| Author | Review |
|---|
HWNDarkside
569,403
TA Score for this game: 1,783
Posted on 04 February 09 at 11:36 |
This review has 46 positive votes and 8 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
3 stars for the single player.
QoS is basically an old skool shooter without much in the way of brains. Enemies are there to be killed, usually standing next to barrels that are there to be exploded. The story didn't make any sense, jumping between QoS and Casino Royale didn't help. The cover system is only effective most of the time and sometimes more hinderance than help (the main problem being lack of fluidity between movements). Even on 007 setting (the hardest) it poses little challenge to hardcore FPS players and can be completed on lower settings in around 4 hours.
4 stars for multiplayer.
Despite the short-comings of the single player Treyarch have come up trumps with the online modes. There's plenty of varity and the pacing is more in tune with CoD4 than CoD3 so expect to die, a lot! Golden Gun, Territory Control and Bond Evasion are twists on the usual multiplayer modes and where you'll probably find yourself playing the most. It's all about credits, they unlock weapons etc, and achievement points. Personally, I had more fun playing QoS online than I did with CoD5.
Graphically this is no COD4. Other than Bond, character modeling is definately retro and the environments are hardly picture perfect but everything is functional and it runs without any slow-down.
1000 achievement points can be unlocked with minimum fuss (8 hours single, 25 hours multiplayer)
All in all I only paid £16.99 for QoS, it definately exceeded my expecations and online proved to be one of the better Xbox Live experiences. It's not ground-breaking but it is fun!
 |
Ozzpot
257,089
TA Score for this game: 1,783
Posted on 17 June 09 at 04:34, Edited on 18 June 09 at 11:42 |
This review has 35 positive votes and 2 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
If you're a Call of Duty fan, you'll take to this game quicker than I did as it uses both the Call of Duty engine and control system. I found it a little awkward at first, but actually very intuitive and efficient when I'd been playing an hour or so.
I hoped overall it would be something like Goldeneye, one of my all-time favourite games, and it certainly didn't let me down. It does everything it should, and does it well. It can only be misty-eyed reminiscence can make Goldeneye seem equal.
Single Player
The single player campaign is pretty decent, often giving the player the option of stealth versus all-out shooting. Either way you choose, the gameplay is rarely less than engrossing and satisfying. Gameplay variety (shooting, covering, stealth, hacking locks, disabling cameras etc), combined with a good cover system, a nice variety of weapons, good AI and a steady learning curve all add to the experience.
There are four levels of difficulty - Average gamers will find the easiest difficulty a fun blast, if a little short, while the hardest difficulty should provide a good but achievable challenge, requiring patience, stealth and careful thought.
Multiplayer
The multiplayer mode is a well-thought out part of the game. It has a very good lobby system, which is quick to match-make and quick to load into games. Lots of game types cover every kind of gameplay you could want and more.
An addictive credits system means you always have an incentive to score in matches, as credits earned online in each game enable you to buy weapons, attachments and gadgets from a large assortment, and customize different "set-ups", so you can be tooled up however you want depending on the game type. All this weapon buying and customizing can be done without leaving the lobby, even while the next game is loading in, keeping you occupied and enabling you to reap the rewards of those credits seemlessly and immediately.
The number of maps is relatively limited, but all are fairly large, well designed and diverse in nature, so there's something for everyone. It'll take you a long time to get bored of them.
Achievements
600G should be within the reach of any gamer, while the full 1000G is definitely doable with some skill and patience. A good variety of Single Player and Multiplayer achievements.
Conclusion
A great game for both it's Single Player and it's Multiplayer modes. I bought this not long after launch, at full price, and am very pleased with it. It can be picked up very cheaply now, which makes it a no-brainer.
Gameplay: 5/5... Graphics: 4.5/5... Sound: 4/5... Longevity: 5/5... Reviewer's Tilt: 5/5
 |
Helmaroc
104,243
TA Score for this game: 1,783
Posted on 24 April 10 at 03:01, Edited on 04 September 11 at 03:10 |
This review has 20 positive votes and 1 negative vote. Please log in to vote. |
When you think of James Bond game, what's the first you're probably going to think of? Goldeneye 007, most likely. It was one of the pioneers for the FPS genre. Now we have Quantum of Solace, the latest James Bond game, based on the newest Bond movie. Can it finally trump Goldeneye?
