TechSmec.com

Review: From Russia With Love (PSP)

May 4th, 2006

Game: From Russia With Love
Platform: PSP
Publisher: EA
Price: £29.99 (Amazon.co.uk)
Reviewer: Jay Neill (TechSmec.com staff)

Bond is back – way back in the case of the latest offering in the Bond game franchise and the first to hit the PSP. From Russia With Love takes you back to the days of classic Bond, when Connery was at the helm, the gadgets had lots of flashing lights and M was definitely not a woman.

The game is a close port over from the PS2 version that came out just before Christmas and it matches its grown up cousin closely in terms of graphics and sound. However, in terms of gameplay it’s not quite there, but then, the PS2 version was never any great shakes in the first place.

Like all the Bond games before it FRWL is a fairly linear third person adventure. 007 moves from one crisis to the next with terrible inevitability. The only respite comes in the form of the nicely animated cut scenes that bridge the gaps between game sections. The plot is based around that of the film, the second in the series which introduced much of what has now become Bond mythology – Q for instance. 007 is sent to Turkey to liaise with an attractive Russian defector who plans to give the UK a secret Soviet decoder machine. Mixed in with this are some shadowy agents from the super-criminal underworld who have another agenda altogether. If you’ve seen the film you’ll know what I mean.

This game pretends to be more than a simple third person shooter – there’s an opening sequence that sees you flying a jetpack and several sections where you have to pilot the remote-controlled Q-copter, but 95% of gameplay is spent running down corridors shooting Soviet soldiers with a variety of weapons. The Bond of the films spends a lot of time sneaking around before knocking off the bad guys with his bare hands – here Bond is reduced to a sub-par Duke Nukem and it doesn’t work. In fact we seem to remember the PS2 version included a ’stealth’ mode and the ability to quietly throttle a victim. That’s missing from the PSP version, presumably for control reasons.

That’s not the only aspect of the PS2 game that has been dropped on its way to the portable. One of more fun parts of the original game was a manic driving section around the streets of Turkey in Bond’s Aston Martin. I was eagerly waiting for this on the PSP, but when Bond lands in Istanbul he is whisked straight off to an underground lair with only the briefest hint that his car comes under attack. The cut scene even makes reference to this which makes it all the more unsatisfying.

There are two main quality factors that let FRWL down.

1) Controls. The PSP always suffers from only having one analogue stick, and this is really exposed on console ports. Bond is virtually impossible to steer and thank heavens for the auto-targetting of weapons or he would have next to no chance of ever hitting anything.

2) Opponent and other character AI is laughable. Bad guys are foxed by you moving out of their line of sight, even during a pitched battle. Characters remain static as you walk up to them, have a conversation and walk away – even their lips don’t move. Half Life managed to make this kind of thing believable nearly a decade ago – FRWL can’t manage it in 2006

So what is good in this game? The graphics are pretty good for the PSP, although the pre-rendered cut scenes flatter to deceive. Bond’s animation is fluid, even when the poor controls have you spinning around in a circle. The sound more than does the job, but it doesn’t stand out.

All in all, it’s a clumsy port of what was a poor game in the first place. From Russia With Love had a lot going for it – great source matter, the first Bond game on the PSP – but in the end it’s a let down and we don’t recommend you add it to your collection unless you’re a Bond nut.

Graphics

Bond is well animated and cut scenes are stylish, but it doesn’t pull out of the PSP’s stops - 7/10

Sound

Does exactly what it says on the tin. Musical score is good enough to make this a decent mark - 7/10

Gameplay

Linear to the point of being boring. There are better third prson shooters out there, there are better flying games out there. This is a hard to control mish-mash. - 5/10

Verdict

From Russia With Love is not the Bond game we were waiting for. The unexciting PS2 version should have tipped us off, but even by those standards, this game is poor - 6/10

Entry Filed under: PSP Reviews