Blood Stone Appreciation

124

Comments

  • doubleoegodoubleoego #LightWork
    Posts: 11,139
    Blood stone was a great Bond hand in principle but the story led to nowhere and there were signs of cutting corners in the game's production. Still, a very enjoyable Bond game and is a testament that we can still hope for a remarkable Bond game.
  • TigerTanakaTigerTanaka Welcome to Japan, Mr. Bond
    Posts: 50
    538579-007-blood-stone-xbox-360-screenshot-arriving-in-istanbul-in.jpg

    That doesn't look anything like an olive green jacket to me. :-/

    No it doesn't :P Color scheme's pretty close though :)
    FYEO_costume.jpg
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    538579-007-blood-stone-xbox-360-screenshot-arriving-in-istanbul-in.jpg

    That doesn't look anything like an olive green jacket to me. :-/

    No it doesn't :P Color scheme's pretty close though :)
    FYEO_costume.jpg

    I see just see a gray sweater and a light green jacket, to be frank. I think it's the lighting of the game that makes you sometimes think the sweater is green. Anyway, it's all quite trivial.

    Of course, this is all coming from a guy who obsesses over the Prince of Wales gray three-piece suit Sean wears in GF, but everyone should embrace their inner hypocrisy once in a good while. ;)
  • ClarkDevlinClarkDevlin Martinis, Girls and Guns
    Posts: 15,423


    Alternate song, which I do love for the better.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy My Secret Lair
    Posts: 13,384
    I wish an actual Bond film would once again used a Big Ballad,
    with lots of Brass from the orchestra :D
  • ClarkDevlinClarkDevlin Martinis, Girls and Guns
    Posts: 15,423
    I wish an actual Bond film would once again used a Big Ballad,
    with lots of Brass from the orchestra :D
    Oh yes! :D
  • ClarkDevlinClarkDevlin Martinis, Girls and Guns
    edited August 2017 Posts: 15,423
    Just stumbled across some concept arts.

    tVGG_12866.jpg
    Oil Refinery
    tVGG_12865.jpg
    Monaco Casino
    tVGG_12863.jpg
    Mercenary Camp
    tVGG_12864.jpg
    Monaco Highway
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    Istanbul Construction Site
    tVGG_12862.jpg
    Istanbul Ephesus Amphitheatre
    tVGG_12859.jpg
    Bangkok Warehouse
    tVGG_12860.jpg
    Burmese Dam

    And of course. Our dear Nicole Hunter.

    tVGG_12858.jpg
  • Agent007391Agent007391 Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
    edited August 2017 Posts: 7,854
    tVGG_12863.jpg
    Mercenary Camp

    I didn't know a trip to Jurassic Park was planned at some point.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,256
    Seening those pics makes me want to play the game again.
  • Bloodstone had its moments. I liked the takedowns and the driving missions, and a couple of levels were actually fairly memorable concepts.

    My main problem with it is that it's clearly influenced by QoS in the same way that EON was influenced by DAD. The "gritty" but endlessly convoluted plot, the pretentious looking title cards over the locations, and the fact that it doesn't feel like James Bond most of the time. And QoS is my least favourite Bond film so that influence really puts me off. Plus, what made Nightfire and (to a lesser extent) EON really special was the little touches that made it feel like you were playing through a James Bond film. But QoS barely felt like a Bond film itself, and because Bloodstone came out after that but before SF, the developers must have thought that there was no need for any of those little touches because the films didn't even have them anymore. So it's a lot more generic feeling. Ripping of Splinter Cell probably didn't help with that either.

    And when there is a hint of something Bondanian (e.g. the casino) it quickly devolves into more mindless action. The other Bond games had the problem of action overload too but the best of them made it work. In The Exchange in Nightfire for example you arrive at the castle, take off the combat gear to reveal a tuxedo underneath, wander round a fancy looking party, meet your contacts (two female agents that Bond has slept with on seperate occasions), spy on the villain's meeting, break into the villain's safe with your watch laser to get the mcguffin, rescue one of those agents then escape in a cable car which breaks down and then you have to shoot down a helicopter and in the final cutscene Bond escapes by ziplining down a cable car wire. It's perfect because you have choice in how to approach it (there are so many routes and options, the break in can be either a massive gunfight or a stealthy infiltration) and even though you can basically boil it down to shooting people over and over, it still feels very James Bond. In Bloodstone on the other hand you arrive at the villain's factory, walk around some linear corridors hacking stuff with your phone then run out of the corridors down a linear path killing lots of people on the way. That's basically almost level in the game. Heading down one straight path killing people over and over, maybe with a bit of hacking. Even when you're in a potentially very James Bondish scenario like the casino, that's all you end up doing. There are a few levels that break that up (like the parkour chase) but they're few and far between and even when there is variety it still doesn't do much to feel like a Bond game rather than a generic action game. Most of the time you don't even feel like a spy at all, never mind James Bond.

