For a videogame The Bourne Conspiracy does an incredibly handy job of delivering an experience that rivals the intensity of any standard summer blockbuster. The game is based around Jason Bourne, a 30 million dollar weapon previously employed by the U.S. government. During one mission Jason is nearly killed and in the process loses all of his memory, and from that point forward he relentlessly finds himself in life-or-death situations as he tries to find out who he is. The game loosely follows the plot of The Bourne Identity movie, interspersed with missions that took place earlier in Jason’s career with the government.

If there is anything that the game drives home it is that Jason Borne is an awesome action hero. A true badass. This point is repeatedly driven home in the melee combat which features prominently throughout the game. While in melee combat pressing X delivers quick attacks, pressing Y slams strong attacks, and the A button can be held to block. Quick and strong attacks can be chained together in nine different ways to form a combo, which forms a simplistic system that works well. Melee combat is generally a matter of blocking until the enemy leaves themselves open then delivering a combo of your own, then repeating this process while not leaving yourself open in the process.

As Jason lands blows on the enemy his adrenaline meter fills up, which pulls double duty as both a means to enhance Jason’s senses as well as instantly eliminate enemies. Heightening Jason’s senses takes a tiny amount of adrenaline and for a few seconds makes enemies, objectives, and other objects of interest stand out both on the screen as well as making them appear on the mini-map. Adrenaline is much better used to take down enemies in a single hurtful motion that is context sensitive to a variety of factors.

If Jason is just fighting one guy he will either interact with the environment (read: throw an enemy through/into it) to eliminate them or simply break their arm and knee if no objects are around. If Jason is surrounded by multiple enemies you are prompted to press one of the face buttons with each successful press making Jason stylishly eliminate each enemy one by one. If Jason uses a takedown on one enemy while another enemy is trying to shoot at him from afar Jason will grapple and throw the enemy into the way of the gunfire, killing him while shielding Jason from the same fire.

Bourne is also proficient in the use of a variety of firearms, though the game only has a handful of weapons to choose from. There are two weapon slots, with the first taken up by either a pistol or an Uzi while the second is taken up by two handed weapons such as a couple of different assault rifles and a shotgun. The short roster of weaponry isn’t a detriment as they cover all of the bases. However, the gunplay itself often comes up as sloppy and often completely unforgiving. Even on the normal difficulty level Bourne can be downed by a mere handful of shots, and coupled with a cover system that often has a different idea than the player of what cover is it can mean a lot of deaths followed by creative uses of vulgarities.