In 1963, when I was 15 years old, the buzz was Ian Fleming’s James
Bond. In 1962, the James Bond movie Dr. No was a smash hit. Even
John F. Kennedy stated that From Russia with Love was one of his
top ten favorite novels. On 20 November 1963 the last movie John
F Kennedy saw before his death was the 1963 movie adaptation of this
Ian Fleming novel. The US release of the movie was delayed until
the spring of 1964 due to the political climate in the USA following
the Kennedy
assassination.

Also in 1963, my father came home with a 1963 beige LeSabre Buick
with a 425 cubic inch engine, custom built suspension, and woven
vinyl interior bench seats that could not have been purchased off
the lot at Capaletti Buick in Alexandria, Virginia – even though
he said it was. The 1963 Buick was never beaten in a drag race until
it was stopped in a road block in 1970 by the Maryland State Police
wielding .44 caliber magnums, but that is another story.

In 1964, I was 16 years old with a new driver’s license, and I drove
the other family car, a white 1955 Chevrolet with royal blue vinyl
bench seats into Washington DC to see From Russia with Love at the
movie theatre just east of the White House. I parked in front of
the Department of the Treasury on 15th street, walked across the
street and entered the movie theatre.

I sat in the front of
the balcony of the old theatre and studied the intricate designs
of sculpted plaster hanging down the walls
and ceiling as I waited for the film to start. The first sequence
of the film came before the credits for the first time in a James
Bond film. It was the scene where Donald ‘Red’ Grant, played by Robert
Shaw, kills the look-a-like Bond. ‘Exactly one minute, fifty-two
seconds. That’s excellent,” says Morzeny, played by Walter Gotell
in several of the Bond films.

That day, in the summer of 1964, I became a fan. I have read all
the James Bond novels and seen all the James Bond movies. I am not
the kind of fan who consciously memorizes all the scripts, but at
certain points, when I re-watch the movies or re-read the novels,
I find myself mouthing the words just a hair second before they are
spoken or appear in text.

The novel From Russia
with Love, published in 1957, was the fifth James Bond novel
published in as many years. From 1953 to 1966, Ian
Fleming would publish a book a year, totaling thirteen books: two
collections of short stories (totaling eight short stories) and eleven
novels. Fleming actually wrote the books in his Jamaican Goldeneye
retreat from January to March each year from 1952 until his death
on August 12, 1964. Two of the Fleming books, For Your Eyes Only and Octopussy (also
titled “Octopussy and the Living Daylights”)
were collections of five and three short stories respectively (note:
the earlier English versions of Octopussy had only two short stories;
the third short story was added to later editions.)

The funny thing is that
the James Bond movies almost never happened. There has been a running
lawsuit concerning the rights of the “cinematic
Bond” almost since the beginning. In 1954, Ian Fleming first
sold the rights to his first book, Casino Royale, published in 1953,
to CBS for the paltry sum of $1000. CBS ran a television movie in
1954 and later sold the rights for the 1967 spoof movie featuring
Peter Sellers, David Niven, Woody Allen, and Ursula Andress. The
film is a flawed illogical sequence of seemingly unrelated scenes,
since Peter Sellers never finished filming his part in the movie.
Ironically, Fleming had wanted David Niven or Roger Moore to play
the part of Bond in the Broccoli Bond movies.

In 1959, Ian Fleming started
working with his ‘friends,” Kevin
McClory and Jack Whittingham, on his next book, which was being written
to facilitate translation to the cinema. Fleming had a gentlemen’s
agreement with his ‘friends” that the book would be his and
that the movie would beong to all of them. After working on the screenplay
with McClory and Whitingham, Fleming retired to his Golden Eye retreat
in Jamaca to write his annual James Bond novel, Thunderball, and
the eighth James Bond novel was published in 1961. It took about
two years for the Golden Eye written novel to be published. Later
that year, on March 31, 1961, Fleming’s ‘friends,” McClory and
Whittingham, sued Fleming for breach of copyrights, breach of confidence,
conversion, breach of contract, false representation of authorship,
and slander of title, even though all McClory and Whittingham did
was write a movie script on an idea that was conceived by Fleming,
McClory and Whittingham based on Fleming’s characters. Without Fleming’s
flair, wit, formula, and intimate knowledge and experience in the
British Secret Service during the war and his ‘Special Services” to
General William ‘Wild Bill” Donovan, there would have been no
James Bond or Thunderball.

