Bourne To Be… Not Very Wild
Usually I won’t write about a game until I’ve played through the entirety of it. However, this is not a review. It’s a… a… I don’t know, a vent of frustration!
I’ve really enjoyed watching Jason Bourne’s adventures unfold in the Bourne trilogy on HD DVD. It was with much intrigue then that I followed the news of a Bourne video game, though with the stigma attached to licensed video games - and rightly so - I never expected anything more than a couple of hours of mindless action. However, the developers made a conscious decision not to model Bourne on Matt Damon (though I’ve since read that was down to “creative differences”), giving him an identity of his own, therefore making the game feel less like a movie tie-in.
Regardless, The Bourne Conspiracy passed by generally unnoticed when it was released in June of ‘08, possibly down to the mediocre reviews it received. The highest score (91) was given by a guy who, in his review, said he was expecting the game to “literally suck”, which video games just can’t do, so his review didn’t carry much credibility. Anyway, to me a game can make or break it depending on the way you approach it (Assassin’s Creed being a prime example of player’s with high expectations being let down). So with my relatively low expectations, has Conspiracy turned out to be pretty fun? Well, yes, but with far too many flaws to make it actually worth buying.
Conspiracy moves from hand-to-hand combat to firearm usage on a regular basis, though both forms of fighting don’t feel very polished. The hand combat is what the game does best, but even then controls can be slow and clunky (much like in every aspect of the game). Despite having a string of video games under my belt, the combat was actually pretty tricky for me to master, despite it only making use of 3 buttons (two of which can be used to string combos together, and one used to block). It’s hard to say why without making me sound abysmally bad at video games, which may just be the case, but it wasn’t until the second level I really mastered the art of fist fights. I think awkward controls coupled with playing on the hardest difficulty made it a recipe for disaster.
But the shooting, my God the shooting, well that’s what had me cursing on more than one occasion. We’ve all played a game where it takes an age for an enemy to fall to the ground despite pulling the trigger on a perfect head shot 20-odd times. Bourne was ridiculous in that respect, seemingly even more so as the game progressed. There would be times I’d leave myself uncovered thinking “there’s no way he survived that” only for him to pop his seemingly impenetrable head up and take me out immediately. The flaky shooting is what ruined what otherwise could have been a pretty fun video game! All too often did I shoot the enemy right on target - several times! - and they still miraculously ran about, unscathed by my apparently weak bullets.
If you’ve watched the movies (and if you haven’t, get on it!) then you’ll recognise various parts of the plot being played out. Conspiracy definitely does a good job of putting you in Bourne’s shoes with so many parts in the game being based on the movie’s most memorable moments. But there isn’t as much of an emphasis on stealth as I had hoped. For example, the lock picking involves simply pressing and holding ‘A’, and I think throughout the entire game I only stealth killed 3 people. It would have been better had the lock picking been similar to that of Fallout 3, which I really enjoyed doing.
There are also far too many timed button sequences, which I hate in any game. If you don’t press a certain button at a specific moment then you’re screwed and have to reload your last save. They’ve even included timed button sequences in combat, though the penalty for missing or pressing the wrong button isn’t as severe. I’m going to say it again; there are also far too many timed button sequences, which I hate in any game. Seriously, I had to say it twice to emphasise the extent of the irritating timed button sequences. They pop up all the bloody time.
On the plus side, the graphics are pretty (oh, and Bourne is sexy) and the levels vary in nature, meaning your environment never becomes tedious or predictable. The level which takes place in an airport reminded me of one of my favourite PlayStation games - Die Hard! Also, while the game doesn’t make the most of jumping from hand-to-hand combat to guns, it’s nice not to consistently be doing the same thing.
Unfortunately the at times unresponsive and heavy controls bring the game down several notches, and nothing else in the game really redeems it. On top of the flaky shooting and tricky hand-to-hand combat, I had problems maneuvering Bourne on a few occasions while running. It isn’t the most fluid of movements, with Bourne being tricky to control and often being steered into objects instead of around them. This would always happen while I was being shot at, so either Jason needs to lose a few pounds so he’s ‘lighter’ to control, or there’s a general problem with the controls.
While it seems there are more flaws than things to commend The Bourne Conspiracy on, I’m still enjoying my playthrough, but only just. Would I recommend it as a possible purchase in any coming quiet months? No. And that’s that.
Hmm. Uhh. Yeah. Skyrim. It’s massive. The quests are never-ending. My character has a mohawk. My class is Breton. Don’t 
Mike Robinson