STORY
Despite being called Quantum of Solace, the game mostly follows the earlier movie, Casino Royale. It's only the first few missions and the last one that is based on Quantum of Solace. It starts out with Bond capturing a key member of the organization, Quantum. He escapes, so they decide to spy on another member somewhere else. This eventually leads to a shortened retelling of Casino Royale, and then back to the very end of Quantum of Solace. If you haven't seen either of the movies, there will be spoilers, especially with Casino Royale. The story itself is pretty good, though it's kind of hard to follow.
DESIGN
As with most games nowadays, there is a single player and a multiplayer. I'll start by talking about the single player.
Obviously, you play through the above story. This is told through 15 missions, varying in length for each one. The game itself will take around 6-7 hours to complete, which is kind of short. It is a completely linear journey, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Along the way, you can try to find various cell phones, which can give you hints on what's coming up next in the mission, and power weapons, which are just awesomely-powerful weapons you wouldn't normally get from enemies. If you feel you are done with the singleplayer, you can hop into the multiplayer.
The MP consists of only around 7 different modes, though they are fun ones. There's the expected deathmatch and team deathmatch, but there's also the favourited Golden Gun, where there is one golden gun, that shoots explosive bullets, in the map. Just try to kill the person holding the gun and pick it up for yourself. Playing these modes, you gain credits, which are used to unlock various weapons, gadgets (perks) and attachtments, as well as golden versions of some guns, which are basically more powerful (and cooler looking). The multiplayer is quite enjoyable, and should keep you playing for a while
GAMEPLAY
Quantum of Solace has an interesting gameplay hook: it's an FPS, but it turns into a third-person shooter when you're in cover. Luckily, the transition from first to third-person is seamless, and doesn't look wonky at all. Most of the time, the game will feel like a third-person shooter, as you'll be in cover for the majority of the game. It always feels weird when actually shooting in first-person, as you get so used to shooting in third-person. The actual shooting mechanics work well, which is always a good thing. It's always funny seeing a super accurate blind fire, though. Besides shooting, there's also takedowns. By either tapping the right thumbstick near a guy or sprinting up to him, a QTE will start, which allows you to kill him in one move. The animation changes up, depending on where you start the QTE, which is a nice touch.
Overall, QoS has a cool gameplay hook, and the actual mechanics work well.
PRESENTATION
QoS uses the same engine as Call of Duty 4, so you might see some similarities between the two games. But seeing as how I never considered CoD 4 to be a great looking game, it would be hard to expect I think that this looks great. It's not to say it looks bad, it just doesn't stand out. There's some nice effects here and there, but overall, it's pretty average looking.
The sound fairs a little better, as it uses the cast from the movies, so no having to hear any sound alikes. (Woo!)
Overall, I enjoyed this game quite a bit. I love it's half FPS, half TPS mechanic, and the shooting is fun. It may not look the greatest, but that's never a huge issue. It is puzzling, though, that the game is called Quantum of Solace, yet it mostly follows Casino Royale.
So, while it doesn't surpass Goldeneye, I still give the game a solid 4/5.
 |
SilentRich69
242,017
TA Score for this game: 1,783
Posted on 17 September 12 at 14:12 |
This review has 8 positive votes and 0 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
I wrote this review on gamespot and posted it on March 18th 2009 I have simply moved it here and edited it (removed the spelling mistakes and bad sentences) so I hope people take that into account when reading this review. Hope its a good read to anyone who takes the time.
In the past their have been many games based on films some of them have been rather awful and some have been rather good and Quantum of solace is no different from this. We all know that movie tie-in games are going to be awful, short and complete rip-off's 90% of the time but its great to see that this game has dodged that stigma quite well.
I originally picked this up hoping for cheap gamerscore which I did get but that wasn't what made me enjoy this game in the end because it turned out to be a lot more fun than I had ever expected especially for a movie game. They have got Daniel Craig to voice bond for the game which is a credit to the voice acting (which is good for anyone who likes good vocal work) its good to see him being willing to perform bond in almost all of the Bond games with his likeness.
The experience of single player and multi-player gameplay is just brilliant in terms of how the game is designed to be played. The game is based on the call of duty 4 engine and you can tell this very easily. You could easily accuse the game of being call of duty Bond Edition this isn't really something bad at least not for this game. But it plays a lot more like it has been mixed with Rainbow Six Vegas when it comes to the cover system that they have implemented (a good move by Treyarch). This cover system is very useful online and offline because it can give you a view of the combat situation even if you are hidden, this may be seen as too much of an advantage but it really isn't, even online the more intelligent player's can just take you out with a grenade if your camping behind a wall becomes a nuisance to them.