McClory and Whittingham had been clever. Instead of using the Fleming
coined SMERSH crime organization, the Whittingham script used SPECTRE,
which the two co-authors claimed that they had invented. Fleming
had foolishly used the term SPECTRE in the novel version of Thunderball.
Fleming lost any and all rights to the screenplay, SPECTRE, and the
character Ernst Stavro Blofeld in a court decision on December 9,
1963. Fleming did not live out the year and died eight months after
publicly apologizing for his actions in accordance with the court
order.

Blofeld appears in many James Bond novels (Thunderball 1961, On
Her Magesty’s Secret Service 1963, and You Only Live Twice 1964)
in spite of the ongoing lawsuit. It is unfathomable that Fleming
is known to have encouraged the two authors to file the lawsuit to
insure that they would be able to do the Thunderball screenplay in
spite of Fleming’s 1961 deal with Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman
(EON). The EON production company has produced 20 James Bond films
and is expected to produce Casino Royale for 2006 release.

Many lawsuits have been
filed to secure rights to the ‘cinematic James Bond” for McClory, Whittingham, and other production houses,
such as SONY, Warner Brothers, and others. EON further complicated
things by incorporating SPECTRE into the movie Dr. No. Over the years
many of the times when James Bond movies did not come out yearly,
it was not because of lack of interest, but due to the rights being
tied up in court. McClory and Whittingham produced ‘Never Say Never
Again” with Sean Connery in the lead role in 1983 and hoped
to do a sequel ‘Warhead 2000 AD,” but a counter lawsuit prevented
them from beginning production on the script.

While the future of the James Bond films seems somewhat uncertain
even today, the future of James Bond games is bright. The original
James Bond, Sean Connery, who was selected for the role after performing
in Disney’s Darby O’Gill and the Little People, is back. Sean Connery’s
voice is featured in the game. To our knowledge this is the first
time that Connery’s voice has appeared in a game.

While we are discussing voices and the cyber representations of
actors, or Idoru, as coined by noted Science Fiction author William
Gibson, we should mention that archival footage from the film is
being used for both voice and cinematic sequences, and help tell
the story. The cast and voice actors are the most remarkable things
about this game.

The cast of this game
is a very notable one and features some dead actors, who have completed
their roles posthumously, such as Robert
Shaw, Bernard Lee as ‘M”, and Desmond Llewelyn as Major Boothroyd,
codenamed Q. The original cast also included (in original order of
the credits) Daniela Bianchi as Tatiana Romanova, Pedro Armendiariz
as Ali Kerim Bey, Lotta Lenya as Rosa Klebb, Eunice Gayson as Sylvia
Trench, Francis De Wolff as Vavra, the Gypsy Leader, George Pastell
as Train Conductor, Nadja Regin as Kerim’s Girl, Lois Maxwell as
Miss Moneypenny, Aliza Gur as Vida, Martine Beswick as Zora, Vladek
Sheybal as Kronstein, and Fred Haggerty as Krilencu. Even archival
footage of Gert Frobe, who played Auric Goldfinger in Goldfinger,
and Joseph Wiseman, who played Dr. No, in the movie of the same name
is used in the game.

New people were cast for the voice work of actors who were no longer
available, including J. B. Blanc as Karim Bey, Natasha Bedingfield
as Elizabeth Stark, David Anthony Pizzuto as Octopus Commando and
Radio Voice, Phil Proctor as the voice of Q, Peter Reneday as the
voice of M, Karly Rothenberg as Rosa Klebb, Miss Moneypenny, and
various party guests, to name some of the game voice cast. The game
uses archival footage from the film for the cut scenes that separate
the fourteen action adventure missions and four secret missions in
the game. Most of the action sequences, with the notable exception
of the boat chase from the film, never actually happened in the movie
version of the Fleming novel.

When we think of Bond we think of gadgets, even though Ian Fleming’s
books have no real gadgets. Fleming’s Bond drove a vintage Bentley,
not an Aston Martin DB5 as in the films. Even the film briefcase
gadget with exploding talcum powder, gold crowns, and pop out combat
knife has been converted to an automated machine gun turret. The
game includes gadgets never used in the movie: the Aston Marin, Q-Armor,
Rappel Gadget, Q-Copter, Sonic Cufflinks, Serum Gun, Laser Watch,
Briefcase Turret, Jet Pack, Gas Mask, and Armored Buggy, none of
which appeared in the original film. The Q-copter is used to enter
ventilation ducts and open locked doors or destroy panels by exploding
inside the locked room.

