From Russia With Love

Original Release: 2005
Developer: EA Redwood Shores
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Platform: GameCube, PS2, Xbox
Version Played: GameCube

After Everything or Nothing, EA still wanted to make James Bond games, but Pierce Brosnan was no longer James Bond, and the next Bond hadn’t been chosen. They decided on two things: one was a “Bond” game where you don’t play as James Bond (which ended up being the terrible Rogue Agent), the other: look into the past. They opted for From Russia With Love and even brought back Sean Connery to record new lines (although his Scottish accent is stronger than it used to be).

The game doesn’t officially support widescreen, but I managed to find an Action Replay code that creates a proper widescreen, as well as improved framerate.

Starting off with a brand new introduction, we get an unelated mini adventure as Bond protects the Prime Minister’s daughter from being kidnapped, fighting enemies from a criminal organisation around the Houses of Parliament, starting form the terrace (for me, it’s nice to see a place I’ve been to in a game – reminds me of the worst chips I’ve ever had, sat on the terrace).

The aiming is similar to Everything or Nothing, however now there’s an extra button which activates the precision aiming, something that I think works extremely well. It zooms in and a few important points are highlighted – such as grenades. I found it very easy to pull off headshots due to this mechanic. The aiming still has some issues, though – you still can’t aim freely and targeting objects (like explosive barrels) is still a big pain.

As the villains flee with the Prime Minster’s daughter in a helicopter, Bond stops a jetpack pilot and takes it for himself. The jetpack is loosely based on the Bell Rocket Belt seen in Thunderball (which was a real, functioning jetpack), and this one is equipped with a machine gun and rockets. The controls for it are extremely fluid and it’s a joy to use as you blast enemies around Clock Tower and save the Prime Minster’s daughter.

You then get treated to a fantastic opening titles, with some really cool effects mixed with footage from the film (plus new live action footage of the new characters) and elements of the original opening titles. The names used are of the actors the likenesses are based on, rather than the voice actors (who all do a great job) We then get to where the film opened: you play as Bond sneaking (well, mostly fighting) through a hedge maze to infiltrate a mansion, until Red Grant kills him.

As with the film, it was a fake Bond, with a very smooth transition of Grant throwing the fake Bond mask to the real Bond’s hat landing on the coatrack in Moneypenny’s office. You get to walk around MI6 and talk to Moneypenny, M and Q – this is exactly what I wanted from the “MI6 Interlude” sections in Everything or Nothing.

From Russia With Love does a great job at capturing the style of the film and the period that it is set in, with a wonderful style throughout the entire film. The presentation of the game is outstanding from start to finish, and even though the models and textures don’t look the best for the GameCube, the damage done to the environment more than make up for it to make the levels feal more real.

During the briefing, M explains that Russian defector Tatiana wants to help MI6 obtain a Lektor (a soviet encoding device), but specifically asking for James Bond. It’s deemed that it’s a trap but still worth the risk, so Bond heads to Station T in Istanbul. On the drive there, Red Grant blows up a Russian car, resulting in a horde of cars attacking Bond.

The driving mechanics are good, but unfortunately you can’t use the shoulder buttons to accelerate or break. The map is a similar “small open world” type map. After a bit of driving, you’ll have to get past a tank by sneaking around to a turret on foot – again, it’s nice to transition between driving and on foot sections.

As you get to Station T, it gets attacked. You’ll need to rescue hostages and diffuse bombs. Here you’ll get to test out one of the new gadgets: the miniature Q copter, which you can use to fly though vents and detonate to activate switches. Bond also has a rappel belt and laser watch, making their appearances slightly earlier than the films. At the end of the level, a helicopter enters the building for a brutal boss fight.

After another car sequence where you have to obtain a disguise, you need to reach a secret underground tunnel to spy on the Russians, this involves a dreadful turret section as you get driven around in a boat, having to blast open doors.

Once you spy on the Russians, you discover an attack on a Gypsy camp and that the Lektor has been moved to a secure vault, so your ally, Kerim, heads off to warn your friend while you make your way into the building to steal blueprints to the vault. You’ll encounter some large armoured guys with gatling guns, and you’ll need to shoot off the straps holding their armour to kill them.

