Customer Reviews

James Bond 007: From Russia with Love

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I love James Bond games. It's really interesting that this latest game release is from a movie of the 60s, with the original great Sean Connery in the main role.

The graphics are really gorgeous. If you go running around an old chalet, you have the textured stone walls, reflective mirrors and fine art paintings on the wall. The character movements are quite smooth. Bond can vault over hedges, climb up on walls and perform other moves.

Strangely, the camera itself is a bit sub par. The "field of view" of your character is very limited - and you can only target enemies that you can see.

The audio is great. Sean Connery does the vocals, but of course it's his "modern" self so it doesn't quite sound as young as the character in the story. Maybe his voice is raspy from too many martinis :) The traditional Bond music plays in the background, drawing you in to the movie atmosphere.

Gameplay in general is traditional Bond fare, which I love. You run around from mission to mission, tracking down bad guys, looking for certain items, and in general finding cool ways in which to kill the enemies. This isn't a slaughter button-mashing game. If you find the most elegant way to handle the situation - the "Bond" way - you are rewarded with really amazing scenes. It's well worth it.

Rent the movie, then play the game - and enjoy!

Im a college student, who has grown up learning to appreciate the classic James Bond as played by Sean Connery, and young enough to be very fluent in video games. While this game is not the most immersive shooter out there, it is definetely an amazing interactive cinematic masterpiece.

If you are fond of Sean Connery's portrayal, and love the classic early 60's clean cut intrigue, superpower battles, and cold war mystique, then this game is it. It is an excellent blend of the original movie, and new venues that XBox allowed the developers to create. The atmosphere is perfect, the music is right on, and the era of cold war spies feels just right. The appearance of characters and actors familiar to those familiar with the movie are well placed and well excecuted. If you ever wanted to be Sean Connery and the absolute best James Bond around, drive the Aston Martin, fly jetpacks, and save the world from SPECTRE, then I think that this game is a must have.

I've always loved Bond games and movies, they're just so much fun to watch and play, and this game is no different.

When you start to play the game, the first thing you'll probably notice is the whole old-fashioned feel of it all. By manipulating relatively bleak colors, giving the characters classic attire, and keeping the trademark Bond music in constant fervor, the game designers made it so you actually feel like you're in the 60's movie and taking down the villainy as Sir Sean Connery (arguably the best Bond ever).

Connery voices Bond which is a nice treat, it's amusing to hear the old Sean Connery's voice coming from his youthful, animated counterpart. The voice-over work is done very well with a pretty well known cast including Daniela Bianchi (From Russia With Love, 1963), Maria Menounos (One Tree Hill), Natasha Bedingfield ("Unwritten" <recording artist>), and more. They all do their parts well and convincingly, which all just adds to the fun and feel of the game.

The game is rather simple, I don't suspect anyone losing much sleep over trying to beat the game since it's not very long at all. However, the game has a collection of extras and unlockables you may want to go back and try to earn. You can "buy" behind the scenes movies, concept art, and even some characters to use in Multiplayer. Aside from some driving missions (in which the analog stick can be very touchy), this game is just a full on shooter, you can pretty much just run to the end of the level blasting through. Some thugs are tougher than others and may require some of your own special tactics, but for the most part, the missions are pretty linear and simple to complete. That's not to say that they're not fun, while it's basically just getting from point A to B to C, you still can do it in style, Bond style. There are even some things you can do to trigger a "Bond Moment", (like those in Everything or Nothing) in which you execute a move, kill, or trap like the real James Bond would. You can silently stalk the bad guys for a stealth kill, back up against a wall while shooting at oncoming thugs and, new to the series, is a feature in which you can use "Bond Vision" to take out an enemy. What this does is it pinpoints an exact spot on a bad guy for James to shoot at, this is most useful for certain thugs, for example a goon with a riot shield, you can pinpoint it to nail him in the face when he decides to take a peek to see if the coast is clear. Also, Bond knows all his Judo, which is extremely fun to use. Don't have any more ammo? It's ok, just get close enough to an enemy and attack him as if you had one and bond will stun him and in doing so will give you time to press the button that is indicated. It's like a quick time button event (a la Shenmue) in which will result in the instant K.O of the baddie and confiscation of ammo he was carrying, and you're not limited to needing empty weapons to do so, you can do this anytime you're close enough. It's really fun to watch Bond take out a whole room full of foes with this move which will usually ask you for a different quick button press resulting in a diverse session of brawling and more cool looking knockouts WITHOUT ever pulling a gun's trigger.


