The Bourne Conspiracy Impressions
May 9,2008 - One of the biggest trends of this generation are cinematic games. The increased graphical power of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 finally allowed developers to realize the industry-wide dream of marrying the presentation of films and the interactivity of gaming into an experience more immersive than anything else around. With games like Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Mass Effect, and Heavenly Sword providing great cinematic experiences with the gameplay keeping you immersed all the way through the game, it’s no surprise that the other side of this merger would start producing games that would finally make the leap to meet those achievements in the same manner. We got our hands on the new demo for The Bourne Conspiracy, which follows the successful string of movies that are also based on a successful series of books, which offers a taste of the cinematic experience the final game will hold.
From the small bit of info on the storyline of the game, it looks like The Bourne Conspiracy won’t necessarily include an all-new storyline, but incorporate some of the coolest moments from the movies as inspiration for chapters of the game. The first level takes place at the American Embassy in Zurich, Switzerland as Jason Bourne needs to escape the soldiers that surround and confront him, which is a re-imagining of a scene from the first Bourne movie. The second level takes place several months earlier, as Jason chases a suspect through the subway lines, onto an airfield, then onto a plane as it takes off with a showdown in mid-air. The third, and final, level in the demo features a chase scene through the streets of Paris as the fuzz closes in. It’s not easy to see where the story’s headed from just the demo, so we’ll have to wait for the final game to see how the story really turns out and how it compares to the Bourne movies.
The first level of Conspiracy’s demo starts off with Jason Bourne trying to blend in with the crowd of the Embassy before a group of soldiers spot him, which is where the first taste of the game’s hand-to-hand combat begins. Using the face buttons, you have two attack buttons, a block button, and an adrenaline button with which to take down the soldiers you run into, which works very well for a more simplified fighting system. As you land punches, your adrenaline meter fills up and for every section of the meter you fill, you can pull off an adrenaline finisher, which usually consist of nasty uses of the environment to take your opponents down for good. Between fights, you need to sprint towards the next checkpoint, which requires the press of your Bourne Instinct button to see the checkpoint on the mini-map. Because of that requirement, you have to press the Instinct button quite frequently just to see which part of each floor you’re headed for, which is rather strange compared to pretty much every other game out there.
After you escape the Embassy, the second level in the Conspiracy demo takes place nearby in Zurich, but several months earlier as Jason Bourne chases a criminal through the subway lines. This is where you get your first taste of the game’s gunplay, which is similar to games like Uncharted, with its focus on using cover to your advantage to as you meet trigger happy enemies. Unfortunately, this level is where the demo falters a bit as the shooting mechanic never really feels as tight as it should be and taking cover doesn’t really work the way it should. Just like the hand-to-hand combat, you gain adrenaline as you shoot enemies and when you fill up a section of the meter, you can perform a takedown where Jason shoots down nearby enemies if you press the right buttons in the QTE mini-game quickly enough. This helps compensate for the decent gunplay, but doesn’t fix the bigger issue at hand.
As you move through that level in the Bourne Conspiracy demo, you’ll reach the airfield, where more enemies are waiting for you. This shows off the developer’s solution to how to mix the hand-to-hand combat and gunplay, which is to drop the gun when you run into an enemy face-to-face. What usually happens is that you’re hiding behind cover when an enemy runs into you as the game switches to hand-to-hand combat mode, so you can try to use your sparing partner to take incoming bullets in the back as you beat them senseless. It’s disappointing that there’s no way to bring the gun back into the fight, except for takedowns where you put your opponent in front of some deadly bullets to take him down more quickly. Also appearing in this level is one of the many boss encounters you’ll face throughout the game, which require you to use your hand-to-hand combat skills to perform several takedowns to knock chunks off of their health bar.
The third level of the Bourne Conspiracy demo is a car chase that takes place in Paris, though it’s an unusually small part of the city and the shortest part of the demo. You must get to the exit after losing the cops and getting through the traffic jam at the tunnel, where another QTE mini-game is initiated. The success of QTE’s in general hinges on how much reaction time you get, which the demo somewhat fails as you will run into them unexpectedly without much time to react, so you’ll quite often have to try again at least once more to get through the few that appear in the demo. That leaves a good 20 seconds or so of loading before you get your second chance when the magical button changes, for good or bad. It’s a good idea to use QTE’s to keep people involved in the action, but there’s definitely a fine line between using them well and tripping up and frustrating the player.
