Quantum Of Solace - First Look Preview

When Electronic Arts lost the rights to the James Bond license back in Spring 2006, the 007 franchise of videogames had lulled into a position similar to an underweight anaemic: light on substance with a pale complexion. Since then, Activision has grabbed the chance to deliver a series of games based on the British super-spy (thanks to the completion of a deal rumoured to be in the tens of millions of dollars), the first of which is expected to launch in a similar time period to the second movie starring Daniel Craig, Quantum of Solace.

Held captive in Activision's super-secret, super-villain lair for the last few weeks, TVG can finally reveal the first details on Treyarch's take on the 007 experience, shaken not stirred...

A Casino Royale With Cheese.

Perhaps recognising the lack of a Casino Royale tie-in last time around, Quantum of Solace features the events of not only 'Bond 22', but its predecessor too. It's a rather handy point (for Treyarch at least), as it enabled the demo to wholly focus on events based during the 2006 movie and not reveal any spoilers for the November follow-up.

Taking place during the poker event at the Casino Royale in Montenegro, the demo (which expanded upon Bond's rescue of Le Chiffre in the movie) introduced a snippet of what gamers can expect later in the autumn. A hybrid shooter that takes in both first and third person perspectives, much in a similar fashion to Rainbow Six Vegas, Quantum of Solace is built upon the Call of Duty 4 engine, which at least offers a solid foundation for Treyarch to build upon. Most of the gameplay is set in first-person, no doubt appeasing gamers that want to truly be Bond. But the camera also pulls out into third person when Bond goes into cover, which certainly seemed to be a regular occurrence, and when more cinematic sequences (like the traversing ledges or the construction crane at the end of the parkour chase in Casino Royale) occur.

With a mantra of 'outgunned and outmanned', the gameplay for the Quantum of Solace campaign enables two very difference styles of playing through the action. One involves heavy 'guns blazing' shoot outs with plenty of fire fights from behind cover, whilst the other takes advantage of Bond's skills to perform silent quick kills (as quick time events) and being a tad more cautious moving around the map. Both will open up a realm of options for gamers come release, together with destructible objects which will help take a few opponents down in one fell swoop - sending a chandelier crashing onto a grand piano and some unfortunate grunts was one example shown in the presentation. Physical objects can also be used as distractions, such as fire extinguishers having a surprisingly similar property to flash-bang grenades, stunning nearby enemies for a few seconds, and allowing Bond to make a decisive double-tap kill.

What seemed to be a relentless and continuous shoot out (or sneak through) in the early part of demo certainly suggests that there'll be little time to catch a breath, but Treyarch has planned to break up the gameplay at regular times. Third-person perspective sequences, such as the Casino Royale parkour event or Bond edging along a ledge on the outside of the hotel itself, aim to break up the action of the main gameplay. That said, it also seems to be an excuse for Treyarch to implement 24-style split-screen presentations, showing the positions of enemies as Bond quietly slips past.

License To Maim.

Working his way back down the hotel, Bond found himself in the swimming pool area of Casino Royale, a perfect place for...another shoot out! There is a lot of tweaking to be done in Quantum of Solace, a fact that was reiterated by Treyarch more times than Bond's cinematic appearances over the years. Tuning the number of enemies is certainly something that needs to be balanced before release date, because as it stands, the enemies equal a small army. Waves of them, armed to the teeth with automatic weapons, lurk in every nook and cranny of the hotel, which will soon grind down the gameplay if it stays as enemy-packed in the final release.

Despite the brand's synonymous relationship with Aston Martin, driving sequences won't feature at any point in the game. Arguably a very sensible move by Treyarch, confirmation that players won't be getting behind the wheel of the DBS at least puts to bed rumours of Bizarre Creations' involvement in the game. Despite the lack of the famous British marque, another Bond cliché, gadgets, will be included although they'll stay pretty rooted in reality. Things like security camera hacking and data interception make it into the game, together with a lock-picking mini-game- such elements reveal that Quantum of Solace is heading more into 'solid action game' territory rather than 'revolutionary tiltle'.

Daniel Craig's likeness is naturally in the game, together with the likes of Le Chiffre actor Mads Mikkelsen, so we assume that Quantum of Solace actors Gemma Arterton, Judi Dench, and Mathieu Amalric will also be making some sort of digital appearances too. The build presented to us may not have featured facial animations as yet, but it is looking every bit the solid movie licence that the double-0 super-spy deserves. Likewise, sound and music is also an important part to any Bond experience, and in Quantum of Solace, the atmosphere of the shootouts is reinforced by contextual music that almost seemed to energise the action - we just hope that more of David Arnold's work will make the final version.

It's perhaps inevitable that a Bond videogame will include some sort of multiplayer, the ghost of Goldeneye continues to linger like a bad smell even after a decade, though Treyarch are keeping that particular deck of cards close to its chest. At the very least, we're expecting a few generic deathmatches and capture the flag variants to pepper the online support, but let's just hope that Treyarch throws a couple of more apt gametypes into the mix too - somehow we doubt 'territories' would sit well in the Bond universe.