The game offers extremely good graphics, I've not seen it on the Gamecube or PS2 yet, but I instantly fell in love with the crisp look on everything. It's funny to see Connery backed up against the wall looking around blinking, seemingly mumbling to himself, holding a gun waiting for some poor unsuspecting punk to come by for a bullet with his name on it. All the characters from the original movie are in the game, Robert Shaw looks identical to the real actor, the infamous assassin known as the Red Grant that was definitely a worthy adversary to Bond. The environments are beautifully done and the look of flying debris is a real reward when you destroy whatever it is that unluckily gets in your way.

Multiplayer is another fun experience, you can have up to four players on split screens in a hectic 3rd person brawl. What keeps this interesting is the ways you can discover to give yourself the advantage; whether it be a gas chamber or shooting down a chandelier to crush your opponent, you can still take out your friends in true Bond style just for amusing kills and bragging rights. Vehicles and Jetpacks are also available to get the job done, they make things easier for you but don't make you impervious to defeat. My only gripe about Multiplayer was the absense of bots, playing against a friend is fun but it would have been even more entertaining to have the option to invovle a savvy computer-controlled pest to equalize and intensify the fray. It would also have been nice to include a Co-op mode too, that would've definitely made the game even more interesting.

All in all, From Russia With Love is a really fun game. The multiplayer is ideal for 4 people I think, but it's very fun with just two. As for Single player; the game is pretty short which may or may not (likely not) be to your liking. But despite it's short Single Player, there are still things to unlock which will most definitely take you a while if you should have the ambition to collect everything in the game.

I'd recommend renting it first to give yourself time to sample the multiplayer and break well into the Story mode, (you'll probably beat the game before you have to return it). But it's a really fun, fresh Bond experience, so if that's what your looking for; this is your game.

Graphics: 10/10
Sound: 10/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Replayability: 8/10

End Rating: 9/10 (4/5 stars)

I was looking around at best buy for a birth day present and my eye caught this game. I have always liked james bond games, but this one looked really good. When i looked at the back, i actually thought it might be the movie. The graphics are absolutely stunning. Also, the new bond view is very cool. It lets u aim exactly where u want to shoot. The only bad thing about it is that if you are battling multiple enemies, you have to get out of it and start it over again for each person. This game is very fun and the graphics are amazing

From Russia with Love marks Bond's fourth appearance on the Xbox since Agent under Fire. I'm happy to say Bond's latest outing is a much better game than Agent under Fire and Nightfire, which were both solid enough games. This only means that From Russia with Love is a very, very good game. I would rate it slightly below Everything or Nothing, Bond's 3rd game on the Xbox. This is simply because that game's graphics are a little better and I found there to be more diversity in the gameplay. However, like I said, From Russia with Love is a very sweet game. It offers you the ability to customize your Bond by upgrading his weapons, gadgets, clothes, etc. There is a vintage, retro feeling that comes with playing this game. I felt like I had been transported into the very movie of the same name, although the game offers much more action than the film, the locations are all the same, as is the basic story. Sean Connery's voice acting is a bit raspy but it is good enough, better than anyone else could have done. The action, graphics, sound, and gameplay are all high quality. I stongly recommend this title to any fan of Bond games. To action fans, I'd say rent. As far as action titles go you could do better. But for fans of Bond, this title is great.

If you are a Bond fan that enjoyed Everything or Nothing needs to buy this game as well. The justice that was done to Pierce in EON, the same is done in this one, with improvements on things that were seen in the original game. The newest feature that is on this game is the "Bond focus" that allows you to zoom in on enemies and shoot bombs and radios on the enemy soldier's waist. The story is told, and stays true enough to the movie that all fans will want to play this. The gameplay is very much the same as EON, so that is why this game would probably appeal more to fans of that game. The sweetest part is that Sean Connery himself actually talks for Bond in the game. I used to think that they must have just took his voice from the movie, but Connery actually sat in the studio and did the voice! I couldn't believe it, and it sounds great as Connery gets to be Bond once again in his favorite 007 movie. Overall, you will love the game if you are a fan, especially if you liked Everything or Nothing. The look and feel is just something no fan will get tired of, I love it!

Honestly, EA promised a step up from their last third person action adventure, Everything or Nothing. Sadly, what you've got is a rudimentary action game with generic level design and uninspired gameplay. The gadgets are nifty, but I wouldn't say this has much substance. The game has a rather iffy multiplayer game to boot, something I hardly enjoyed with a third person 'fragfest' perspective. The game is relatively easy to breeze through, my save file took around 5 hours of playtime start to finish. For my money's worth, I'd give the nod to Everything or Nothing. As far as the continuation of the story is concerned (and the reprisal of Sean Connery as Bond), that's the only real reason why I bothered to play it. However, FRWL purists take note, some plot elements have been rewritten accordingly. Worth a rental, at most.

