Review

Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Conspiracy

Jason Bourne is a man of many talents. He’s able to drive cars particularly well, kill assassins with little more than a rolled up magazine, disarm predators, free run, lose his memory at the drop of a hat — you name it, Jason Bourne can do it. He can even open pickle jars!

The development period for this game was tumultuous – originally, Sierra had the grace of Matt Damon — the onscreen Bourne — to use his likeness and voice in game. Due to the violent nature of the game, Damon withdrew permission. Allegedly, Damon was under the impression the game would deal more with Bourne’s search for his identity rather than Bourne just straight up killing everyone. Myst vs. Doom, really.

And Bourne really does kill just about everyone in this game. Subtle, he ain’t. Like he was in the films, he ain’t. Like he was in the books, he ain’t. He’s more like the joker from Soldier of Fortune.

The game follows the first movie – The Bourne Identity, for those unaware – and allows (see: forces) the player to go through flashbacks to previous missions never once mentioned in the continuity of the films. It’s not a problem, really. The flashback missions are, for the most part, fun, if not somewhat trying.

Graphically, the game is pretty nice. It would have been nicer to see Damon rather than some no-face running around, but in the first series of missions – they take place on a dock and boat respectively – the water effects are particularly good. The explosions you cause by shooting barrels cast effective shadows. One thing I was very impressed by was the context sensitive damage engine. When engaging in hand to hand combat, if you throw an enemy against a wall, there will be a dent where they connected. It was fun to manipulate combat around the stages and see just what you can slam the people in to. Damage is seen on player characters and enemy models, which was a nice touch. The cut scenes are decent, using the in-game graphics, and they get the job done.

However, no matter how good the graphics are, they cannot compensate for the actual game itself. The game is a mixed bag ranging from decent to very, very poor. When Bourne approaches an enemy, he goes into close quarters combat mode. While in CQC, you have the ability to throw a heavy punch, or a light punch (or a heavy kick and light kick). There are only two buttons used for melee attacking – X and Y – which is an interesting decision, and would have been much better implemented if the combat wasn’t limited to 3 strike combos. There’s also a block button that will be your best friend. You’ll primarily be blocking and waiting for an opportunity to get a few hits in. It’s very tedious, as most of the CQC plays as block, block block, XXY, block block block, X – get hit in the face, block block block ,YYX – repeat. The enemies have insane amounts of life and take forever to defeat with mere punches and kicks – even if you’re punching and kicking the bejeezus out of their face.

Which is where your adrenaline comes into play. Every time you block or strike an opponent, a bar next to your life gauge fills. There are three levels to the bar, and when one level is full, you can jam B to perform a ‘Bourne Takedown’. These consist of Bourne launching into a super cool flurry of moves that you would never, ever be able to perform because of the limited combat. There are context sensitive takedowns, like beating someone with a magazine or shoving their head through a window, but it makes combat a war of attrition. Wait until your adrenaline meter is full, and then take someone down. If you’re using a Bourne Takedown and you’re not near a context sensitive area, Bourne will hit them in the face a bunch and maybe kick them below the belt.

Bosses also have takedown maneuvers that they can use on Bourne. Blocking during boss battles is so important that it’s very tedious trying to find a good window of opportunity. And bosses are not taken down immediately by takedown maneuvers. They require upwards of 10 to knock them silly, which is just ridiculous and time consuming. It’s even more trying as Bourne is a physically weak kind of guy – no pencil pusher, but not exactly He-Man or any of the Masters of the Universe.

If you have adrenaline outside of combat, you can hit “Y” to active a radar type power called Bourne Instinct that points out enemies, passports (the game’s unlock items, which I affectionately call ‘Fourth Wall Keys’ — items that remind you you’re playing a game), and shows the right way to go on your radar.

Hand to hand combat is highly flawed, but the gunplay is actually alright.

Most of the time, Bourne will be hiding behind objects, Gears of War style, and popping out to shoot people. He’s a very, very frail man and can only sustain a few shots to his body or face before he dies. You can carry two weapons at once, and I was pleased to see you have the option to holster your weapon and try to go incognito – despite the fact that everyone and their grandmother knows what you look like and is trying to kill you. Enemies are just as weak and can be taken down easily. Ammo supply crates are marked on your Bourne Radar so you can Bourne Reload your weapons.

A large problem I encountered, which became relevant in the flashback levels, was Bourne’s ability to change from gunplay to CQC. It was interesting to fire a few shots at a guy, run up to him, and pummel him – but once you’re locked into CQC mode, which plays like a brawler, you cannot go back to gunplay mode until you take care of the foe. This is highly problematic when there’s more than one baddie on screen with a gun that would love to make you nothing more than Bourne Dirt.

Mission objectives are varied enough – sink a sub, survive an encounter with a glasses wearing assassin called ‘The Professor’ – to keep the game moderately interesting.

When Bourne is not taking people down or firing guns at them, he’s suffering from a plague that has infected modern games – the Quick Time Event. This game has more Quick Time Events than Everlong has drumrolls in Rockband 2 (I can be relevant!). Run down the hall? Not without a QTE! Evade a sniper? Not without a QTE! Go to McDonald’s?  Jam B!

I hate QTE’s. I think they’re overused and gimmicky. What they really say to the player is, “Well, I hope you’ve been paying attention! Here’s a split-second button press event just to make sure you’re not coasting.” It’s an insult and a slap in the face.

The single, inexplicable driving segment is riddled with QTE’s. Combined with lack-luster controls, it makes for one of the more infuriating segments of the game. The car is both too floaty and too grounded at the same time. I appreciate that they put the segment in the game – it was, after all, a very awesome action sequence in the movie – but it was so poorly handled I wish they had just left it out. If they were turning the game into the movie instead of vice-versa, an equal translation would have been to perform the chase sequence with Matchbox cars. Entirely not worth it.

There’s nothing too impressive on the sound side. I would have appreciated Chris Cooper, or Clive Owen to make an appearance in the game as voice actors, but they’re busy people. The voice acting isn’t terrible, but it doesn’t stand out and pop like it did with Drake’s Fortune – the characters in that game had personality. These guys, they don’t.

The music that accompanies your espionage is straight forward with staccatos and crescendos as you accomplish Bourne Things like shooting barrels that are meant to explode or shooting guys that are meant to die.

The Bourne in the movies was a very fight-or-flight kind of guy – he avoided confrontation when he could. The Bourne in this game spoils for fights. It’s a game that would have lent itself very, very well to stealth, but instead, we’re given a product that is several different broken game mechanics held together very loosely by the story of an agent trying to get his memory back. Oh, by the way – you find out who Bourne is in the first level. There’s no mystery. The story, suffers because of it. It’s not compelling in the least. I kept playing for the flashbacks, because they showed more Bourne I was unfamiliar with. Apparently, before losing his memory, he was a gun-wielding maniac who just shot the living hell out of everything and ran through airports while firing a pistol. It’s a mish-mash of a game that makes me wish I had a case of Bourne Amnesia.

Bottom Line:
What a wasted opportunity. The production values are high, but the game itself is pretty sub-standard. I expect a game made about a $30,000,000 secret agent to have some better Gameplay, or at least have some kind of character progression. Me, I don’t see myself playing the game, and I cannot in sound mind recommend it. I’ll hold out for Alpha Protocol. Bourne Avoid this one if you can.