Casino Royale

Sexy looking but not necessarily exciting

Casino Royale the game is as sexy looking at the movie - and its James Bond, Daniel Craig. Sony Pictures Entertainment has made Bond in his most original form. As a player, you'll start off in an African construction site and then over to a casino with a terrorist.

It's hard to take these commercial licensed games seriously. They can be especially contrived when launched in association with a movie.

Casino Royale is flashier than other games, such as Splinter Cell. James Bond can do many fancy things - with guns and using superspy moves. But Casino Royale doesn't have much hope competing with Gameloft's Splinter Cell as Gameloft will just come out with a similar package in their next installment.

Casino Royale doesn't have much shock factor either. So, it's basically an extended puzzle game with a bit of action thrown in to appease the titles.

It's easy to learn the game - your first mission is much more tutorial. You can get into the punching and shooting quite easily. Bond has a wide range of moves. A lot of them punching based which can be more fun than shooting. However, there's no real sense of choice - the game chooses your moves for you - so it can be a bit robotic playing the game.

When working your way through the levels, go quickly, as you're judged on speed. You'll be given points at the end which you can use to enhance Bond's skills.

All in all, there's not real sense of excitement in the game. You tend to just go along with the moves in a robotic way. The animation can throw you off as well - Bond tends sometimes to look inhuman.

LAST WORD

Splinter Cell is a much better feeling game than Casino Royale. It's very simple, with puzzles here and there but all in all no real excitement. The graphics can be distracting taking away form the enjoyment. The movie is better than the game - if it hadn't been rushed out for the movie, it might have turned out a bit better.