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MI6 guest reviewer Glenn Scully compares Nintendo
DS versions of the new James Bond games "Blood Stone"
and "GoldenEye
007"...
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Blood Stone / GoldenEye Nintendo DS Review
22nd November 2010
When Activision told the world that November
2010 would finally produce the much-anticipated remake of the
Nintendo 64 classic
shooter "GoldenEye 007", with Daniel
Craig firmly implanted in the lead role and presenting a modern
21st Century
reworking of the 1995 story, the videogame community collectively
began holding its breath. Would it sully the great GoldenEye
name? Would it be warmly nostalgic, or cause blood to drip down
the review pages of websites and magazines?
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For fans of James Bond, another question
was also forthcoming: while owners of the Nintendo Wii
system would enjoy the
first-person shooter remake, those on the PlayStation3
and Xbox360 platforms would be treated to a wholly original
Bond adventure, entitled "James
Bond 007: Blood Stone". A third-person cover-based
shooter, with elements of driving sprinkled throughout,
it promised to deliver much the same experience that was
delivered with the 2004 multi-platform videogame, "James
Bond 007: Everything or Nothing"... namely, that
of an interactive Bond film. The aforementioned question,
therefore, became one of comparison. Which would be better?
Would the remake be a safe pair of hands, or should Bond
be braver and go new?
Comparing videogames across different videogame systems,
each boasting vastly different abilities, is grossly unfair.
For every HD pixel produced by the PlayStation3, there
exists a fan of motion-controlled gameplay. Therefore,
for every fan of Blood Stone, there would be a defender
of the new GoldenEye.
Only in one place can even ground be discovered. Granted,
it is the least powerful and most limited of the platforms
and, judging from early sales, it also seems to be the
most overlooked by gamers and fans alike. It does remain,
however, the only console upon which both Blood Stone and
GoldenEye can be played. So, in an effort to answer some
(or all) of the questions posed above, the Nintendo DS
Lite has been fully charged and the two new adventures
fully completed.
It’s Daniel Craig versus... well, actually, Daniel
Craig. Let the Battle of the Bond begin. |
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Storyline
Arguably, Blood Stone boasts the most Bondian of the
two storylines on offer. Having been written from scratch by
Bruce Feirstein specifically to suit Daniel Craig’s interpretation
of the famous spy, it captures the spirit of the latest two big
screen films nicely. Realistic terrorist leaders, rather than
deformity-sporting megalomaniacs, make up the majority of your
targets and the globetrotting follows a plot dealing with information
about a biological weapon. There’s no plot to blow up the
moon, no nuclear warhead hidden under London... rather, Bond
is fighting a very modern war in the age of intelligence and
business. Granted, this does make some of the characters somewhat
forgettable, due to their lack of insane exaggerations, but it
fits the feeling and tone of "Casino
Royale" and, more accurately,
"Quantum of Solace".
There is one original character that stands head and shoulders
above the tidal wave of Russian billionaires, Mongolian extremists
and Eastern European arms dealers. Played by Joss
Stone (who
also contributes the original theme song, “I’ll Take
It All”, used in the end credits in the Nintendo DS version),
Nicole Hunter is a wealthy socialite turned part-time MI6 agent
who appears frequently throughout the plot. She’s richly
developed, charming, amusing and forms a genuine relationship
with Bond. The various twists and turns that lead to her fate
will definitely keep you hooked to the storyline, even if you’re
not a fan of the modern Bond style represented accurately here.
The more classic Bond style, although heavily tweaked, is on
hand to offer some sense of balance in GoldenEye. Once again,
Feirstein lends his pen to the proceedings but his hands
are tied by the existing storyline from 1995. So while some
characters are given a decidedly 21st Century update, and some
geographical locations are switched around, it still all boils
down to a weapon of mass destruction mounted on a satellite
in orbit, being fired by a madman. It worked for Pierce
Brosnan,
and all too often for Roger Moore. There is, however, something
that just isn’t right about seeing a female assassin
who uses her thighs to squeeze people to death face off against
Daniel Craig. Not to mention the ending, where a breathless
Natalya embraces Bond, who proceeds to shove his tongue down
her throat. To anybody who’s seen "Quantum of Solace",
in which Olga Kurylenko escaped with a peck on the cheek, prepare
to roll your eyes.
