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Published by: Sierra Entertainment
Developed by: High Moon Studios
Genre: Third-Person Action Adventure
Number of Players: 1
Release Date: June 2008
You are the perfect weapon. You are Jason Bourne.
You might be Jason Bourne but you're not Matt Damon
Based on the film “The Bourne Identity”, Robert Ludlum's: The Bourne Conspiracy gives you the opportunity to live the life of the amnesia stricken Jason Bourne, a former 30-million-dollar government assassin who wants to know the truth surrounding his past.
If you’ve watched the movie you will be familiar with the story and may be happy to know that not only will you be able to re-enact various scenes from the film, you will also play through various flashback missions from a time where Mr Bourne never thought twice about the countless bodies he’s stacked up during a mission.
While playing as the “amnesia stricken” version of Jason Bourne you have compassion for your fellow man and therefore killing, or using a gun in general, is not an option. In these missions you must rely solely on hand-to-hand combat to dispose of your foes, using a combination of light and heavy attacks to dish out as much pain as possible.
The action during hand-to-hand combat is fast-paced and brutal, even though you only have the use of two attack buttons and a block button there are plenty of combos at your disposal by varying your tactics. Holding down either the light or heavy attack button unleashes a powerful kick to your opponents’ torso or head, dealing huge damage.
As you land attacks on your opponents you fill up your adrenaline meter, once enough adrenaline is acquired you can perform a “takedown”. These powerful finishing moves are context sensitive as Bourne will often use his surroundings to his advantage to devastating affect, these moves range from stabbing an opponent in the hand with a pen to smashing their head into a nearby table. If you obtain enough adrenaline you can perform some devastating multiple takedown moves on up to three adversaries at a time, saving you a lot of time and effort.
Only four on one? I like those odds!
As you progress through the game you’ll encounter several “boss” fights, including assassination attempts by your ex-agent buddies who you may recognise from the movie. These encounters are easily the highlight of the game and you’ll want to play them again and again as these guys can take a severe beating and will often get straight back onto their feet even after several takedowns. The areas these special battles take place in are filled with context sensitive objects that you can use to batter your opponent into submission with. Don’t get too cocky however, as they often produce weapons if they’re losing the fight and they can also execute takedowns on you if they get the opportunity.
These encounters yield a great deal of satisfaction once completed, Jason Bourne often looks like Sly Stalone at the end of a Rocky film and the once immaculate room you entered now looks like an abandoned war zone.
The flashback missions show some of Jason Bournes missions pre-amnesia, they’re primarily gun-on-gun affairs that involve tracking down a target and finally eliminating it. These missions don’t rival GoW by any means, but the controls work smoothly enough and if you get close enough to the enemy you can always beat them to death the old fashioned way.
During these missions you also earn adrenalin by shooting your targets, like the hand-to-hand combat you can unleash a one-hit-kill “takedown” and look damn stylish in the process. You can carry a maximum of two weapons at a time, one primary (assault rifle, shotgun etc) and a secondary pistol. Although the primary weapons do the most damage it is much more gratifying to use the pistol and wipe out those pesky foes in an efficient and deadly rampage, all together now…HEADSHOT!
"Say hello to my little friend!"
If you’ve seen the film then you’ll no doubt want to replicate the amazing car chase through the city of Paris in a beat-up old mini. The good news is you can, the bad news is you probably won’t want to more than once.
The car sections of this game are defiantly the least enjoyable, the car itself is very twitchy and responsive however collisions with other cars are clumsy and often mean grinding to a halt, not very Bourne-esq. You do however get the ability to slow down time for a short period using your adrenaline meter, yes it’s an overused feature but it’s implemented pretty well here.
The last minor gameplay feature is timed button pressing, now and again you’ll be prompted to press a specific button within a second of it appearing on screen in order for you to succeed in whatever action you’re doing, kind of an interactive cut-scene that smoothly blends in with the action. In some games this feature can become tedious very quickly, however in this case it’s used rarely enough to keep the action interesting and flowing, while keeping the gamer on their toes at all time.
Graphically, Robert Ludlum's: The Bourne Conspiracy isn’t groundbreaking but it is polished and detailed, while still keeping the realistic and gritty feel of the movie. Character models (while not the same as the movie) are believable and look decent, especially during the cut-scenes and timed button-pressing sequences.
The sound effects and voice acting are generally of a high level, the background music does a good job of increasing the intensity during boss battles and other action-packed moments.
This...is gonna hurt!
Overall, Robert Ludlum's: The Bourne Conspiracy gives the gamer a decent experience of what life is like as Jason Bourne, the combat is damn good fun, while the shooting and driving sections are slightly less enjoyable. If you’re a fan of the movies or just want to be a bad-ass and beat the snot out of people then this game definitely worth checking out.
Gameplay: 8
Graphics: 8
Sound: 9
Longevity: 6
OVERALL: 8
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Is it a rent or a buy
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