Quantum of Solace Hands-on Preview

There was a brief moment during my play test of Quantum of Solace when things started to get very odd indeed. I thought it was 1997, I thought the pad in my hand had only a single analogue stick, and I thought the game I was playing featured the likeness of Pierce Brosnan. But, in the blink of an eye the moment was gone, reality kicked in and I was back in 2008, the pad in my hand had two thumb sticks and the game I was playing featured the likeness of Daniel Craig.

It was all down to the Montenegro Train level, a scene consigned to the cutting room floor by the Casino Royale script gods but resurrected by developer Treyarch for the game of Craig’s first Bond adventure and the soon to be released follow up. A level that dares to nod towards one of the finest console shooters ever made, and what associate producer Brian Morrison calls the ‘500 pound gorilla’ – Rare’s GoldenEye 007 for the Nintendo 64.

With GoldenEye locked in “no-man’s land” at least in terms of an HD downloadable re-release, fans of quality Bond first-person shooters are looking towards Quantum of Solace, built on the same engine that powered Infinity Ward’s stupendously fantastic Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, for salvation. Burned by average at best efforts from EA, and with the jury still out on Treyarch’s capabilities as a quality FPS developer, fans would be forgiven for infusing that look with more than a healthy dose of cynicism. Well hear this – Treyarch insists Quantum of Solace won’t only avoid spiralling into the license dustbin when it’s released at the end of the month, but will actually recapture some of that GoldenEye magic millions of gamers grew up experiencing in the late nineties.

PR speak? Hype generating nonsense? Perhaps. We’ll admit, following our extensive play test of three of the game’s single-player levels as well as two multiplayer levels, anyone who claims that Quantum of Solace is the next GoldenEye needs their head examined. But that doesn’t stop it from looking like the best Bond game in years.

Let’s start with the Montenegro Train level, a level that wasn’t going to make it into the game until someone somewhere in Treyarch’s offices played the wonderful Train level from GoldenEye and questioned the wisdom of that decision. It follows on from the scene in Casino Royale where Eva Green and Daniel Craig start sowing the seeds of romance as the pair prepare for the big poker game with bad guy Le ‘I need cash quick’ Chiffre. In the game the scene is extended to take in Bond’s hunting down of European drug syndicate member John Blyss, who’s holed up somewhere at the front of the train, along with an army of goons, as he attempts to deliver enough cocaine to keep Notting Hill happy for a year.

Anyone who’s played CoD4 is going to be able to pick up and play QoS without any problems whatsoever. You’ve got the trademark zoom in down the barrel of your gun and R3 click to melee (more on that later) control set-up as well as a familiar feel to the weight of the 26 (at last count) weapons. But what won’t be familiar is the Rainbow Six Vegas 2-style cover system which shows Daniel Craig’s Bond in all his third-person glory.

Combat plays out like this – snap to cover (Bond can dash to cover from a short distance), peep out and pick off bad guys as you inch closer to your objective. QoS won’t require a level of tactical consideration on a par with Gearbox Software’s latest Brothers in Arms game, Hell’s Highway, but running and gunning won’t be a policy best employed, especially on the harder difficulty levels. Indeed Treyarch has worked hard to ensure the game doesn’t feel as scripted as its illustrious cousin and the AI feels smarter and will flank more effectively.

Enemy flanking is worth more of a mention, since it feels surprisingly effective. In the game’s first level – a shoot-out at Mr. White’s mountain mansion that picks up where Casino Royale left off – bad guys will pour round the side of a green house and try to flank you as you’re preoccupied with holed up in cover bad guys to your front. Later, about halfway through the game, in the Science Centre level – which sees Bond hunt down weapons smuggler Dimitrios – enemies will constantly try to flank you during the metal platform shoot out which eventually leads Bond through a ventilation shaft to the main room. It actually makes the game harder than you’d think it would be, given that it’s a licensed title.

If you do find yourself up close and personal with a goon, a click of the right thumb stick will shift the camera into a cinematic third-person perspective and trigger the quick time event-based melee combat. It’s a much simpler affair than the QTE melee combat in High Moon Studios’ flawed The Bourne Conspiracy, requiring only single button presses to take down bad guys in Daniel Craig’s now familiar aggressive style. The important point to make here, however, is that melee combat won’t be forced on you in QoS quite as much as it was in Bourne Conspiracy. If you want you’ll be able to blast your way through the majority of the game and keep Bond’s knuckles clean.

While most of your time with the game will be spent clearing rooms of bad guys in order to progress – the main Science Centre room contained what felt like an endless stream of enemies that needed to be downed before Bond was able to progress – there are stealth elements and a degree of pre-planning that you’ll be able to engage with if you fancy thinking before shooting. In the Mr. White level Bond uses his smart phone to hack into the camera system (just hold down a button). From there you’re able to use the camera feeds to scout out rooms and enemies. Doing this in the boat house reveals Mr. White’s shotgun in the cellar – a satisfying close combat weapon just begging to be used. The phone is also used to open locks – via a simple mini-game that requires players to input d-pad presses following green light prompts – as well as track his objectives.

Add to these elements a degree of platforming – in the Train level there’s some car to car jumping required, as well as some back to the wall creeping about outside, and in the Science Centre level you’ll have to balance while beam walking – and you’ve got a good variety of gameplay to sink your teeth into. Even the construction site chase scene from the opening of Casino Royale makes an appearance – don’t expect Mirror’s Edge quality FPS platforming here though – it’s a simple third-person cinematic QTE designed to be watched more than it is played.

QoS will also come with a healthy multiplayer offering. The game supports 12 players on Xbox LIVE and PSN and includes 12 maps (Treyarch promises more maps in the form of DLC). You’ve got all the classic shooter modes – territory, control, deathmatch, team deathmatch – as well as one or two surprises. Golden Gun mode, which sees players fight over the one hit kill Golden Gun, is a decent blast, and the Bond Versus mode, which sees one Bond player hunted by the rest, is addictive. Again the CoD4 flavour comes through strong – the multiple classes, including saboteur, agent, assassin and heavy weapons specialist, all have unique load outs. The fast-paced feel of the multiplayer action is unmistakeably CoD4, too, despite the addition of a cover system. In fact, at times QoS multiplayer almost feels like Modern Combat wrapped in a secret agent skin.

So we’re enthusiastic about QoS. We’re not sure it’s going to have the same impact as GoldenEye 007 did back in 1997, but it’s shaping up to be the best Bond game in a long while. And with Treyarch at the helm, a developer acutely aware of the job it’s got convincing shooter fans to fork out their hard earned cash for their games, and the Call of Duty 4 engine powering Craig’s lovely character model, we expect nothing else.

Quantum of Solace is due out for the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PC, PS2 and DS on October 31.