QUANTUM OF SOLACE
Being my first review on this site (I've done a bunch on IGN), I'll try to be very methodical. If you're wondering why I posted it here than on the reviews section, it's because I get generally more action in the blog area. So, here's my review:
Notes: First, I'm a huge James Bond fan. I own all 22 movies (outside of the comedy Casino Royale movie), the Monopoly game, a few novels, and quite a few books (including an encyclopedia), all related to James Bond. While I'm clearly biased towards the movies, I'm not biased towards the games. I usually keep my game views restricted to solely gameplay, not characters or personal likings. If you do see me being a Bond fanboy, you can pull the fire alarm.
Forethoughts: Very few movie-to-video game series actually work. Most are stinker cash-ins, while others are dedicated pieces of work. Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and James Bond are 3 series that have pretty much stood for what movie games can be. Bond started off really with Goldeneye, a huge bang. It became one of the best N64 games of all time, one of the best games of all, and the best shooter of all time. Nightfire, it's spiritual successor, was also quite a hit and one of my favorite games of all time. While the games have been slightly worse (although still good) since then, it's still a series that packs a decent punch. After being torn between a friend code thread (showing some popularity), poor game site reviews, and high user reviews, I took a leap of faith and bought *cough* downloaded *cough* the game. And I'm not disappointed at all.
Presentation: First off, it's a movie game, so you'll play through the story. However, it also contains large amounts of Casino Royale levels. Like most movie games, it'll exaggerate a bit, add a few "not in the movie" scenes, and some more bad guys than there should be, but what else would make a game fun? You'll also notice this runs on the CoD4 game engine, so you'll see a lot of concepts borrowed from it. That's not necessarily a bad thing at all, since CoD4 was awesome and the Wii only got CoD5. It also adds a few new elements which I'll delve into later that make it unique. While the game's "borrowed" elements may not be as good as the original games, it's still a damn fine combination. The game lacks the level of customization in games like The Conduit or Heroes 2, but the core controls themselves are good enough that there's no need for massive tinkering. Menus and transitions are done nicely.
Graphics: Probably Quantum's weakest point overall. It's an odd blend of nicely done, well polished graphics and crappy ones that are better left on the Dreamcast. For example, the character models are nicely done, the lighting and gunfire effects are good, and buildings look cool, but some objects like beds, dressers, etc (from the first level) are way too bright, unrounded, and stick out like a sore thumb. The water looks atrocious, too. Still, the game won't make you wince in visual pain, but it won't make your jaw drop either. Framerate is 30 FPS for a large portion, although it slows down at some points. I still can't tell the difference between some "shell shock" moments and framerate chugging. It drops during non-"shell shock" moments once in a while, but it won't be a killer at all. The cutscenes are nicely done, especially the "song sequence" (which really shows the Wii's graphical potential). The character models for Bond and others are nice but could definately use some more animation.
Audio: Like all Bond games, audio is well done. It kept skipping on me personally, but no one else has that issue so I'll assume it's a small glitch with running it through NeoGamma or just me. Regardless, I can still tell that it's a classic Bond soundtrack. Your standard Bond tunes, although updated. The voiceovers are also all well done, since you have the all-star cast from the movie doing them, not crappy stand-ins. Gunfire sounds nice as well as the yells from the baddies, but some sound effects like explosions are unimpressive.
Gameplay: By far Quantum's strong points. If you took Rainbow Six Vegas (or Gears of War, if you want) and mixed it with CoD4, you'd get something like this. Considering the Wii didn't get either of those titles, this is a pretty nice addition. For CoD4, you get the FPS elements. You can use ironsights, sprint, heal your health over time, and climb over objects just like in CoD4. For the Rainbox Six part, you can switch to a third person view for hiding behind walls and such. While in this position, you can poke out from behind the wall for more accuracte shooting or blind fire for a safer but less accurate alternative. Both of them mix really well, and switching between hiding behind walls and shooting in the first person is done with a simple click of the A button. You also shoot, as usual, with the B button, and reload with a shake of the nunchuck (which is quite well done). You change weapons with the left on the D-Pad, use grenades with down on the D-Pad (although it only pulls the pin, which means you can let it cook and throw it with a shake of the nunchuck). You pick up weapons, activate doors, etc with the (-) button, and and use the 1 button for menu. The main issues I see are the lack of crawling (like in CoD4), occasionally delayed jumping, and hand-to-hand combat. Hand-to-hand combat for this game is done by approaching an enemy and swinging your nunchuck, and which point you enter action sequences (like RE4 cutscnes). However, unlike RE4, you don't do either motion controls like swinging your remote or just pressing buttons, you instead have to point at a button on the screen and press that button when the crosshairs are over it. You'll have plenty of time to do this, so don't worry. It's quite easy to do, but it would've been a lot more fun with motion controls. The controls like reticule movement aren't as fast as other games, but still isn't slow.
