Playing Bond
Fancy stepping into James Bond’s shoes? You’ll have your chance when Quantum of Solace, the game, is released for the PS3.
Unholster your Beretta, fix your silencer, dust off your license to kill. It’s time to step into James Bond’s immaculate leather shoes in the new PS3 game
Quantum of Solace. Featuring a plot based on both the latest Bond film and
Casino Royale, it promises to be the quintessential Bond game. Adam Gascoigne, design director of developers Treyarch spills the beans on one of autumn’s hottest games:
The history of James Bond videogames has been notoriously patchy – can you reassure Bond fans you’re on to a winner this time round?Early on in development we determined that trying to do too much could lead us into trouble. So we avoided putting in everything we could think of just for the sake of variety, and instead focused on determining the core game play and making sure it gave players the best experience. We definitely achieved that.
Bond is such a well-loved character – is it harder to work with material like that, rather than original ideas? Yes it is. So many people are deeply invested in portraying the franchise correctly that frankly you can get away with nothing. When people’s hearts and souls are attached to a character, they won’t accept mediocrity.
What aspect of the films was it most important to adapt for the game? The Bond universe is so appealing because of the variety of locations and the range of Bond’s abilities. We polished every aspect of the locations from sound effects, to particles, to texturing, character interactions and music. Also, both
Casino Royale and
Quantum of Solace have very distinct production design, so we used the filmmaker’s vision extensively in the game.
You’ve incorporated third person views in the game – how important was it for you to include Bond’s likeness?We wanted to present unique game play advantages for the player so they could choose how they wanted to approach a situation. You will need to use cover to help regenerate health faster, steady your aim and protect yourself from the enemy, but it’s really in the player’s hands on how they want to play it. If you want to go full steam ahead into a battle you can, but don’t be surprised if the cover system bails you out of trouble. Also, Bond looks great, so getting to see him throughout the game is great eye candy.
How was Daniel Craig to work with? Do actors generally struggle to get to grips with video game voice performances?Daniel sets the bar high. He is a gamer and he was concerned that the quality of the game would not meet his high expectations. Once he played the game, he knew that our team was determined to make a great game. Knowing that our lead character cared about the game really helped push the team to very high quality development.
Ray Park (of Darth Maul fame) did the motion capture for Bond – that must’ve been fantastic. What did he add to the mix?Ray is an amazingly talented performer, a straight shooter and such an inventive co-creator in the mo-cap studio. It really doesn’t get any better than working with him. Our animation team got very excited when they knew they were going to be working with the best in the business.
What’s your favourite feature of the new game?Our core combat experience, both hand-to-hand and weapons. It’s invigorating from the first bullet and doesn’t let up.
Are there any surprises for fans to look forward to? There are a couple of story threads which the movie fans will not expect. We also focus on a couple of locations which were not seen in the final cut of
Casino Royale but were fully shot and edited. This is the director’s cut!
Would you rather watch Quantum of Solace or play the game?We can’t wait to see the full movie in theatres, but I’d rather play the game our team made. We’re very proud of it.
Finally, if you could be any Bond character past or present who would you be? Was there anyone on the development team who particularly fancied themselves as Bond, Auric Goldfinger or Pussy Galore for that matter?I’ve always been partial to Eva Green. [
Sony Magazine assumes that this is a misunderstanding and that Adam doesn’t actually want to be Eva Green!]
Quantum of Solace
for the PlayStation 3 will be released on October 31.