Easily the best movie game since The Godfather. Here's hoping Supremacy gets the same treatment. Real Score: 8.2/10
The story of The Bourne Conspiracy is centered around the story of the first Bourne movie The Bourne Identity where Jason Bourne is found floating off the coast of Marsailles and he has no clue who he is and why he is there, all he has is a number and a bank address. The story unfolds almost identical to the movie, but for those like myself who have seen the movie way too many times there are just as many missions that dive deeper into the Bourne universe. You will play missions in Bourne's past that will help you understand the story just that much better.
The gameplay in The Bourne Conspiracy is based around the fist fights, just like in the movies. Jason Bourne may be well trained with weapons but his real weapons are his fists and that is definately shown in the game. There are a good around of shooting missions which control very nicely but the real empasis is on the hand to hand combat. There are so many different combos and takedowns that you can do you relaly feel like you are inside of the game and that you are Jason Bourne. The character moves just like Matt Damon does in the movie and it is actually quite impressive. The game even features one driving mission which controls quite well even though it was obviously not their main concern it still plays nicely.
The graphics in The Bourne Conspiracy are quite good in-game, but a lot of the cutscenes (especially the dark ones) do not look very good. They are very grainy and at times it is very hard to know just what exactly you are looking at. I found this quite interesting because most games the cutscenes look better than the actual in game stuff does. The character models do look good, but they would have looked even better if they had gotten the real actors to lend their appearances to the game. Of all the of the main characters in the game I would have to say that Marie is the one that looks the most like the actress that plays her in the movies.
The Bourne Conspiracy sounds good. The bullets sound good and as do the fist fights. You can hear what sounds like bones breaking as you beat the pulp out of your opponents. The voice-overs are good but they don't really sound anything like the actors in the game, which is too bad because I have no clue how amazing this game would be if they had gotten the actors to lend their voices to the game because it would have given it that much more of a cinematic feel to an already very cinematic game, its too bad. The theme song from the Bourne games is here and is played in the background quite a bit along with a thrilling score that puts you into the game.
The Bourne Conspiracy is a short game, I beat it in two days of moderate-heavy gaming, but I loved every second of it and if I had not rented it I would have loaded the game up again! There is something about the achievements in this game that give it strong replay value. None of them are impossible (it seems like every game has one or two that don't even seem plausable), but none of them are super easy. You get them for getting a certain amount of takedowns, completeing them on different difficulties, or collecting passports. I know that there are some people out there who could care less about achievements but there is just something about this game that makes it a blast to play over and over again. So despite being a short single player with no multiplayer there is definate reason to play through it again.
The Bourne Conspiracy is an amazing game. Hurray, a great movie game and this will most likely be the best one of 2008 and the best one since 2006 if you ask me. The Bourne Conspiracy is a game that cannot be missed. If you are a fan of the movies, action movies/games than you need to play this game because I can guarentee that you will have a blast. Despite being on the short side (6-8 hours) and the fact that it has no multiplayer you will definately want to play this game again because of the fun achievements and the overall fun factor of playing as Jason Bourne the 30 Million Dollar Man is enough to make you want to play through the game atleast twice. I was worried that the hand to hand combat would get repetative along with the takedowns, but they never did. I really hope that this game sells and does well enough that they make a game based off of the Bourne Supremacy and another game based off of Bourne Ultimatum because the perfect blend of a familiar story line and some never before seen missions is heaven for series fans such as myself. Those looking for a fun, rainy weekend action game should look no further than Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy!
Gameplay: 9/10
Graphics: 7/10
Sound: 8/10
Value: 8/10
Tilt: 9/10