Impressions: The Bourne Conspiracy Demo
Sierra put a demo of its upcoming The Bourne Conspiracy on Xbox LIVE, so I thought I'd take a break from wreaking havoc in Liberty City to try playing as human weapon Jason Bourne for a change. The demo offers up a nice sampling of the different gameplay elements offered in the full game.
The Bourne movies established the action as intensely fast-paced and frenetic. And Sierra did a reasonably impressive job of incorporating that pacing into the game without leaving the player feeling like the game is out of his control. At times the transitions from combat to gunplay to Quick Time events can leave you a little unbalanced, but overall, it's not as bad as I'd feared. The main trick they've given you is a quick press of Y allows you to activate a special sense that shows you on the map where you must go next, and where the enemies are. On-screen, it slows the action and highlights key items, allowing you to plan your next move and giving you the feeling of being a superspy.
For specific impressions of each section of the demo, make the jump!
The first level is a chase sequence where you must escape from a building full of armed Marines out to get you. With two buttons offering heavy and light attacks, combat pretty much devolved into button mashing for me. Quick Time events are scattered throughout, and failure ends the game, so they are well-placed just after checkpoints. One annoying one came after using A to jump across rooftop ledges, so when the final jump became a QT event that required you to push Y, I blew it because I thought I was meant to jump again. Oh well. After landing enough attacks, you are able to perform a takedown, and I was intrigued to see that replaying a sequence caused a completely different takedown based on location. The first time, I shoved a guy's head through a window, and the second time, we were near the electrical panel, so he went into that instead. Nice.
The second level is a mission where you must take out an enemy. The beginning is all run and gun gameplay as you make your way through an airport to the plane before the boss can take off. I wasn't wild about the shooting mechanics, as running with a weapon caused awkward camera angles. Also, you can take cover and pop up to shoot, but you're not able to aim while under cover, so you have to aim while you expose yourself. Eh. Once on the plane, it's back to the hand-to-hand combat, and then you take down the final boss in a decent fight sequence.
The third level demonstrates the driving, and is much shorter than the other two. You're in a car with Marie and must evade the French police. They're not terribly aggressive, and are easy to avoid. Driving through a couple alleys gives you the opportunity to head into a tunnel and after a couple of QT events, the level is over. Almost before it began. But the driving controls felt good and responsive, so it should be fine in longer doses.
I'm quite impressed with the way Sierra was able to take the pacing of the films and bring it to the game. The videogame Jason Bourne is no Matt Damon, but then, who is? The sound and graphics are fine, but nothing too spectacular. In fact, the game's visual style is somewhat unremarkable as a whole. It's not that it's bad, it just doesn't make you go "Wow!" But after playing this demo, I admit I'm intrigued. Which is more than I can say I was beforehand!
Wootini
Posted to Video Games on 8 May 2008
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Other stuff like this: demo, jason bourne, sierra, the bourne conspiracy, xbox 360, xbox live
Demo's also up on the PSN Store for the PS3. ;)