James Bond: From Russia With Love Review

After the dismal release of GoldenEye: Rogue Agent in November 2004, EA set about bringing the quintessentially British super-spy back on form, with From Russia With Love the end product. Returning Bond to the third-person perspective a la 2003â??s highly successful Everything or Nothing, Electronic Arts has also reverted to 007â??s earlier days and brought back Sir Sean Connery to reprise a role that many still regard as his best. Based on the 1963 follow up to Dr. No, From Russia With Love features the vocal talents of Connery as well as UK pop singer Natasha Beddingfield, and incorporates many of the gameplay elements found in EoN (with many of the control systems to boot.) But can the title step out from the shadows of itâ??s predecessor, and how does this movie adaptation perform over 40 years after the original movie release?

When we previewed FRWL earlier in the year (albeit within the confines of a two level closed build), we were less than impressed; it had several areas that cried out for further polish - such as the Bond Focus â?“ and really lacked substance. In all honesty, it did look at the time to be rapidly heading towards being the third-person Bond version of Rogue Agent. Thankfully it seems that the spit and polish accomplished by EAâ??s Redwood Studios has managed to lift From Russia With Love above such a deep and dark place, and whilst it may not have the same impact as Everything or Nothing, itâ??s not a bad game.

Beginning with the customary pre-title action sequence that sees Bond rescue the aforementioned Ms Beddingfield from the global crime organisation Octopus, Bond is sent to Istanbul to make contact with a KGB officer (female of course) â?“ though this mysterious agent actually works for Octopus. All the while running through the narrative however is an Octopus trained assassin called Red Grant whoâ??s out to assassinate Britainâ??s number spyâ?¦

As with its previous Bond titles EA have brought the likenesses of all the movieâ??s cast to the game; so as well as Conneryâ??s Bond, Lois Maxwellâ??s Miss Moneypenny, Desmond Llewellynâ??s Q, and Robert Shawâ??s Red Grant all feature (despite the deaths of several of the actors in recent years.) Sir Sean provided further lines of dialogue for the game along with Natasha Beddingfield as the UK Prime Ministerâ??s daughter, though for obvious reasons she wasnâ??t in the original movie.

Following in the footsteps of Everything or Nothing, From Russia With Love has a mix of gameplay elements to add a certain level of variety for the gamer. Whilst a majority of the missions take place with Bond on foot taking down the enemies that try to kill him as he tries to achieve his mission objectives from disarming bombs to reaching a checkpoint, other areas of the game include set piece missions such as driving the classic Aston Martin. Utilising some of the gadgets from Q Branch including the typically Bond â??Sonic Cufflinks, and more typically the Laser Watch and remote controlled Q-Copters, attempt to reinforce the idea of gamers being immersed in the Bond Universe. Having said that the game is very formulaic when it should be a more thoughtful action title; running around blindly shooting at enemies is fine in the short term, but the majority of the game relies on this dynamic.

One key area that is found lacking is the driving; not that Iâ??ve ever had the privilege of driving a vintage 1960s Aston Martin DB5 (I prefer to stick to my personalised TVR Cerbera Speed 12 with built in Xbox.) In these missions the car control just doesnâ??t feel how it should, instead feeling unresponsive and unrealistic. Youâ??d have thought that Q Branch could have worked on making the car glide gracefully but obviously they were too busy adding a machine gun and rocket launcher to the vehicle instead. Early sections of the game also include a jetpack sequence above the Houses of Parliament (shown in many videos promoting the title), as well as manning a heavy machine gun on an Istanbul speed boat.

Disregarding the slick production values there remains a certain amount of blandness both in the visuals and in the gameplay; itâ??s a game that never grips the player, which can lead to (dare we say it) boredom. Not only is this in the single-player mode, but itâ??s also prevalent in the multiplayer modes, with gametypes that just donâ??t excite. Very much the standard fare of Deathmatches with a Bond twist, the mode is very formulaic and functional â?“ it does what itâ??s supposed to and nothing more. Overall From Russia with Love is certainly a better game than Rogue Agent could ever hope to be, but then again it would have been difficult not to surpass that mess.

After the abhorrent mess that was GoldenEye: Rogue Agent, Electronic Arts have managed to rescue the James Bond franchise with a game that might not live up to the success of Everything or Nothing, but at the very least is an average title. Going back to the roots of Bond is certainly one way that EA can harvest ideas for the franchise (letâ??s face it thereâ??re enough movies left) but From Russia With Love does suffer from being a by-the-numbers release. Everything that was in EoN is back albeit with a contemporary 1960s setting including the gadgets, yet thereâ??s something distinctly lacking that fails to bring the game close to living.