Especially since the aforementioned Natalya is rewritten to
be a helpless piece of skirt in this modern reworking of the
storyline. In the original GoldenEye, she was a strong and feisty
female lead. Here, she’s reduced to begging for help and
waiting around in a lot of cars while Bond has all the fun. Adding
her to a cast without any major recognisable talent makes her
bland and near-faceless (and the same can be said of Alec
Trevelyan,
unfortunately. Only the gaudy obviousness of General
Ourumov’s
new costume sets him apart from the others who share his generic
Russian voice actor). Nevertheless, the plot keeps all the important
elements, and so tank chases merge nicely with climactic fights
in huge satellite dishes and leaps from gaping dams. All very
old-Bond... and ultimately makes you wish they never bothered
trying to update the story in the first place.
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Above: "Blood
Stone" Nintendo DS screenshots.
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Gameplay
We all know what GoldenEye is, so perhaps the more surprising
and pleasing revelation is the variety of gameplay styles which
Blood Stone brings to the table. Especially when compared to
the HD console version of the game, which managed to convey a
grand sum total of two gameplay styles, the handheld Blood Stone
comes out on top. There’s third-person cover-based shooting
as the main staple diet, with a healthy dose of driving side
salad, but buried away in some of the more interesting missions
one comes across a detailed and intricate Texas Hold’Em
poker simulator. There’s also an on-rails shooting gallery
in two boat-based events. Even the electronic hacking, present
in the HD console version as a simple QTE, becomes a wonderful
variety of minigames: everything from cracking the dial on a
safe to rearranging scattered pieces of a photograph to form
your next important clue... and the most impressive bit?
It all works well. Granted, some of the driving is a little
slow, and only one of the control schemes available is of any
use (whatever you do, avoid trying to steer the wheel with the
stylus. Somehow it makes the Aston Martin as manoeuvrable as
a milk float) but it certainly keeps things fresh and interesting
to actually participate in a chase, rather than just watching
one. Otherwise there are absolutely no complaints. Levels are
linear, for sure, but just as linear as GoldenEye and there’s
certainly more variety in your actions. There are even one-off,
environment-specific takedowns that are reminiscent of the old
Bond Moments in the Electronic Arts series of videogames - complete
with cute little golden 007 logo and fanfare.
These also exist in GoldenEye, but they’re nowhere near
as dramatic and there are a mere half-a-dozen that reappear in
multiple environments. That’s not to say that the gameplay
in GoldenEye is bad: on the contrary, this is perhaps the most
impressive first-person shooter available on the Nintendo DS.
Indeed, thanks to the graphical limitations of the handheld console
(more on that later) this game comes dangerously close to feeling
like a faithful port of the Rare original. The gameplay variety
here comes from how one decides to tackle the environment that
confronts them, rather than from constantly switching the gameplay
mode away from the core engine.
So, there’s the all-guns-blazing route (which is risky
as, outside of his iron sights, Bond appears unable to hit a
barn door at twelve paces, whereas the enemy will invariably
drain your regenerative health with a few well-placed bullets)
or the stealthy assassin route (where you come over all Solid
Snake and use the rather fun takedown system to sneak up behind
people and mug them... but again, tricky, as the AI can go one
of two ways: either, they’re blessed with x-ray vision
and near-telepathic foresight; or they’re suddenly struck
blind, deaf and dumb). The third route is the Double-Oh route,
and involves using the aforementioned environmental hazards to
cause chaos. While very staged in places, there is a certain
sense of satisfaction in ringing somebody’s phone to make
them look the other way, allowing you to sneak past undetected.
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Above: "GoldenEye
007" Nintendo DS screenshots.
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Graphics
Having both been developed by n-Space on behalf of Activision,
you can’t blame either game for using the same Daniel Craig
character model and basic visual style. Everything in Blood Stone
and GoldenEye looks as you would expect it to look on the Nintendo
DS, and where the first-person
shooter subsequently gains some reminiscence towards the original,
the third-person adventure brings to mind Tomorrow Never Dies
on PSone (albeit with better controls, better gameplay and better
everything else, you’ll be pleased to hear). Both games
push the limits of the cartridge and produce some truly impressive
graphical moments with flourish and obvious care.