    Still though, not the worst one. I would've definitely taken a sequel instead of what we got (a load of shit then nothing). That's another thing I didn't like, the weird ending and the cliffhanger. They were going for drama/angst because that's what they thought the films were headed down after QoS but I didn't care about Nicole at all and it was hard to be properly gripped and emotionally invested Daniel Craig sounded like he couldn't be arsed at all (Brosnan was just as bad in EON but at least the material there wasn't anything heavy/dramatic, it's more noticeable that you're phoning it in when the script requires you to properly act). At least now with SP we can just assume she was talking about Blofeld.
  • ClarkDevlinClarkDevlin Martinis, Girls and Guns
    Posts: 15,423
    tVGG_12863.jpg
    Mercenary Camp

    I didn't know a trip to Jurassic Park was planned at some point.
    @Agent007391, there's more to it than meets the eye. ;)
    Tq5E1Gm.jpg
  • 00Agent00Agent Any man who drinks Dom Perignon '52 can't be all bad.
    edited August 2017 Posts: 5,185
    I like Blood Stone more and more every time i play it. Add to that the fact that we probably won't have another game for years.

    It sure isn't perfect. It lacks a couple month of polish. The gameplay lacks some final punch, especially the Shooting. And the guns Sound very thin (always bothered me). Its feels a bit flat and uninspired at times. But i do enjoy a lot about it. The story works well, it trully does feel like a Quantum sequel and it sits nicelly in between QoS and SF. BS actually makes it a bit more believable to have Craig be an "old veteran" at the beginning of SF. Also for me there is no doubt about its place in Craigs continuity (Nicole Hunter was Blofelds mistress just say it EoN goddamnit!!! :D that would be really cool)

    The locations are mostly very good. I love the driving Levels (those are the ones i replay all the time) and the PTS to me is the best in Bond gaming, even one of the best in the whole franchise
  • edited August 2017 Posts: 12,837
    Ohhh yeah I'd forgotten about the PTS but it is brilliant. Best of the Bond games for sure. And it does fit into the the rest of the Craig era quite nicely after the Blofeld reveal. Obviously they'd never acknowledge it in the films but it's nice to know that us fans can count it as an official story without it sticking out despite the Craig films being so continuity heavy/linked.

    Which of the video games do you all count as taking place during the film series? For me EON and Bloodstone are the only ones. Nightfire I wish I could count and of course it has Brosnan's likeness but is still clearly set in the AUF universe. It's as if there was a series of rival Bond films and they decided to cast a Brosnan look alike to try and win more fans over. The only other one that could count is the Craig GE remake and I refuse to count that.
  • Agent007391Agent007391 Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
    Posts: 7,854
    I do count the Craig GE as canon to the films, alongside BS. Personal headcanon puts BS before GE, for some reason (feels better, I guess).

