The latest James Bond flick hits consoles at the same time as cinema screens this month. But can a videogame do justice to the newly invigorated movie series? We interrogate co-design director Adam Gascoine to find out…
Two and a half years in the making and with the spectre of GoldenEye still looming large in the background, Treyarch’s James Bond: Quantum of Solace tie-in is now complete. Built using the Call of Duty 4 engine it has been developed by a team that combines staff from several Call of Duty games, as well as the well-received Spider-Man title on PS2. With tons of input from the movie makers and a polished multiplayer mode, there is more potential here than in any 007 title since Rare’s seminal work.
The Treyarch chaps are clearly passionate about the project, promising a combat-focused adventure combining intense melee action, stealth, a smattering of technology-based puzzles and lots and lots of lovely guns. To find out more, we collared co-design director Adam Gascoine - a huge 007 fan on a mission to prove that Bond tie-ins don’t necessarily begin and end with THAT game…
When you held your first development meeting for Quantum, what were your priorities?
I think we had two. The first was to make sure we weren’t just making a license – most importantly we wanted a game first. And the second thing was the history of Bond – not just in the movies, not just in the books, but the games as well. I mean, everyone remembers GoldenEye so passionately – every James Bond that has come out since then, the first response has been, well, it’s not GoldenEye – it’s this huge mountain for us to climb. So we basically just played the hell our of GoldenEye…
I’m glad you mentioned it before I did! I suppose there were two options with that game – not to go anywhere near it, or to immerse yourselves in it. It seems like you chose the latter?
Yes, we immersed ourselves in it! We’re a very different game though, because obviously GoldenEye is eight or nine years old. But we have it playing in a cubicle at our office all the time – and really, what we did is, we learned from it; we said ‘okay what is it about this game that everyone remembers and what stuff can we recreate’. There’s some stuff we can’t do: GoldenEye was the first game to use a controller in that way – we can’t recreate that. So we said, let’s get a great engine, let’s get great controls, and let’s do what the equivalent is right now, and that’s Call of Duty 4. Everyone says, it has the best controls they’ve ever played.
What else have you been able to draw from GoldenEye?
What it did do, was have this extraordinary intensity. You felt so powerful playing it, we wanted to capture that. And of course, Daniel Craig is so intense, he’s so physical! Having the chance to work with him and model from him is a constant inspiration. This is the new Bond, you know. To us, everything that came before Daniel Craig, to be quite frank, is irrelevant. It all started with Daniel Craig, I think he’s the best one – I love the character study. So we made sure we had the new intense Bond, and the best parts of GoldenEye.
There was a definite sense with Casino Royale that this was a much darker, grittier reading of the Bond mythos. How have you tried to replicate that in the game?
It was a difficult balance, because we need to remain accessible to all gamers. We’re not going to have blood splattering across the screen – that’s not us. So we made sure we had a very realistic, very visceral combat system –when you’re taking down an enemy in our game, you KNOW you’re taking him down! We employed the God of War combat designer because we wanted to make sure the melee was very in-your-face, very aggressive – it’s not outrageous, huge backflipping karate kicks with multi-spins. It’s all very realistic takedowns – we mo-capped hundreds and hundreds of them and selected the ones that looked most realistic.
The fighting feels quite varied, with some good responses from the enemies. How do you build unpredictability into AI characters?
We built a massive amount of predictable choices and just make sure they use the most appropriate ones. You know, people AREN’T that unpredictable; also in a game, if they do things you’ve never seen before, the first time you see it, you’re going to die. We made sure [the AI enemies] know when they could take cover, they know when they can run, they knew when they can use a flash bang against you, they know when you’re retreating, when you’re reloading, when they have team mates around. So basically, we gave them a whole list of choices, then put a value on each decision, depending on the circumstances that they’re in. If Bond’s in great cover and they can’t see you very well, they know to move – or to flush you out, so you know they’re either going to start flanking you, or they’re going to throw in a grenade and try and get you out of cover.
So the AI enemies can communicate as well?
