Version Reviewed: Xbox 360

Story

During one of the events in the new Movie Skyfall Bond is injured and left for dead, during this time he reflects on some of his previous missions and this provides the premise of 007 Legends. It's a convenient way to throw together random iconic bond missions from the past 50 years. There's one from each of the different eras of bond featuring the different actors, these are GoldFinger, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Moonraker, License to Kill, Die Another Day and when its released as DLC Skyfall. This last one was withheld so no spoilers from the movie can be revealed early. The only difference is that the Bond actor from each movie is removed and replaced with Daniel Craig.

Gameplay

There is a greater focus on Stealth gameplay with enemies becoming suspicious and will investigate if they think they see something like you or a body that's been left lying around. Sadly there is no option to move bodies whether by carrying or dragging, this I feel would have improved the experience as all too often I would take out a guard stealthily only to be noticed by a security camera (which can be destroyed) or another guard. The majority of the game is a First Person Shooter but there is one vehicle based mission per era to change the pace and there is also a melee function where you throw punches with the analogue sticks when you get to certain bosses. I wanted to play dirty and just wished that I could have brought in my feet and knees to beat the hell out of my opponent. There is an XP system that allows the unlocking of upgrades for gadgets, weapons and Bond abilities. These involve silencers and scopes for weapons, better recharge rates for your gadgets and increased health and health regeneration, quieter footsteps etc.

Graphics

The graphics are adequate for the game but they do feel about 2 years old, especially when compared to other recent games such as Halo 4 and MoH Warfighter and that is the problem with the game on the whole, it tries too hard to show respect for the original films that the game feels rushed.

AI

The AI is rather hit and miss. Occasionally the AI is rather good, investigating your movements, etc. but the moment the bullets start flying then it's like a shooting range at a farm, with enemies running around like headless chickens and not taking up the cover that's provided. This spoils the game especially when its from a publisher renowned for quality with their Call Of Duty franchise.

Voice Cast

There are a number of Actors and Actresses reprising their roles in the game, the most popular being Dame Judi Dench as M, Richard Kiel as Jaws, Harold Sakata as Oddjob and Michael Lonsdale as Hugo Drax. Some of the characters use sound-alike's which ruin the immersion, especially as Daniel Craig's likeness is used but not his voice - that role goes to Timothy Watson.

Challenges

There are Special Missions that task you with completing missions in a variety of different ways depending on the level. These have custom difficulties and can be quite taxing due to gameplay problems like not being able to hide bodies when having to do a stealth run. The special mission types are Escape, Defence, Infiltration and Assault. Escape has you stealthily escaping a facility, but you start off with no gadgets or weapons and everything has to be procured onsite, which can be annoying. The first mission starts you with 3 security cameras and numerous guards that you have to evade, it would have been nice if you had access to the EMP function on your watch so the cameras short out for a time or even better, the ability to hide bodies. The amount of times the alarms got set off because a camera spotted the guards body I left behind is ridiculous. Defence has you defending an area from waves of enemies. Infiltration and Assault are different variants of the two above mission types.

Multiplayer

There is a 12 player online allowance and a 4 player split screen mode for offline play, This I feel was added to attract the original Goldeneye players back from other games where this is not catered for. There is a level progression similar to CoD's Prestige mode called 00 Specializations, level 50 is 00 Agent Grade 0. Players can Equip gadgets to enhance their abilities online such as the fast switch ability which speeds up the weapon switch time. Scenarios online include Bomb Defuse, Escalation and Data miner as well as death match.

Extras

There is a ton of unlockable bonus content that include biographies of the major characters in the game including both enemies and allies. Props and gadgets that are used in the movies, production shots from the movies and concept art images from the game development, these are unlocked by picking up the collectibles in the various missions, killing certain targets and completing optional objectives.

Overview

That sums up the experience as a whole, for everything that the game attempts to get right, it makes a garishly obvious mistake and just ruins the experience. This is one to wait for, I would advise grabbing it whilst it's cheap in the sales for something to blast through while you wait for the yearly drought to end.