    EoN is also Brosnan's final film and I'll never believe otherwise.
  • BMW_with_missilesBMW_with_missiles All the usual refinements.
    Posts: 3,000
    Awesome concept art @ClarkDevlin ! I was mentally oohing at each one of them.
  • I disliked the story, but the game mechanics were very good, they were very similar to FRWL.
  • CASINOROYALECASINOROYALE Somewhere hot
    Posts: 1,003
    I have played GE, NF, FRWL, EON and AUF. Still say NF is my favorite. Multiplayer never gets old, the levels are also very entertaining.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,256
    I have at last, after many years, managed to get BS to work again on the my latest OS. Can't express how thrilled I am. Still my favourite Bond game.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    As a Craig acolyte, I have a lot of appreciation for Blood Stone. I wish the combat was a bit more fine tuned, but on the whole there's so much I enjoy about it. I loved how many levels showed Bond on the ground investigating his surroundings before things got intense. You truly felt like a spy, blending in and figuring out what you needed to do before stepping into the line of fire. I loved the quiet moments of Bond chilling out at a party in full tux before he got to work, or strolling around a European street trying to find the best way to a mission objective. It is about as close as a modern Bond game got to having those cool little "Bond moments" seen in the EA Bond games, which I appreciated. Being Bond, and feeling like Bond as you play a game, isn't just about the combat and craziness when you-know-what hits the fan. It's also about the stiller moments where you are enjoying the surroundings around you and keeping your eyes peeled for avenues of opportunity. The action/inaction, passive/active experience of being 007. Hopefully IO keep this kind of thing in mind as they build their own Bond game.
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,593
    I'm still sad that I owned this game, didn't really play it, and then sold it off along with my old Xbox. The idiocy.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,256
    I like that we hear Craig and Dench, and play as Craig's Bond pre-SF, as the guy who tosses car keys away like he just doesn't care. I also love the car driving in the game and the cool locations. While Activision produced their Bond games with minimal variety in moves and tricks, to "be" Craig's Bond for a few hours is fun enough in itself. Fierstein's story for BS is simple but perfectly adequate. It's a video game, after all, not a film, and few games have ever managed to do what Max Payne accomplished: to offer many thrills in unique locations and with a solid, layered narrative. Overall, BS was unfairly criticized I think. It is still a much better game than (the PC version of) NightFire IMO, and also better than Quantum Of Solace the game. I like to think of BS as the third Craig Bond adventure, set between QOS and SF. I wish we could have gotten the planned sequel, Risico. Either way, BS is my favourite Bond game so far.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    It's definitely up there. It's definitely the best Bond anything we've gotten in that space in the last decade and change, though it's not like that says all that much.

    I have always been a bigger proponent and supporter of 3rd person games, so I enjoy any Bond game in that style. Have never, and will never, get on the 1st person train. Can't stand FP games, as they more often than not feel stiffer than hell and I only feel like I'm a camera with legs, not an actual living character. I like to see my character in full view, see them as they move and interact. I have never been immersed by a first person game in a way that justifies that kind of viewpoint. It's a shame so many old Bond games leaned into first person shooting, which is why I love all the ones that went 3rd person all the more.
  • Last_Rat_StandingLast_Rat_Standing Long Neck Ice Cold Beer Never Broke My Heart
    Posts: 4,600


    I always enjoyed this version. A small Craig mini movie of Bloodstone that takes a lot of the gameplay out, but leaves enough action and cut scenes that allow it to feel like a movie. Well as much as a game could
  • SecretAgentMan⁰⁰⁷SecretAgentMan⁰⁰⁷ Lekki, Lagos, Nigeria
    Posts: 2,186
    The game is so good, that it could easily be the Bond film Craig made after QoS before SF. Also, I've always loved Richard Jacques' score. It's so Bond in the style of David Arnold. Most times, I just leave the menu & options music to play.
  • DenbighDenbigh UK
    edited November 2022 Posts: 5,970
    I loved the game but I always remember thinking that the ending reveal comes at a detriment to the story.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,256
    Denbigh wrote: »
    I loved the game but I always remember thinking that the ending reveal comes at a detriment to the story.

    Fair enough. It was highly predictable too.
  • DenbighDenbigh UK
    Posts: 5,970
    DarthDimi wrote: »
    Denbigh wrote: »
    I loved the game but I always remember thinking that the ending reveal comes at a detriment to the story.

    Fair enough. It was highly predictable too.
    Yeah. I just feel it affected the structure of everything so it became quite repetitive in being led to this villain taking them out and then being led to another villain.
  • MajorDSmytheMajorDSmythe "I tolerate this century, but I don't enjoy it."Moderator
    Posts: 13,999
    The driving missions was where Bloodstone really came into it's own. That last mission was a white knuckle chase.
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,593
    Seems like there are reasonably priced used copies of Blood Stone on eBay; might pick one up. I'll walk by my local used games pawn shop to see if one's popped up there, but otherwise will just go the eBay route. You've all convinced me this is a must-play.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    Denbigh wrote: »
    DarthDimi wrote: »
    Denbigh wrote: »
    I loved the game but I always remember thinking that the ending reveal comes at a detriment to the story.

    Fair enough. It was highly predictable too.
    Yeah. I just feel it affected the structure of everything so it became quite repetitive in being led to this villain taking them out and then being led to another villain.

    It retrospect though, the ending does have a cool ominous energy about it knowing what we do now about Quantum/SPECTRE later in the Craig era. Nowadays I like to view it as a tease of Blofeld before Blofeld was in the cards.
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