Lasting Appeal: Quantum boasts a very impressive multiplayer mode. Considering the Wii version is the most barebones multiplayer of them all, it still works quite well. You get a splitscreen and online mode, both of which use the mechanics aforementioned. The downsides are that multiplayer is only 4v4 and that it generally lacks a large selection of modes. It gets only 4 modes, although 3 of them are unique. There's Conflict (Deathmatch), Team Conflict (Team Deathmatch), Rush (Deathmatch with missions to complete), and Team Rush (Team Deathmatch with Rush). All of them are great to play, and even though 4 players may be a let down, it'll still keep you busy. The game also features a Mario Kart-esque ranking system. You start off with a score of 5000 in each gameplay type. If you win games, you'll get a higher score in that game. If you get lower scores, you'll lose points in that game. It's one of the Single player is around 5 hours to complete, like most shooters, but there's not a lot to come back for. Still, online and splitscreen will get you hooked.
Overall scores:
- Presentation: 8/10
- Graphics: 6.5/10
- Audio: 8/10
- Gameplay: 9/10
- Lasting Appeal: 9/10
Overall summary: If you've been looking for a good shooter to keep you busy that isn't your standard FPS, look no further than Quantum. While it is hampered by some issues such as occasional framerate chugs and average graphics, it features a combination of great gameplay elements that you won't find anywhere else. And if you can find some friends and a decent amount of people online, this game could keep you busy for a long time. FYI, this game is terrible on all other systems. It's simply good on the Wii because the Wii doesn't have all the cool features that some exclusive system games do, and because the Wii is rather scarce on shooters.
Being my first review on this site (I've done a bunch on IGN), I'll try to be very methodical. If you're wondering why I posted it here than on the reviews section, it's because I get generally more action in the blog area. So, here's my review:
Notes: First, I'm a huge James Bond fan. I own all 22 movies (outside of the comedy Casino Royale movie), the Monopoly game, a few novels, and quite a few books (including an encyclopedia), all related to James Bond. While I'm clearly biased towards the movies, I'm not biased towards the games. I usually keep my game views restricted to solely gameplay, not characters or personal likings. If you do see me being a Bond fanboy, you can pull the fire alarm.
Forethoughts: Very few movie-to-video game series actually work. Most are stinker cash-ins, while others are dedicated pieces of work. Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and James Bond are 3 series that have pretty much stood for what movie games can be. Bond started off really with Goldeneye, a huge bang. It became one of the best N64 games of all time, one of the best games of all, and the best shooter of all time. Nightfire, it's spiritual successor, was also quite a hit and one of my favorite games of all time. While the games have been slightly worse (although still good) since then, it's still a series that packs a decent punch. After being torn between a friend code thread (showing some popularity), poor game site reviews, and high user reviews, I took a leap of faith and bought *cough* downloaded *cough* the game. And I'm not disappointed at all.
Presentation: First off, it's a movie game, so you'll play through the story. However, it also contains large amounts of Casino Royale levels. Like most movie games, it'll exaggerate a bit, add a few "not in the movie" scenes, and some more bad guys than there should be, but what else would make a game fun? You'll also notice this runs on the CoD4 game engine, so you'll see a lot of concepts borrowed from it. That's not necessarily a bad thing at all, since CoD4 was awesome and the Wii only got CoD5. It also adds a few new elements which I'll delve into later that make it unique. While the game's "borrowed" elements may not be as good as the original games, it's still a damn fine combination. The game lacks the level of customization in games like The Conduit or Heroes 2, but the core controls themselves are good enough that there's no need for massive tinkering. Menus and transitions are done nicely.
