Bond games have come and gone over the years with few shining stars. Goldeneye back on the N64 and recently Goldeneye 007 on the Wii stand out from the pack, but most games on non-Nintendo consoles just haven’t lived up the franchise’s namesake. Bizarre Creations, of Project Gotham Racing and Geometry Wars fame, took the reigns in the latest Bond experience, 007: Blood Stone. While the graphics, sound, and controls live up the hype, the game doesn’t deliver where it counts.

007: Blood Stone is easily the best looking Bond game to date. Main character likenesses from Daniel Craig, Judi Dench and Joss Stone are recreated with precision, while environments and secondary characters look great as well. The story is grittier, in a similar vein as Goldeneye 007, and feels a lot like Splinter Cell: Conviction. The controls and mark-and-execute style from Ubisoft’s spy game have been ported over here, but toned down to make everything simpler. Dubbed Focus Aim, you can bank up to three auto-aimed shots by performing takedowns on opponents, which happens entirely too easily in the game. You can seemingly run into a firefight just to go for takedowns unless your foe is equipped with a shotgun, making you feel invincible. I’m not saying the game needs Call of Duty-like single shot kills, but taking a full clip to go for a takedown really removes you from the Bond experience. The enemy AI isn’t terrific anyway, so just blasting your way through will suffice. On that note, I didn’t feel as much like James Bond in this game as previous games. No special gadgets were present and I didn’t hear the famous theme music until the end of the campaign. The latest Bond car, the Aston Martin DB5, did make an appearance, so car lovers should take note. Bizarre Creations knows how to make a damn good driving game, so as you expect, the vehicle sequences work well.

The story doesn’t ever feel like it wraps up in Blood Stone, making the roughly six hour single player campaign feel disjointed, especially with the lack of Bond-esque gadgets and gizmos. Once you get past that, the game’s multiplayer leaves little to be desired. Your standard Team Deathmatch and Objective modes are there, with a Last Man Standing addition that’s similar to offerings in many other shooters these days. You can level your character up and unlock new character skins, but there’s little reward or incentive here. You’re better served by picking up Call of Duty: Black Ops, Halo: Reach, or one of the other quality online shooters on the market.

I had high hopes for 007: Blood Stone after playing the very high quality Goldeneye 007 on the Wii. The game comes close, but falls short due to very poor enemy AI and a disjointed story that doesn’t make you feel like James Bond. It’s worth a rental for Bond fans, but that’s about all. One day we’ll get another great Bond game. Today isn’t that day.

[A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for review purposes.]