The Bourne Conspiracy puts player in the shoes of Jason Bourne,
a thirty million dollar weapon gone wrong, when he tries to solve
the mystery that surrounds him.

The game takes place in Bourne’s past, when he completed jobs for the
CIA black ops groups Operation Treadstone program, and in the present day.

Player gets to see locations such the American Embassy in Zürich seen in the first
film, and also places seen outside the movie.

The game mechanism is divided into two parts; shooting and bone crunching fist-cuffs.

Shooting mechanism in this game are okay. The targeting system is pretty off, even with ‘Bourne Instict’ that lets you see enemies and stuff you can blow up highlighted. It just doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to. But the checkpoint system in this game is pretty forgiving and it’s not a big deal if you get killed
because of the ‘not so good’ targeting. The checkpoints let you bounce back near the location you got killed at.

But the highlight of the game are the fist-cuffs. The fistfights in the game are just like in the Bourne
movies. Brutal and fast. You have the light and heavy attack. You can chain these attacks to make combos.
Also, like in the movies, Bourne can pretty much use his environment for his advance. This leads to some
visually stunning and ‘true to the movies’ fights. There’s also one level, located in the streets of Paris, that lets you steer Marie’s Mini Cooper in a high speed escape from the Parisian police, like seen in ‘The Bourne Identity’

The game also uses quick time events, that require the player to push buttons seen on the screen. These quick time events are pretty simple. There’s always a quiet alert sound, when a quick time event is about to play out. These quictime events add to the game’s movie feel and are a welcome addition to the game.

The plot pretty much follows the first movie, and throws in some flashback missions in between. Nevertheless, the game is pretty short and it disappointed me how suddenly the game ended. I had the picture that the game would only take parts of the movie and then give us a whole new interpretation of Bourne story, seen in ‘The Bourne Identity’ , ‘The Bourne Supremacy’ and ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’.But the game ends just like the first movie, with Bourne and Marie meeting again. No doubt this was done so Sierra and High Moon studios could release the next few Bourne games in a few years. After all Bourne is a high selling franchise. Why not make more money with it.

The sound effects are great and the soundtrack is pretty much taken from the Bourne movies. You hear familiar tunes, when you’re punching and shooting the bad guys.
None of the actor’s likeness have been licensed for the game, and it works for the games advance. Although parts of the game takes place in the first movie’s environments, you don’t really need to see Damon as Bourne to get that kiddy feeling when you get to be a government fund assassin.

Although there’s the plot, none of the missions are really that much connected. You get the plot of the first movie, and then some flashbacks thrown in the mix. The plot is just an excuse to throw you straight into the action. So don’t expect any true plot from the game.

But if you enjoyed the Bourne movies, this game is worthy enough for renting. The fighting in this game is enjoyable, and being Bourne is just fan-frikkin-tastic.

B+