Graphics: Probably Quantum's weakest point overall. It's an odd blend of nicely done, well polished graphics and crappy ones that are better left on the Dreamcast. For example, the character models are nicely done, the lighting and gunfire effects are good, and buildings look cool, but some objects like beds, dressers, etc (from the first level) are way too bright, unrounded, and stick out like a sore thumb. The water looks atrocious, too. Still, the game won't make you wince in visual pain, but it won't make your jaw drop either. Framerate is 30 FPS for a large portion, although it slows down at some points. I still can't tell the difference between some "shell shock" moments and framerate chugging. It drops during non-"shell shock" moments once in a while, but it won't be a killer at all. The cutscenes are nicely done, especially the "song sequence" (which really shows the Wii's graphical potential). The character models for Bond and others are nice but could definately use some more animation.
Audio: Like all Bond games, audio is well done. It kept skipping on me personally, but no one else has that issue so I'll assume it's a small glitch with running it through NeoGamma or just me. Regardless, I can still tell that it's a classic Bond soundtrack. Your standard Bond tunes, although updated. The voiceovers are also all well done, since you have the all-star cast from the movie doing them, not crappy stand-ins. Gunfire sounds nice as well as the yells from the baddies, but some sound effects like explosions are unimpressive.
Gameplay: By far Quantum's strong points. If you took Rainbow Six Vegas (or Gears of War, if you want) and mixed it with CoD4, you'd get something like this. Considering the Wii didn't get either of those titles, this is a pretty nice addition. For CoD4, you get the FPS elements. You can use ironsights, sprint, heal your health over time, and climb over objects just like in CoD4. For the Rainbox Six part, you can switch to a third person view for hiding behind walls and such. While in this position, you can poke out from behind the wall for more accuracte shooting or blind fire for a safer but less accurate alternative. Both of them mix really well, and switching between hiding behind walls and shooting in the first person is done with a simple click of the A button. You also shoot, as usual, with the B button, and reload with a shake of the nunchuck (which is quite well done). You change weapons with the left on the D-Pad, use grenades with down on the D-Pad (although it only pulls the pin, which means you can let it cook and throw it with a shake of the nunchuck). You pick up weapons, activate doors, etc with the (-) button, and and use the 1 button for menu. The main issues I see are the lack of crawling (like in CoD4), occasionally delayed jumping, and hand-to-hand combat. Hand-to-hand combat for this game is done by approaching an enemy and swinging your nunchuck, and which point you enter action sequences (like RE4 cutscnes). However, unlike RE4, you don't do either motion controls like swinging your remote or just pressing buttons, you instead have to point at a button on the screen and press that button when the crosshairs are over it. You'll have plenty of time to do this, so don't worry. It's quite easy to do, but it would've been a lot more fun with motion controls. The controls like reticule movement aren't as fast as other games, but still isn't slow.
Lasting Appeal: Quantum boasts a very impressive multiplayer mode. Considering the Wii version is the most barebones multiplayer of them all, it still works quite well. You get a splitscreen and online mode, both of which use the mechanics aforementioned. The downsides are that multiplayer is only 4v4 and that it generally lacks a large selection of modes. It gets only 4 modes, although 3 of them are unique. There's Conflict (Deathmatch), Team Conflict (Team Deathmatch), Rush (Deathmatch with missions to complete), and Team Rush (Team Deathmatch with Rush). All of them are great to play, and even though 4 players may be a let down, it'll still keep you busy. The game also features a Mario Kart-esque ranking system. You start off with a score of 5000 in each gameplay type. If you win games, you'll get a higher score in that game. If you get lower scores, you'll lose points in that game. It's one of the Single player is around 5 hours to complete, like most shooters, but there's not a lot to come back for. Still, online and splitscreen will get you hooked.
Overall scores:
- Presentation: 8/10
- Graphics: 6.5/10
- Audio: 8/10
- Gameplay: 9/10
- Lasting Appeal: 9/10
Overall summary: If you've been looking for a good shooter to keep you busy that isn't your standard FPS, look no further than Quantum. While it is hampered by some issues such as occasional framerate chugs and average graphics, it features a combination of great gameplay elements that you won't find anywhere else. And if you can find some friends and a decent amount of people online, this game could keep you busy for a long time. FYI, this game is terrible on all other systems. It's simply good on the Wii because the Wii doesn't have all the cool features that some exclusive system games do, and because the Wii is rather scarce on shooters.
