Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy

Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy
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Developer(s)	High Moon Studios
Publisher(s)	Sierra Entertainment
Engine	Unreal Engine 3 with PhysX
Platforms	PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Release date(s)
Genre(s)	Action, stealth
Mode(s)	Single-player

Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy is a third-person action stealth video game developed by High Moon Studios and published by Sierra Entertainment for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game expands upon Robert Ludlum's character Jason Bourne, and immerses the player in a cat and mouse style espionage action adventure. The game was released in North America on June 3, June 5 in Australia and June 27, 2008 in Europe.

Gameplay

Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy mostly derives from the film version of The Bourne Identity. Although the game does not use the likeness of Matt Damon (who portrays Bourne in the films), due to creative differences with the actor who initially wanted the gameplay to be more similar to that of Myst instead of a shooter; it aligns closer to the film storyline than that of the novels, and features musical themes from the films.

As in the movie, the player character begins as an amnesiac found off the coast of Marseille, but as the game progresses, the player is provided with more clues to Bourne's true identity.

Jason Bourne's senses are an important part of surviving the game, with noteworthy items or locations highlighted—when a switch to this sense is triggered, the visual style changes, with important elements much brighter. A third-person espionage action game, the player encounters armed and unarmed combat, the latter usually resolved through quick-time events, and driving sections, also often dependent on quick-time events.

There are three difficulty settings which the player can choose from when playing the single-player campaign: Trainee (easy mode), Agent (normal mode) and Assassin (hard mode).

The game also contains a boss battle feature, allowing the player to fight the boss without having to complete the entire level again, although some boss fights last entire levels. The game also contains a music player feature that allows the player to listen to music from the game. It includes an original song for the game, Falling, written by Paul Oakenfold and performed by Cee-Lo Green.

Plot

The game takes place prior to, and during the events of, the first film. In addition to scenes from the film, several chapters also reveal some of Jason's backstory and missions that take place prior to the beginning of the game.

It begins with Jason Bourne, the protagonist, trying to assassinate African dictator Nykwana Wombosi, who knows too much about the CIA's clandestine activities and threatens to publish what he knows. After fighting his way through Wombosi's guards and several mercenaries, he confronts Wombosi, but is unable to kill him, because Wombosi's children are present. Bourne is shot in the back as he staggers out onto the deck of Wombosi's boat and falls into the sea.

Bourne survives, and makes his way to a bank in Zurich, where he keeps a safety deposit box full of money and passports-along with a semi-automatic pistol he leaves in the box. On his way out, the police attempt to detain him, but he escapes to the American Embassy. There, the Marines attempt to detain him. He escapes from the embassy, then asks Marie Kreutz, whom he met in the embassy, to drive him to his Paris apartment, offering a large sum of money in return.

Once at Bourne's apartment, Marie accidentally informs Treadstone that Bourne is still alive by picking up the phone in the apartment, triggering a silent alarm. They send an assassin to kill Bourne, but Bourne subdues the assassin after a lengthy fight of fists and nonconventional weapons Jason uses. The assassin then throws himself out the window to avoid interrogation. Bourne and Marie escape from the Paris police, who were alerted after the assassin killed himself, then travel to Marie's friend Eamon's house in the countryside.

They spend the night at Eamon's house, but before they can leave the next morning, they are attacked by another assassin who uses a sniper rifle from the surrounding hills. Arming himself with a double barreled shotgun, Jason blows up fuel tanks to create cover and makes his way into the hills where several shots he fires forces the sniper into a barn. After making his way into the barn Jason has a brief fire fight that ends with a fist fight as the barn is lit on fire. Once they both inadvertently escape the barn in their struggle, Bourne stabs the assassin to death with a sharpened piece of wood, then sends Marie away as he goes to Treadstone to confront the people who have been chasing him all over Paris.

Once there, he warns his former boss, Alexander Conklin, to leave him alone. Instead, Conklin escapes and has several dozen agents attack Bourne. He incapacitates the agents through various means and in firefights or fist fights as he makes his way down out of the building and into the streets, then chases Conklin into an alley. As they struggle, another assassin appears and shoots Conklin. Bourne pursues the assassin into a church undergoing construction and has a brief gunfight before he causes an explosion that knocks the assassin off balance, allowing Bourne to tackle him and send them both into the grave yard behind the church where Bourne is almost strangled to death but uses a shovel as a club to send the assassin over an edge and break his neck. The game ends in Greece after Bourne vanishes before the Police arrive, and Bourne and Marie are reunited in the shop Marie has opened, they embrace as the game fades out.

Demo

The demo was released on Xbox Live on May 5 and PlayStation Network on May 8. There are three levels in the demo: the escape from the Zurich American Embassy, a past assassination on board an airplane, and a part of the Parisian car chase that was featured in The Bourne Identity. It was also released in the issue #85 on a playable disc that comes with the July 2008 issue of the Official Xbox Magazine.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate score Aggregator Score Metacritic PlayStation 3: 70 Xbox 360: 72 Review scores Publication Score 1UP.com C+ Edge 4 out of 10 Game Informer 6.75/10 GamePro 3.8/5 Game Revolution B- GameSpot 8.0/10 GameSpy 4/5 GameTrailers 7.2/10 GameZone 8/10 IGN 7.3/10 OPM (AU) 7/10 OXM 7.5/10 TeamXbox 8.1/10 X-Play 3/5

The Bourne Conspiracy has received mixed, but mostly positive reviews. IGN praised the hand-to-hand combat and story, but criticized the shooting and driving mechanics and camera angles hampering the gameplay. X-Play, G4TV's game review show, gave it a 3 out of 5, also praising the hand-to-hand combat but criticizing the shooting and driving mechanics, short game length, and problems with the camera. GameSpot nominated the game as one of the most surprisingly good games of 2008, but it lost to Air Traffic Chaos, a game for Nintendo DS, and "Best Boss Fights" where it lost to Metal Gear Solid 4.

External links

• Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy at IMDb