Xbox 360 - The Bourne Conspiracy

The Bourne Conspiracy By Sierra

Save style: Checkpoint
Game style: Third Person Shooter

I'm not quite sure the impetus for this game. Was it intended to be a late (very late) movie tie-in or simply someone's attempt at a new game? I'm just not sure. The quality of this game very easily says, "movie tie-in". But, the extremely late release of it doesn't.

Gameplay

You play as Bourne. The object is to work your way through the levels in a very linear fashion. There are no side quests. There are also timed levels. The idea is, like the movie, to try and uncover your identity.

The gameplay consists of a third person style shooter that you can pick up different weapons from downed enemies. You have a sort-of life meter (the screen gets a red halo). The main problem with this game is that it gets way too hard too fast. Even worse, though, is that these levels were not play tested enough. It can be difficult to find the next thing to do to progress the level further. So, you end up wasting a ton of time running around on the level (avoiding being killed) while you try to find out what it is you're supposed to do or where you're supposed to go.

For example, there's a chopper that, very close to the beginning of the game, begins shooting at you with gattling guns. Come on! I realize there's a difference between real life and a game. As such, the designers should have realized this was too much way too soon. I always get bummed out when designers choose to toss in nearly impossible situations two levels in. You've barely even learned the controls and you're in an impossible situation. Worse, you really don't have time to figure out what to do next because your character keeps dying.

When will game designers realize that loading times do matter? Turok was the prime example of this issue. When Turok dies, you have to way about 1 minute for the level to reload. It's not quite that bad for Bourne Conspiracy, but it's still a long load time. They need to leave the level in memory or copy it to the hard drive so it can be set back up in only a few seconds.

There is no side questing in this game.

Graphics

Decent, but not outstanding. This game could have easily been on the PS2. So, there was nothing done to make this game stand out visually. The resolution is a bit higher, but it wasn't really utilized.

Sound

The audio is, again, decent. Not outstanding.

Overall

This game was interesting because it came out so far after the movie... that is, until I actually began to play it. The commercials hyped it up, but the game was such a let down. If you really like very linear games that throw impossible situations at you immediately (before you've even learned the controls), then this may be the game for you. Otherwise, I recommend you save your money for games yet to come or spend it on Oblivion, Mass Effect or Assassin's Creed. These titles far exceed the quality of this game.

Score

• Graphics: 8/10
• Audio: 8/10
• Gameplay: 6/10 (completely linear third person shooter)
  
• Bang-To-Buck: 3/10 (don't waste your money unless you are really bored)
  
• Replay: 1/10 (won't replay)
  
• Overall: 6/10 (severely lacking third person shooter)