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James Bond, once the face of the first-person shooter, is now a free agent. And no one seems to want him back.
Franchises and licenses in video games get left behind for a variety of reasons. Maybe a particular genre that a character represents isn't in fashion anymore (Crash Bandicoot). Perhaps the developer shifts its priorities or gets shut down, leaving a series in limbo (TimeSplitters). Then again, maybe people are just freaking sick of seeing it (Guitar Hero).
Whatever the reason may be, one character whose absence from the world of video games I can't seem to wrap my head around is James Bond. I'm not saying that 007 has outright been absent from video games, but he hasn't made much of an impact in the last five years or so due to a series of mediocre outings, which amounted to little more than failed experiments and Call of Duty clones that turned the international spy into a mass murderer. Not exactly the character we adore in the movies or books.
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The good news is that Activision recently announced that they are backing away from the James Bond 007 license. Now, there's a good chance that MI6's star agent could get rebooted, which, if exciting, wouldn't be particularly surprising, since series are all the rage these days.
Video games as a whole are undergoing a great transformation. More and more games allow you to opt out of violence. The indie scene is blowing up. More attention is being paid to narrative than ever before. Now that the license is back out in the wild, James Bond 007 is ripe for transformation.
Some of the greatest inspiration for a new era of Bond games could, ironically enough, come from the same movies that led to some of the Bond game's most uninspired projects. Though no games were ever made under the name Casino Royale, it is no doubt the movie that influenced the more recent Bond games the most.
Gadgetry was no longer the focus in the movies, and was almost nowhere to be seen in the games, either. It was these quirky tools that set earlier Bond games, such as Everything or Nothing, Agent Under Fire, and Nightfire apart from other first-person shooters (seriously, you could use a shaver to take down your enemies...). Once these were gone, there wasn't much left to make Bond...well...Bond where the games were concerned. Instead, we got Bond on rails, carrying an assault rifle into a crowded room full of enemies, and red explosive barrels.
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Games such as Titanfall and Killzone: Shadowfall have shown us that gadgets need not be strictly contextual. Titanfall's Titans are incredibly flexible and Shadowfall's intriguing OWL gadget let players shoot a zipline just about anywhere they please. If gadgets make a return, they should not be applied in a rigid fashion. I want my exploding pen and shaver kit back.
Stealth is also a much more integral part of first-person shooters than it used to be. Far Cry 3, Dishonored, Wolfenstein: The New Order, for example, allow you to observe before shooting, and you can opt not to shoot, stab, skewer, or otherwise maim at all. Shouldn't secret agents, you know, keep things as clean as possible?
It almost goes without saying that players should be offered non-violent, stealthier ways to play, which Bond has always opted for when he could help it. Dishonored, Deus Ex, and The Last of Us all allowed players to slink through areas without killing anyone. While Bond has done this as often as fate would allow it in the movies, this has never really been an option in his games. Anyone familiar with Bond only as a movie character would likely find it strange that they are doing far less spying and far more shooting with the controller.
The problem isn't the source material. Bond changed on the big screen, and that's a good thing. Some of the same changes would to the video game franchises. Skyfall, Quantum of Solace, and Casino Royalefocused more on Bond's character and psyche than any Bond before it. There was far less, while at the same time far more brutal, violence in these movies, bringing the act of killing into the cold light of day as a very ugly thing, something I have argued needs to be injected into shooters. Finally, the consequences of Bond's actions were almost always at the forefront.
What happened when Bond fell in love? He let his guard down. When he abandoned MI6? Well, the bad guys blew up MI6. Today's Bond is a man with flaws.
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I envision a Bond game that aspires to tell a story - with a focus on character, a decent dose of femmes and femme fatales, and particular attention to the consequences of committing acts of violence. What happens when 007 massacres a bunch of people and blows up half a country? He is put on rogue status, forcing him to flee from both his enemies and MI6 agents. THAT's a game I'd pay to play.
Telltale Games' Kevin Bruner recently commented that he would be interested in making a Bond game that focuses more on intrigue and espionage rather than balls-to-the-wall action, and I couldn't agree more. While I can't say that I want to see a Bond game that plays anything like The Walking Dead or The Wolf Among Us, seeing these ideas put back into a first or third-person perspective action/espionage game would be great.
While more recent James Bond games haven't necessarily shown it, this character embodies some of the industry's most recent and appealing innovations. With the right developer, these could all be represented in one captivating package. If someone picks up the license in the near future, they should take notes from Casino Royale and on - that is, don't look over your shoulder while trying to move forward.
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