Well... there is one difference. Blood Stone just manages to
get the edge on its rival by being clever about environments.
You see, in GoldenEye, several moments find Bond out and about
in outdoor places, most memorable of these being a thick African
jungle. Thanks to the limitations of the Nintendo DS there are
invisible walls and an ugly, flat slab of Generic Jungle Texture
#47 fences in the terrain. When indoors, neither Blood Stone
nor GoldenEye can claim to best the other, but Blood Stone ventures
outside in Burma towards the conclusion of the storyline and
it manages to look infinitely better by cleverly using mist to
cover the seams and avoiding trees altogether. Perhaps it seems
cruel to point out this drawback for GoldenEye, as the original
was just as bad and it hardly mattered, but thanks to seeing
Blood Stone using the same graphics and textures (and using them
twice as well) one can’t help but notice the difference.
Variety & Immersion
Again, this section might point out a few
factors that seem cruel. After all, GoldenEye is and has always
been a successful
first-person shooter and so pitching it against a game that boasts
four gameplay styles and a plethora of detailed minigames is
rather like saying “Well, comedy-drama is better than comedy
as it has drama too.” In other words, it would be stating
the obvious to say that Blood Stone is more varied than GoldenEye.
The only moment where the latter does anything other than fiddle
with weapons is the tank chase through a hectic St. Petersburg,
and even then the control scheme is near-identical to the running
and gunning. So variety comes in different ways.
For example, in one section, the lights are switched off and
Bond finds a flashlight. Using the flashlight gives away your
position to the guards, but without it, finding your objective
becomes tricky. In another section, there are no guards at all,
only proximity mines and camera turrets, and Bond must negotiate
them to reach five computer terminals. Boss fights are also on
hand to spice up the otherwise endless trudging towards your
yellow destination marker. The best of these is Bond’s
encounter with Xenia in the jungle, during which you turn her
own missile system against her helicopter while fending off waves
of soldiers. Many of these moments feel very Bondian and will
definitely bring a healthy grin upon successful completion.
Unfortunately, a corridor is a corridor no matter how you slice
it, and Blood Stone has less of them to negotiate. Not only
that, but cleverly using cover and adding a hand-to-hand clash
system helps to make the environments feel less repetitive
than some of the identikit walls and doors of GoldenEye. You’re
never doing the same thing for more than five minutes and that
is definitely where Blood Stone triumphs over the first-person
system of gameplay. Because while the first-person perspective
may have been invented to make the player feel like the character
they control, the brilliant number of different tasks on hand
in this game bring you much closer to feeling like James Bond.
No mission sums this up better than the casino in Monaco. You’re
tasked with sneaking through the gardens, keeping a low profile,
to gain access to the building. Once inside, you meet up with
the lovely Nicole Hunter, who in turn introduces you to the diabolical
gangster Pomerov. You end up playing poker against Pomerov, turning
his loss to your advantage. You gain access to his upper office,
managing to crack his safe before a firefight ensues. You escape
the casino under a hail of bullets. And there’s no coincidence
in the fact that every sentence in that description starts by
recognising “you”, because you end up doing it all.
Not only can you see Bond, but you are Bond... and that’s
where GoldenEye may have shot itself in the foot by accurately
capturing the feel of the original. Because, at times when Daniel
Craig isn’t talking, you can be forgiven for expecting
to see Pierce Brosnan appear in the next cutscene.
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Above: "Blood
Stone" Nintendo DS screenshots.
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Sound & Music
To follow on from the previous section for a moment,
Daniel Craig does indeed do a lot of talking, in both games.
