Game: The Bourne Conspiracy
Genre: Action
Platforms: Xbox 360/PS3 (reviewed on Xbox 360)
Score: 7 out of 10
So here we are once again on the doorsteps of yet another movie title that has been ported from the silver screen onto a console system. Its nothing new, it has been done hundred times before, and it will be done a hundred times more. This time Robert Ludlums whimsical tale of a multimillion-dollar human weapon is the victim of the horrid movie to game scenario and falls with a thud on the gaming chopping block.
Not being a huge diehard fan of Ludlums work but a fan of the movies that his name is attached to I thought I would give the game a once over. Even though the reviews were horrible for the game there is still something that burns inside this gamer that drives me to experience almost every game that is released. So I went out a weekend ago and opted to rent instead of buying sixty bucks worth of crap in a box.
Basically even though it has been stated by many gamers and the developer of the game that the game is based off Ludlums written works, there are a lot of similarities between the movie and the game. There might be a level or two that fans of the movie wont expect to see in the game, but dont get it twisted, it is the movie in a nutshell. The only thing that the movie had that the game lacked was Matt Damon. This was due to his pansy excuse of not wanting to be part of a game that condoned violence, which just seemed ridiculous to me. But I dealt with this whole no Matt Damon setback and I prepared myself for some action packed bare-knuckle brawling.
What I expected and what I received in the form of entertainment were two completely different things. Once again, being a fan of the Bourne movies I was expecting to reenact some of the greatest movie fight scenes in the comfort of my living room. That wouldnt be the case. There was no Matt Damon, therefore there was no Jason Bourne, and therefore there really wasnt a game. Maybe if the game was created before the movie I couldve bought into the whole Bourne character. But it wasnt, and just when I thought Id gotten over his disappearance from the title, Damons face came back to haunt me around every turn of the game.
A pivotal character is just one of the many things that this game lacked. Another was the action packed fighting I thought I would be partaking in. Instead the game worked off the idea of building adrenaline. Once you amassed enough of this stuff through the kicking and punching of various enemies, a simple press of the B button would unleash a barrage of kicks, punches, and arm breakers that would send your foe crying for his mommy. While these mini cut scenes were awesome to witness, that was all I was doing, watching the action unfold instead of taking part of it. This left me feeling somewhat perplexed. Why create a game that promotes dynamic fighting sequences just to have the player not be able to participate in them? It seemed to me that this was the lazy gamers game: a game where all you had to do is fight till the adrenaline built enough so that you had to do was simply press a button. I didnt feel like I was getting anywhere or accomplishing anything by becoming an adrenaline whore, but it was what the games fighting was based on so I used it reluctantly whenever I could to reach my goal of finishing the game.
The shooting portion of the game also was plagued by this need for adrenaline. Sure you could target each of your enemies and squeeze the trigger, but that would require that you did something. So High Moon Studios took out the guesswork when it came to shooting. Instead of targeting all of your enemies and taking them out one by one, why not just use adrenaline to fuel a series of button pushing that would result in you taking out numerous foes? So once again I was stuck holding a controller and watching the action unfold. If you did choose to manually shoot at your opponents you soon found out that the cover system, holstering your pistol and the gunplay aspect of the game falls short of any competent shooters weve seen in the past. It really was astonishing to experience the game with your gun out. Most of the time I spent with my pistol, shotgun, or assault rifle out I felt as though I was moving around with a broomstick shoved through the sleeves of my T-Shirt. It was almost painful to play with a gun and while I did take out some enemies with bullets, most of the time I just ran straight towards them to insinuate a fistfight where I would just do a quick B button takedown. Being a huge shooter fan it was hard to stomach this game as anything close to one. The movement was slow, turning and trying to target something across a room felt like I was doing a three-point turn in a tractor-trailer. Bottom line the shooting aspect of the game was stomach turning and I almost felt ashamed I wasted eight bucks on the rental.
In the end The Bourne Conspiracy was just that: a conspiracy to separate gamers from their money. While most of the graphics running on Epics Unreal Engine were beautiful. The graphic power of the engine seemed as though it was packed mainly into the cut scenes and not the rest of the game. In-game characters were less than believable and their cold lifeless faces made you realize that you were duking it out with something that was preprogrammed to dodge at this point and strike at that. Shooting, hand to hand combat, and driving all seemed more like a choir than something I was supposed to be enjoying. The use of adrenaline seemed as though it was a crutch for gamers to use so they didnt have to overwork themselves in the six frustrating hours it takes to beat the game. On countless occasions I found myself wanting to put the game back in its box and punt it back to Blockbuster, but there was no way I was shelling out any more cash for this game. If youre fan of Bourne the game is at least worth a look but dont say I didnt warn you when it came to the playability of the title.
