:P Lost Planet

Interesting that The Bourne Conspiracy is coming out at this time, what without a movie to back it up. Many have seen these popular movies based on the Robert Ludlum bestselling Mystery/Suspense titles. And if you’ve never seen a Bourne movie that wouldn’t be much of a problem in terms of playing The Bourne Conspiracy.

In fact the main character doesn’t much look like Mr. Damon, the star of the present Bourne Films.

Mr. Matt Damon - as Jason Bourne in the Robert Ludlum Movies

I suppose that the makers of the film didn’t get the go-ahead to use the likeness of Mr. Damon in the games… which doesn’t much matter, since like James Bond/Sean Connery you’ll likely get many ‘do-overs’ in the future! I’m not much of a fan of the Bourne movies, having found them a bit dry, still I do wait for a good one to arrive and they are interesting.

But enough about the movies. Playing the game is more fun than seeing the movie. I found the game pretty compelling but not entirely exciting. The Bourne Conspiracy actually seems to be a complete look at the many plotlines of the three Bourne films. There is the time before the memory loss and much after as well. The game jumps from mission to mission, and if you are a fan of the films you will surely enjoy the play of actually putting Bourne through his killer paces.

There isn’t much down time to The Bourne Conspiracy, it keeps going on and on, and if you’re bored that’s a good thing. The cut scenes are pretty standard and you won’t find yourself following much along with the story. It’s funny but that I play so many games now, because of this site, but that the so-called ‘Plot’ doesn’t even have to exist in a Video Game for it to be good, in my opinion. It does set me back when I see a ‘game critic’ go on about story not being there… this from a guy who probably hasn’t read a book since ‘Catcher in The Rye’! So it is funny because I can easily go from place to place, without much bother, you just put me there, give me the gun, and I’ll do the rest! That’s become my attitude, in shooters especially.

In that this latest Bourne game is no different. I sort of recognized this and that but I’m just happy to complete the mission!

There is quite a lot of hand to hand combat in The Bourne Conspiracy. Of course we aren’t seeing a real fight. Fighting is unpleasant at any speed. Still it is interesting when games make the attempt. This is a little known area as yet, since most are focusing upon the guns/hardware more than the actual ’spirit’ of combat. At any rate, you get the famous ‘Combo’ moves that video games go on about. And it’s pretty maddening not to be able to move the character in a fluid manner. The ‘advice’ from the game is to choose from the light to heavy combo attacks and watch how opponents react. The game says that the opponents will react differently to your combos but I saw no change at all. One just has to knock the opponent down enough to get to the final cut scene, this in itself is entertaining, and I found out that it is best to use your kicking skill as much as possible, since the opponents are actually better at punching than you are! It becomes just a matter of ‘missing’ those punches and landing your own… not as easy as it may sound. Still, there hasn’t yet be a ‘revolution’ in this area. Hand to Hand doesn’t get much respect from Game Makers as yet!

The ‘old Sarge’ there was, if I remember, much tougher than the Demo I played a few weeks before! I had to do this one over a number of times until I got it right.

This was the hardest hand to hand in the game, I believe. This guy was really hard to finish! One of the good things about the game was that you could replay the scene as a trainee if it was too hard to complete as an Agent. I finally got fed up and put myself in Trainee mode for this one and finished him off! In real life, of course, a guy like that would have murdered me in, oh about, 30 seconds or so! So it is fun to fantisize!

Here I am hiding.

It’s funny but I didn’t realize that I could actually run until about 3/4ths through the game! I literally wasn’t aware of the so called 2-A Button. And I was thinking that I’d be sure to criticize the makers of The Bourne Conspiracy for not putting in the Run. Then I hit the button! All this time I was moving in slow-motion!

There’s quite a lot of shooting. Unfortunately the guns just aren’t that thrilling! The actual armor seems almost Pre-Hitler at times. With not much punch or power!

The best part of the game I’d have to say was the little Cooper Car moments. You’re with your girlfriend and she’s making those Video Game noises… it’s a pretty fun little ride, driving that little car around. I just floored it and was pretty pleased that the makers let the car go. In fact the look of London and the mechanics of the driving are really good, and a lot of fun. I enjoyed this zippy little part of the game.

My Zippy Little Cooper Car

So all in all the Bourne Conspiracy isn’t going to actually add anything new to the Ludlum Legacy in terms of bringing out some new story elements for Bourne, but as a game I felt it was pretty good really and not boring in the least. It’s a game that should capture your interest for a time, and if you in any way liked the movies I can’t imagine you not liking the game. Unless you were on the CIA’s side!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 12th, 2008 at 2:56 pm and is filed under :P Lost Planet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.