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With all the dust being kicked up by the epic Grand Theft Auto IV, it might be easy to miss some of the new stuff that’s trying to get your attention this week (and probably for the next few weeks.)  That’s why we’re here.  And by “here,” I mean not at home playing GTA IV.  If it weren’t for us, for example, you might not be aware that the Bourne Conspiracy demo dropped on Xbox Live today.  This warmly anticipated action title is based on the series of Robert Ludlum novels and not the series of Matt Damon movies (which are, of course, based on the Robert Ludlum novels.)  We got a chance to “play” it today, and, well, prepare to be disappointed.

The demo starts you off in a US Embassy somewhere in Western Europe.  Through a nice series of cinematics, it quickly becomes very clear that you are in no way welcome at the embassy, and need to escape.  This kicks of the first section of the demo, with you “controlling” Bourne as he runs, hides and fights his way through a good-sized group of military types bent on stopping you at all costs.  As long as that cost isn’t bullets, that is, because you’ll do all of your fighting in the first section by hand.  While this makes the story a bit less believable, it does a good job of introducing you to the hand-to-hand mechanics.  Basically, you’ve got a regular attack and a strong attack, as well as a block/dodge button.  The fights are fast, violent, and intense, with back and forth combo strings building up to one-button cinematic finishing moves.  Everything looks nice, but controlling your character during fights is a frustrating exercise that needs a whole lot more polish if it’s going to wow gamers on release.  

Other than the hand-to-hand fighting, the first section of the demo features multiple button-pressing sequences and running and jumping elements, all of which are more like interactive cut-scenes than actual gameplay.  You get to move Bourne like in a regular action game, but all of his advanced maneuvers (and, therefore, all of his interesting ones) take place in cinematic scenes where you have no real control.

Once the first section is completed, you will have the opportunity to use guns as you attempt to escape the area via train tracks.  The shooting controls are stiff and unresponsive, and the weapons feel like Air-Soft guns.  Not exactly high praise for an action adventure game.  

After this sequence, the third section tasks you with escaping from a very mild police presence in your Mini-Cooper.  The less said about this section the better, but suffice it to say, it’s tiny, clunky and downright unenjoyable.  

Finally, you’ll board a train to face a nameless boss with a knife.  This guy takes forever to defeat, and not in a dramatic, epic battle kind of way, either.  More like a slow, boring crawl to completion that culminates in a nonsensical moment where he discovers that there’s been a (apparently invisible) gun laying on the floor the whole time.

Other than the visuals, which are above average, this one looks like it’s primed to be a clunker.  Unless the title receives a massive overhaul by its release date, we’re looking at a sub-par interactive movie at best, and a flat-out awful non-game at worst.  Very disappointing.



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