Natural Bourne Killer
The Bourne Conspiracy is so damned close to being a good game it's a shame. Find out why inside.
Published: June 23, 2008
The constant process of self-checking bits of the game that could have been more fun creates an almost pervasive air of mediocrity. You get the very real sense that the game could be good, but it all feels just a bit too simple and repetitive, and then the issues with combat, checkpoints and transitions between different types of fighting drag it down further. Seeing the sheer number of environmental interactions (even if they are the same few animations swapped out with different objects) shows that High Moon spent time with the game, but it never quite game together right.
I mentioned it before, but the Unreal Engine has been tweaked to provide a decided lack of bald space marines and overzealous use of normal mapping. Instead, care was taken to allow for plenty of environmental destruction; cover is regularly chipped, splintered and shattered while Jason tried to hide behind it (or whittles away at his enemies').
Just about everything in a room can serve as a weapon or be broken, mangled or busted in some way -- especially during the more prolonged boss battles. The levels themselves, while mostly made of corridors, at least look very much like the stuff you saw in the movies. What's weird is that this is in stark contrast to Jason's normal interaction with the environment. If it's not at foot level or a flight of stairs, there's no going around it. There's rarely something so glaring as an obvious invisible wall, but it quickly becomes obvious that all the squared-off objects are pretty much just there for cover.
And then there are the Takedowns themselves, which are nice and varied, intensely brutal and an absolute treat to watch, even after seeing them a dozen or more times. They perfectly replicate the kind of quick, surgical attacks that Bourne used in the movies (even if none of the characters look like the actors from said movies), and the result is a game that, despite only being rated T, actually ends up being cringe-worthy at times without being needlessly bloody.
The audio plays a huge part in making the Takedowns so brutal. Joints snap, bones crunch, electricity crackles and objects regularly explode or break away with a meaty aural accompaniment. Bullets, too, find their mark with a sickening thwack, making headshots plenty obvious. The telltale electronic escalations that indicate a quick time event are also pleasantly understated, but often Takedowns themselves have effects that play a half-second or so after the on-screen action, leading to a weird kind of disconnect.
Most of the voice-acting in the game does a decent job of aping the actors used in the film -- particularly Marie and Bourne's mysterious CIA handler, Conklin -- and the music does a fantastic job of mixing electronic flavors with a more driving score. There's even a fairly decent Okenfold-lite approximation of "Ready, Steady, Go" during the poorly controlling, mostly pointless car driving segment.
Though the game isn't nearly as good as the film that inspired it, it did remind me of just how much of a pleasant surprise the movie actually was. I remember thinking that certain parts would make a fantastic video game (yep, like the racing bit, shame about that) and though High Moon succeeded in getting the general tone of things, the overall execution is way to uneven to declare the finished product a success. It is, however, a fairly solid base. I'd love to see a little more in the way of a combat system, more non-combat interaction with the environment a bit of cleanup on the framerate during particularly busy parts of the game. Should they do that (and completely redo the driving bits to make them interesting), they could very well have a franchise world getting invested in. As it stands now, though, The Bourne Conspiracy is worth a rental and little else.
