Hands On Preview: The Bourne Conspiracy
by Emily Balistrieri on April 21, 2008
Recently I got my hands on Jason Bourne… yum! Oh wait, I mean… well, you’ll get to try yourself when the demo hits the Xbox Live Marketplace and Playstation Store next month. In the meantime, we’ll give you some insight into what it’s like handling a super assassin in The Bourne Conspiracy.
The Bourne Conspiracy is exciting not only because of its intense camera angles and very cinematic yet accessible fighting, but also because High Moon Studios has worked with the Robert Ludlum’s estate to include some original story.
These are scenes that come before The Bourne Identity (which Jason spent remembering his “30 million dollar weapon” past, in case you, too, have forgotten) while he was still a functioning killer. Even though the stunt crew from the movies helped choreograph the action, the game takes the books as the main source, hence the lack of Matt Damon.
One of the first things you’ll notice about the combat in this game is how seamlessly the transition from shooting to socking occurs. You can be popping guys from a doorway, but if they rush you, Jason puts up his dukes automatically. Even though you have full camera control, the game always finds a really compelling close up angle so you don’t really feel the need to adjust much while pummeling a guy with combos of heavy and light attacks til his face gets messed up.
Of course, all of these standard moves are just a warm-up for the main attraction: take-downs! Hit your enemies with just enough love taps to build up some adrenaline and then knock them to the floor with, say, a book (film buffs will notice that particular maneuver was borrowed shot-for-shot from Ultimatum).
There are almost three hundred of these environmental finishers with lots of heads hitting desks, walls, railings, and windows, but also some more unique moments like tossing a boss into a neon rooftop sign. There are also one-shot-kill moves during gun fights and opportunities to use human shields. Since some boss encounters can contain around twelve different take-down moves, it will definitely take you more than one playthrough to see them all.
Apparently every action game needs a driving level now, and Bourne gets one in the shape of the mini-car chase from Identity. We didn’t get to play it, but we learned that the on-wheels version of a take-down will be a slow motion break of up to three seconds depending on how much adrenaline you rack up by barreling through environmental (soon-to-be) debris.
From what we played, The Bourne Conspiracy feels really good. While watching someone else, you may think it would be hard to keep track of what you’re doing while the camera frames everything so dramatically, but instead it just puts you in the zone. Get your own hands all over the demo in early May, and keep an eye out for the full release in June for both Xbox 360 and PS3.
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on April 22, 2008 6:55 pm
from the screenshot the car will be a new mini rather than the old
one from identity…..product placement I guess, and if the story is different from the movies and more like the books I guess that is alright…
It is good to see that they tried to make the bourne story
their own by not using faces from the movies. movie games tend to really suck. It may very well be added to my list of games to get in the future.