Even more so
in Blood Stone, as there are longer cutscenes and more missions
(and therefore more exposition and plot detail) in the handheld
version than in the HD console version... yes, you read that
correctly. Nevertheless, GoldenEye still boasts an incredible
variety of dialogue from the leading man, all delivered with
that no-nonsense emotionless grit that summed up his cinematic
Bond so well. The ever-reliable Judi Dench is on hand as M in
both games, too, and she’s always a joy to hear. Blood
Stone does have the added advantage of Joss Stone, who actually
surprises with a competent and interesting voiceover of Nicole
Hunter. It adds to her character and also sits nicely alongside
her belting of the theme song, “I’ll Take It All”,
over the end credits. Unfortunately, everybody else outside of
the big three names is shared between a small handful of voice
talent that (while undeniably giving it some effort and probably
eating their way through industrial amounts of throat lozenges)
becomes blurred together all too easily.
Praise be, whoever the heck invented music. GoldenEye gets David
Arnold to throw his professionalism and incomparable talent into
crafting a nice selection of excellent modern tunes. They mostly
ride on a techno vibe and help convey the atmosphere of the story
and events nicely. While it seems a shame that there’s
no vocal main theme on hand, it isn’t really a huge loss
and only really matters when you realise Blood Stone has one.
Richard Jacques, perhaps the greatest videogame composer in the
entire world, lends himself to a fantastic orchestral score that,
granted, sounds a bit tinny when coming through the Nintendo
DS stereo speakers. Still, the tempo certainly gets blood pumping,
and when the final mission is accompanied by a brilliant new
rendition of the James Bond Theme... well, you’ll get funny
looks if you play it on the bus.
Multiplayer
This is where GoldenEye will always triumph, not
least because of the near-legendary status of the original game’s multiplayer
mode. Friends with their own Nintendo DS and copy of the game
can get together and experience a fierce four-player firefight,
or those with a stable Nintendo Wi-Fi connection can take themselves
online to shoot people in the head the world over. A word of
warning: unlike Blood Stone, GoldenEye does offer an all-button
mode of control that turns the A, B, X and Y buttons into a second
D-Pad. While it works fine for the single player (where you’re
in charge), taking it up against your friends would be suicide.
Stylus at the ready, then, and everything works quite nicely.
Just a shame about the lack of a Bond skin, but thanks to some
crazy rule implemented back in 2002 by Danjaq he’s been
absent from multiplayer modes for years.
All your classic modes are here, including Golden Gun and Paintball,
and it makes an impressive roster that Blood Stone tries (but
ultimately fails) to match. Here, you’re offered a healthy
mix of deathmatches and various versions of capture the flag,
king of the hill, etc. etc. but with a limited handful of arenas
and an engine built around providing cinematic flair to your
violent adventures, the choice is clear for sociable gamers.
In multiplayer, speed is of the essence and GoldenEye just has
the edge... just. What would have been excellent would have been
some kind of online racing mode, using the driving engine for
Blood Stone, but unfortunately the focus is entirely on the core
of the gameplay and so those looking for multiplayer driving
should stick to either of the major kart racing games available
for the Nintendo DS.
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Above: "GoldenEye
007" Nintendo DS screenshots.
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Lifespan
In the final category, however, Blood Stone returns
to the fore. This comparison is perhaps the closest to call.
With a jaw-dropping
eighteen missions making up the trip along the main storyline,
and the sheer variety of actions taunting you with that just-one-more-go
feeling, you’re more likely to be returning to the Blood
Stone cartridge in the future (if only out of sheer curiosity,
or in case pinching yourself to believe that so much fit on something
so small gets too painful). The single player mode also takes
longer to clear first time around, and there is a bonus for completing
it again on the hardest difficulty setting, a task that will
require practice and an earned skill. Once you’ve cleared
a mission in the single player storyline, it becomes available
on the main menu under Quick Play, which is essential in capturing
the point of the handheld market. Snap open your Nintendo DS
and within seconds you can be tearing through the streets of
Istanbul or going all-in against Pomerov in that excellent poker
match.
The only sour grape is the intelligence system. Both games have
one, and the concept is simple and infectious: find a silver
briefcase in a single player level and it unlocks a nice bonus
for you. Blood Stone, annoyingly, centres these on the multiplayer
and they all appear to be various different types of goon skin
to wear. It would be nice to have single player loyalty rewarded
with single player rewards or, on the flip-side, have a multiplayer
mode that doesn’t require a trawl through hours of story
to fully unlock. Still, that complaint is about as minor as the
amount of bankers that are still trusted nowadays.
