Review by: Jeff McAllister

Games based on Britain’s MI6 agent James Bond have been a dime a dozen over the past ten years and arguably the best of the bunch turned out to be Everything or Nothing, a game released back in 2004 that unlike all the others, did not have a movie attached to it. Blood Stone is in the same boat, and although there was to be a movie in the works, it was sent to Hollywood purgatory and only the game remained. A game with both action and racing elements starring Daniel Craig as the modern day Bond, Dame Judi Dench as the rugged director M, British singing sensation Joss Stone as the female lead, and developed by acclaimed racing studio Bizarre Creations—it sounds like a can’t miss Bond adventure, right? Not exactly.

First off, the writing is hit and miss--the story is disjointed and unclear, particularly the first half of the game. From one mission to the next, you’re chasing down a different villain and other than being told to do it, it isn’t always clear as to why you’re doing it. Nearly half way through the game, you finally discover a real reason to chase down a baddie and the story finally starts to come together. However, as the game reaches its conclusion it treads back into “what the hell is going on” territory which slams the nail in the coffin of confusion.

Blood Stone is a generic third person shooter that tosses in bits and bobs of other games to help spice things up. Previous Bond games have been known for their fancy gadgets and trinkets like laser pens or explosive bubble gum, but there’s none of that to be found here. The only things you have in your arsenal are weapons aplenty and your phone. Bond can whip out the smart phone and use it as a sort of Detective Mode from Arkham Asylum, that allows you to see where enemies and Intel items are located and what objects in the area can be interacted with. Bond can also use the phone to disable security cameras, crack safes and surprisingly enough, receive calls.

It is an interesting gimmick which unfortunately gets old rather quickly. When you have the phone in your hand, you are constantly looking at it and when you climb, jump, or shoot you put it away and will need to pull it out again immediately after to continue using it. Doesn’t sound like too tough of a chore, but constantly pulling the phone out again and again is tiresome and unnecessary.

One trick Bond has up his sleeve is his Focus Aim ability. When you get close enough to melee an enemy, you gain one Focus Aim which is then added to a meter that can hold a total of three attacks. Once a Focus Aim is gained, you can highlight an enemy and take them down in an instant one hit kill. If you have more than one Focus Aim saved up, they can be chained together for a quick succession of kills. If this sounds somewhat familiar, it’s almost the same exact technique that Splinter Cell: Conviction uses with its Mark and Execute feature, just a bit simpler and straight forward.

While most of the action is cover-based combat where in each mission you need to methodically move from cover to cover, take out a few enemies and proceed, once in a while there is an on-foot chase or an escape sequence you need to perform. However, given the button prompt design of the controls, these sequences would benefit greatly had the movement been free flowing instead of only being able to jump, climb, and drop at specific spots.