The gameplay isn't original but 007 Blood Stone perfectly captures the spirit and tone of the Daniel Craig films.
User Rating: 8 | Blood Stone: 007 PC
After Pierce Brosnan exited the Bond franchise with "Die Another Day," a worldwide search began for the next Bond before finally settling on Daniel Craig. The new Bond film, Casino Royale, was a reboot and the sequel, Quantum of Solace, had a video game tie-in after Activision purchased the license. When gamers think of Bond games, the very best is GoldenEye on the N64, which was remade with Craig on the Wii. Console and PC gamers weren't left out as released on the same day was 007 Blood Stone, an all-new Bond adventure starring Craig, Judi Dench, and British singer Joss Stone. With the 23rd Bond film in limbo due to the crippling debt of MGM, those looking for a fix will thoroughly enjoy Blood Stone as it perfectly captures the spirit of the Daniel Craig films. The game finds Bond taking on a group of terrorists who are planning to attack the G-20 summit in Athens. After the thrilling opening credits, M sends Bond to investigate the kidnapping of a scientist and discovers a plot to create deadly bio-weapons but not everything is as it seems as someone close to MI6 is working for the enemy. The plot is standard Bond fare and is well-told, taking several cues from both Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. The cutscenes were a joy to watch thanks to the voice acting, lending it an authentic experience. Blood Stone is a third-person shooter and borrows a few pages from Batman Arkham Asylum and Splinter Cell Conviction. Whenever you're close to an enemy, you have the option of doing a take-down move by pressing F. Doing this will earn you "Focus Aims," an element reminiscent of the Mark and Execute feature of Conviction. The only gadget Bond uses is a smartphone, which can scan the environment for weapons and enemy placements as well as hack computers. You can use it to find your way if you get lost but this is redundant as the game is linear. There are also some driving sections and while intense, they often devolve into trial-and-error. The visuals are good but won't blow you away. The environments are varied and takes advantage of the worldwide grandeur of the source material. Facial animation is non-existent though as everyone seems to be pumped full of Botox. The audio is superb and features some great voice acting and music. The story is rather short and can be done is 6 to 8 hours on the default difficulty. There is also multiplayer which includesTeam Deathmatch and Last Man Standing for up to 16 players. However, the PC version doesn't exactly have a large population and checking the leaderboards, there's only around 580 people. Team Deathmatch seems to be the most popular mode but can be laggy at times. The DRM is a basic disc check. 007 Blood Stone doesn't exactly break the mode in terms of gameplay but what's here is done well and the way the game is paced makes you feel like you're watching an actual Bond film. As a game, it's average but as a Bond game, it's great.
