Demo Reviews

Yeah, I know, I shouldn't judge a whole game by just a demo, but these are hectic times and it's not always an option to play through a whole game - and some demos show us that some games aren't even worth playing through the whole demo.

Few games in recent memory have caused me to take a mental double take as this one did. Up till now, all the Bond games have been either generic agents or modern incarnations, but here we have a return to the very roots of the series. I couldn't see how a movie that was contemporary for most of today's kids' grandparents could even be contemplated as the basis for a game. Add to that the use of Sean Connery himself for the voice and appearance (one can't really see him having much of a clue what videogames are like), plus the completely altered political structure of that time and now (Russia was the Big Bad Guy then), and the mind boggles. Then I see screenshots of James running around with a whole array of automatic weapons. This was not the "From Russia with Love" I remember (ok, I haven't seen it for awhile, but still). The demo really surprised me - I actually liked it. Sean doesn't sound like the dapper young gent of the 60's and I'm a little uncomfortable with running JB around in a half-crouch with a SMG, but it's a decent run-and-gun that will be in my collection when it hits around $20.

The demo of this proved almost impossible to control and an insult to the movie. It took place in the building lobby that Neo and Trinity shoot up - one of the best parts of the movie and a modern day movie-clip classic. Once I finally got rid of the goons and figured I would go up to save Morpheus, more goons walk out of the elevator. Ok, kill them with random button mashing. Then another set come out, this time with shields. WTF? If this type of artificial gameplay extension is what the developers think gamers want, they are way off the mark (with me anyway). Also, the draw of this game is supposed to be a different ending to the trilogy than the movies. Why??? Just so we have another confusing story to deal with? This one will never show up on my shelves, even if it drops to ten bucks.

Not much different here than the last game - just rolling up bunches of junk. I still have the original game (mainly because it is so original). But I don't really "get" the game. So I probably won't get this one either.

I didn't really "demo" this game, but I did play it for a few minutes at a Target. I might as well have been playing the Disney soccer game. There was very little Mario in this. I think they needed to make it from the perspective of Mario himself as in Mario 64. Sure it wouldn't be a real footy game, but who needs another soccer game where you see everything from the sidelines again?