The Aston Martin first appeared in the Goldfinger film, and was
not seen in earlier the Bond films, From Russia with Love and Dr.
No. The Aston Martin was created for the Bond films and never appeared
in a Fleming Bond novel. The car is used extensively in the game,
in four of the 14 missions and none of the four secret missions.
The Aston Martin sees action in a car battle from the airport to
the embassy in mission 3, driving around Istanbul in mission 5, driving
to the train station in mission 10, and driving to the docks and
patrol boat in mission 13. The driving missions are fun, and the
control of the car using the controller takes a little getting used
to. I always felt a bit out of control using the PS2 controller.
There is no support for car wheel and or foot pedals.

Two missions use the Bell
Textron Jet pack that Bond first used in the pre credits sequence
in the film Thunderball to escape from
a French Chateau after killing Jacques Boiter. After using the pack
it is put into the boot of the Aston Martin. The pack is an invention
of Bell Labs, who make the Bell helicopters. The pack from the film
is stored at Q Section and was seen again in ‘Die Another Day,” where
Q makes some improvements. The game jet pack is an invention of Octopus,
perhaps based on a Russian design, and Bond has to steal it. The
game jet pack is fitted with machine guns and rockets.

Bond game tactics include
crouch, lean out from the wall cover, Bond focus for shooting at
specific body areas, and a lock-on button
that reduces the need to aim weapons, except when using the bazooka
or the sniper rifle. Since the missions are timed, you will not be
able to sneak around and fulfill the mission goals by stealth, except
at the lowest difficulty level, where the timed mission goal is not
needed to successfully complete missions. The game was designed as
a ‘run and gun” type affair, without the refinement of nooks
and crannies to look into.

The game designers do
give some importance to investigation. If you ‘search” ‘active” file
cabinets and furniture, you can find additional ammunition and
research points that you can spend
on upgrades. You can upgrade the ammo capacity of clips by 50%, increase
the amount of ammunition and special ammunition that Bond can carry
by 50%, increase Bond’s speed by 25%, the damage capacity of Q-Armor,
and a Silenced PP7 for stealth. Each upgrade is weapon specific,
and certain weapons benefit more from the upgrades. The Bosch shotgun
is much more effective, with an increase in ammo capacity, reducing
time to reload in combat.

The third-person shooter
has been particularly well received, with the Bond series Golden
Eye (1997), and ‘Everything or Nothing (2004).” One
of the most successful third-person shooters is Splinter Cell with
Sam Fisher. The majority of the missions in From Russia with
Love are ‘run and gun” third-person perspective shooter missions.
You work against the clock. One of your goals is to get four awards
for disables, time, Bond moment, and difficulty. It is virtually
impossible to get all the awards on the same mission, so the awards
are cumulative on each mission. Once you get an award and save the
game, the award remains on the mission, and new awards are added
as you achieve them in subsequent reruns of the same mission. Cumulative
mission awards made me feel like I was accomplishing something each
time I replayed a mission and added to the replay value. Disables
award is for dispatching a certain magic number of enemies. Time
award is by completing the mission within the minimum mission time
on the running clock.

A Bond moment is a specifically scripted part of a mission unique
to that mission. Instead of shooting all the guys standing next to
the 55-gallon drums of gasoline in the Hedgemaze, shoot the gasoline
drums and let all the men surrounding the drums die in one big Bond
explosion. In the first mission, if you take out the helicopter quickly,
you are awarded a Bond moment. Enter a secret room in the storage
area with the Q-Copter in mission 6, The Underground, and use Q-Copter
to enter the Kitchen area in mission 7, Gypsy Camp.

A Bond move that yields
skill points is achieved by taking out an enemy in a Bond way.
Skill points help unlock extras and upgrades.
Instead of shooting the guy on the rope, shoot the rope and cause
him to fall. The difficulty award can only be earned on the highest
00 Agent difficulty level. To unlock all four single-player secret
missions, you must complete nine missions at the 00 Agent difficulty
level. Some of the extras you can unlock with the skill points you
rack up with Bond Moments include a making-the-game sequence with
Sean Connery, the Bond girls in the ‘From Russia With Love” the
game, a behind-the-scenes making of the game, 6 trailers, and 6 groups
of concept art for the game.

