As much as I appreciated the way 2002’s The Bourne Identity restored some of the seriousness to international espionage that the James Bond franchise had been frittering away for so many years, anyone who called it a “thinking man’s action movie” was just covering for the fact that they loved watching Matt Damon outrun Parisian cops in a beat-up Mini Cooper and stick pens in dudes’ hands. Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Conspiracy doesn’t feature any of the actors from the film, instead replacing them with a cast of similarly stern-faced CG models and studio soundalikes, but it ably captures the feel of the first Bourne film, recreating a number of its memorable action set pieces. It can be a viscerally enjoyable experience, though it’s also a fleeting experience that, unlike the movie, offers little reason to come back to it.
What The Bourne Conspiracy lacks in coherent, compelling storytelling, though, it makes up for with the kind of calculated brutality that has been a defining characteristic of the Bourne movies. The gameplay generally alternates between a Gears-of-War-style third-person shooter and a simple one-on-one brawler, with loads of interactive cinematic sequences peppered throughout. Many of the best moments in The Bourne Conspiracy come courtesy of the adrenaline meter, which fills as you punch/shoot dudes in the face, and basically allows you to automatically take out an enemy while enjoying a quick brutal cinematic moment. These takedowns can look awesome, with Jason often improvising with objects in the environment or using an enemy’s own weapons against him, though they also start repeating pretty quickly. They also take much of the challenge out of the game–virtually any time there’s too much heat, you can just press B and watch Bourne execute his enemies with extreme prejudice, which is symptomatic of the game’s tendency to take control away from the player during its best moments.
The general lack of depth in The Bourne Conspiracy is made somewhat forgivable by its great-looking visuals, with snappy animations that really help sell a lot of the close-quarters action; nicely detailed environments that are filled with destructible bits; and lots of really sharp elemental effects like fire and rain. It has some problems, too, such as some gritty skin textures, and there’s a persistent problem of textures taking far too long to pop in.
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.
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