Just got a demo of FRWL from work...

I work at a video game store, which is perfect for me since I'm a huge nerd, and today my manager came back from a big conference in Vegas (I wanted to ask about the Whyte House, but no dice...) with a bag of fun. Among which was an EA demo disc for PS2 featuring the new Need for Speed, the new SSX...and From Russia With Love. I almost snatched it out of his hands, and he assumed by the way I lit up when he mentioned it that I wanted a copy. So I took it home, gave it a whirl...and loved it.

It covers what could be considered the 'pre-title sequence' of the game (which makes me wonder...where does the hedgemaze scene fit in?), a sequence shown earlier where Bond has to rescue the Prime Minister's daughter (the lovely Natasha Beddingfield) and stop OCTOPUS/SPECTRE from destroying the British Parliment. It was intense. The gun fights were great, the graphics look incredible, even on the aging PS2, and Sean Connery seems much more enthused for the role than Brosnan did for Everything or Nothing.

A lot of what I didn't like in EoN is fixed now, including bad camera controls and an overly-finnicky lock-on. The targeting still isn't perfect, but it's extremely close. Bond Focus is good, the ability to target a grenade on someone's belt or shooting out the rope someone is rapelling from is amusing no matter how many times you do it. The only downside is that Bond Focus has a limited energy bar (you refill it by killing bad guys), which means you can't constantly go into it to target hard-to-reach villians. And I'll admit, I kinda miss Bond Sense. I was continually hitting the weapon-switch button to highlight interactive objects, but since that doesn't work now the environments are a little more difficult to move through. The jetpack handles masterfully, it's easy to control and to target enemies while using it. The unlimited ammo chaingun and rocket launcher it comes with makes it feel a little more Rambo than Thunderball, but the game is likely more fun because of it. And like I said earlier...Natasha Beddingfield is lovely, even in video games.

There you go. If the demo is at all indicative of the full game of FRWL, it's my personal opinion we could be looking at the finest Bond game since Goldeneye. Alas, there was no multiplayer demo, but it does look promising. I'm not sure if this demo will get to stores at all, or if it's just an employee perk, but I strongly reccomend all Bond fans with a PS2 stay on the lookout for it, so you can get a taste of some From Russia goodness before the game's due out.

#1 Flash1087

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