Most shooters have a plethora
of weapons that you can use and unlock, and ‘From Russia With Love” is
no different, with 15 weapons. The weapons include PP7 (silenced),
Kronen SMG, Bosch Shotgun, Assault
Rifle, Sniper Rifle, Wright Magnum revolver, Armor Piercing Rifle,
Bazooka, Grenade, Bare Hands, Laser Watch, Serum Gun, Briefcase Turret,
Q-Copter (explodes) and Sonic Cufflinks. Don’t forget the Aston Martin
and Jet pack have their own weapons complement.

One neat thing to do in the game is to dress Bond for the occasion,
and, no doubt about it, Sean Connery looks best in his Formal Dinner
Suit. Hidden in plain sight, the formal dinner suit is found by searching
filing cabinets. Once you get it you can dress formal for all James’
outings, and look your best while killing baddies. Never fear – the
blood spatter does not get on your pristine white jacket. You can
also find a covert uniform and a classic black tuxedo, in addition
to the white dinner jacket, which you can wear instead of the Bond
suit Connery appears in normally.

Bond Focus is by far the
neatest thing added to this Bond game in the way of tactics. When
you activate Bond Focus, it allows you to
target specific body parts or special areas on the target. If you
are shooting someone carrying grenades, one of the targeting circles
allows you to aim at the grenades. Shooting grenades on an enemy’s
belt is far more Bond than the mundane shooting of someone in the
chest or head. Head shots can kill more quickly, and are alternative
aiming locations. The Bond focus points out the the “hot spots” on
the enemy that will stun or kill.

It would have been nice if Bond Focus had slowed time, giving you
a time advantage over your enemies, allowing you to shoot them before
they can react. I believe that slow motion combat sequences were
first used in Max Paine. Another good example of a contemporary game
that uses them is Gun, by Neversoft and Activision. Many combat veterans
known for their skill in battle have mentioned experiencing time
dilation effect in combat. The time dilation, where time appeared
to slow, gave these combat aces an advantage over their enemies.

The music is based on the excellent original John Barry score, with
some new compositions thrown in. John Barry’s music is what you hear
blasting out of the speakers in the gun barrel sequence that was
so popular that it appears at the beginning of most all Bond films.
It was one of the most exciting things to hear in the game for me,
too.

Multiplayer is for up to four players, with player profiles that
you can save. You can have teams with more than two players. The
game can be based upon a score limit or a time limit. Sadly, the
multiplayer is player vs. player and not players vs. the game. Families
like to play with each other in the play-together-against-the-box
mode, if done correctly. The original Atari and Arcade multiplayer
split-screen version of Gauntlet was extremely popular with families.
The PS2 multiplayer is split screen, and unfortunately you cannot
link PS2s together to play the game like a LAN party, with everyone
on their own machine.

The multiplayer game types are three: classic, sabotage, and dogfight.
The dogfight everyone-against-everyone and player-vs.-player classic
types of play are pretty standard. Sabotage is based upon capture
the flag with a twist. In sabotage you need to disarm bombs in your
own base and sneak into your opponent’s base to set bombs. This is
a unique style of multiplayer play that I particularly liked.

The Survival Royal mode allows you to play up to 16 rounds of play
with upgrades, research, a money round, separate rules for each round,
and 15 power-ups. Survival Royal mode is a popular and unique multiplayer
rule set. Some levels of Survival Royal offer a special weapon, not
available in the regular game. The radioactive gun drains nearly
all the health of your opponent so that one shot from any weapon
can dispatch them.

Perhaps it is just my love of nostalgia. Perhaps I am just a James
Bond freak. I loved this game, even when it frustrated my efforts
to complete it to the point of putting it down for days until I could
return with a fresh perspective. I would have preferred the old graphic
adventure style of game with this subject, cast, and technical graphics
engine. Unfortunately, in life you can’t have everything. I highly
recommend buying the wide screen version of the film and watching
it while playing the game.

Final Grade: B
(find out more about our
grading system)