Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy

A trifle repetitive and brief, The Bourne Conspiracy is a diamond in the rough. Well worth a look but it’s not going to change your life.

The Bourne Conspiracy walks the line between pander and cater, giving an accessible roller coaster ride to anyone with rudimentary hand-eye coordination. It's a nice mix of gameplay styles that allows you to play it however you want, but all the niggling issues eventually pile up.

License-based games seldom turn out especially interesting or good so our hopes for this title weren’t stellar, but The Bourne Conspiracy surprises us with a healthy dose of action and great tempo. There are some flaws to be found and there isn’t much to do once the story is finished, but his is a great action title nonetheless.

Compared to most movie-based video games, Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy, sans Matt Damon, is a miraculous achievement in that it doesn't suck.

The brilliant thing about these finishing animations is that they take advantage of the environment you’re in. These aren’t repetitive, pre-cooked animations. If you’re near a chair, Bourne might slam his enemy into it.

And even though it’s a fun action in it’s own right with nice style, nice touches and some panache, the aforementioned issues as well as weak controls and brevity bring down an otherwise solid, if eventually run-of-the-mill third person shooter.

A fast and entertaining take on the most exhilarating spy movies in decades. The Bourne Conspiracy eventually begins to slip into repetition, but you’ll be having far too much fun to care.

It delivers a well-paced and intense experience that is ultimately very satisfying and surprisingly faithful to its film counterpart, provided that you accept that it doesn't set out to reinvent, or even excel in any one area of gameplay.

This one's a brilliant weekend rental, just like the movies.

This game accomplishes some small victories. It has one of the best hand-to-hand combat systems on a third person action game and remains true to its movie legacy. But the gameplay is kind of schizophrenic and has many weaker sections, especially the ones related with fire arms. [July 2008]

While the best part of the package lies in the repetitive but gratifying fist fighting system, a few more issues frustrated me to the end.

Bullets and punch-ups flow together with a level of zeal and if you accept that you are in for a dumb action movie of an experience you’ll be served with something special. This is easily the most exciting tie-in title for a long time but some may find its constant action tiring and repetitive.

Every other development studio that dabbles in movie licences should look at what High Moon has accomplished and take note. [Aug 2008, p.100]

The game is good enough for some fighting action. For more, it lacks the diversity.

Toward the end, one character asks Bourne, "If you kill me, who will tell you the truth?" I immediately thought, "What truth?" Unlike the movie, the game completely fails to raise any curiosity about Bourne. Conspiracy is not about finding the truth, it’s about getting from point A to point B without bleeding to death.

Though The Bourne Conspiracy is weighed down by broken gunplay mechanics, its thrilling hand-to-hand combat, slick presentation, and relatively short time commitment (eight hours) make it a perfect rental for fans of the films.

Genuinely translating an action film is hardly done with as much effort as High Moon Studios has put into it. Although the combat suffers from a lack of refinement and complexity, it still keeps up with the vigorous pace and calculated intensity of Jason Bourne.

It's hard to imagine, but Sierra Entertainment has been able to capture the frantic pace and edge-of-your-seat action of the Bourne movies in this game.

When buying the Bourne Conspiracy you have to be aware of what you’re dealing with. If you’re like myself and are expecting a huge game of awesome hand-to-hand combat you will be disappointed.

Overall this game just screams 'middle of the road': a good opportunity that hasn't been fully taken advantage of. Having said that, if you have a spare weekend free and fancy a game that doesn't involve too much brain power and won't take you long to complete, then this is the ideal rental, but nothing more.

It’s not that the game doesn’t look great – it does. It’s not that it doesn’t control well – it does. It’s not that it has bugs or camera issues – the camera never presented a problem and, aside from falling through the floor a couple of times, the game ran smoothly. It’s just that this is a short game, and yet still not short enough to stop the gameplay from wearing thin.

Developer High Moon Studios did a phenomenal job capturing the look and feel of the "Bourne" books and movies -- everything from the fighting moves to the camera work to the overall mood. But too many of the best moments are almost entirely out of players' control in this heavily scripted and disappointingly unresponsive game.

A decent game - it just doesn't do enough to differentiate itself from all the other games like it. And while it's true that those games don't blend martial arts with duck-and-cover shooting, Conspiracy's approach to both of those things is just too shallow and repetitive.

What does become frustrating at times is the wild camera during fights, which can swing into totally useless positions in small spaces. It’s rarely a game killer, but there are times when you’ll lose track of Jason entirely. Still, if you could handle the camerawork in "The Bourne Supremacy," you’ll be fine here.

The Bourne Conspiracy is a short game that can be clumsy and repetitive at times, but it does it with enough style that I didn’t feel like it was a complete waste of time. For what you get, though, it’s still tough to justify the $60 price tag.

But, in the short time it takes to reach the end, it will have already become old hat and it doesn't hold up to repeated playing, even on the frustrating higher difficulty setting. This makes it only essential for the more hardcore Jason Bourne fan.

Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Conspiracy is a disappointment. The game never rises above average and by the end becomes repetitive.

It's pretty good as a game that casual players can fly through on the easiest difficulty setting, and its production values are as good as you'll find on the market. But it doesn't hold up as well for those looking for a story or a challenge. It's a fun evening, basically.

In all, what we're left with in The Bourne Conspiracy is a game which tries really hard to capture the action of the films, while not completely selling out Ludlum's novel character.

There are still times when you'll enjoy yourself, but they're few and far between, and ultimately prove to be poor compensation for the loss of the intrigue, subtlety and intelligence that characterised the films and books whose bullet-riddled back the game is straddling.

But their utter linearity wears the patina thin as the same ground is covered again and again; the really exciting scenes wilt into mindless reaction games, and even the best part - the fistfights - become stale after a few repetitive bouts.