Bloodstone is somewhat a hard title to figure out, at least from a business perspective. It is not tied into any released James Bond movie, it’s coming out just as the holiday shopping rush is set to start, and it’s not only contending with the Goldeneye remake but yet another Activision title, Call of Duty: Black Ops. Even if the game was outstanding, it would still have a hard time finding an audience under those circumstances, so the fact that this shooting game is bad just ruins any chance it had.
What’s odd about Bloodstone is that it was developed by Bizarre Creations, who is best known for the recently released Blur and the Project Gotham Racing series (not to mention the addictive Geometry Wars). You’d think with that lineage, Bloodstone would offer solid driving segments, but not only is most of the game focused on third-person cover-based shooting, the few vehicle based sequences are mediocre at best. They are all chase segments where you drive a car and go after a target; staged explosions and near miss collisions add few thrills to the mix, but the repetitive missions need memorization and frequent attempts to conquer. Nowhere does skill come in handy—worse still, the cars all handle as if their tires are coated in melted butter, and the collision detection is absolutely awful.
The third-person cover based shooting segments turn out far better, but I mean that in comparison to the driving segments. It’s not nearly as polished as Uncharterd or Gears of War, but to be fair, the game does feature some astoundingly detailed environments, and there were moments, but rare, when I found myself having fun. Unfortunately, the majority of the game is monotonous—you take cover behind an object, kill some baddies, and repeat that about a hundred times — but one-shot kill mechanic called ‘Focus Aim’ and stealth-based melee kills do what they can to break up the monotony. In an odd turn, James carries around a smartphone that make up as a Swiss Army knife, showing you objectives, letting you hack doors, and pinpointing enemies location, which basically ruins the difficulty. Not that the game is very challenging to begin with — enemies who rely on the same side-stepping move to avoid your bullets makes the game so easy, and any sense of challenge comes from staggering numbers rather than intelligent enemy behaviour.
The game’s plot is nothing to write about either, involving global political intrigue and bio weapons; it’s superficial and over the top, and it’s a typical James Bond plot line. Dame Judi Dench and Daniel Craig turn in solid voice performances, but even their starpower isn’t enough to make you care about what’s going on. There is also a multiplayer mode that I wasn’t able to try, but honestly, I’m not sure enough if people will invest in the game to ensure a healthy community; otherwise, if you’re going to play a multiplayer Bond game, you might as well invest in Goldeneye Wii, and PS3 and Xbox 360 owners will probably be too engrossed by Black Ops to care about anything else for the next few months.
Again, this is why I feel Bloodstone so confusing: Trying to release an original James Bond title that isn’t tied into a big budget movie is risky on its own, but releasing it the same day as the remake of one of the most favourite Bond games of all time, with what will no doubt be one of the biggest selling game of the year in Black Ops waiting in the wings, seems like an unusual business decision.
Shooting Flash Games 