When I hear about a licensed game coming out I pay it absolutely no mind. Outside of the EA games based on the Lord of the Rings franchise, The Warriors done by Rockstar and Scarface by Sierra a licensed game for the most part isabout as polished as a moose turd. In an attempt to prove the industrylaw wrong High Moon Studios has decided to make a game based on Robert Ludlum’s Bourne books and movies. Wait now don’t head for the hills just yetbecause Robert Ludlum’s the Bourne Conspiracy is actually a pretty decent, but repetitive and some what unpolished game.
Story:
TheBourne Conspiracy takes place right before the flick starring Matt Damon andleads up to the events that acted as the climax for the first movie. Asexpert bone breaker Jason Bourne you get to act out the mission that inflictsBourne with amnesia as well as take part in a couple of flashback missions thathe took part in while under the employment of Treadstone; the organization thatspent $30 million to turn Jason Bourne into a living weapon. When you’renot an employee of Treadstone you will find yourself breaking the faces ofcops, marines, dockworkers and other Treadstone assassins. The story isnot as deep as the movie or books, but it does do a good job of letting youplay out certain sequences from the first movie.
Rating: 7.0
Gameplay:
Theytake innovation and pretty much throw it out of the window by imitatingUncharted: Drakes Fortune. Which isn’t abad thing but it leaves me with the feeling that I’ve done it before. It feels more like Uncharted and less likeGears of War because there is more of an emphasis on fisticuffs than pureshooting. While the bouts of pugilismthat you endure and better crafted than the fare in Uncharted they’re morecumbersome and spring up far too much in Bourne.
Unlikein Uncharted when you get too close to an enemy you are defaulted into shakycam pugilism and there is no way out of it. I really don’t mind because they don’t last too long if you know whatyou are doing. The best ways to dispatcha foe in hand-to-hand combat are the Take Down maneuvers. These are accessed when you have filled upone bar of your adrenaline gauge. Whenthat bar is full you will see it flash the “B” button and you can choose to useit or save it for later. Take Downs aregood because it gets rid of the enemy in one quick violent swoop, but it’salways good to save one and then build upon it as well. Since your adrenaline gauge has three levelsyou can have up to three of these at the ready. Having these three makes encounters where you face multiple enemies abreeze. If you have to fight threeopponents and have the adrenaline meter maxed out you can then use your Take Down to take out all three in a choreographed beat down fest.
The Take Downfeature also works when you use firearms. The way you build up your adrenaline meter with weapons is by employing aheadshot. Weapon Take Downs are pretty effectiveand come in handy in spots where you either can’t see the enemy or you don’thave the kind of time to actually aim for the person. All you have to do is use the Takedown toautomatically kill the person in the flashiest way imaginable.
Takedowns forthe most part look the same, but depending on the situation they’llchange. A lot of times you will seeBourne slam the person up against the wall or slam the enemies face into a deskand these are nice, but the best ones involve a lot of breaking bones. I’ve seen Bourne break arms, legs and theoccasional neck. Say for instance ifyou’re fighting a guy during a firefight if you do a Takedown during this youwill see Bourne spin his opponent into oncoming fire and roll out of theway. These are pretty fun and show offhow Bourne can take advantage of any situation, but my problem is the fact thatBourne does not throw enough people out of windows. The melee combat is pretty open and allowsfor a couple of nice combos, but it’s easy to just rely on the same ones andthe ability to kick is pretty useless. This is because you have to hold the attack button down for a couple ofseconds, and finding the opening for this is sparse and it leaves you open forattack. The best way to break out a kickis to stun the enemy and it’s not even worth trying, especially late into thegame because a lot of the times your attempts will be blocked, and this is evenmore of an occurrence when you fight a boss.
