The Bourne Conspiracy Hands-on

February 26, 2008 - It's Monday morning, and Jason Bourne's getting his ass kicked.

After three movies and five books focusing on being awesome, it's weird to see Bourne getting cuffed, surrendering to snipers and taking hits like a worn-out punching bag, but in reality, it's our fault. We're in a re-vamped warehouse that now serves as the office of High Moon Studios -- the developer of The Bourne Conspiracy -- and in-between looking over Bourne concept art and reading warnings about in-office scooter safety, we're getting to go hands-on with the videogame version of the famed $30 million weapon.

And we suck.

This summer, High Moon and Sierra are bringing Bourne to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Although the game will cover some of the events found in the Bourne Identity, both factions are quick to let you know that this is not a game based on the films.

"If you look at all three movies put together, Jason kills more people in one of our levels," said Paul O'Connor, High Moon's Vice President and Design Director.



Sure, you'll take Jason on a rollercoaster ride of events as he tries to regain his memory, but you're also going to get to play missions from when Bourne had his memory and a penchant for cracking skulls. Extending the storyline and fleshing out Bourne's background is part of Sierra and High Moon's plan to hopefully parlay this into a franchise of its own. There's no Matt Damon, and that's a good thing for the team -- the books and movies exist independently of each other; why can't the game?

Our hands-on time covered three core elements of gameplay in Bourne Conspiracy -- hand-to-hand combat, gunplay and driving. The last time we got a good look at Jason's exploits was when he strutted his stuff for us at Sierra Gamers Week in 2007. A brief presentation, the demo had our hero racing through the Zurich Embassy on foot and KO'ing folks left and right. It looked like fun, but we didn't get the chance to pick up the controller.

This time, we did.

"Escape the Embassy" serves as your tutorial to the world of Bourne. The level starts with Jason's jig up -- he's surrounded by guards, the alarm's going off and everyone's freaking out. You learn the difference between your light and heavy face button attacks and beat three guys to hell as the game occasionally pauses the action to point out important info about your moves.

With the three guys KO'd, armed guards descend on your position, and Bourne takes off to the stairwell. Up next was our first failed quick-action event. See, we're making Bourne truck down the hallway as bullets whiz at us from behind and the camera bobs left and right when all of a sudden a button prompt pops on the screen. We miss the move, the gate between the steps and the hallway closes, and Jason gets arrested.

The level restarts.

Once we got the hang of pressing buttons on a videogame controller, the Conspiracy continued with us getting the hang of the adrenaline meter. On the right side of the screen, a circle HUD sits in the lower corner and tracks your health as well as the amount of adrenaline you've earned. Beat the hell out of some bad guys as you're steamrolling your way through a level and the three-tier adrenaline meter builds. A filled tier indicates the amount of bad guys you could take out with a takedown -- gruesome finishers that have Bourne breaking arms, hurling enemies into mail carts and just dealing out some nasty damage. Fill up two tiers, you can take out two guys. Fill up three tiers, and you can whack three.



These takedowns are pretty critical to the fast-paced feel of The Bourne Conspiracy. As we ran through a hallway, an oblivious guard turned to face us. With a tap of a button, Bourne ducked low, slammed the man in his jibblies and kept on going. When we faced off with a high-ranking officer who served as a mid-level boss, we could take the fistfight around the room and kick General Patton into an office whiteboard or slam his head onto a desk or filing cabinet.

When we weren't going Mayweather on people's faces, there was one section of the title that showed off a bit of Jason's stealth. With some troops doing a room-to-room search, Bourne dropped to a crouch and grabbed some cover with a wall while peeking down a hallway at the bad guys. When they moved into a two-door office, we hit the back door, picked the lock by holding a button and watching a lock meter click down, and snuck behind a file cabinet. Now, we could hear the guards talking, but we couldn't really see them. Luckily, The Bourne Conspiracy makes a big deal out of using cinematic camera angles and we were able to swing the POV to have a stunning shot of Jason in hiding and the conspirators conspiring.

Once Jason makes it to the embassy's rooftop, he's forced to take out a few more pursuing guards, leap from a few balconies, and do all of that action-hero stuff we know and love. After he makes his intial appearance on the scene, some guards advance on him from the inside. One gets his face jammed into a concrete planter while the other loses his machine gun to Jason, who tosses the magazine over the edge.

He won't kill innocents -- just give them severe head trauma.

