007 Legends

Like most people I enjoy the James Bond movies. They’ve been a bit hit and miss over the years and so have the games so I was excited to get my hands on 007 Legends which lets you play through iconic moments from previous movies with Daniel Craig’s nik-nak-alike head replacing the visages of Connery, Moore and Brosnan etc.

The game takes you through Goldfinger, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Licence to Kill, Die Another Day and Moonraker (strangely in that order) with free Skyfall DLC on its way once the movie has been released. That doesn’t stop a spoiler happening right at the start of the game though when Bond is shot, falls into some water and his life flashes before his eyes. It’s a strange excuse to get into these missions but I guess it beats just selecting them from a menu. You’re then transported into Goldfinger where you happen upon a rather dead girl sprayed with gold and begin to shoot and try to sneak past lots of enemies in order to put pay to all the bad guys from each of the movies.

It amazes me that Bond is such a big licence and yet the games continue to feel so average. Moving about the environment feels a bit floaty, you’ll encounter invisible walls or not be able to vault over low obstacles in places the map doesn’t want you to go and there’s also the option to be stealthy but to be honest, unless you’re in a part of the game where being discovered ends the mission there’s no real point to it. You may as well just go hell for leather and shoot everyone in your way as you rush to the next objective marker.

To mix things up there are moments when you must scan things with your mobile phone to reveal fingerprints on key pads or secret areas and take pictures of evidence. These also become annoying as the sweet spot for interacting with these is so small you end up adjusting my micro amounts before the prompt comes on screen.

There are also moments when you’re not on foot - the skiing section is just a horrible part of the game with the worst controls I’ve played in a long time and there’s a small driving section where your car just doesn’t feel like it’s actually driving anywhere.

There are also some laughable punch-up sequences too where your opponents seem to just present their ribs to you like a punch bag. There are some saving graces though - although the graphics are inconsistent, most of the likenesses and sound-alike voices are great. Drax, Jaws, Blofeld and Goldfinger all look fantastic but it’s strange that Jinx and Dr Goodhead didn’t have the likenesses of Halle Berry and Lois Chiles.

This game just feels like a sub-standard Call of Duty clone and seeing as there’s another one on the horizon, if it’s a solid shooter you’re after, you may as well wait. Bond fans will get something out of this and there’s also a fairly solid single multiplayer mode and challenges to play through once you’ve finished the campaign but this game really does fall below what I’d expect from a shooter and seems rushed and buggy.

There was even a moment I hit a bad guy and my own body fell on the floor for me to look at - surreal to say the least! Only because it’s Bond does 007 Legends not get less than a 5 out of 10.

Get 007 Legends now
New: Buy 007 Legends from Amazon.com
Offers: To save you money whenever you buy web hosting check our Godaddy coupon codes for Novemeber 2012.

Related: James Bond, GoldenEye 007 Reloaded, 007 Legends review on Youtube