As you escape, you’ll discover a jetpack, the opening wasn’t the only appearance of it. You blast your way out of the building, although there are a few spots you can land on to find secrets. These secrets let you update Bond’s weapons and gadgets, giving you an incentive to explore the levels.

After you escape, you help defend the Gypsy camp. Red Grant saves Bond and you then defend Kerim with a sniper rifle. Grant’s desire to kill Bond is expanded in this game as something he’s really looking forward to, and is his main motivation.

After the KGB agent retreats, Krenim really wants to go after him, so it’s time for more sniping, although this level is much more fun to the really nice setup as Krenim makes his way though some buildings.

Now it’s finally time to meet up with Tatiana and grab the Lektor form the Russian consulate. She doesn’t have a standard health bar, but a “threat” meter that goes up when enemies are targeting her, so escorting her isn’t too bad. You’ll have to make your way through gas to activate buttons to progress, as well as a go through some very long vents with the Q copter.

As you flee, it’s a race to the train station to board the Orient Express as you leave. As you take control of the car…you have to randomly drive around and blow up 30 Russian vehicles before proceeding. It’s a really strange an unnecessary mission, simply having to deal with enemies as you rush to the train station would be enough.

Now it’s time for the pivotal train section…which unfortunately is the weakest part of the game. Bond and Grant fight in a cutscene before Grant flees with the Lektor (and his new sidekick), telling his goons to sort Bond out. I’m not sure why they built up Grant’s desire to kill Bond in the right way only to have him run away like a coward.

You fight through a train station (where the escort of Tatiana does become annoying as she sits out in the open for no reason) and then have to fight a retro sci-fi Octopus train – due to rights issues with the SPECTRE name, they got renamed, but Octopus just sounds a bit too silly for this game, surely something like GHOST or PHANTOM would be better?

You finally get to fight Red Grant, and you just shoot him a lot across a train track. After shooting him with around 100 bullets (including targeting specific points on his body), he collapses and gets ran over by a train. However, his assistant has escaped, taking the Lektor with her.

Following the new villain, Adara, to a Octopus factory, you once again don a jetpack as you blast through the first bit, before having to do the rest on food. This is a really nice villain lair, with secret underground portions and a boss fight against some kind of space rover-like machine. It’s a very enjoyable mission.

Once you set some explosives and flee, Bond escapes trough a tunnel in a vehicle in a really fun car section, shooting your way through obstacles. After this, you regroup with Tatiana.

Another fun car mission mixed with on foot sections. You have to find a key to the docks and then make your way back, fighting helicopters that blow up portions of the road.

Once you make it to a boat, you need to flee the country and make it to the border. This is unfortunately a very long and dull turret section that feels like it never ends. After this, you get a cutscene recreating the end of the film as Klebb attacks Bond and Tatiana, before it abruptly jumps to the next scene.

While the film has ended now, the game has an additional tacked on action scene. Story-wise, it comes from nowhere: it just cuts to Bond parachuting and M explaining that Octopus are launching a nuclear missile towards, demanding £100 million to cancel it. It’s completely unrelated to anything else, which is fine for the cold opening, but feel really out of place.

That said, the mission is a fun one as you make your way through the secret Octopus base and sabotage their missile. You get a short jetpack section and you have to take out Adara, who is firing missiles form a jet on the ground, at the end of the mission she flies the jet into the hanger door, attempting to take Bond out with her, but missing.

As you escape the building, Bond gets attacked by a large machine equipped with gatling guns and lasers, controlled by Red Grant. Turns out he didn’t die earlier. You blow it up and Red Grant still survives the explosion, getting shot by Bond in a cutscene.

While the From Russia With Love has flaws, it’s a very enjoyable game. This smooths out the problems Everything or Nothing has and is a lot of fun to play. The missions also flow a lot better, with missions having multiple parts to them before you go back to the menu, including proper endings each time.

While I have the handheld port to look at still, From Russia With Love ended up being the last James Bond game from Electronic Arts, which is a shame as they seemed to be figuring out their style of Bond games.