James Bond: 007 Legends (PS3)

Taking offense towards 007: Legends is a little like getting worked up about the Harry Potter movies based solely on the fact the protagonist mentioned in the title isn't particularly hairy to start off with and the detail shown towards modern pottery technique is rudimentary, to say the least – peripheral, at best...Somehow you're approaching the thing with an expectation that was never on the cards to begin with.Take the first level: Goldfinger, for example. Hurrah, Bond fans cry! Finally, a chance to play the iconic parts of the movie Goldfinger!Now, please – don't get me wrong here: Goldfinger is genuinely an iconic piece of cinema every bit on a par with anything else of the period you care to mention. Not just as a Bond movie which genuinely comes to define the whole Bond movie experience in a way never before seen – it's a great film.Thing is, has anyone who moans about this game ever actually watched it the movie or, perish the thought, ever actually read the book...?Other than the oil refinery break-in in the pre-credit scene and Bond getting a young woman murdered in revenge just so as he can get his leg over – the “action” following on consists of Bond having dinner with M and the Governor of the Bank of England, a leisurely round of golf and a drive through the scenic splendor of the Swiss Alps – there's the brief and abortive attempt of breaking into Goldfingers metallurgical facility getting another girl killed then - for literally the rest of that entire movie - Sean Connery is either locked up in a cell, strapped to a table about to get his balls burnt off or else handcuffed to someone or something else pretty much the entire time.The iconic raid on Fort Knox – Bond is handcuffed to an atomic bomb inside the vault throughout – he doesn't even know how to disarm the bomb, someone else reaches over and stops him setting the thing off in blind panic just in the nick of time. For an movie classified as action adventure it's a weird, strange film because Bond's a captive for pretty much most of it and yet – you go away from it hyped on all the action...So yes, when this game kicks off and you're Daniel Craig blowing up and shooting your way into Goldfingers Harrier Jump-Jet production facility* – yes, if you're expecting Goldfinger the movie – absolutely, you're going to be a little taken aback and it's pretty much the same for the other “iconic” Bond movies the game plays through but all that kind of misses the point.You were never going to play the scenes from the movies as they happened in the films: a, because they largely never played out the way you remembered them and b: even if they did, what would be the accomplishment, let alone the point, of playing something where you knew what was coming every second you were playing it?That wouldn't be a game, that would simply be a video clip of a movie you already saw, probably far too many times already to begin with.So yes, if you go at this like going at Hairy Potter and fuming over the lack of Harry's follicles, you're reacting that way because you started out with the wrong expectation: take that away and 007:Legends is remarkably fun.The alleged “stealth” mechanics are (it has to be said) a little crap, being as anything you do do ends up in an enormous fire fight but – if you're into FPS's in the first place – you have very little to complain about on that score. The game mechanics are nice and fluid, you have to duck down like a real person and peek around cover, which keeps you on the edge of your seat - the graphics are actually very nice and – if you just shut your mind off and play like you're meant to – it leaves you with a big, dopey grin.Of the five missions initially accessible once played through – don't forget to pop along to the PlayStation Store and download the unlock for the Skyfall Mission – it's already there on the disc, you just have to unlock it – a 100kb download and you're done.The Skyfall Mission take you back to the scenes immediately proceeding the opening where Moneypenny accidentally shoots Bond on the train and starts this trip down memory lane, so it's a couple of levels chasing Patrice through Istanbul. They're okay and, if they're nothing to get worked up over for you, at least you didn't have to spend any time downloading them.If you paid whatever the original asking price was for this when initially released back in 2012 – I guess around £40.00 – rightly you'd be be pretty pissed with what you bought. For the mere pennies of second hand, used – I honestly found nothing to complain about here. I had a far worse time getting into Quantum of Solace and – once I got past whatever expectation I must have initially had regarding that – playing it was a doddle and fun, exactly like this.Legends is actually a pretty descent shooter – think of it as an expansion pack to Golden Eye Reloaded and you're closer to the actual mark of what the thing is really about. It's a thin excuse to play around at being James Bond.Go at the Hairy Potter films expecting them to be about a Hairy guy who makes pots for a living – your mind will break under the strain of trying to make sense of what you see.Put your feet up, kick back and shoot your way into various classic Bond Villain's lairs and you'll leave a happier, smilier bunny, wiser for the experience. Enjoy.*Although, funny thing - the people I've both heard and read castigating the whole plane manufacturing facility Goldfinger runs in 007: Legends really should consider actually cracking the spine on an Ian Flemming novel at least once in their life-times. If you read the book, the part of Goldfingers smuggling operation concerning the Rolls-Royce Phantom III (in the movie) is only half the story. Once arriving at in Switzerland the car is melted down and turned into plane components (primarily plane seats, because of the weight) before being shipped to Pakistan to be disposed of in the manner the Governor of the Bank of England relays to M and Bond over dinner in the film. The point is, in the book Goldfingers Swiss factory is concerned with the aerospace industry, not just simply a smelting works as depicted in the film - the game actually gets it closer to the book than it does the movie, I kid you not.

I play games only very occasionally these days (mainly down to family life and busy work life!). I really enjoy this game though and it offers a quick-fix approach to gaming that many consoles / games do not offer as much these days. As a Bond fan, it is great fun and firmly relives some of the classic Bond moments with a modern era seasoning! If you enjoy shooters, multiplayer and Bond then I think you'll enjoy it.Looking forward to the Skyfall episode level being released this week too!

The game is defective. The disc keeps trying to spin with no success.The seller, DigiDigital, said I should return the item for a refund. Problem is, the item was delivered by another seller from eBay.Anyway, I already ordered the game from another seller.I’ve heard it’s a great game, let’s wait and see.

A good test for me whether a "shoot em up" game is good or not, is whether hubby plays on it non stop for over 3 hours.Hubby is now hooked, so I'm happy the game will not gather dust as did the weird Prince of Persia and a Tomb Raider game.So I'm pleased that hubby is pleased.

I think nailing my hands to my knees would be more enjoyable than this cheap, cash-grab shovelware. The Bond franchise has polarizing results when it comes to video games, but even dull fare such as James Bond 007: The Duel seems quaintly favorable compared to what I had to endure during my brief flirtation with 007 Legends. Much like GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (still a better game than this) plot elements are taken from several Bond movies combined into one. Here we treated to Goldfinger, OHMSS, Moonraker, Licence to Kill, Die Another Day, and Skyfall. I couldn't even make it past OHMSS, no matter how much I like the movie or want to be a part of it in a video game world.Presented as a first person shooter the game unashamedly rip-offs more successful games in the genre, most notably Deus Ex: Human Revolution and will make you long to be playing them instead. The whole shebang is lazy, uninspiring, generic-as-hell, conveyer belt stuff. And what is up with those load times? I've had Commodore 64 tapes load faster than this. It's utterly disgraceful that a game can take that long to load in this era. I don't even understand why this is so since the sound and graphics are very far from the state-of-art. I'm not kidding, this thing looks like it came from 2002, not 2012.I bought this game because I wanted to play Licence to Kill as a video game, but it's so poor I couldn't make it that far. Besides, LTK is Dalton, not Craig. It would be like casting Val Kilmer in The Dark Knight. Craig himself sounds completely bored and is apparently phoning it in during toilet breaks. The only thing we're missing is the sound of a big brown splash as he catatonically huffs through his dialogue.This is a new low for the franchise when it comes to video games. Check out Everything or Nothing, Nightfire, or even Agent Under Fire instead. They are all over a decade old by this point but they're still better games than this one.007: Legends is low-rent throwaway trash that is not worth your time and money.