Having watched all of Matt Damon's performances in the Bourne movies and being familiar with the premise of an agent hounded by his superiors; the news of a game based on the movie trilogy seemed like a good move on the part of Sierra. The character, Jason Bourne, the settings and the ferocity of the suspense all make perfect ingredients for a video game adaptation. Sadly, Mr Damon didn't agree with the game's violent nature, which somewhat contradicts his movie performances, which are far more graphic than anything presented in video game form. Either way, upon playing the game, you instantly forget about Matt Damon and his double standards, as the heat is on from the offset. For those of you who pre-order the game which ships this Summer, you'll be privy to a bonus Demo disc, featuring three levels from the game. I managed to get my hands on the demo disc, to become, Jason Bourne; although I must add, that there is also an Xbox Live Marketplace demo for the game as well for those of you in North America.
The first things you'll notice about the demo, is how accurately the scenes from the first film has been re-created. Having had a piece of metal removed from his body on board the trawler that rescues him in the movie. The metal piece provides valuable info about a bank account which could help the amnesia struck Jason Bourne, remember who he is. The demo's opening scene, sees Jason in the Zürich bank (complete with rucksack) being watched closely by the in bank security forces. No sooner as the demo begins, all hell breaks loose and Jason becomes the fugitive. Here you are introduced to some impressive movie like sequences which seamlessly blend in with the gameplay.
The first order of business is the hand to hand combat, which is pretty simple, requiring you to unleash soft and hard attacks using the X and Y buttons, with the A button used to block and the B button used to perform special take-down moves (a meter builds up when you attack allowing you to perform these). The take-down moves are very good and are presented in a cinematic fashion. The combat movement is very stiff and so you'll end up merely squaring off and exchanging blows rather than being able to move around tactically. Its all very simple and even on the easiest setting, some guards block your moves a little too much for the lack of complexity of the combat. Upon defeating opponents, the game then switches to actual escaping, through corridors, up stair cases and finally onto the rooftops with a timer ticking down to lock-down (game over). Jason can lean up against cover and also use his senses to detect points of interest. There's also some rather unforgiving QTE (quick time events) style buttons you need to press during cinematics. Failure results in a game over and restart at the last checkpoint. The presentation here is of a high standard, although the flow of the game seems to stop and start in a somewhat erratic manner despite the cinematic approach.
The whole escape sequence is very well done in terms of cinematic direction, and if you've seen the movies then you'll instantly recognize the scene.
The second level in the demo provides a flashback scene and a mission to board an aircraft to take down a target, remembering that Jason's occupation is that of a government agent used to perform all sorts of missions, including assassinations. This level introduces you to the shooting mechanics which allows you to whip out a pistol and start shooting up enemies. You can use cover and pop out and shoot as well as destroy cover that the enemies are using. There's also some environmental stuff to look out for such as explosive barrels and cars. Jason can pick up weapons from the fallen which is neat, meaning he'll carry two weapons at a time. With a click of the right thumb-stick, you can switch the over shoulder view from one side of the screen to the other, whichever suits the situation you are in. I felt the camera in general was reasonable, although there were times when it seemed a little off and could have been better placed. With the shooting, and once again building up a meter, enables Jason to perform shooting take-down moves, which allow him to take-down distant enemies with ease. Interspersed with the shooting you'll often get an enemy that rushes you in close quarters, which means more hand to to hand fighting. Although there's still the stop and start cinematic approach here, surprisingly the hand to hand in these moments, doesn't break up the shooting too much. It's a very different approach to gaming and in this mission at least works well.
The final part of this mission is on board the aircraft where there's some QTE moments as well as a boss battle (your target). I wont spoil the outcome, but like the rest of the game, is very cinematic and the sort of thing you'd expect from Jason Bourne.
The last mission in the demo is the scene where Sarah and Jason escape in her car from the police. You're given a small area to drive around, which unrealistically has some ghosted barriers put in place to cordon you off. I'm not sure if this restriction is purely for the demo or not. The main onus here is to escape via a tunnel, which is blocked off until you drive around a bit. You'll be able to smash through a shop and perform a jump off a ramp whilst your pursuers are hot on your heels. Once the tunnel is cleared it's QTE time and if successful you'll escape and end the demo.
Overall the demo offers a good slice of the action and some variety as you drive, shoot, kick and punch through the three missions. If these are indicative of the final game, which undoubtedly they are, then gamers are in for a very cinematic experience. Graphically, the game looks pretty decent, other than a few camera flaws and the cinematic presentation is unusual for an action game of this nature. I liked it, but I'm not sure everyone will due to its stop/start nature. My only reservation is on the replay value, although there are several levels of difficulty to try. The Bourne Conspiracy is out on the 3rd of June in the US and 27th of June in Europe and will please fans of Robert Ludlum's works.
Preview By: Robert Cram
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