The bosses maybe humans and not demons, but these bosses take far too much punishment to bebelievable. You have to utilize at leastfive Take Down attacks and to be honest if you whack a guy across the faceseveral times with a shovel, slam his face into a circuit breaker, kick himinto a statue he shouldn’t continue to stand in your way. But no the bosses in The Bourne Conspiracy come back for more as if they were some kind of sadistic energizer bunny hoppedup on PCP and Crystal Meth. The bossbattles really just seem to drag down the pace of the game and they really comeout swinging as well. When the fightfirst starts they do nothing but throw punches and kicks and when you try toattack you get interrupted and attacked some more. Eventually you start to realize that you haveto rely upon the counterattacks to open up a decent enough window forattack. A counterattack is accessed whenthe boss is trying to do a Takedown himself. The only thing a counter attack is is a context sensitive action. In fact I think 60% of the game is a contextsensitive action. There is no actualsniping because that is a context sensitive action within a cutscene. While Uncharted used the mechanic sosparingly that it actually felt out of place for the game, Bourne uses it likeit’s trying to be the next Resident Evil 4. While I don’t mind it in Resident Evil 4 in Bourne it seems too forcedlike it just got on the bandwagon of an already tired mechanic. On top of this the aiming isn’t that smootheither.
The aiming iskind of stiff and you have to line the reticule up just right for a shot toregister. The rule is if the reticuleisn’t red then don’t fire. Even if yousee the reticule on the head of the enemy it won’t kill them if you fire andthat really is quite irritating. Anothercomplaint comes from the fact that weapons do not feel powerful in thisgame. I’ve had to put at least half aclip into every enemy in the game in order for them to die. So you just find yourself not firing untilyou can line up that precious head shot. You’ll find yourself just standing out in the open going, “just a littlebit more, let me get the kill dot on this mans head” sometimes if you’re notcareful you might die because of it, but aiming for the head is a lot betterthan spraying a guy with 15 bullets. Ialso notice that the best weapon for head shots is the pistol. It might be because the assault rifles have alittle too much recoil, but the pistol works great for head shots.
It’s also wortha mention that taking cover does take some getting used to. You can run for it, but you’re not going toslide towards it with the press of a button. The best way to automatically put you back to cover is to hold “A” asyou’re dashing towards the object. Thehold “A” mechanic also works with picking up weapons and holding “B” initiatesrunning Takedowns. Robert Ludlum’s TheBourne Conspiracy doesn’t do much to innovate the genre, but it’s at leastentertaining enough to keep you playing. Wish it was longer though because by the time you get comfortable withthe game it’s half over.
Rating: 7.0
Graphics:
The BourneConspiracy uses a touched up version of the popular and too wide spread UnrealEngine 3. This does not make the gameugly, but it doesn’t have much of a unique look. Every graphical detail is easy on the eyes,but there is nothing about it that pops out and impresses the viewer. Jason Bourne and the enemies all have nicelooking character models with nice clothing and facial textures. There are also a nice variety of enemydesigns based on the stage. The frame rate is pretty steady minus a few instances that it decides tostutter. The character animations arepretty decent, but at times seem really stiff like when Bourne aims hisgun. The animations for the hand-to-handbrawls are pretty nice and do a nice job showcasing the pain of the character. Also you will notice that when you take toomuch damage Bourne’s Aber Crombie and Fitch good looks start to diminish when bloodand bruises make an appearance. While The Bourne Conspiracy is a pretty decent looking game there really isn’tanything about it that will stay in your memory two minutes after you put downthe controller.
Rating: 7.0
Sound:
The highlight ofthe audio comes from hearing the fist impacts. It sounds like your tenderizing a steak as you cram your fist intosomeone’s face. And that’s where itends; the soundtrack in uninspired and the guns sound bland and weak. The voice acting is decent with Jason Bournesounding like a stone cold killer, which is appropriate because the Bournecharacter has always lacked the debonair polish of James Bond. Once again there is nothing memorable aboutthe audio presentation, but luckily it doesn’t grate on the nerves
Rating: 7.0
Replay:
Once you beatthe game it’s done and there really isn’t much of a reason to pick it upagain. You can go after more achievementpoints and beat it at a higher level, but that’s it. You also have the option to find all of thepassports to unlock extras, but I wouldn’t recommend it. The passports can be likened to the treasuresfrom Uncharted, but finding them is nowhere near as rewarding or fun.
Rating: 6.0
Overall:
There are bettermore original third person shooters that you can find such as Dark Sector,Uncharted: Drakes Fortune and Gears of War that you can spend time with, but ifyou have played and enjoyed them then give Robert Ludlum’s The BourneConspiracy a shot, but I must say that it doesn’t have anywhere near the amountof imagination or lasting power as those games mentioned. Though the story isn’t as grandiose as othertitles in the genre it will still satisfy with its action and bone breaking Take Downs.
Rating: 7.0
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