The Bourne Conspiracy Review

The third person shooting is frustrating

Like we said, the game's full of quick time events. This is an effort to make the action as cinematic as possible, and we understand the decision, but they occur too often. There are plenty of times in the game when we saw something cool happening on screen, like a sniper assassination attempt or a parkour style chase through a train, when all that's required of the player is to press a single button following on-screen prompts. During these moments we couldn't help but think it would have been so much cooler if the game had allowed us, the player, to do that instead of just showing it to us.

Because of the plethora of quick time events and the linear level design (Bourne has a Bourne Instinct ability which highlights enemies, points of interest and shows you where to go) Conspiracy has a distinct on the rails feel. With one eye on the green blob on your radar (navigation marker) and one on the main action, the game can often feel like Time Crisis with beat 'em up bits chucked in.

The graphics are brilliant one second and bog standard the next. The game's opening mission, in present day Marseille, France, is a graphical tour de force, with stunning environments, detailed textures and impressive lighting. But then you'll find yourself in a car park later on in the game with average car models and forgetful design. The character models though are superb throughout. Bourne himself looks great in his various outfits and his enemies, especially the bosses, catch the eye too (we especially like the muscle bound machine Solomon). When Bourne gets up close Conspiracy looks its best.

Some will say the game is too short. We agree that without any multiplayer features Conspiracy's only replay value is in hunting down the hidden cog tags - oh sorry, passports - which then unlock the game's extras (boss battles, music, art etc). The main campaign takes in six chapters, each will take between an hour and an hour and a half depending on what difficulty you play on. High Moon has fused together scenes from the first Bourne film (Escape the embassy - good, Castel fight - brilliant and the Paris chase - a driving level which is as ridiculous as it is pointless) with flashback levels from Bourne's time with shady government organisation Treadstone (the botched assassination of Wombosi which leads up to Bourne's amnesia and the beginning of the first film, for example). While things will make sense to fans of the films, it'll be a fractured mess for anyone else, which is rather lazy in our opinion.

Conspiracy is one of the best licensed games we've played in ages, but it could have been even better.

We agree that the game is a little too short, but its length fits with the accessibility of the gameplay. Anyone who's played and enjoyed a third-person game on a console before will be able to see this one through to the end, and we like that. But yes, without any multiplayer, once Conspiracy is done it's done.

We experienced an odd feeling after finishing the game. Conspiracy made us want to pop the game out of our console and slide a Bourne movie DVD in instead. And the reason is because apart from the hand to hand combat, which is simply awesome, the rest of the game is better to watch than it is to play. Ultimately it's a wonderful first Bourne game from High Moon and we hope it does well enough to justify a sequel, perhaps with Matt Damon's likeness, but, unfortunately, the overused quick time events, linear gameplay and frustrating third-person shooting makes Conspiracy feel more like watching a broken DVD that forces you to keep pressing play. This one's a brilliant weekend rental, just like the movies.