When an errant sniper bullet leaves James Bond underwater and bleeding, his dazed mind sends him on a fragmented first-person-shooting trip through 50 years of cinematic history. Ever wonder what On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and other flicks would be like with Daniel Craig in the lead? Consider this your big chance.
Like the 007 film catalog itself, 007 Legends’ campaign missions are a bit of a hodgepodge. Though the opening moments are filled with explosions and scripted spectacle, the meat of play soon settles into a corridor-to-corridor run-and-gun grind. Oh, you can skulk around undetected and track enemy movements with your wristwatch, and try to come to terms with a simple stop-and-peek cover system where the actual peeking works about half the time. But stalking and subduing guards generates more tedium than tension, and bodies are stuck wherever they fall, so you’ll want to abandon subtlety entirely whenever you’re not railroaded into mandatory sneakfests.
Unfortunately, that means churning through large crowds of dopey A.I. goons who easily become panicked or paralyzed in your presence, but can nevertheless put a rocket up your nostril with pinpoint precision from a hundred yards. Couple that combination of marksmanship and one-hit-death potential with the long stretches between checkpoints, and you’ll wonder how Bond made it through so many films without turning into a human sieve.
Floating through Moonraker’s space station in zero gravity is one of the best sequences in the game.
Goldfinger came out in 1964, but that's no reason you can't hack with a modern smartphone, right?There are some fun sequences, like a gas-masked romp through Goldfinger’s Fort Knox and zero-gravity battles in Moonraker’s space station. You also wield a surprisingly large collection of firearms, backed by a simple experience system that unlocks bolt-on upgrades and minor improvements to Bond’s constitution. But rather than explore the full potential of its settings and armaments, 007 Legends too frequently wastes time with disposable hacking mini-games, scan-for-evidence fingerprint hunts, and laughable button-prompt fisticuffs.
Multiplayer is where the real action is. None of the maps are up to modern graphics standards, but their twisting layouts keep the action flowing at a frantic pace, whether you’re trying to plant a bomb, capture uplink consoles, destroy a black box loaded with sensitive data, or just murder opposing operatives. About half of the 40 characters boast fun quirks, too: Jaws’ metal teeth reflect bullets, Goldfinger drops live grenades when he croaks, and everyone dreads Oddjob’s retrievable blade-brimmed bowler hat. Here, stripped of its stealthy pretensions, 007 Legends is finally free to focus on the mindless but consistently enjoyable twitch action it does best.
NOTE: A free DLC mission based on the new Bond film Skyfall hits Xbox Live on November 20. You won’t have to enter a code, so even renters can play at no cost.
The likes of Judy Dench, Michael Lonsdale, and Carey Lowell (above) all reprise their original film roles for 007 Legends. You still won’t hear a peep from Richard Kiel, though.PUBLISHER: Activision • DEVELOPER: Eurocom • ESRB: Teen • MULTIPLAYER: 4 on split-screen, 12 on Xbox Live • ACHIEVEMENTS: Stingy • COST: $60 • RELEASE DATE: October 16, 2012
+ Exciting collection of multiplayer modes, maps, weapons, and characters makes up for a lot.
– Disjointed campaign missions feature as much gadget-twiddling drudgery as derring-do.
– Dreary stealth sequences; busted cover system; dim but lethal A.I. marksmen; infrequent checkpoints.
? Why can’t Bond move enemy bodies?
