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We played three different levels in the game - two from the movie of the same name (which is premiering in theaters November 14) - and one flashback sequence that is set in the Casino Royale movie from 2006.

Each level demonstrated relentless pacing and top-notch shooter action. Treyarch, the same design studio that is developing the new Call of Duty: World at War, freely admit that Gears of War and Rainbow Six played a key influencing role in this new style of gameplay, which emphasizes sprinting between cover and physical contact.

Hands-on sessions with unfinished beta code of upcoming games are great for a couple of reasons. First, even at an early stage of development, an experienced gamer can get a real feel for how responsive the controls will be as well as how a game's pacing will feel in the final product. The other reason beta play sessions are great is that these experiences are necessarily unscripted. There's no way that a game developer can tell you how to play a game, and the end result is a series of discoveries. This can be good and bad. Thankfully in Bond's case, it's good - we found more depth and open-ended action than we expected.

We played this early version of Quantum Solace on an Xbox 360, but the game will be available on the PS3 also.



Level 1: Sienna Underground

The first level we played began in Sienna and takes place at the beginning of the game. Bond is chasing a villain through an underground area - Activision declined to explain why we were chasing this villain because it would spoil a key plot point in the upcoming movie.

We sprinted through an underground cavernous area that appeared to be suffering from some sort of earthquake. As we sprinted through hallways and shot our way through the occasional bottleneck ambush, we learned the importance of cover in this game. Much like Gears of War, you move to and from cover by holding down the A button and sprinting. The right trigger button allows you to lean out or up and fire from cover. The left trigger aims down the gun sights.

In traditional shooter fashion, explosives were located through the level that we could use to trigger wide-area explosions capable of neutralizing multiple targets. The enemy A.I. seemed pretty snappy - some bad guys would sprint at you, while others would hide behind cover and wait for you to approach them.

There are no health packs in Quantum Solace. When you take significant amounts of fire, the game starts to go into a slow-motion display. This is your queue to seek cover. If you take even more damage in this slow-down mode, the display narrows in the classic bond blood barrel.



Sienna Rooftops

The second level we played also took place in Sienna, but high above the ground on the roofs of apartments and homes in the fabled Italian city. This sequence was also a frantic chase, but was a more physical form of gameplay, including numerous jumps and a few sequences where you lose your footing on rooftop tiles.

As we leaped from building to building, we discovered a few other features in Quantum Solace. First, when you come into close contact with an enemy, you can trigger a quick takedown by clicking in the right thumb stick. This triggers a one-button mini-game where you have to quickly press the button displayed onscreen. Succeed and Bond performs one of several silent action moves. Judo chop!

The other thing we noticed is the large number of weapons in the game. Bond typically starts with his pistol and a grenade, but as you dispatch enemies, you can pick up their firearms. Over the course of our three mission endeavor, we used pistols, machine guns, snipers, and more.



Casino Royale

The final mission we played was the same mission Activision showed at its E3 press conference in July. This level takes place in between poker rounds from Casino Royale and is a flashback sequence in the game that allowed us to play in either stealth mode or in a more aggressive style.

We initially attempted to play through Casino Royale in stealth mode, so our discovery that you can pull up a live mini-map that displays all enemy locations was quite helpful. We successfully bypassed two guards by crouch-sneaking behind their backs, and we took out another guard who was standing on the balcony by sneaking up behind him, snapping his neck, and tossing him over the ledge.

We then moved out onto the balcony and jumped across onto another balcony. A unique split-screen view was displayed onscreen, which allowed us to see the guard's locations in this new hotel suite. This allowed us to nimbly jump between windows and avoid discovery.

Soon after this, however, our stealth plan fell apart. While crouching in the shadows next to a door, we accidentally backed into the door a little too hard and opened it slightly, alerting the guard in the adjacent room. A firefight ensued. During this gun battle we noticed that the enemy A.I. behaved in a much more intelligent manner, attempting to use the corridors of the hotel suite to flank us.

After taking out this group of henchmen, we climbed up into the vents and made our way to the central lobby that appeared in the Casino Royale movie. Here we engaged in an absolutely massive battle against two rival factions of bad guys. We probably killed about 30 bad guys total. Again, the use of cover was essential.



The End... Kind Of

This ended our hands-on time with the game, but the game's producer allowed us a sneak peek at a new level we'd never seen before. This mission was set in the Miami airport - it's another flashback that occurs before the action sequence involving the massive jumbo jet in the movie.

This mission demonstrated yet another set of skills you can use in Quantum Solace: hacking. During this sequence, Bond can disable security cameras and hack into them by successfully completing a numbers-style mini-game.

Because this mission occurs later in the game, the enemy behaviors are even more sophisticated and combat is more difficult. The guards are wearing body armor and are already on alert (alert mode is depicted on the map with yellow triangle indicators, meaning that any suspicion activity elicits gunfire. One cool new feature we discovered here is the first-person sprint-attack, which you can trigger by holding down the A button until you sprint into the target.

Finally, we also learned that the game has super-powerful weapons hidden throughout many of the levels, such as a magnum revolver hidden in one of the rooms here.

Overall, we came away from this play session fairly impressed. The controls are tight, and the pacing is excellent mirroring the more physical fast-paced action in the latest Bond movie.

If we have any complaints about Quantum Solace, it's that we're less enthused about playing the Casino Royale missions than we are about playing in the environments in the upcoming movie. However, since the new film is a direct continuation of Casino Royale - it starts an hour after the first movie - this is not a big concern.

Oh, and in case you were wondering what exactly a Quantum of Solace is, click here. (It's essentially a "short respite", but is based upon a short story by Ian Fleming that features Bond in a less traditional role.)

Quantum of Solace is scheduled for release on November 4, 2008.



http://www.gamepro.com/article/previews/207006/quantum-of-solace/