Genre: Action
Platforms: Xbox 360/PS3 (reviewed on Xbox 360)
Score: 7 out of 10
So here we are once again on the doorsteps of yet another movie title that has been ported from the silver screen onto a console system. Its nothing new, it has been done hundred times before, and it will be done a hundred times more. This time Robert Ludlums whimsical tale of a multimillion-dollar human weapon is the victim of the horrid movie to game scenario and falls with a thud on the gaming chopping block.
Not being a huge diehard fan of Ludlums work but a fan of the movies that his name is attached to I thought I would give the game a once over. Even though the reviews were horrible for the game there is still something that burns inside this gamer that drives me to experience almost every game that is released. So I went out a weekend ago and opted to rent instead of buying sixty bucks worth of crap in a box.
Basically even though it has been stated by many gamers and the developer of the game that the game is based off Ludlums written works, there are a lot of similarities between the movie and the game. There might be a level or two that fans of the movie wont expect to see in the game, but dont get it twisted, it is the movie in a nutshell. The only thing that the movie had that the game lacked was Matt Damon. This was due to his pansy excuse of not wanting to be part of a game that condoned violence, which just seemed ridiculous to me. But I dealt with this whole no Matt Damon setback and I prepared myself for some action packed bare-knuckle brawling.
What I expected and what I received in the form of entertainment were two completely different things. Once again, being a fan of the Bourne movies I was expecting to reenact some of the greatest movie fight scenes in the comfort of my living room. That wouldnt be the case. There was no Matt Damon, therefore there was no Jason Bourne, and therefore there really wasnt a game. Maybe if the game was created before the movie I couldve bought into the whole Bourne character. But it wasnt, and just when I thought Id gotten over his disappearance from the title, Damons face came back to haunt me around every turn of the game.
A pivotal character is just one of the many things that this game lacked. Another was the action packed fighting I thought I would be partaking in. Instead the game worked off the idea of building adrenaline. Once you amassed enough of this stuff through the kicking and punching of various enemies, a simple press of the B button would unleash a barrage of kicks, punches, and arm breakers that would send your foe crying for his mommy. While these mini cut scenes were awesome to witness, that was all I was doing, watching the action unfold instead of taking part of it. This left me feeling somewhat perplexed. Why create a game that promotes dynamic fighting sequences just to have the player not be able to participate in them? It seemed to me that this was the lazy gamers game: a game where all you had to do is fight till the adrenaline built enough so that you had to do was simply press a button. I didnt feel like I was getting anywhere or accomplishing anything by becoming an adrenaline whore, but it was what the games fighting was based on so I used it reluctantly whenever I could to reach my goal of finishing the game.
The shooting portion of the game also was plagued by this need for adrenaline. Sure you could target each of your enemies and squeeze the trigger, but that would require that you did something. So High Moon Studios took out the guesswork when it came to shooting. Instead of targeting all of your enemies and taking them out one by one, why not just use adrenaline to fuel a series of button pushing that would result in you taking out numerous foes? So once again I was stuck holding a controller and watching the action unfold. If you did choose to manually shoot at your opponents you soon found out that the cover system, holstering your pistol and the gunplay aspect of the game falls short of any competent shooters weve seen in the past. It really was astonishing to experience the game with your gun out. Most of the time I spent with my pistol, shotgun, or assault rifle out I felt as though I was moving around with a broomstick shoved through the sleeves of my T-Shirt. It was almost painful to play with a gun and while I did take out some enemies with bullets, most of the time I just ran straight towards them to insinuate a fistfight where I would just do a quick B button takedown. Being a huge shooter fan it was hard to stomach this game as anything close to one. The movement was slow, turning and trying to target something across a room felt like I was doing a three-point turn in a tractor-trailer. Bottom line the shooting aspect of the game was stomach turning and I almost felt ashamed I wasted eight bucks on the rental.
In the end The Bourne Conspiracy was just that: a conspiracy to separate gamers from their money. While most of the graphics running on Epics Unreal Engine were beautiful. The graphic power of the engine seemed as though it was packed mainly into the cut scenes and not the rest of the game. In-game characters were less than believable and their cold lifeless faces made you realize that you were duking it out with something that was preprogrammed to dodge at this point and strike at that. Shooting, hand to hand combat, and driving all seemed more like a choir than something I was supposed to be enjoying. The use of adrenaline seemed as though it was a crutch for gamers to use so they didnt have to overwork themselves in the six frustrating hours it takes to beat the game. On countless occasions I found myself wanting to put the game back in its box and punt it back to Blockbuster, but there was no way I was shelling out any more cash for this game. If youre fan of Bourne the game is at least worth a look but dont say I didnt warn you when it came to the playability of the title.
