From Russia With Love – Review

So you fancy yourself as James Bond do you? Oh you’d rather be Jane Bond? Well that’s a shame, in ‘From Russia With Love’ you only get to play Mr Bond but that’s ok. If you’re going to play Bond, it may as well be one of the best and in this title, you’ll be lucky enough to play the Sean Connery version of Bond. Based on the movie of the same name, the game starts out with a great cinematic musical score and opening sequence. It pays homage to the film from the get go and you’re under no false pretences that this will be anything other than a nod to a classic Bond flick.

Bond drives up in his Aston Martin and you’ll be impressed with your first look at Bond as the character animation is fantastic. They’ve done a brilliant job of bringing Sean Connery’s character to life. You’re thrown into the action straight away and you learn the basic controls, far better than simply going through a tutorial. Your aim is to try to save a rather important dignitary from a high society party. Of course, when Bond is involved, you know it’s never going to be straight forward. Not only do you get to shoot numerous enemies, you also get to fly around in the legendary jet pack. You can even bring down a helicopter.

The gameplay is all fairly linear and straightforward. Missions are opened as you complete previous missions and they follow a set path. This is both good and bad. It means that ultimately there’s going to be times when you’re stuck (although they are few and far between), and you can’t progress any further. Working your way through the missions involves a variety of types of play such as your usual running around mixed with jet packs, vehicles and more. It does enough to keep the game interesting and if you’re into this style of game this will be a hit with you.

At times, you’re required to use stealth, a little like Sam Fisher. This is pretty cool because it allows you to creep up behind an enemy and take them out with a neck break or martial arts more. This stops the other enemy from being alerted to your presence, although this doesn’t make much of a difference as the AI is pretty dopey. The higher difficulty settings will not increase the AI’s abilities however, it will just mean there’s more of them firing at you. There are other little tricks that you can pull of as Bond such as, ‘Bond Moment’s. Basically, these are areas in the game where you do something extremely cool and very Bond like. An example of this would be shooting a gas can that then explodes next to a car, blowing up all the soldiers around it. The only problem that I had with this is that often you don’t actually realize you’ve just done a ‘Bond Moment’ and it’s only at the end of each level that it highlights your magnificence. You also have the option of picking up items throughout the levels that will help you develop gadgets and upgrades for your weapons but remember that this is set in the 1960’s. The game stays true to the original gadgets of the time and the weapons also. You’ll mostly use Bonds weapon of choice, the PP7 pistol but beware, the ‘silenced’ pistol really isn’t that silent. Overall, the controls are pretty good. There’s plenty of Bond styled moves, from melee combat to the weapons already mentioned. Bond can leap objects, target foes (which makes shooting much easier) take cover and even use a focus mode that allows you to target in on small objects and shoot them. This is pretty good for shooting repel lines so soldiers tumble to the ground or shooting grenades off a belt and watching it blow people to pieces. Very nice addition even if it’s not altogether necessary for most of the time.

The graphics on this title are pretty good considering it’s on the PS2. As mentioned, the Bond character is brilliantly replicated and even facial movements are similar to Connery’s original. The other characters resemble the people from the film and there’s really no problems here at all. The environments are nicely done with open and sprawling levels, a lot bigger than Bonds previous outing. They’re fairly well detailed and there wasn’t too much framerate slowdown overall. Things tended to move along pretty well and you will enjoy some of the settings from the film and instantly know them.

The sound acting on this title is superb. Sean Connery supplies the voice of Bond and this instantly adds an extra kudos point to EA. Although you can tell it’s old Sean Connery and it doesn’t quite match the young face on screen, it’s still an excellent catch to get the original actor voicing the game. The other voice acting is equally as good and it’s nice to hear the enemies yelling out ‘he’s over there, he’s behind there’ and so on. Natasha Bedingfield also lends herself to this game, another pretty nice addition. Overall, the sounds and effects are all well done and they even have the subtitles option so that the deaf gamer doesn’t miss out on enjoying the game.

Girl Gamers already know of the rampant misogyny in the Bond universe, so it should come as little surprise, given this game is based on one of the Bond stories that it’s very macho in its overall approach. From the introductory level it’s pointed out that not only are you 007, you’re also there to protect the Prime Minister’s daughter. You’ll come across a few other female characters in the title such as the lovely Tatiana Romanova, but ultimately Bond rules this universe and that’s just how it goes. Let loose your masculine side for a while and enjoy the world of James Bond and all his charm and lady loving.

Overall, this isn’t a bad title. It’s not the best thing that EA has released and yes, it’s all a little samey. It reminded me a little of Tomb Raider; run around, shoot things, jump a bit and do mini puzzles. Nothing too extreme or ground breaking but it’s a good homage to the film and Bond fans will enjoy the way they’ve managed to capture much of the feel of the original. This isn’t a must have title as such, but it’s certainly not that bad and should keep most gamers pretty happy. Give it a go if you have the chance.

Review by Tracy