[04/11/2008] Quantum of Solace [Wii]

[emwearz]

 

Golden....Goldeneye? (That is meant to be said in a James...James Bond kind of way) That's the question on everyone's lips as they go into yet another James Bond game. No matter what changes, what is added, what is removed, how well it looks. No one really cares about any of that stuff when it comes to what they want in a James Bond game, there is only one question everyone wants to know and that is. "Is it as good as Goldeneye?" One of the hardest things the James Bond franchise has in its way is its own past, Goldeneye on the Nintendo 64 is often regarded as the great Console FPS of all time. From its deep single player campaign following the movies story closely to the utter mayhem that was its multiplayer mode. The game was close to perfect. So how does Quantum of Solace stack up against a game that was pure gold? Lets find out.

 

System Tested On

PAL Wii displaying at 480p over component cables on a 50inch 1080i Plasma.

 

Gameplay (8 out of 10)

I will start with the thing that breaks many games on the Wii, how well the controls are integrated. Quantum of Solace is one of the most solid FPS efforts we have seen on the Wii,the controls are responsive and they bring in some welcome additions to the regular Wii FPS experience. The most important of which is the lock-on system. You hold down Z which willlock the enemy in the center of your screen and you blow them to high hell. They have done the correct thing by not overtly using the nunchuck for commands, a simple upward motion will allow you to reload your weapon. Another welcome feature is that you can hide behind low walls and doorways from which the angle becomes over the shoulder, much like Gears of War. Overall the controls are down pat and very tight, some of the best we have seen on a Wii shooter. The enemy's AI is not too bad either, they hide when they can and don't just stand still shooting like many other Wii shooters seem to.

 

Now the story I wont go into too much detail on, but it follows the plot of the movie obviously recreating many scenes from the movie, how well it follows the story I cant say as I have no seen the movie as of yet as it does not come out for a couple of weeks still. For those wondering about the health system, it works on a regeneration system (Get down to 2% health, go hide for a moment while it regenerates back to 100%).

 

The game has a bit of Multiplayer offerings with both split screen and online gameplay, I wont go into too much detail about that now, you can read more about it the replay value section.

 

Sound (8.5 out of 10)

The music is what you expect from a James Bond game, the classic Bond themes with a few newer and upbeat versions, but in the long run you have heard the tunes in the game a thousand times and you wouldn't be too amazed by any of it, but it does a very solid job. The sound effects of the guns and the bullets is on the dot with all of them sounding very clear and how they should sound.

 

Now the main reason I gave the sound such a respectable rating is that the voice acting (Daniel Craig provides the voice of Bond) is very well done, I am very glad they got Craig for the voice of Bond, there is nothing worse then when they use some 2bit voice actor and it completely destroys the feel of the game.

 

Graphics (7 of 10)

Now a lot of people were talking about Quantum of Solace's graphics on the Wii being the best so far, I have to disagree, while you can have a lot of action on screen and fairly decent textures for a Wii game, it is nothing special (We saw many better titles on the original Xbox) it is very on par with what you would expect on a ps2 with a large amount of jaggies on screen. The character animation while not the best does a fairly decent job. The models on enemy's is fairly average with nothing to really wow anyone. Bond's model (With Daniel Craigs likeness) is fairly detailed and without a doubt the best looking model in the game. There are some parts of the game where the graphics are on par with N64, the water for example (Pictured below) is utterly horrible. It really doesn't feel like the Wii hardware is getting much of a workout with this title. Overall the easiest way of saying it is that the graphics do there job, there not ugly but there not as good as they could have been.

 

The game runs smooth without many notible slow downs which is a plus.

 

Replay Value (6 out of 10)

The big hitter that made Goldeneye so appealing to everyone was without a doubt its multiplayer appeal, Quantum of Solace while offering 4 player split screen action seems like it would be amazing falls somewhat short, I invited a friend of mine over last night and got my dad involved and the main problem we found is that once you are given your peice of screen using the Wii-Motes is not as easy (Or as fun) when you had a screen to yourself. Quite often my friend would turn too hard left and the character would just spin on the spot, this is on a 50inch TV, I know a lot of people use smaller TV sets which would make this problem even bigger. It does a solid job of offering split screen gameplay, but there is nothing overtly special about it. You might have a few games here and there with your friends but after awhile I can see this one gathering dust.

 

The online multiplayer is by far worse, it has the normal draw backs of a Wii game in terms of online interactivity in that, well there is none. No one I know owns this game so I couldnt play against friends, I sat there for 10 minutes while it scanned for players, when I finally got into a game I felt like I was just playing against bots, with 0 way of communicating with people this game gets boring and fast. It does have a online rank system (Stolen straight from Mario Kart Wii) but it does little to add any reason to play online (Unless you want to play against friends which is the only reason anyone would every want to play online with Wii anyway).

 

Overall (7.375 out of 10)

Overall Quantum of Solace is a fairly solid shooter to add to your Wii Library, the Online aspect of it is useless, the Split Screen is worth a few games but wont pull you in like Goldeneye did so many years ago. The graphics may not be the best but they get the job done. It has very solid controls. I would recommend picking it up for its single player aspect if you want a good FPS fro your Wii, if not give this one a miss. They had the chance to make a killer game instead we gota game with a good single player mode, an average multiplayer mode and a utter **** online mode.

 

Bottom Line: Pick it up if you want a solid single player shooter.

 

 

 

 

My global limited for attachments ran out so no images.

[L.S.D]

I have played the X360 version. Graphic is nothing outstanding, music is standard Bond as you say, control is adequate only and gameplay relies too much on cover system ala Gears but not as intense which make it a failure.

It does have some fun moment, but give me Goldeneye anytime. The only reason I still play it is due to the easiness to get the achievement points