Stay up to date with all Treyarch News

• September

  15

  News > Ugo: Quantum Of Solace Hands-on Preview

Movie games generally suck. We all know it, we’ve all said it. And just about every Bond game since GoldenEye on the N64 has sucked as well. So Quantum of Solace isn’t really starting on a level playing field, is it? There’s a lot riding on this title, and neither Activision nor Treyarch wants to screw it up. And based on the segment I played through here in Leipzig, it looks like they’re managing to avoid the pitfalls that most movie games fall in, creating a really fun and exciting experience that fits great with the Bond franchise.

Despite the title, Quantum of Solace actually follows the events of both Casino Royale and the upcoming Quantum of Solace. The game will start with a few Quantum of Solace levels before flashing back to scenes from Casino Royale, running the gamut from that killer le parkour scene, to a casino hotel shootout.

The first l got to try, though, was from the new movie. After an interrogation goes south and the detainee manages to escape, it’s up to Bond to chase him through a relic of a sewer system and then across some rooftops, being set upon by enemies the whole way.

The controls in Quantum of Solace are identical to those found in Call of Duty 4. It’s not a coincidence, either. This game is running on COD4’s engine. Also the controls in that game pretty much rocked, so there’s really no reason why you wouldn’t use them.

There are a few slight changes, though. While most of Quantum of Solace plays from a first person shooter perspective (again, very reminiscent of GoldenEye), there are moments when you’re able to see Daniel Craig’s Bond in 3rd person. The game introduces a cover system, which was one of issues some folks had with Call of Duty 4. Pressing A near a wall will press Bond up against it, allowing him to blind fire or pop out for a few aimed shots. It’s pretty standard Gears of War stuff, but it’s good to see its addition here to spice things up. Otherwise you’d really only see Bond in the cutscenes, and where’s the fun in that?

The highlight of the sewers level took place in a large, open underground sewer tunnel. Chasing his suspect, Bond was quickly set upon by a dozen or so enemies. The enemies here aren’t like the constantly respawning foes of COD4. They’re unique, and they use tactics. Everything in the room has cover values for the AI, so when they enter, they’ll survey the situation and take cover in the most logical place. They’ll throw grenades, they’ll use their friends to lay down suppressive fire, and they’ll do just about everything they can to take Bond out.

Thankfully Bond isn’t in the business of going down that easy. Apart from his arsenal of guns and grenades, he can also use the environment to his advantage. Objects in the environment will glitter and shine if they’re interactive, and usually this means “shoot them and they’ll explode.” Fire extinguishers, for example, can create a great distraction for terrorists, allowing you to charge them and go for a melee attack.

The second level I tried took place during a scene from Casino Royale, where we had to track down our foe as he made his way to his hotel room. In all the levels of Quantum of Solace, you really can play how you’d like. There’s no instant fail if you’re playing stealthy and you get spotted. Instead you’ll just get harder enemies thrown at you with machine guns and body armor. The melee combat system is a good way to play sneaky. Charging an enemy, you can press in the right stick to initiate a melee attack. From here it’s a quick time minigame where the gameplay slows and you have to match a button press. Match it and you’ll take the guy down with some cool judo moves...miss it and he’ll counter, leaving you to have to take him down some other way. It works rather well, and is a little more hands-on than the straight-forward combat knife of CoD4.

Quantum of Solace is shaping up to being the best Bond game since GoldenEye. Unfortunately that’s not really saying too much. But, based on this hands-on time, it is really looking slick, and should offer World War 2 haters a nice alternative to Call of Duty: World at War.

http://gamesblog.ugo.com/index.php/gamesblog/more/quantum_of_solace_hands_on_preview/