The Best Defense = A Good Offense (Bourne Conspiracy Demo Impressions)

The demo for The Bourne Conspiracy came out today on Xbox Live Marketplace (this Thursday on Playstation Network) and for what they offered, it can be pretty cool. It looks good on motion, but playing it might not be the same feeling. The developers definitely nailed Jason Bourne well in this game being a killing machine of crazy counters and gun skills. The first part of the demo for me was a little trial and error since u couldn't really beat up the guards with the guns leading towards deaths. Most of the action feels scripted with instant enemy encounters being led to takedowns and then hand-to-hand combat. The melee combat for me is the star of this game even though you have to set up your enemy with weak and strong punches and kicks before kicking in the takedowns / counters due to the adrenaline meter. The gun play is solid with cover mechanics similar to GTA4 and Gears of stop and pop combat. I think the enemies do take some punishment before being killed if you're not using takedowns (hence the title of this post). Health is rechargeable like Halo and the driving is a little loose (that is not the focal point of the game, but it is not frustrating). Every hand-to-hand fight is just filled with cinematic intensity when the takedowns are done, which make it feel like the Bourne movies, especially that boss fight in the plane. With most of the action being scripted of Point A to Point B stuff, there are lots of quicktime events with button presses during cutscenes and when a boss is about to attack ready to be countered. The checkpoint system is pretty good not being that spread out in various spots. Graphically, it looks okay, but not great (Unreal Engine 3??).

The Bourne Conspiracy could be a pretty good license-based game maintaining the feel of the books and movies accurately after playing the demo. Sure, the gameplay might get repetitive in the final game (who knows), but I think it will be fresh enough to be worth playing with all those takedown animations at various spots (using what's around or the scenery to your advantage). The shooting is okay enough, but not special as well as the driving. At least this game will be better than some of the upcoming movie-based games this summer (Iron Man, Prince Caspian, Speed Racer, and maybe The Incredible Hulk). It is definitely worth a download to try out to decide whether to buy the game or not. For now, it is a pretty good rental if the game is going to be less than ten hours long to beat.

Little off-topic, but expect my Mario Kart Wii review this weekend (need to play Battle Mode and more online before typing it) unless GTA4 gets in the way obviously.