The Bourne Conspiracy

Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Conspiracy

Rating: T

Score:  8.5/10

             With the success of the Bourne trilogy, it’s likely you saw all the movies.  Translate those into a game, though, and there’s a lot of potential for screwups.  Thankfully, the game designers knew exactly what they were doing.  This game is available for the Xbox 360 and the Playstation3.

             The plot is very similar to the Bourne Identity movie and it’s revealed over about a dozen missions.  It’s not identical to the movie: there are some extra flashbacks views have never seen before.  These flashbacks clear up previously un-answered questions that gave the movie its mysterious charm.  This makes the game even better for people who want to finally discover Jason Bourne’s unknown past.

             The Jason Bourne character in this game bears little resemblance to the Jason Bourne in the movies.  It’s really a problem: the obvious reason being that this game is based on the movie.  Jason looks nothing like the Jason Bourne portrayed in the movie.  This only thing that will remind you that you’re playing a Bourne game is the similar plot and the gameplay.

             The gameplay is a standard third person shooter mixed with some action.  The shooting is well done.  You have a normal silenced handgun for sneaking purposes.  When sneaking fails, you can pick up weapons from downed enemies.  You aim by simply holding a button, and then lining up the crosshairs on one of the baddies.  The action is fairly standard.  When an enemy comes close to you (or you run close to an enemy), Bourne then starts to fight one on one against him.  You fight with light punches, strong punches, blocks and the takedown button.

             Takedown is the interesting feature about this game.  As you fight, shoot, get shot at, etc., your adrenaline starts pumping more and more, filling up your adrenaline meter.  The adrenaline meter is split into three parts.  Once one part fills, you can do a takedown.  Takedowns range from fighting takedowns, shooting takedowns, or sprinting takedowns.

             Fighting takedowns are simply one button presses, and Jason Bourne knocks the enemy into a piece of the environment or uses something from the environment to help knock out the enemy.  If there’s nothing around him, he knocks the enemy out with his bare hands.  With moiré than one part of adrenaline filled, you can takedown more than one enemy at once.  Bosses require more than one takedown though.

             Shooting takedowns show a dramatic angle of Jason Bourne, and demand that you press a single button (after pressing the takedown button) that appears onscreen.  Upon pressing the button, Jason Bourne quickly shoots at an enemy, killing him.  Similar to the fighting takedowns, you can take down more than one enemy if you have more than one part of your adrenaline meter filled.

             Sprinting takedowns are exactly what they sound like.  While sprinting, you hold the takedown button to takedown any enemy in your way instantly.

            While it’s not the best game ever made, it’s definitely what Bourne fans wanted.  The plot and the gameplay are pure Bourne, while the actual Bourne character is more or less not.  Any fan of the movie, and I’m sure there is quite a few, should enjoy playing this game, if only for the back-story.