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James Bond 007: From Russia with Love

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 6
Date: November 27, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The one-player was decent but a major letdown for a James Bond Game. The two-player was awful. The levels are tiny and aren'y very good. My advice get another game, this one isn't worth more than $12.99 new.
If you want a good James bond game try Nightfire or Goldeneye

It lacks of style!!!

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 12
Date: December 30, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This was supposed to be a game about a classic movie and about an iconic carachter at his best interpretation. The final result is just a repetitive shooter, with exception of sporadic use of some tools. It doesn't render the athmosphere and the spirit of the James Bond's movies, and every mission is the same you played on the level before. Too bad, because an old movie into a new game format it could have been an original and entartaining experience.

There is no point besides killing people

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 10
Date: March 08, 2006
Author: Amazon User

There is a plot in this game but really all you have to do is go through all the rooms and kill everybody, and sometimes there are so many bad guys you wonder 'is there a website?' as you mow down 30 bad guys with a machine gun. i give it 2 stars instead of one for the graphics and the fact that you can upgrade your guns and equipment. i have lots of james bond games but this i dont really like becasue if you have tons of ammo with a machine gun you can beat any mission easy. although it is not like slaughtering the bad guys there are alot of ways to kill them from beating them up to shooting the grenade on there belt that will then fall off and blow up, you can gain wall cover and go into "bond focus" for pinpoint acuracy.

Eh

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 31, 2006
Author: Amazon User

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.

EA thinks you're dumb

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 22, 2007
Author: Amazon User

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.

Great Old Style Game!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 15 / 15
Date: November 16, 2005
Author: Amazon User

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!

A fresh new experience, an old classic setting

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: November 14, 2005
Author: Amazon User

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" ), 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)

Retread

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 7
Date: January 18, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is definitely inferior to Everything or Nothing. The auto-aim is pretty cheesy, and makes the game pratically play itself which isn't always a good thing. Additionally the auto-aim can be counter-productive when dealing with multiple distance enemies. The game to me is fun but seems much more linear than Everything or Nothing. Obviously though the main attraction to this title is the vintage 007 Sean Connery, which is the games saving grace. Admittedly it is pretty cool running around as the 1960's bond, and Connery's voice acting is good, if it wasn't for that new angle on 007 this game would be pretty much a bore. I would recommend renting and not buying. One other complaint is that the bonus levels are extremely stupid. Zzzzzzz Boring. However From Russia with Love is far superiour to Agent Under Fire and Night Fire.
Bond Games Rank
1.Eveything or Nothing
2.From Russia With Love
3.Night Fire
4.Agent Under Fire (terribly cheesy and outdated)
5.007 Rogue Agent ( a complete disaster)

Great game,but too easy

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 4
Date: December 04, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is really fun,but really easy to beat.It could take 2-3 days or less for someone to finish this game.I bought the game and I still play it even though I finished it.The last mission is not even hard.Most of the things that occur or the missions are not in the movie so they have nothing to do with the move.There was no Aston Martin DB5 in the movie.I'm not saying all of the missions have nothing to do with the movie.This is not the best James Bond game but it's not bad.This game has good graphics and sound.

Revisiting a classic the right way.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: December 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

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.

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