Good game, about 15 levels, each with their own way to solve. Each level has a "boss" at the end, which are relatively easy once you figure out where to shoot and what to aim for. Bond vision screwed me up for the better half of the game until I got it down. Auto-aim is automatic when you hold down the left trigger. Levels vary from running and shooting, to driving, to gunning down enemy boats. I've pretty much beaten the game, but for the price, and gameplay, it was worth $10.

Also love the Sean Connery voice overs.

If you are a fan of the "classic" Sean Connery Bond, this game is a MUST. Even if you don't normally play video games, buy an Xbox just to play this game. "From Russia with Love" puts you in the role of maneuvering Connery's Bond through many realistic and elaborate scenes. Sean is to be congratulated for lending his voice and likeness to this game. He actually adds new nuances to his famous characterization which makes it even more interesting in retrospect. I hope this is just his first in a series of classic Bond games. (EA: Are "Goldfinger" and "Diamonds are Forever" in the future?). The missions are loosely based on the original movie, but most of the missions contain additional new characters, weapons, gadgets, and plot elements. The player gets absorbed in the missions, which for me took numerous attempts to complete. There are three levels of difficulty that can be chosen to subdue foes before they subdue Bond. In "From Russia with Love," much of the game's fun derives from participating in the Classic Bond world. Buy It-You'll be glad you did!

The beginning of From Russia With Love is a pretty indicative sign of the troubles to follow. It not only is incongruous with the story of either the movie or the remainder of the game, it's emabarrasingly easy and dull. I was struck by how restrictive and blocky the environment felt, and insulted by the bright red glowing ammo boxes and blue glowing armor vests. Have I grown stupid since my last Bond game? Do I need neon lights to point out power-ups? No, but I would have appreciated a more thoughtful attempt at this tribute to one of my favorite movies.

The worst crime EA committed was entirely misunderstanding the theme and pace of a classic Bond game. Challenge is presented through wave after wave of charging soldiers, each one as easy to mow down as the last. Exploration and discovery are nonexistent; the few sequences of varied gameplay are constricted to no more than pushing the A button (which alights on the screen for you) in proximity to a glowing onscreen "action" indicator. And the left trigger lock-on mechanic just emphasizes EA's inability to balance gameplay: every level is little more than running and repeatedly tapping the lock and fire triggers. The total lack of challenge in the gunplay evaporated my enthusiasm within the first two levels. This isn't James Bond, this is Sean Connery in "Die Hard". Yawn.

Speaking of Mr Connery, this vocal performance is pretty inexcusable, even for a 75 year old. He sounds less like our robust young hero than an old codger rushing through work just to grab a quick check and hit the Sizzler buffet. Though he may fancy himself as a guy who could still beat up Alex Trebek, the truth is that at this point Darrell Hammond is a better Sean Connery impersonator that Connery himself.

The sights and sounds of the game are impressive. A few of the movie's locales are re-created, and the developers generally did a solid job of conveying the atmosphere of the original sets. Watching the game over the shoulder of a player would give the impression of a fantastic world. Picking up the controller, however, reminds you what a dull and crushing path James must tread. Environments are tiny and heavily restricted, for example crates can be climbed using the action button, but only the ones which the developers deem necessary to advance movement. EA gave a half-hearted attempt at building an "upgradeable" weapons and gadgets system. The player earns "research points" by searching for information strewn thoughout the environment. These points can be used to upgrade your arsenal slightly, though I honestly couldnt see any benefits. And some flaw in the game prevented my from using "special" ammo on my weapons even after upgrade, leaving the excercise largely a waste. Idiotically, EA again used a glowing signal to mark each one of the valuable documents and drawers, completely rendering the search joyless.

I fully understand the need to expand and fabricate large portions of a film's story to build it into a video game. But the way EA butchered and bastardized the movie's plot is unacceptable. The chase scene in the Aston Martin is turned into an endless fragfest, with Bond exploding wave after wave of paper mache enemy cars. (Did I mention how cartoonish and awful the driving mechanics are?) And the climactic, terrifying fight scene in the train car is reduced to a dumb mid-game cutscene in a dining car, where Red Grant escapes and Bond is left to -surprise!- fight off wave after wave of generic henchmen. Grant reappears in what may be one of the dumbest, cheapest, cruelest boss fights I've ever endured.

If FRWL has one saving grace, it's the jetpack. The flying levels feel and sound like a jetpack should, and while little more than a button mashing fragfest like the rest of the game, it at least provides a sense of verticality and creative control that the rest of the game doesnt attempt. So in conclusion, if you love James Bond, Sean Connery, and the classic From Russia With Love...DON'T PLAY THIS GAME.