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  News > Ign: Quantum Of Solace Hands-on

October 6, 2008 - If impersonation is the sincerest form of flattery, color Call of Duty 4 a shade of red as there is not one, but two games coming out this holiday season that use the COD4 engine to bring their experiences to life. There's obviously the next installment in the COD series but the second is a bit more surprising. It's a movie licensed game that some guys may have heard of titled James Bond.

Quantum of Solace in film form is scheduled for release on November 14 but Bond fans will be able to get an early look at the plot of the movie that stars Daniel Craig -- who was also involved in development from voice work to playing the game with the developers and giving insight -- when the game releases on November 4. I got a chance to get my hands on a nearly complete build of Quantum of Solace at a press event in LA, playing both single and multiplayer levels.

There's no doubt that the essence of Call of Duty is at the center of QoS. The movement, the interface, the text; it's all straight out of COD4, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The team at Treyarch has been hard at work developing ways to expand on the solid foundation that has already been laid.

The first deviation is the cover system. Players can take cover behind corners and objects that are strategically placed throughout the environment by pressing a face button and can leap over those objects, Gears of War style, and sprint by pressing that same button. It felt solid enough and provided players with their only real look at Daniel Craig during gameplay. Most of my time was spent taking cover on corners to blind fire at incoming enemies.

The single-player level I blew my way through was set in a museum which meant plenty of glass displays being demolished and exhibits being destroyed. Oddly enough the museum saw fit to have an inordinate amount of gas canisters lying around for me to shoot up which produced fiery results.

The gun battles were well put together and felt about as good as you'd expect from a game built on the COD4 engine. There are pieces of cinematic flair thrown in to further intensify the mission. In the museum level there was a sequence where James had to escape a crashing elevator and leap onto an adjacent ladder. On my first attempt I was a half-second slow making my way up the ladder and James was greeted with a wall of fire that enveloped the entire elevator shaft. It was simple but it helped bring variation to the FPS gameplay, something that this game needs since Activision decided to avoid the driving sequences that are common to the franchise.

There are also puzzle elements that pop up from time to time. In the museum level there were parts when James would come across a keypad on a locked door, whip out one of his trusty tools which presented me with a d-pad puzzle. It was sort of like a simplified version of Simon. Red flashes meant "don't press," green flashes on other directions meant "press it." Simple stuff, really.

Whenever I play a new Bond game I instinctively compare its single-player to the reigning king of Bond games, GoldenEye. I know it was released more than a decade ago, but it's still the best. Keeping that in mind, Quantum of Solace felt pretty damn good. Being a huge Call of Duty 4 fan, the engine has been changed enough to feel fresh but still retains a nice, familiar feel.

After making my way through the single-player mission, it was time to try my hand at some multiplayer. The two modes I played were called Team Conflict, a standard deathmatch contest, and Golden Gun, where there's one gold gun (one-shot kill) on the map and points are scored by killing the guy with the classic Bond weapon or killing others while holding it. Both felt solid, if not a bit on the traditional side.

Luckily, there's also Bond Vs. where one player is Bond and all other players are Organisation agents. The evil Organisation agents are trying to plant bombs at spots around the map while Bond is trying to either kill the players or disarm their bombs. Bond Evasion pits two equal-sized teams as Organisation and MI6 agents. MI6 is trying to escort one VIP player to an exit and the Organisation is trying to stop them. There's even a mode called Arcade Mode which is modeled after the popular GoldenEye mode. Players start with pistols and need to find other weapons on the map. Then there's the standard every-man-for-himself deathmatch and king of the hill modes to complement the package.

Graphically, Bond looks solid, with good lighting and effects that populate the action. Player models are detailed, with Daniel Craig's version of James Bond featuring the highest level of detail. It's evident when you pop into cover and see those baby blues staring back at you. The multiplayer took a bit of a hit in the visual department, but still looked solid.

The audio department is populated with the awesome Bond theme song and employs some great cinematic music in other situations. Daniel Craig also recorded original dialogue for use in the game, here's hoping it mirrors the quality seen in Casino Royale.

Quantum of Solace effectively puts players in the shoes of James Bond in a world that is very reminiscent of Infinity Ward's Game of the Year from last year. It's fast and fun, but here's hoping that it stays that way throughout the entire campaign. I have some concerns about monotony becoming an issue but I'll reserve final judgment until retail copies make their way to my desk.

Quantum of Solace is set to release on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on November 4, a full ten days before the film.

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/916/916366p1.html