogether. Players go through four missions from the new movie and then flashback to Casino Royale, which is much more faithful to the movie, before concluding with the end of Solace. With fifteen missions, two-thirds of them are from Casino Royale. It's clear that the producers didn't want to give away too much of the movie with the game coming out ten days before the movie, but people who see Quantum and pick up the game expecting to play their favorite action movie might be disappointed.

On a conceptual level, the biggest problem with Quantum of Solace is right there in the first line of the press release that was included with my review copy - "Gamers can now step into the shoes of Bond... James Bond, the world's most legendary secret agent..." Well, sorta. All the voice actors from Casino Royale and QoS are there (although it's just audio snippets from the movies themselves) and the design of Bond himself does look like Daniel Craig, but you'll kill more people on the first level of the QoS game than Bond ever did in an entire movie. Quantum of Solace is essentially a pretty straight-forward FPS that loosely follows the two Bond movies starring Daniel Craig. Some players will be disappointed that 007's license to kill has been turned up to near genocidal proportions and long for a more stealth-based game, but Quantum of Solace is first-and-foremost a shooter. Yes, there's cover that needs to be used and some stealth missions, but Bond is going to use his silencer more than his fists. A lot more.

The fifteen missions in Quantum of Solace shouldn't take even the average player very long, so don't pick it up expecting a multi-day experience. It's a disappointingly short game - probably 5-6 hours - and the ending is pretty anticlimactic (although the same could be said for the movie). And the linear nature of the levels get a little repetitive, especially the reliance on quick-time events for major boss fights, where you have to hit the right button at the right time to get through the cut scene. Yawn. But I'll be damned if I didn't enjoy the graphic engine and the perfect cover/shooting style. The A.I. is better than average too, as I was often impressed with how my enemies worked together to flank me and try and take me down.

Speaking of taking me down, my ventures in online play of Quantum of Solace only led to misery, as there are clearly some expert shooters out there just wreaking havoc on us average players. And there is something disappointing about the fact that none of the multiplayer games allow you to play anyone but Bond or a nameless character. I realize that giving M an Uzi was unlikely, but why not throw Vesper, Le Chiffre, or any of the other supporting characters into the mix. Despite the lack of recognizable characters, the large variety of multiplayer games is impressive. There are variations on the simple death match like "The Man With the Golden Gun" (where all players are trying to get one weapon that kills with one shot) and various co-op missions. Of course, you can also just kill everyone. Probably me. Another impressive element of the multiplayer play is that involvement in it earns you credits that you can use to buy new weapons and gadgets (although there are credit-earning multiplayer games that don't allow the new toys, so you don't have to worry about getting iced by someone who got the game before you) to take down your enemy. Again, based on my online skill level, it will probably be me you'll be offing with your newly purchased toys.

In the end, the reason I wholeheartedly ignore the undeniable flaws of Quantum of Solace (and recommend at least a rental) goes back to that concept of "guilty pleasure." There's something undeniably thrilling about stepping into Bond's shoes, sneaking up behind one of Le Chiffre's henchmen and plugging him in the back of the head with a silencer. Quantum of Solace the game definitely benefits from the history of the decades of movies that have come before it.