While the Bourne Conspiracy demo does a good job of immersing the player in a few action-packed, it’s not without its faults, though the faults mentioned here are more of the nit-picking variety rather than the kind that ruins game. With an all too familiar feeling of games like Uncharted with its use of combat and gunplay along with the great cinematic presentation that captures the feel of the movies quite well. Though the game has missed the third Bourne movie by a considerable margin, it looks to help kick of this summer of great gaming with its opening night on June 3 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
Written By: Chris Selogy | Tags: The Bourne Conspiracy, Xbox 360, Sierra, High Moon Studios
From the small bit of info on the storyline of the game, it looks like The Bourne Conspiracy won’t necessarily include an all-new storyline, but incorporate some of the coolest moments from the movies as inspiration for chapters of the game. The first level takes place at the American Embassy in Zurich, Switzerland as Jason Bourne needs to escape the soldiers that surround and confront him, which is a re-imagining of a scene from the first Bourne movie. The second level takes place several months earlier, as Jason chases a suspect through the subway lines, onto an airfield, then onto a plane as it takes off with a showdown in mid-air. The third, and final, level in the demo features a chase scene through the streets of Paris as the fuzz closes in. It’s not easy to see where the story’s headed from just the demo, so we’ll have to wait for the final game to see how the story really turns out and how it compares to the Bourne movies.
The first level of Conspiracy’s demo starts off with Jason Bourne trying to blend in with the crowd of the Embassy before a group of soldiers spot him, which is where the first taste of the game’s hand-to-hand combat begins. Using the face buttons, you have two attack buttons, a block button, and an adrenaline button with which to take down the soldiers you run into, which works very well for a more simplified fighting system. As you land punches, your adrenaline meter fills up and for every section of the meter you fill, you can pull off an adrenaline finisher, which usually consist of nasty uses of the environment to take your opponents down for good. Between fights, you need to sprint towards the next checkpoint, which requires the press of your Bourne Instinct button to see the checkpoint on the mini-map. Because of that requirement, you have to press the Instinct button quite frequently just to see which part of each floor you’re headed for, which is rather strange compared to pretty much every other game out there.
After you escape the Embassy, the second level in the Conspiracy demo takes place nearby in Zurich, but several months earlier as Jason Bourne chases a criminal through the subway lines. This is where you get your first taste of the game’s gunplay, which is similar to games like Uncharted, with its focus on using cover to your advantage to as you meet trigger happy enemies. Unfortunately, this level is where the demo falters a bit as the shooting mechanic never really feels as tight as it should be and taking cover doesn’t really work the way it should. Just like the hand-to-hand combat, you gain adrenaline as you shoot enemies and when you fill up a section of the meter, you can perform a takedown where Jason shoots down nearby enemies if you press the right buttons in the QTE mini-game quickly enough. This helps compensate for the decent gunplay, but doesn’t fix the bigger issue at hand.
As you move through that level in the Bourne Conspiracy demo, you’ll reach the airfield, where more enemies are waiting for you. This shows off the developer’s solution to how to mix the hand-to-hand combat and gunplay, which is to drop the gun when you run into an enemy face-to-face. What usually happens is that you’re hiding behind cover when an enemy runs into you as the game switches to hand-to-hand combat mode, so you can try to use your sparing partner to take incoming bullets in the back as you beat them senseless. It’s disappointing that there’s no way to bring the gun back into the fight, except for takedowns where you put your opponent in front of some deadly bullets to take him down more quickly. Also appearing in this level is one of the many boss encounters you’ll face throughout the game, which require you to use your hand-to-hand combat skills to perform several takedowns to knock chunks off of their health bar.
The third level of the Bourne Conspiracy demo is a car chase that takes place in Paris, though it’s an unusually small part of the city and the shortest part of the demo. You must get to the exit after losing the cops and getting through the traffic jam at the tunnel, where another QTE mini-game is initiated. The success of QTE’s in general hinges on how much reaction time you get, which the demo somewhat fails as you will run into them unexpectedly without much time to react, so you’ll quite often have to try again at least once more to get through the few that appear in the demo. That leaves a good 20 seconds or so of loading before you get your second chance when the magical button changes, for good or bad. It’s a good idea to use QTE’s to keep people involved in the action, but there’s definitely a fine line between using them well and tripping up and frustrating the player.
While the Bourne Conspiracy demo does a good job of immersing the player in a few action-packed, it’s not without its faults, though the faults mentioned here are more of the nit-picking variety rather than the kind that ruins game. With an all too familiar feeling of games like Uncharted with its use of combat and gunplay along with the great cinematic presentation that captures the feel of the movies quite well. Though the game has missed the third Bourne movie by a considerable margin, it looks to help kick of this summer of great gaming with its opening night on June 3 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
 |
|
 Games, News, Reviews, Media and More |
|
| Published by: | Sierra |
| Developed by: | High Moon Studios |
| Genre: | Action |
| # of Players: | 1-16 |
| ESRB Rating: | Teen |
| Release Date: | US: June 3rd, 2008 |
 |
Gamer 2.0 Rating: N/A | Hype Rating: N/A
Gamer 2.0 Rating: N/A | Hype Rating: N/A
Gamer 2.0 Rating: N/A | Hype Rating: N/A
|
