I briefly touched on the new James Bond game during my initial thoughts on day one of Activate Asia. Since then, however, I've not only seen more of the game – I've had a play with it.

There are more than a few things working in the game's favour. For one, the engine is built off the Infinity Ward Call of Duty 4 game engine (though tweaked and modded by Treyarch who're developing the game). Secondly, Treyarch have had full use of the Bond license from MGM, including full access to Daniel Craig for both his likeness in-game, and his voice. Equally, given Quantum of Solace is the first Bond movie in history to be a direct sequel to a previous Bond (in this case Casino Royal), Treyarch have also had the opportunity to not only create a game based on the upcoming film, but to also include much of Casino Royal in their overall product, with equally fleshed out narrative moments through expanded gameplay.

Armed with all of the above, and watching the running demo I mentioned earlier, I can tell you was thinking mighty highly of the game (and we hadn't even seen multiplayer yet) prior to getting hands-on.

So what about it then? Well, it looks great, and feels pretty natural when you're playing. It's the CoD4 engine, to be sure, but with remapped controls which I thought was a bit odd. However, Quantum of Solace is not Call of Duty, and as such Treyarch have gone for a much more cinematic approach to gameplay opening up a lot of what's on offer beyond the simple first-person view, tacking in a third-person cover system (replete with blind-firing) as well as a quick time event take-down system (which is heaps better than the one we saw in The Bourne Conspiracy), picture-in-picture in-game narrative sequences, and scripted Bond-esque instances.

What you get from this is a game that has plenty of 'interactive movie' ideas that work well, alongside obtrusive sections that lift you a little *too* far out of the core experience.

I say "core experience" because it seems clear the guys at Treyarch are setting out to finally capture the same Bond magic we all remember from Goldeneye. The first-person stuff feels great, and if you've played either Rainbow Six Vegas or its sequel, moving into the third-person for cover will also feel pretty natural and intuitive. Doing this will give you a more tactical view of your surroundings, especially given you can play portion of the game stealthily, or just run in guns a blazin'. It also makes sense (especially when you have Craig's likeness in tow), to let the player see themselves as the new James Bond, and it's more than worth noting they [Treyarch] have done an incredible job of capturing him here.

As mentioned above though, it's not all good, and stunning and flashy as the game looks, I couldn't help but think certain events and actions came off more as an arbitrary exercise.

A few sections of the game I played through (eg, escaping through catacombs) blended the first-person stuff, third-person cover system and QTEs pretty seamlessly. Other sections (eg, the Casino Royal) didn't fare quite as well. At times it felt like I didn't need to worry about switching out of the first-person and doing so was really just a superfluous exercise, simply because the function is there. Don't get me wrong, you could probably attempt to play most of the game in the first-person, but a series of events per level have been implemented to blatantly encourage you to utilise the various camera types and these are often there for good or worse. We're at less than demo-ready preview code, but it wasn't cutting the mustard.

Aiming at bad-guys was off by a lot, and no matter what sensitivity I put the controls at, I just couldn't get comfortable with it. Everything felt smooth, but collision detection or enemy hit points must have been way off from any form of completion– so I'm hoping this will obviously be addressed before the final version hits.

That said there's still plenty to get excited about here. The QTE take-downs are awesome, especially when you sneak up on an enemy unawares - there's just something cool about being stealth in a James Bond game. The expanded gameplay options from moments from the films is also something I'm looking forward to. Obviously you couldn't mirror a film directly as it would be boring, and the expanded gameplay in Goldeneye was what made that game so cool. Here you'll be doing all sorts of different objectives, from hacking computers, breaking into offices, piecing together hardware and more. You'll be required to chase the enemy and not
Unfortunately there's still no word on the multiplayer, but you can assume it will come with the same third-person cover system alongside the fps stuff. Whether you'll have QTEs or the like will remain to be seen. It would be cool if Treyarch took a long hard look at Goldeneye and maybe even shadily recreated any one of that game's original multiplayer maps, but it's probably unlikely (hey, a guy can dream can't he?).

We've been told to expect a simultaneous release between the game and the film, which is another first for the Bond series. So come November 19, Quantum of Solace: The Game will be across retail shelves all through Australia, while the movie will be playing in pretty much every cinema. (It's also worth noting the game is coming to practically every system there is: PC, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2 and Nintendo DS).

As usual, don't forget to check out our AusGamers Quantum of Solace: The Game game page for all related media and information, and stay tuned for details on the multiplayer.