It depends on the type of AI you’re fighting. We have regular AI, who are more of the fodder, because we wanted to make sure the gamer felt they were constantly doing something and succeeding. We also have an elite AI that comes in particularly when you make mistakes in the game, when you don’t play in a particular way, and you chose to go in all guns blazing. The elite guards use communication, they use teamwork – so one will lay down suppressing fire, while the other one flanks, they’ll also leapfrog towards you, or they’ll throw a flash bang and once you’re shocked, they’ll charge you. When the bang clears, they’re in front of you, shooting – it’s very intense.
With the multiplayer, GoldenEye was famous for getting in lots of characters and weapons from the whole Bond series – are you doing anything similar?
No, we didn’t touch that. Often, a licensed game looks at the movie, then finds a way to get all of it in the box – we believe a good game doesn’t do that. A good game starts with that huge design, but then says, ‘if we do this or that we’ll compromise the quality’. And one of the things we felt would compromise it was trying to get too much history into the multiplayer, trying to get in every possible character – we just couldn’t do it. So instead we focused on MI6 and Quantum - basically it’s good guys, bag guys and real solid gameplay and not just you going ‘oh it’s Oddjob!’
Come back tomorrow for part two, Bond fans…
Goldeneye…..they DARE! compare this to goldeneye!
GRRR!!!!
Comment by JohnSketch — Oct 14, 2008 @ 5:08 pm
Could you guys make it anymore difficult to read that piece of text.
Comment by Zaki — Oct 14, 2008 @ 5:09 pm
@ Zaki
Have tried to make it easier. Let us know what you think needs to be done though…
Comment by Three Speech — Oct 14, 2008 @ 5:13 pm
I dont really have a solution but im sure you guys will think of something.
The porblem is that its just tom much plain text for me.
Comment by Zaki — Oct 14, 2008 @ 5:15 pm
Have you tried making the text box’s smaller in width so it looks easier on the eyes.
It could also be the white text on black background .
Use pictures to path the text so its easier on the eyes.
e.g
ewewewewweewt( )
wywtytyeyetyrtyeytyteyetytyey
yetytyeytyeytyeyetyteyyeytyety
( )hdtrhghgghgdhghg
dfhdghghgdhghgdhghdghghdhdhdg
Comment by Zaki — Oct 14, 2008 @ 5:32 pm
that didnt turn out right
Comment by Zaki — Oct 14, 2008 @ 5:33 pm
Could always make the titles of each section a bigger text font size wise and different font (i know you do this already ie italics) - anyway great read i havnt even picked up a bond game ever but have played goldeneye many a time at friends
Comment by Sam — Oct 14, 2008 @ 6:05 pm
I see the image is of the US box art.
Also, the US is having a “Collector’s Edition”, and pre-ordering at GameStop{dot}com offers an interesting incentive:
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Reserve James Bond 007: Quantum of Solace and receive a code to unlock the multiplayer map. Offer good while supplies last.
Online & In-Store Pick-up: Your code will be emailed to you. Please provide a valid email at checkout.
Store Reservations: Your code will be available at time of pick-up.
—
Still no news on anything special for the UK/European market(s) other than the fact the ‘Collector’s Edition’ has got a classification of a “12″ rating:
[ http://www.bbfc.co.uk/website/Classified.nsf/ClassifiedWorks/6B6F7C3AB9FBCC79802574CD00383A4B ]
—
QUANTUM OF SOLACE - COLLECTORS EDITION
Classified 23 September, 2008
Video Game
Run Time
Not relevant
Consumer Advice: No consumer advice is available for this work
This work was passed with no cuts made.
The BBFC has placed this work in the Shoot ‘em up genre(s).
The main spoken language in this work is English.
Directed by
The cast for this work includes: .
When submitted to the BBFC the linear elements within the work had a running time (eg cut scenes) of 17m 51s.
This work was submitted to the BBFC by Activision UK Ltd .
This work is made up of a number of separate components.
