Reviews - Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy - Xbox 360, PS3

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It's a mixture of Ludlum's books, 'The Bourne Identity' movie and a brand new script, but is The Bourne Conspiracy yet another movie-tie in destined to flop on console?

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Shame they couldn't model Matt Damon for the character, probably cost too much.

Unfortunately, I'm going to disagree with Steven on this one.

I found the combat to be rather dull and mechanical. Pretty much any bad guy can be defeated by blocking whilst he has his three swings and then just randomly pressing the X and Y buttons to attack... repeat until you've built up adrenaline for a take-down move and start again on another bad-guy or repeat on the same guy if he's a tough cookie.

The combat lacks the vicious, brutal down and dirty feel of the fights in the film... it's almost like a boxing mini-game. There's no control over using the environment as a weapon, so picking up a fire extinguisher mid-fight and battering the guy with it is out... in fact the only time you get to see Bourne use anything other than his fists is when you use the take-down move, but that's just an animation which you have no control over.

With a weapon drawn, control of Bourne is pretty sluggish and even a cack-handed joypad user like myself didn't have too much trouble lining up a shot, though snapping off a quick shot is next to impossible... he just moves too slowly and rotates slightly slowly too.

The detailed looking environment is very nice and graphically The Bourne Conspiracy is a damn good looking game... but the interaction with the environment is minimal and highlighted by the use of the 'Bourne Instinct' which shows just how little you can interact with, ie. pretty much nothing... and how rigid and inflexible the game world is.

There's the usual forced linearity too, such as Bourne being completely defeated by a waist high plastic barrier... incongruous considering he can pick locks and padlocks, fight three enemies at once, dodge incoming machine gun fire... but has never been trained how to jump over a plastic barrier.

The car chase sequence is undeniably brilliant and here the user-friendly control system, comes into its own and I agree with Steven that it really is bloody good.

But one chase sequence doesn't justify the whole game and even though I'm a Bourne fan and really like the style of the films and Matt Damon's portrayal of Bourne, I can't help but feel that The Bourne Conspiracy started off with high aspirations and, for whatever reason, got over-simplified in the development process.

With the combat playing such a central role to, and making up the majority of, the gameplay, it really should have been so much more than a rather average button pummeller... If the ability to pick up stuff mid-fight or use the environment as you saw fit was in here, I'd be crowing about how good The Bourne Conspiracy is... but that isn't the case. :(

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Originally Posted by Stringent

Shame they couldn't model Matt Damon for the character, probably cost too much.

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he refused to be involved in a videogame, since videogames turn people into violent killers.

http://www.kotaku.com.au/games/2008/...iolence-2.html

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Originally Posted by directhex

he refused to be involved in a videogame, since videogames turn people into violent killers.

http://www.kotaku.com.au/games/2008/...iolence-2.html

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hang on, he was in the film that portrayed violence.

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With one button for a light attack, another for a heavy attack and a button that allows you to block attacks, the simplicity of the controls means that you can string together combos so that you can slap your opponent about with little effort. The lack of depth is easily forgiven because the fights are still highly enjoyable thanks to the superb animation of the fighters. The efforts that have gone into the stunt-man work in the studio can be seen in every punch, roundhouse kick, tumble and fall.

Despite its simplicity, combat is also made more entertaining due to a three-tiered adrenaline metre, which once filled allows you to execute a brief and impressive cinematic sequence known as a ‘Takedown’.

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Now, if I was to buy a 360, its a game like this that I'd buy cos I like to win.

The game certainly has it's merits, but i found it repetitive after some time spent with it. You're given the impression at first that it may be tense stealth gameplay in the vein of splinter cell, but it quickly becomes a fairly typical shooter.

The one thing i will say that really speaks in it's favour is that the different types of play are integrated perfectly. It never feels unwieldy to switch to hand to hand combat or to go through a quick time event sequence. It would be nice to see other developers learn from this

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Originally Posted by Zak33

Now, if I was to buy a 360, its a game like this that I'd buy cos I like to win.

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That's one of the reasons why I liked it so much. It's a no-brainer, it's not trying to be Rainbow 6 or Gears of War. It's not perfect by any means, but it's instantly accessible and enjoyable.

There's plenty of adventures out there where you can wander around doing side-objectives and exploring, but the point here is that it moves on quickly from one scene to the next, it flows like a good action movie does and it keeps you focused through its action sequences where you need to press a button quickly. There are no tangents to go off on here, which I think is deliberate.

It's not perfect, the gameplay is very simple, but it's been done with style and I'd love to see elements of this game in other action titles.

There aren't many games that I really want to complete, but I did want to with this Yeah, I'll probably not play it again as there's no real value in doing that, but I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent with it and come the end of the year I'm sure it will be up there with my most memorable games.

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Originally Posted by Steven W

hang on, he was in the film that portrayed violence.

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but movies are different. they don't turn people into violent killers. only games do that

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Originally Posted by directhex

but movies are different. they don't turn people into violent killers. only games do that

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please tell me that im just loosing the sarcasim in the text???