James Bond: From Russia With Love

THE BAD:
- Slightly shorter than "Everything or Nothing"
- The difference between regular and bonus missions
- No Sean Connery in the multiplayer!
- Slightly clunky car controls

SUMMARY:
Okay, so where are we now with EA and the James Bond licence?

We've had "Tomorrow Never Dies", which was admittedly average. We've had two different versions of "The World is Not Enough", which were fun and entertaining for all of three hours. We've had "007 Racing", which was interesting but fundamentally flawed. Then we moved to the next-generation consoles and we've had "Agent Under Fire", a basic, by-the-numbers introduction to 007. We've had "NightFire", an immersive cinematic first-person shooter that was a little short. We've had "Everything or Nothing", which boasted a Hollywood cast and a perfect single player storyline but failed miserably in the multiplayer department. To finish off, "GoldenEye: Rogue Agent" caused more controversy about the James Bond licence than ever before.

So, that's, what... eight games about the world's greatest secret agent that EA are responsible for and not one that was universally loved and respected by the gaming community. Not one that got the balance exactly right. That's a great shame, given that 007 deserves only the best. It's good to see, then, that he's finally got it.

"From Russia With Love" ensures success through a complex formula based on a simple idea: take one of the most loved Bond films, recreate the entire storyline in the most beautiful, eye-popping graphics ever to grace our screens, add some 21st Century twists and turns, deliver a multiplayer system that everyone is going to love because it incorporates all the best bits of the other Bond multiplayers throughout the series... oh, and get Sean Connery, arguably the best James Bond actor, to provide the voice and spot-on likeness of the man himself. Set it in third-person, allowing players much more freedom and hand-to-hand combat, wrap it up with a glorious classical score and, ladies and gentlemen, you've got the James Bond game all the years of hit-and-miss titles have been building to. You'll even forgive "Rogue Agent" because, without it, there would be no fantastically sinister deathtraps in the multiplayer maps.

This is Bond at his best, for gamers and Bond fans alike. Fourteen single player campaign story missions take you through the faithfully recreated film's plot about a stolen Russian decoding machine being used as bait by SPECTRE (renamed Octopus for the game due to copyright laws... okay, so it's as faithful "as possible") to murder 007 and hold Russia to ransom. Sean Connery looks absolutely stunning (admittedly sounding older but still a better voice actor than Pierce Brosnan was in "Everything or Nothing") in "From Russia With Love", as do all the other characters including long-dead actors like Robert Shaw as Red Grant, Pedro Armendariz as Kerim Bay and even Desmond Llewellyn as Q. The missions are well-paced and variety is the spice of life here: the Border mission, for example, starts in your Aston Martin DB5 before inviting you to creep around some dockyards while you search for a boat which you then commandeer and use to fend off Octopus goons. There's a jetpack, too, which handles perfectly and is immense fun.

EA have gone for a "director's cut" approach in some parts, though, and fans of the film will notice differences: for example, Natasha Beddingfield stars as a new character Elizabeth Stark, who is kidnapped in a brand-new opening sequence in London. The final mission throws the wonderful 1960's setting to the dogs, however, and goes for a typical villain's high-tech lair, including a boss showdown with a robotic, laser-wielding octopus and Maria Menounos as new henchwoman Eva. Still, sticking to a film made in 1963 to create a game in 2005 would have been tricky, and the added-on parts are great fun, so EA can be forgiven here.

James Bond also, for the first time, is upgradeable, something promised but not delivered in "Rogue Agent" last year. Weapons (of which there are many) and gadgets (of which there are few, but what you do get is incredible, including miniature explosive helicopters and sonic cufflinks) can be improved by searching cabinets and lockers for schematics that translate into research points, and even 007 himself can change his attire mid-mission to satisfy the personal fashion tastes of each gamer. This system, minus the outfit change, is carried over to the excellent multiplayer deathmatch mode: each player can create his/her own profile in the multiplayer and based on their score carry out upgrades to their weapons and gadgets. Jetpacks, deathtraps and armoured jeeps are also available in some maps, making for some fantastic dogfights in mid-air or parts where you can run your friends down. The maps are average sized, bigger than "Rogue Agent" and similar in stature to "NightFire"... but there's no Sean Connery skin, as the deathmatches are to find out who the best Bond villain is. Shame.

Such small criticisms are barely worth noting, however, in a game as good as "From Russia With Love". If EA can keep this level of quality then you can kiss goodbye to the hit-and-miss efforts that have plagued the James Bond licence since "Tomorrow Never Dies". Even if you don't like 007 and third-person action games aren't your strong suit, you've simply got to play this game. Even if it is to admire the graphics on the explosions, they're to die for... excuse the one-liner, but you should be able to understand.

James Bond is back. Enough said.