4cr Review – The Bourne Conspiracy
It may seem odd to release a Bourne game now, nearly a year after the third movie (and six years after the movie that the game is based on). Still, the movies are structured just like video games with cinematic story segments interspersed between intense action scenes, and I can’t really blame the developers for wanting to get in on the action. I’m actually kind off amazed that it took this long. How well does The Bourne Conspiracy capture the tone and excitement of the movies?
I’ll admit, I went into The Bourne Conspiracy with pretty low expectations. Crappy games based on movies may be a stereotype, but it’s a stereotype for a reason. Games based on movies are usually quick cash-ins pumped out by stressed developers who know that they don’t have time to properly develop a game, so they barely bother. This is an interesting case, as High Moon Studios didn’t have that impending release date to meet. They could put forth an actual effort, and they did. It doesn’t quite match up to the holy grail of movie games, Chronicles of Riddick, but The Bourne Conspiracy is a pretty good game.
The core plot of The Bourne Conspiracy follows the first movie, The Bourne Identity. After botching a mission, CIA super assassin Jason Bourne is injured and loses his memory. The CIA, thinking that he has gone rogue, sends out their best to bring him in. Jason not only has to figure out who he is, but he has to do it while being shot at, beaten, and chased across Europe. His only ally is inevitable love interest, Marie Kreutz. The Bourne Conspiracy uses Identity as a basic plot framework and fills in some of the blanks with missions from Jason’s past. While this is obviously intended to pad the length (not much actually happened in Identity), it actually is pretty cool. Fans of the movies will enjoy being able to play through the events leading up to the botched Wombosi assassination.
The Bourne movies are known for their stylish action scenes and that’s an area where this game excels. Conspiracy is an incredibly cinematic game. Jeff Imada, fight choreographer for the movie trilogy, served as a consultant for the game adaptation. The resulting motion-captured animations are epic. You can see the power put into a punch. The special takedown moves take this a step further. When you activate the takedown move, Jason will utterly brutalize the enemy. If close enough to an appropriate object, Bourne will utilize the environment in the takedown. He might smash someone’s face through a window or break a chair on their back. Shooting takedowns are no less cinematic, using dramatic camera panning and zooming to make a simple headshot exciting. Conspiracy uses the Unreal 3 engine, so it is no slouch in the visual department. Environments are well-designed and detailed and characters are well-animated. The only weakness is the same one that has plagued almost every Unreal engine game ““ things just look too glossy and plastic-y at times.
The sound design really does its part to prop up the cinematic experience. The audio sounds great coming out of a decent speaker system. The soundtrack matches the action well, and it gets the blood pumping through your veins. Combat, in particular, is noteworthy. Every punch and kick whistles by and the cracking at impact is groan-inducing. Sadly, the voice acting is also groan-inducing. Matt Damon refused to lend his image to the game, and the replacement has a gravel-y voice that doesn’t quite match the role. Marie’s voice actress also clearly phoned-in the role.
The Bourne Conspiracy is very much an example of style-over-substance. The gameplay is certainly competent, just a bit basic. Even though it was billed as a cinematic action game, there are roughly three things you can do during hand-to-hand combat. You have two different punches ““ hard and fast. Holding down the button for either does a kick in that style. You can hold down the A button to block. Successful hits build up your stamina meter, which is used to fuel takedown moves. It works well, and it’s kind of fun for awhile. Eventually, you’ll realize that the entire process is block-punch-block ad-nauseum. By the end, combat is too easy.
Alternating between shooting and melee combat does help shake things up and the levels with heavy shooting sequences are the most difficult. Two or three shots is enough to do Jason in, so it’s pretty easy to get killed. Ducking behind cover will let you regenerate health, so it doesn’t get too frustrating. You just have to be smart about how you approach combat. The shooting reticule is pretty tiny and the damage radius is pretty unforgiving, which makes it difficult to take out some enemies (who are just as quick as you to dive behind cover). Using your “Bourne Instinct,” a temporary sixth-sense that highlights objects in the environment, makes this a tad bit easier.
Remember the button events in Sony’s God of War? At the right time, you’d have to press exactly the right button or you’d be screwed. Bourne Conspiracy borrows this mechanic and utterly abuses it. You’ll suddenly have to press the right controller button at all sorts of awkward times — in the middle of cutscenes, when sniping enemies, during special takedowns. Many of those times, if you accidentally press the wrong one, you outright fail. These button events aren’t bad ideas — Mass Effect did a good job at not overusing them. Conspiracy, however, is an entire game based on this concept. It doesn’t ruin the experience, but it gets old quickly.
The Bourne Conspiracy is a rare beast in the videogame world, a movie tie-in that is actually pretty decent. It’s a pleasure to watch and listen to, a cinematic and stylish action game. The gameplay behind the visuals is competent, if a little weak. If High Moon beefs up the combo system and cuts down on button events, they could put out a sequel with the same jump in quality that the Bourne movies saw between Identity and Supremacy.
Gregory Gay - July 13th, 2008 - 
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