Ahh, Mish Moneypenny
From Russia With Love is a TPS (third person shooter), set in a faithful recreation of the 1960’s when the film was originally made. This means that all those hi-tech gadgets that see bond on hi way today aren’t going to make an appearance here. What we have got is a recreation of the film replete with all Bond’s adversaries from the film, namely Rosa Klebb and Donald 'Red' Grant. Of course, the game is littered with the Bond beauties in the form of Tatiana Romanova amongst others.
Now Peter is well aware that to anyone under the age of roughly 16 might well not have the faintest clue who this guy is in the out-of-date suit being unaware that Bond is the original Sam Fisher, so EA have taken small liberties with the storyline and tacked on a new beginning to introduce Bond to the uninitiated. After the classic Bond opening sequence with the man himself strolling on and firing off that single shot, we’re whisked into a cutscene to ease you into a level all of EA’s own making. Staying true to the style of the film and era, Bond plays a major part in rescuing the PM’s daughter from a kidnap attempt. I know Bond officiandos will baulk at the use of the jetpacks not seen until Thunderball, but the opening level is an absolute blast and even more so when you realise that the girl you’re rescuing is voiced by and modelled on Natasha Beddingfield, nicely keeping From Russia With Love bang up to date with younger players. Think of this level as a cross between a training level and those superb over-the-top action sequences that became the hallmark of the first ten minutes of every Bond film except, sadly, From Russia With Love which is why EA have added on now.
After this level, you enter the game proper and head off to see M for a briefing on your next mission. Again, EA show off the attention to detail with their cutscenes, mimicking classic Bond moments perfectly and adding to the atmosphere immensely. It’s in this first briefing that you suddenly realise that EA have spent a long time working on how the Bond character moves and the facial animation only adds to the feeling that Bond is back. But it really hits home when the characters speak as EA took the trouble to get Sir Sean Connery to reprise his role as Bond and do all the dialogue… bloody superb. If I’m honest, he sounds a little gruffer than I remember him, but Sean is in his seventies now but hearing that Scottish accent and Bond saying ‘Mish Moneypenny’ is enough to make you forget all that. Peter tells me that Sean was more than happy to play the part of Bond one more time and got so into it that he even re-wrote some of the dialogue as he felt Bond just wouldn’t have said some of it… and who are we to argue?
Of course, this being an early Bond movie, you can forget about night vision goggles, heat seeking missiles, mini-jet aircraft and the like… they’ll come later if EA decide to make a sequel. For now you’ll have to be happy with a wide range of gadgets and gizmos that, though they might seem low tech now, are still perfect for the era the game is set in. Of course you get your faithful Walther PP7, (bet you didn’t know he started out with one of them, eh? The PPK came later, so ner!), and then on top of that you’ll get access to repel ropes hidden on your belt buckle, machine guns, laser watches and all sorts of Bond widgets.
Peter was keen to point out that although in later levels you might have loads of gadgets at your disposal, the game rarely forces you to use a particular gadget in order to progress. There are places where its obvious only one particular gadget will do the job, but for the main part you’re free to complete each mission as you see fit.
Control of Bond is a doddle with a range of moves enabling you to vault low walls, creep up behind enemies and then give them the classic Bond chop to knock them out. To add an element of skill to hand to hand combat, its not just a case of pounding buttons in a random order, you might fancy spinning the guy around and felling him with a right cross, or how about sweeping his legs out from underneath him then giving him a rib cracking chop on the sternum… But Bond wouldn’t be Bond if he didn’t make use of the scenery, so there’s nothing to stop you grabbing a baddie and slamming him into a wall before swiftly belting him unconscious…of course, to achieve this you’ll need a decent bit of timing.
In many areas of the game, it’ll pay to use Bond’s sneakiness to creep around, but if you decide to use your weapons the targeting system will allow you to pull off quick kill headshots on most bad guys. Should you get into an all out fire fight, Bond can still hold his own and rather than target individual areas on a baddie’s body you can just shoot him. If you fancy you could aim at the grenade on a bad guy’s belt, blowing it, him and anyone near him into the air for a stylish kill… definitely shaken and not stirred.
