Review: The Bourne Conspiracy

[EvilSpaghetti]

The Bourne Conspiracy
Mobile Game Review

Title: The Bourne Conspiracy
Developer: Vivendi Games Mobile
Publisher: Vivendi Games Mobile
Release Date: June 2008
Format: J2ME
Game Features: Different gameplay mechanics, 7 environments featuring real locations from the movies
Reviewed on:Nokia 5200 & 5300

bourne title.jpg

Summary

Based on the best-selling books by Robert Ludlum’s and the hit film, The Bourne Conspiracy mobile game offers action and adventure, where the player becomes rogue agent Jason Bourne. The game offers a range of gameplay mechanics, fast-paced on-foot pursuit scenes and sniper evasion.

Review

In the past few days myself and Outlaw have been playing The Bourne Conspiracy, I wasn’t a big fan of the other Bourne mobile game and Outlaw can’t even remember what it was like, kind of shows that it wasn’t a memorable game, but seeming that this one wasn’t based on the movies (which I don’t like either) I thought it might be different.
As always we’ll start of with the graphics, graphically this game is… good, but not brilliant, which I see as a bit for a let down seeming that this is a 2008 game and there are so many games with much better graphics than this, really I’m being a bit picky here, I’m only talking about the graphics on Bourne and his enemies, there’s just no detail what so ever, but on the backgrounds the graphics are great, they’re well detailed and no two levels look the same, but they’re not the graphics that impressed me most, I really liked the snow falling, it added something special to the game, the exuberant animations make the game really come to life.
Now I know you know what I think about music in mobile games, but actually it’s not all to bad in this game, ok again it’s a midi track, but it’s fast paced, and it makes you want to play the game, but… as you press start game the music stops, what are you doing Vivendi!? I want this music when I’m playing, it’s a good song, the only time when I like a mobile song, and it only gets played on the title screen, what so now I have to play the game with no music? What’s point of that? Oh well, no need to get angry over it, it’s only a song. But really it’s needed, because all you get in terms of sound effects is the sound of a gun shot, hardly exciting when it doesn’t even sound like a gun shot more like someone giving a diminutive tap on a drum, it really is disappointing.
Gameplay wise, this game isn’t going to win any prizes for inventiveness, what I’m talking about here is the controls, they’re simple, very simple, in fact too simple, I’m not going to lie they’re rubbish, as Outlaw said the control of the character is stiff, and I have to agree, at times he is hard to move. I have to say this game is more for the button basher, because that’s all you do, fighting, is 5 and 5 only; I would have liked to have seen some combo buttons bought in, even if they were simple combo’s it would have made the game that little bit better, pressing 5 just gets really boring and makes the game really easy. But there are a few things I like, every few levels, there is a car chase, foot case or you have to escape from a sniper, which is a very nice touch to the game, it keeps it fresh, because most of the levels are the same and are repetitive, basically most of the levels are climb a few stairs, fight someone, climb here, fight some more people, but this time with some guns, get to the end. The Story strong, I won’t go into too much detail, but it’s good, you get told more about Bourne as you progress through the game.
As you play as Bourne you level up, Bourne unlocks special moves to add to his already powerful combat techniques and will have to use them to surpass increasingly challenging enemies, which was a nice addition to the game, overall the game isn’t that hard to finish, and the longevity of the game isn’t that long, it took me two hours to finish, whilst writing notes, but saying that it was quite enjoyable.

Conclusion

So in conclusion this game offers; action and a good story, but what I doesn’t offer is a challenge, in the end it left me feeling a bit hollow, because the game just wasn’t challenging enough, it was too easy to finish. The controls were the main factor in this, they’re just too simple, and I would have liked more music in the game than just at the title screen. In all this game was a bit of a disappointment, it could have been so much more, but in the end it failed to impress.

Screenshots

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Graphics: 7/10
Nice backgrounds and weather effects, poor character detail

Sound: 4/10
Good title music, poor sound effects

Game play:5/10
Controls are too easy, as is the game, lack of combo's

Story: 8/10
Stong storyline

Overall Score: 6.5 out of 10