007 - Quantum of Solace

Two studios made this game, and the PlayStation 2 owner got the odd one out. While Treyarch built the headline version on Call of Duty 4's engine and pushed Bond into first person, Beenox handled the PS2 and Wii editions and kept the camera behind his shoulder, leaning on a cover system instead of iron sights. That single decision changes the whole texture of it. Where the HD release plays like a military shooter wearing a dinner jacket, this one plays like a mid-generation third-person action game, more concerned with peeking around a doorframe than with recoil.

The structure follows the film's own habit of doubling back: the Quantum of Solace plot is interleaved with sequences lifted from Casino Royale, so the free-running chase in Madagascar and the Miami airport turn up alongside Bolivia and Haiti. It compresses two films into a run of corridors and rooftops, which means neither gets much room to breathe. Cutscene stills and clipped dialogue carry the connective tissue.

Mechanically it is straightforward. Snap to cover, blind-fire or pop out, and use the environment to slip behind a guard for a melee takedown that the game rewards generously enough to make stealth worth attempting. There are scripted button-press moments and a handful of sequences built around gadgets and hacking, but the core is a cover shooter with a modest arsenal and enemies who oblige by standing still. The PS2 hardware shows in the flat lighting and the crowded, low-detail interiors.

What it lacks is the one thing Bond games had traded on since Rare's GoldenEye, which is a reason to keep the disc in the machine after the credits. No split-screen, no bots, nothing to return to.

It is competent work under a hard deadline on ageing hardware, and it holds up about as well as that description suggests. Worth a look mainly as a curiosity: the last Bond shooter built for a console that was already a generation behind.