A potentially good action game is marred with many issues that can frustrate even the most patient gamers.
The Bourne Conspiracy had many good things that could've changed the way we look at movie licenses in games. Unforunately, the game's flashy fight scenes and entertaining quick action events are marred by a sea of issues that are hard to gloss over once you've experienced them frequently. Even as a huge fan of the Bourne Trilogy, I found it hard to overlook the frustrations.
One of Bourne Conspiracy's biggest issues is its cover system. It is clumsy in execution thanks to its unfriendly button configurations and lack of context. The sprint button is separate from the cover button. So you must sprint with one button and press the cover button to get into cover. Most 3rd person action games nowadays allow you to sprint or slide into cover with a single button. It's simple and is easy to understand the context of cover but this game decides to take a less standard approach. In the Bourne Conspiracy, you're sprinting and pressing the cover button repeatedly into areas that LOOK like cover. You repeatedly press the cover button hoping to see the "Yes you can hide here" icon and then you're in cover. In addition, it presents problems when the enemy is adjacent to you or around the corner. In this position, you're in shooter mode instead of hand-to-hand mode where you can disarm them and perform takedowns. Not here. First, you must "unstick" yourself from the wall, turn 90-180 degrees to face the enemy, hope to not get shot in the face, AND then disarm them. Very cumbersome.
Another related issue is its transition from hand-to-hand to finding cover. Many times, you'll be fighting multiple gunmen and the last thing you want to do is go toe to toe with someone while bullets are whizzing by. If you're not in cover and not aware of your surroundings you could unintentionally engage an enemy into a fist fight. There are even frequent occasions where the camera will accidentally view from above taking the other enemies out of view. It's frustrating because (unless you have a single takedown gauge loaded) you will be swinging fists until you can perform a takedown. While there are some cases where the enemy is too stupid to shoot because his friend is in the way, most of the time, they won't care and will most likely unload on you.
The next biggest issue that adds to the frustration is its lopsided difficulty settings. The difference between Training (easy) and Agent (normal) feel like two completely different gameplay styles. On the easiest setting, you'll find yourself running up to disarm and takedown an enemy without much concern even with other gunmen nearby. In the normal setting, you'll find yourself mostly in cover, for several minutes at a time and the only effective attack is a headshot. Add some very distant checkpoints into that mix and you'll be on your way to some very frustrating experiences. Take comfort in playing the game on Easy. You will have a less frustrating experience.
Other minor annoyances are the game's pointless puzzles or actions. Imagine this for a minute. You're running from room to room trying to escape arrest. You have 2 minutes before backup comes. Agents and police are both after you. You find yourself busting down one door after another. You're Bourne instinct tells you that "this" door will lead to the next area for escape. You try to bust the door down but the game doesn't allow you. It's simply locked. So what does Jason Bourne do? He picks the lock.
Unlike other action games, The Bourne Conspiracy sidetracks the player with fluff instead of actual goals. Example: You're in front of door. Goal: "Find a way to get the electronically secured door open". You see panel next to the door. You shoot the panel. Goal accomplished. It's pointless and simply breaks up the pacing. The game seems insistent in making sense of the environment instead of making it fun.
Other annoying examples are the quicktime action events where you press the corresponding button to keep the action flowing from one scene to the next. Make sure you hit the right button because 90% of the time, you'll be dead and starting back at the last checkpoint and redoing these scenes. During regular gameplay where you have full control of your character, you can withstand direct shots to the body, hide in cover, and heal. Ironically, this rule doesn't apply to quicktime events. There was one particular quicktime event where you encounter a single gunmen in slow-mo within reasonable distance but a missed button kills you instead of taking some of your health away. The game then becomes more like a fighting game on rails and if you're not fast on the buttons, you'll find yourself repeating the same scene over and over.
For these reasons, The Bourne Conspiracy is hard to recommend this game to anyone except the most hardcore Bourne fans. Once you're familiar with the games takedown animations, it becomes mostly a frustrating experience. It's a game made for gamers who are willing to tolerate some of frequent gameplay issues that would've otherwise been a good experience.