Die Another Tomorrow When You Come- Jame Bond 007 Blood Stone (PS3)

With recent word of publisher Activision's 90 day "restructuring" of British Developer Bizarre Creations, talking about their most recent, if middling, effort is discouraging. James Bond 007:Blood Stone is a third person shooter, following an original story rather than a movie tie-in, with Daniel Craig reprising the titular role in voice and likeness as does Judi Dench as "M".


Ostensibly on a cover, shoot, repeat cycle, the story literally drops Bond into an international mystery revolving around the creation and sale of bio-weapons. Singer Joss Stone becomes a Bond girl as the story's female protagonist and sings the credit sequence song, which in and of itself is part of a missed opportunity.

When played on PS3 Bloodstone opens as expected, with the MGM logo followed by Activision and Bizarre Creations , only to shudder to a dead halt as the game does a 10 minute mandatory install. While this is non-issue on the 360 (and pre-installed on PC), the install itself could have been an opportunity for immersion. By dropping the Activision/Bizarre logos until the credit sequence and instead having the classic Bond turn and fire sequence follow the MGM logo, and then stream a pre-credits mini-game while installing to PS3, the opening would immediately be more true to the source and invisible on non-PS3 platforms.

Missed opportunities and good intentions are the hallmark of the game. Like another recent Activision game, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Bloodstone directs the player down a series of linear corridors, as enemies swarm in wave after wave until bodies litter the floor. The hand-holding continues in vehicle sections, most notably an early boat chase that while graphically stunning, essentially renders the player as a passive partner in the experience. Barely needing to steer the boat and only able to fire Bond's weapon when prompted, the entire sequence is an extended exercise in interactive cinema.

A more egregious example of a vehicle section gone wrong is a mid-game chase following a partially frozen river. Not only are the ice and the water often essentially the same color, the chase contains no checkpoints, which is an annoyance at best given the player is hounded by a Russian Hind helicopter. Mistakes either result in a mission ending dip in the river, or a bump against a wall stalling the car long enough for the Hind to perforate the player. This was easily the worst and perhaps intentionally the shortest mission in the game.

On-foot, the controls are loose and the camera often in the wrong place. Following the GTA 4 method of camera distance and character momentum, sudden shifts in direction cause Bond to lean dramatically, swinging the camera close or wide depending on the distance to the nearest obstruction. Combined with a basic cover system, this often leads to death as returning to cover is stymied by the camera. Checkpoints on foot are reasonably generous, and aided by the "FOCUS AIM" rewards system.

Up to three "Focus Aim" points are awarded, one per takedown, allowing the player to string together one-shot kills, quickly eliminating otherwise troublesome distant or well-covered enemies. Combined with the brutal, varied and vastly entertaining takedown system, players are able to engage in some strategy, alternating between close-up hand to hand or stealth attacks, and ranged weapons.

The ability to apply even mild strategy compared to the relentless forward momentum of most shooters makes the Bloodstone more entertaining than it really should be. The enemy AI is afflicted with the same condition as the enemies in COD:BLOPS in that they fling themselves haphazardly at the player that they might show off their ducking and rolling animations before dying. No actual tactics or humanistic behaviors are ever displayed, rendering Bloodstone one more shooting gallery.

Strangely, though diamonds play a large role in the credits sequence, there is no actual reference to blood diamonds or blood stones. There is a tangential tie to a character's back story, but it is never fully explored.

Blood Stone ends in anti-climatic vehicle sequence and following cut scene that fails to resolve the main plot and blatantly panders for a sequel that will never come. Unfortunately flawed especially in the vehicle sections, given the developers pedigree, Blood Stone at 10 hours is at best a rental.