Quantum of Solace was a rush-job. No amount of pretty textures or fiery explosions can hide it. It doesn’t plumb the depths of cash-crop tie-ins like Iron Man or Jumper, nor can it hang with a bad boy of average like Bourne Conspiracy. If not for Daniel Craig’s silver-eyed mug slapped to a 3D model, Quantum would have no business calling itself a Bond game. It’s a generic FPS with semi-capable mechanics, but zero intrigue, challenge, or emotional attachment to pull you back, much less to completion.

The unveiling of the story alone has the personality of a PowerPoint presentation complete with pretty charts, but lacking the explanatory segues between slides. One moment I was sneaking though an opera house to spy on a suspect, and the next I was dueling a helicopter in a cave with a young girl at my side. I can only hope that seeing the film might reveal the identity of the girl, why I was helping her, and what the heck a helicopter was doing underground. When I thought that the narrative flow couldn’t withstand one more fracture, the girl turned to me and asked, “Have you ever lost someone.” Cue the hazy fadeout of a flashback.

Ignoring the fact that the box is clearly labeled, “Quantum of Solace,” half of the game is a recreation of Casino Royale, and a poor rendition at that. Do you remember when Bond massacred the townspeople of Madagascar with a belt-fed machinegun? What about the time he blasted his way through the science center with no respect for the priceless artifacts within? Me neither. What I do recall is a Bond that was rough around the edges, but certainly exhibiting more grace and subtlety than a stampeding elephant with a nuke strapped to its back.

Daniel Craig’s Bond was unique among the prestigious lineage of MI6 spies. He didn’t need a watch-mounted jetpack to traverse rooftops. He had the athleticism and improvisational mindset of Sebastien Foucan (the Casino Royale bomber and co-founder of freerunning) to forge his own path. Bond was unpredictable and burdened with an emotional depth that the former caricatures of his namesake never knew. Treyarch dismissed all of that and threw Bond into the frenzy of a military-shooter with enough firepower to wipe Africa off the map.

Except for dodging cameras in the occasional stealth sequence, this is a fully-fledged FPS that relies heavily upon regenerating health and a cover system like that of Rainbow Six: Vegas and Gears of War, but without so much refinement. I can’t tell you how many times I was forcibly removed from cover when all I wanted to do was take a potshot. On the flipside, and always at the most inconvenient moments, I seemed to be wearing a fuzzy suit of wool in a Velcro world. Then there were the handful of clipping errors that trapped me inside the architecture with one hope of escape – restart. At least the checkpoints were frequent.