First look: The Bourne Conspiracy

When I came in from the pub last night, I couldn't see well enough to try and finish the last disc of Lost Odyssey, so I set the 360 downloading the demo of The Bourne Conspiracy, apparently. Apparently, because I can't really remember. Anyway, I stuck it on today to have a look and played it through. Is it good? Two thirds of it is.

You see, in the demo, you get to play three parts of missions, allowing you to see the unarmed combat, the armed combat, and the driving elements of the game.

To begin, you must escape an ambassy armed with only your fists and your logic. Barrelling through the back corridors, you must hit buttons as they appear on the screen to perform unique moves and so forth. The hand to hand combat is quite entertaining, and once you begin to string a few combos together you can pull off some pretty extravigant moves.

You break onto the rooftop where again you get into fights, except there are snipers firing at you this time. A few more punch ups and end of scene. The opening segment is pretty entertaining except for the continual button pressing which only serves to frustrate because it changes each time, and combat can boil down to button mashing. But I have to say the unique moves are pretty cool.

Next up is a shooting mission segment, through the train lines under a city. The only three weapons I tried (assault rifle, shotgun and handgun) were adequate but could do with some beefing up through the sound, because they feel pretty lightweight. A cover system is used and this level is passable.

The final one, a car raide around a city, is terrible. The car doesn't feel remotely real and the fact you can do 90 degree turns at full speed should tell you something. I can't actually believe this part of the game is so poor, considering the talent at Sierra. If this isn't adjusted before launch, I can see this being its downfall.