You’d think that James Bond, what with being an international super-spy and all, would be the subject of more stealth-based games. But most of his past forays into interactive entertainment have erred more towards the “shooter” end of the spectrum.
No longer, though, as Activision-owned Raven Software are reported to be working on a “stealth-centric” Bond game, according to Bond fansite MI6 and Develop. The game had apparently been given to the studio some months back. It had, however, been placed on hiatus while Activision had part of the team working on Singularity and later Black Ops DLC. The project was also put on hold around the time that MGM were suffering some pretty severe financial troubles. Following MGM’s bankruptcy plan having been approved by the courts, though, it appears the project has been taken out of the cooler and is back on its way to the public.
There are no details about the new game as yet, save the fact that it is supposedly centred around stealthy gameplay rather than bombastic shooter action. It should be an interesting and fresh new approach to the franchise.
Recent Bond games have had a somewhat mixed response. Goldeneye 007 for Wii has enjoyed good reviews and a bit of rose-tinted nostalgia, though some have criticized it as being something of a Call of Duty imitator. Bizarre Creations’ Blood Stone, on the other hand, suffered poor sales and mediocre reviews, playing a part in Activision’s decision to close and/or sell of the studio—a situation which still isn’t resolved.
Raven have a great track record, having worked with developers such as id Software and Activision for many years. Both Wolfenstein and Singularity have hopefully allowed them to prove their worth to Activision. Let’s hope this proposed new Bond game doesn’t end up being their “kiss of death” like it was for Bizarre.
Since the project was put on hiatus for around six months, conservative estimates suggest we won’t see anything about the new game until around this time next year.
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