Note that since February 2001 the BBFC has measured each component separately, but older works may not have the exact details, only a list of titles.
n/a QUANTUM OF SOLACE - COLLECTORS EDITION
00:01:14:00 CYBER SCAN – JUDIE DENCH
00:01:15:00 LEVEL DESIGN
00:01:09:00 REVEAL TRAILER
00:01:18:00 ENVIRONMENTS
00:01:55:00 FROM FILM TO GAME
00:01:30:00 TECHNOLOGY
00:01:21:00 VISITING THE SET
00:02:09:00 MATHIEU AMALRIC
00:03:19:00 BEHIND THE VIDEO GAME
00:01:28:00 BECOMING BOND
00:01:13:00 CYBER SCAN – ENSEMBLE CAST
n/a 48 IMAGES
A film or video, together with associated trailers may exist in several versions and all versions known to the BBFC are listed below.
—
BFN,
fp.
Comment by fanpages — Oct 14, 2008 @ 6:20 pm
I’m quite looking forward to this! It looks quite promising
Comment by PS3 Forums at GameSlurp — Oct 14, 2008 @ 7:50 pm
Try putting the text in a narrower column(s?), increasing the font size, and putting the questions in bold instead of italics. See IGN for examples.
Comment by cant_read_it — Oct 21, 2008 @ 3:38 am
I don’t have a problem with the text (either in my preferred browser, Mozilla Firefox, or through my RSS Feed Reader, ‘SharpReader’, that uses the MS-Internet Explorer browser control). I just select a larger default font for the rendering engine, if required.
I’ve just ordered my ticket to watch “Quantum of Solace” when it opens at the end of next week. Anybody else pre-booked?
PS. According to early reviews (that I have tried to avoid) there may well be a third movie to follow the story on from “Casino Royale”, through this movie, and then further thereafter.
BFN,
fp.
Comment by fanpages — Oct 22, 2008 @ 9:35 pm
GameStation has secured the exclusive UK rights to the “Quantum of Solace” Collector’s Edition:
[ http://www.gamestation.co.uk/product.asp?id=man0429 ]
GBP 49.99
—
As James Bond is about to make his 22nd appearance on the silver screen, here, you will find yourself confronted with difficult choices. Do you go into the room all guns blazing and start one of those legendary James Bond shootouts or do you utilize your skills in tactical espionage, taking out your foes with a silent snapping of the neck or a silenced bullet in the cranium, Decisions eh?
This latest James Bond title, produced by Activision, marks Daniel Craig’s digital debut as the world’s most legendary spy. Activision promise a 007 Gaming experience unlike any other, you will be able to play through the events of the massively popular Casino Royale and live the excitement of the upcoming Quantum of Solace. An exciting blend of intense first person action with a unique third person cover combat system that will allow you to immerse yourself completely in the happenings of one in her majesty’s secret service. Use stealth and precision shooting to your tactical advantage through the top secret story of Bonds latest adventure.
* Become Bond: For the first time, you will be able to become the dangerous and relentless James Bond as portrayed by Daniel Craig in the latest smash hit 007 films Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace whilst surviving through the events of both films.
* Smarter adversaries: Advance AI ensures that your enemies will react appropriately to your attacks and counter your moves with ferocious tenacity. Giving you the ultimate, non scripted battle experience.
* Superb Combat: in true James Bond style, your combat can range from close quarters hand to hand combat, to single one on one shoot-outs to the ultimate guns blazing madness of all out war. This truly is the most in depth James Bond title to date.
* World of Bond: immerse yourself in the world of James Bond, with characters from both films making an appearance in those amazing and exotic locations.
* Prove your worth: Show the world your skills as you take them on in a variety of your favourite multiplayer modes and some new Bond oriented modes as well.
Includes Exclusive Content
* Collectible “007″ Metallic Game case
* Only on Blu-ray: Over 10GB of exclusive content on one disc, including the game and behind-the-scenes videos about the game’s development at Treyarch
You will be propelled into this cinematic experience of international espionage via the renowned Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare game engine that has been specifically engineered to immerse players in the Bond universe, Quantum of Solace: The Game delivers superior high-definition graphics, reactive AI and the visually stunning locations from the films.
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Not sure if I can justify an extra tenner for a metal tin & a load of videos that will probably be on GameTrailers or even the PlayStation Store eventually.
BFN,
fp.
Comment by fanpages — Oct 29, 2008 @ 12:32 am
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