The story itself is mixed with both of the new Bond films Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace and they are both displayed within the game to great extent even though most of it seems to be Casino Royale related in terms of missions that is. But both games have been represented very well many of the iconic moments from the latest films. For example the parkour chase scene in Casino Royale where you must catch a bomb maker by chasing him through a building site or another awesome chase in Quantum where you race over the rooftops of an Italian city before engaged in a great fight with your opponent....just a shame its the equivalent of quick time event heaven when you catch up to him.
While on the subject of quicktime events and comparing this game to Call of Duty again when you go to melee an enemy in this game rather than simply knifing them you engage in a slow-motion quicktime melee move where you must press a button to take down your opponent its not exactly creative but it does show how physically strong Bond is against those inept guards he fights on a daily basis.
The weapons involved in the game are very standard pistols, SMG's, M16's, the Golden Gun that fires explosive rounds........with the odd gadget mixed in but this isn't really the games fault as so many modern shooters have weapons that we are all too familiar with. And with Treyarch a well known shooter developer being behind the game you can't really complain that the guns they have given us are all too familiar.
The game has four difficulty settings each of them progressing in challenge but even the hardest mode 007 isn't too much of a task I personally completed the game in a day on this mode with only a few tricky levels to deal with. And missions don't feel too repetitive since on some levels you don't even have to engage the enemy to continue the story you can just avoid them by staying down using stealth and avoiding camera's etc.
So overall the Single Player portion of the game is very well done and there is rarely a dull moment. One of the things I personally enjoyed were the sections when I didn't have to kill the enemies in the area, it gave off a sense of professionalism which bond lacks in the new films. So I personally wasn't the best bond around but that's one of the best points of gaming to PLAY the way you want to PLAY it out, not the way the character would do it if he/she was in control of themselves at the time.
The multi-player I personally thought would be terrible but to my surprise it actually works well indeed it has the basic modes team death match etc. But there are also modes that implement bond as a playable character online for example bond evasion, a simple mode one team must get bond out (who is controlled by a random player) and the other team must eliminate him. But bond has an advantage he can see all enemy locations so the other team must compromise by watching their own backs at all times and staying in groups. This is one of several modes that I believed made this game fun a fresh along with the random designs of the maps which did have their little advantages at times.
The class system from CoD has also been put to use in the MP players can change their weapons of which their are plenty of and they can also handle their perks or in this game they are referred to as "Gadgets" a nice way to make it feel different even though extra health is still their but martyrdom is not anymore (thank god) so it isn't entirely Call of Duty: Bond Edition in that sense. Players can edit all they wish but they must win and get kills to earn new weapons unlike CoD where you have to level up by earning experience any way you can.
The achievements also get a small mention since I managed to 1000/1000 this game a few years ago without any need for boosting. The single player achievements aren't too difficult to get and the online multiplayer achievements aren't too bad to get either. Although this may not be the case now as online communities tend to decline heavily after a few years. So boosting may be a requirement these days if you want that full 1000.
In conclusion QoS is a very well put together game worthy of more credit than it got. We can only hope Treyarch is in charge of future bond installments because this is definitely one of the best bond games we have had so far. My score for the game is a 4 out of 5 because it does so many things right especially for a movie game it is a solid stand alone title with a decent storymode and fun online multiplayer with some unique modes under its belt.
|
|
This review has 21 positive votes and 13 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
I initially picked up Quantum of Solace as what I heard to be a short enjoyable 1000, as much as they may have been wrong about short (the online is a pain!), I thoroughly enjoyed the single player mode of this game, it offered a variety of gameplay experiences from full on shoot-outs to sneaking around. The soundtrack is great and the voice acting is mostly that of in the movie. There is a fair bit of challenge offered within the difficulty settings in the game, New Recruit is very simple and achievable for any player, whereas 007 difficulty may take a bit of skill and some patience. Graphically, the game is pretty mediocre although the James Bond character model is pretty nicely done. Overall, aside it's lacking in longevity, I thoroughly enjoyed the single player experience Quantum of Solace had to offer.
As for the multiplayer in this game, it felt very rushed and I was a bit disappointed as it was by the developers of the successful, Call of Duty: World at War. There are quite a few different game modes but all feel very similar and are soon very boring. The online achievements require a long amount of hours playing the game (approximately 2000-3000 kills)
Overall, this game is worth the £20 ($35 ish) it costs nowadays but if you're just after the single player experience and don't plan to play this online, just give it a rent. |