We dispatched the guard, shimmied along a wire, threw a bad guy into a glass window, bicycle kicked some idiot, dodged sniper fire and finally grabbed a toolbox to smash in a skylight and leap to momentary cover.

Whew. When we saw the embassy level in the summer, the action was almost too fast to keep up with. Now that we've handed out the blows, you can tell just how much goes into every seemingly simple takedown that was demonstrated. There's no doubt that socking the guards was fun, but the enemies seemed to block a bit too much for our tastes. There were times we'd be into the middle of some awesome looking combo and the hits would land on a blocking guard's forearms for no damage. Weak.

So, yeah. Even though the embassy escape was in the Bourne Identity, it was not nearly as long as the one found in The Bourne Conspiracy. Looking for more familiar points of reference? Conklin will play a big part in the game as Jason's point man, Bourne's -- SPOILER -- love interest Marie will be along for the ride, and look for a lot of those friendly Treadstone assassins that Jason got to play with in the movies.

Our taste of Bourne's gunplay came in the form of "Eliminate Divandelen." Seems this Divandelen fellow is a prisoner who pissed off the wrong people. In the midst of being transferred, Divandelen and some cronies hatched an escape plan and now it's up to Jason to take the big guy out. The level opens with Bourne and Divandelen brawling in a train. The car crashes, Divandelen takes off down a tunnel, and Bourne gives chase. Suddenly, some machine gun-toting bad guys pop out and Jason draws his pistol.

Operating in a typical over-the-shoulder view -- yes, you can switch between your left and right at will -- shooting in The Bourne Conspiracy attempts to keep the same break-neck pace as the hand-to-hand combat by implementing Bourne Instinct and sticking with the adreline meter. When you tap the Y button, you enact Bourne Instinct, which changes the shading of the screen so that enemies are highlighted in yellow and draws a bead on the nearest foe. Now, the adrenaline meter operates on the same fuel as before -- kill a guy, get some juice -- and once you've filled the appropriate number of tiers, you can unleash a flurry of instant kill shots.



As we took Bourne through the depths of the train station and eventually onto the tarmac of an airport, we made use of a shotgun, a machine gun and the loads of cover to duck behind and pop folks from. Once we iced the forces in front of us, it was onto the plane as it took off. We killed a few guards -- throwing one of'em out the back cargo door -- did a wall run around a tank they had pushed at Bourne, and squared off with Divandelen himself. We traded blows and suddenly the foe pulled off his own finisher -- stabbing us in the ribs with a knife. Seems bosses can build their adrenaline meter and execute brutal moves as well. He stabbed us a few more times, we slammed him into a window, and eventually we owned him while inadvertently killing the pilot.

Bourne grabbed a parachute and jumped.

What was next for the man no one can kill? Why, it's the famed car chase through Paris that movie buffs know and love. Well, like everything pulled from the movies, the level -- titled "Paris Chase" -- isn't exactly like you remember. Marie is with you and you're piloting a little red car down the narrow streets halfway around the world, but the car has a Darkwatch sticker on it, you get more juice for your Bourne Instincts by running into stuff and there's a threat meter to tell you how close the cops are to nabbing you.

You accelerate with the right trigger and reverse with the left trigger, but it's the emergency brake that's going to become your best friend. See, throughout the level there are these little alleys, offshoots and coffee shops you can careen through as you wait for the opportunistic time to shoot through a tunnel to freedom. You'll see the hole, hit your instincts and pull the brake while cutting the wheel. The resulting powerslide in slow-mo is a thing of beauty and the soundtrack of Marie screaming for her life is a nice touch.



As much fun as we had slamming into cars and garbage cans, the speed of the chase seemed a bit slow. The cops didn't seem to be that big of a threat and we never seemed to be going that fast. Of course not only is this just a preview, this is the first time you drive in the game. It's possible the speed and difficulty ramps up as the story progresses.

Although we only had a few hours of playtime with The Bourne Conspiracy, we can tell you it's fun and looks really good. The motions are fluid, the slow-mo makes the fights even better, and the real-time damage on the characters' faces is nice. If these three levels, destructible cover and "impactful" fights make you all hot and bothered for Bourne, there is some more good news: you'll be able to try out all these experiences for yourself this May when a Xbox Live and PlayStation Network demo launch.

From there, you'll have to wait until The Bourne Conspiracy's release this summer.