Quantum of Solace Semi-Mini Review

Well, I might as well get this out of the way since I 1000/1000'd this game along with MW2.  I know this doesn't have a damn thing to do with Sega racers, I'll get back to that in two seconds.  Here it is, the best game ever made:

It's Daniel Craig.

I never saw the movie (although from what I've heard, it's rather medicore), but the game you can just jump into.  It's kind of like Call of Duty (made by Activision *pule*, related to Infinity Ward and Treyarch's CoD series) such as looking down sights and regenerating health but with some elements from Rainbow Six: Vegas, such as the cover mechanism.  This game came out in Nov. 2008, same time as World at War and a year after CoD4.  I heard this game had some beta CoD4 engine, but I don't know about all that.

One surprising fact that I'm going to insert here is that this game has no blood in it.  You shoot guys, they just die magical deaths.  I actually like this cause I'm sick and tired of all this blood and gore in games.  Good game for the kiddies.

Single Player:

You play as 007 and go through exotic locales a casino, a warehouse/barge, an airport, a museum, streets of Italy, a stupid rock canyon place, whatever.  You just go around and shoot guys and make it to the exit.  Like Call of Duty, you have numerous checkpoints which make the game piss easy as far as I'm concerned.  On the hardest difficulty, I had no trouble with it which is something considering I beat four Call of Duties on Veteran (2, 4, WaW, MW2).  Being able to hind behind cover makes it much easier because even though your head's sticking out by quite a few centimeters, you cannot get hit at all unless you're completely flanked from the side.  You just pop guys one at a time.

I think I singed my hair!

There's some cool stuff like stealth parts and badass weapons that let you mow down people with machine guns and big-ass shotguns and stuff.  You can shoot propane and oxygen tanks to blow up guys (although according to Mythbusters, this is hardly true).  You can also pick up cell phones that give you little "clues" to help beat the level (not like you need them).  Overall, I'm kind of glad that the story's not longer because I'd rather if they put more effort into multiplayer.  A short non-offensive campaign, just let it pass and take your achievement points nicely.

Multiplayer:

It is just what you'd expect, you run around shooting people.  Instead of playing as random mercenaries (R6:V) or army men vs. dudes in t-shirts (MW2), you actually play as terrorists (the "Organization") vs. counter-terrorists (MI-6).  Just like Counter-Strike which gets some points in my book.  The problem is all the CT's use the exact same player model, just some bloke in black gear.  Come on, Treyarch.

See look, same guy.

Unlike CoD, you don't gain XP per se.  Instead, you get "credits" that allow you to buy new items and perks.  You then put these items in your custom setups--primary and secondary guns, special grenade, and two perks.  No killstreaks which I guess is good if you can't stand that BS in MW2.  You can also equip any attachments you buy, although the grandest extent is three different scopes and a silencer.  Silencers hide your dot from radar but make your gun weaker, scopes make it easier to aim, yada yada yada.  You get a meager selection of weapons, but all your basics such as the MP5, AK-47, and M4A1 are here.  The only problem is that the two shotguns are debateably overpowered because they have huge ranges for easy one-hit kills.

Holy shiznit, thank you Hutchinson A3 pump shotty (and host advantage).

The map selection is pretty tame--a barge, a casino, a construction site, etc.  There's one map that's loosely based off the Facility from Goldeneye, but with a ton of extra hallways and stuff which kills the point.  It also has one of the stupidest maps in the history of FPS, an African embassy which is essentially a square-shaped building with a giant courtyard in the middle with walkways that have a million ambush points.  The rest of the maps are pretty tame--there's a pretty cool Airport map that stands out a bit in my mind.

And now for the mode rundown (8-player max for free-for-all, 12 players for teams):

* Bond Versus - Up to eight players.  One random person each round becomes Bond, everyone else is on a team of terrorists.  Bond gets two lives and uses any special weapon setup he likes, the terrorists get crap weapons and are essentially weaker than Bond.  Pretty cool.  Too bad I didn't play this much because you earn more credits from playing other modes for the stupid achievement...

* Bond Escape - CT's vs. T's, with one player being Bond on the CT's.  If Bond gets to the escape point or all the T's die, the CT's win.  If Bond dies, the T's win.  Cool again.

* Team Deathmatch and Free-for-all, gimmes, just like CoD.  Stupid idiotic fun.  Played this one the most for maximum point gain.  I hate FFA and TDM now but whatever.

* Golden Gun - Free-for-all.  There's one Golden Gun in the map, a five-shot golden revolver with a scope and explosive rounds.  You get points for killing the man with the Golden Gun, picking up the Golden Gun, and getting kills with the Golden Gun.  First to the point limit wins.

* Territorial Mode Thing - Teams.  There's one capture point on the map, move your teammates on it to claim it and earn points.  Keep the other team away.  The capture point moves every two minutes or so.  This mode's pretty stupid.

I think that's about it.  A huge shame that there's no Search and Destroy/Bomb Planting game.  Counter-Strike put that mode on the map so you'd figure a game with CT's and T's would have it, but no, what a shame.

Conclusion:

The multiplayer's not bad though a bit rough around the edges (for instance, the player running animation looks a little like he's skating).  It's not that offensive.  You have to play this for at least 10 hours or so to get all the MP achievements.  It got a little grating but overall I have no regrets.  Single player isn't bad too.  Overall, if you want to get a somewhat easy 1000/1000 and are sick and tired of crap like Call of Duty, Halo, or Rainbow Six: Vegas, I say give this game a look.  I give it at least a 7/10 at worst, probably an 8/10.  I'm probably not going to play it again soon but I had fun.

Thank you QoS, now I have 60,000 achievement points!!!