GoldenEye does have a slightly better system for loners, but
it feels cheap and a little pointless. Instead of a Quick Play
option for their level select mode, players are given a Time
Attack in which rushing through and recompleting in a certain
time dishes out XP to spend on single player cheats. There
are several things wrong with this system. Firstly, there aren’t
that many levels to select in the level select mode to begin
with, and secondly, it means you can’t pick and choose
a random level to play on the train without being greeted with
a ticking clock and the inevitable “try again, you took
too long” screen upon completion. Perhaps worst of all,
however, is the fact that the unlocked cheats are for Time
Attack only, and can’t be taken along for the thrill
of the single player storyline.
To add insult to injury, the intelligence system which it shares
with Blood Stone is perhaps even worse, if that is even at all
possible. Find a briefcase in GoldenEye and you can use it to
unlock a single panel of a jumbled up, Catchphrase-style picture
puzzle. Turns out it makes four pieces of exclusive concept art,
but then you play Blood Stone again and realise that the whole
thing is shamelessly ripped from one of Bond’s clues in
Bangkok (right down to using L and R to rotate your panel’s
image). Okay, at least they tried, but the lifespan of GoldenEye
beyond the single player story depends entirely on your involvement
in the multiplayer mode.
Conclusion
The result of this comparison
should be pretty easy
to guess. It was certainly a noble undertaking to tackle the
almighty legacy of GoldenEye 007 and reinvent it for the 21st
Century. It was certainly brave, too. For the Nintendo DS handheld
system, Activision and n-Space should rightly be proud of what
they’ve achieved. The new GoldenEye definitely has flaws,
but then so did the original, and that never managed to stop
it before. But if one can overcome the huge, overbearing shadow
of the 1990s and the 64-bit cartridge with Pierce Brosnan on
it, one should be applauded. Activision and n-Space have, and
given gamers an entertaining and impressive first-person Bond
experience that, above all else, has the novelty of portability
in the already-strong arsenal of reasons to buy.
But when stood alongside such impressive competition, there’s
only so far a shot of nostalgia can carry a videogame. James
Bond 007: Blood Stone may be an interactive film on
the HD consoles but, on the Nintendo DS, it manages to be a far
better
gaming experience and so for a handheld to beat all the glory
of 1080p, Dolby Surround and Bizarre Creations it truly is something
special. There is no shame in GoldenEye losing this comparative
review to what is a spectacular and inspiring game. Overcoming
the limitations of the Nintendo
DS, which is soon to be overtaken by the next generation of handhelds,
and delivering Blood Stone is the real success story this holiday
season. Fans of good videogames and fans of Double-Oh derring-do
alike should, if forced into a choice between either one or the
other, head towards the vibrant red logo instead of the smooth
golden finish.
Daniel Craig has beaten... well, himself, by playing to his
strengths in a fresh and original adventure crafted for his take
on the Bond character. While it was a diverting novelty to see
him shoehorned into an older Bond storyline, there are other
reasons for the existence of the new GoldenEye. James Bond 007:
Blood Stone ultimately gets the girl. Or rather, keeping in character,
it doesn’t...?
Verdict - Blood Stone
With all the variety
of excitement that makes Double-Oh Seven such a smash hit on
the big screen, the arrival of Daniel Craig’s
first original videogame is a blessing for the Nintendo DS. From
deadly firefights to exciting chase sequences, and a host of
entertaining and interesting minigames and side quests, Bond
has never looked better on a portable console. This deserves
pride of place in your multi-cartridge holder wherever you end
up taking it.
Verdict - GoldenEye 007
You’ll love it because you loved the original. You’ll
love it because you recognise it manages to be an engrossing
and impressive first-person shooter on a console not exactly
known for them. You’ll love it because of the brilliant
multiplayer. But if you think you’ll love it because you
prefer it to some random, try-everything-once stab at the Bond
franchise, be warned. It’s far from a disaster, but also
realistically and objectively far from the Midas touch as well.
Many thanks to Glenn Scully.
