In 1980, author Robert Ludlum released a book called The Bourne Identity, which was about a CIA Agent named Jason Bourne, who was suffering from amnesia after being found adrift at sea. A movie very loosely based on the novel was released in 2002, and its success (and that of its sequels, which have nothing to do with the books of the same name) made Jason Bourne a household name. Given the popularity of the films and novels, we're rather surprised it took this long for a video game starring Jason Bourne to arrive. At the same time, not being under pressure to release the game at the same time as the movie gives developer High Moon Studios (responsible for the 2005 vampire/western FPS Darkwatch) more than enough time to properly conceive and develop a game related to the series. The Bourne Conspiracy is the fruit of their labour.

Early press materials for The Bourne Conspiracy claim that the game is meant to draw from a mix of both the Bourne Identity film and novel (due in large to Bourne series star Matt Damon not being involved), but it actually focuses far more on the movie than the book. As such, plot elements from the book that were left out of the movie (such as Bourne not being an assassin and chasing down the terrorist Carlos the Jackal) are not part of the story. The game starts out with Bourne's mission to eliminate Nykwana Wombosi, a former African dictator. After Bourne is shot in the back and left to drift off to sea, he is found by a fisherman who uncovers a Swiss bank account in Bourne's name. Bourne heads off to Zurich looking for answers. Making the game an exact recreation of the events of the first movie obviously isn't going to give players enough content, so High Moon Studios has included a bunch of flashback missions from before the Wombosi hit.

Fans of the Bourne films should be immediately enamoured with the game's production values. High Moon Studios appears to have spent the lion's share of its developmental efforts recreating the look and feel of the trilogy, particularly the action sequences. Unfortunately, that means replication of the film's obsession with handheld camera usage, which results in a ridiculous overabundance of shaky-cam sequences. The character models look pretty good; none of the original cast members lent their likeness to the game, but there is some distant resemblance in some characters. Each model is quite detailed, particularly after a fight, where black eyes and broken, bloody noses are the order of the day. The animation, particularly in the fight sequences is quite impressive, no doubt due to the fact that High Moon Studios had assistance from Jeff Imada, the fight choreographer from the Bourne movies. Renowned DJ/record producer Paul Oakenfold provides the game's soundtrack, which has the perfect atmosphere for a Bourne game – fast and furious.

With all of the focus on The Bourne Conspiracy's presentation, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the game's structure is frightfully simple. It's straight up third person action; there's a bit of shooting, a lot of fighting and a pinch of driving, and as you'd expect, it does some things much better than others. The events of the game take place over the course of 11 rigidly linear missions, fairly evenly divided between the events of The Bourne Identity and original events created for the game by Tony Gilroy, who wrote the screenplays for the movie trilogy. Usually these missions just involve blasting and punching your way through a series of rooms and buildings until you reach a boss fight or a key panel, with the odd timed chase sequence thrown in for good measure – your "Bourne instincts" tell you exactly where to go next, and highlight anything of importance. It's almost impossible to fail any of these too. If the developer wants players to fill Bourne's shoes, why not try to make them think like Bourne has to, by giving them dynamically changing situations where they need to make split second decisions which could make or break a mission? A heavy reliance on QTEs throughout the game makes it feel more like a barely interactive retelling of the first movie – perhaps Robert Ludlum's Context Sensitive Adventure is a more fitting title.

Much of the game's action revolves around its hand-to-hand combat system, which does a reasonably good job of capturing the spirit of the fights from the film. Fights move at a cracking pace, and the moves are pretty brutal; the sound of bone and sinew being crushed underneath one's fist is both pleasing and disgusting at the same time. Players have access to a light attack and a heavy attack, which can be strung together for combos, and a block button to stop enemy attacks. There are two major problems with this fighting system; a distinct lack of combos (just eight), and the fact that every single hand to hand opponent is capable of fighting like Bourne. Obviously $30 million dollars doesn't get you as much of a super agent as it used to. Pummel your opponent enough, and you'll work up Bourne's adrenaline bar, which gives you access to takedown moves. These moves come in a couple of different varieties; there's the plain old hand-to-hand takedown, the group takedown and the environmental interaction takedown. The latter are obviously the best, particularly when you get to flip a guy through a glass table, slam his head through a neon sign, or stab him in the hand with a fountain pen. Boss fights are much like your regular hand to hand encounters, except that bosses require multiple takedown moves to be defeated.


Gunplay is still fundamental to The Bourne Conspiracy's gameplay, but it definitely took a back seat to the game's hand to hand combat. It does what it sets out to do, but it's completely vanilla in its execution. Players have free aim, with a little bit of assistance when triggering the Bourne Instinct, and can carry one side arm (pistol, uzi) and one primary weapon (machine gun, shotgun) at any one time. Much of your gun fighting will be done from behind destructible cover. The game employs the usual dual stick aim mechanic, yet for some reason, gun combat just isn't particularly satisfying. There's little reaction from enemies when they're riddled with bullets and the hitboxes, outside of the all important headshot, don't seem to mesh very well. Bourne also has access to a special firearm takedown, which will kill a select enemy instantly, regardless of their distance, angle or cover. The game also has a particularly awful driving section through the streets of Paris – fortunately, it's only the one mission. The car handles like a tin can with wheels and the driver AI is moronic, but you can use the adrenaline meter to slow down the speed of traffic, which is pretty cool.

An adept player should be able to tear through The Bourne Conspiracy in less than 8 hours on the medium difficulty with very little trouble. Easy and Hard modes are available, but the former is too easy, and the latter isn't that great a challenge. For those who like to collect random crap, a number of passports are strewn throughout each level – grabbing those will net you some concept art, music tracks and the opportunity to fight boss battles over again. They're also tied to the game's achievement / accomplishment system. The Bourne Conspiracy has a large number of achievements, but they're not particularly interesting; lots of kill x number of people with this type of takedown in addition to easy tasks like completing each level. It's possible to unlock all of the achievements in under 10 hours. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game are virtually identical – the PS3 version does have a 15 minute mandatory installation before you can play, which leads to slightly quicker load times, but the 360 benefits from some anti-aliasing.

The Bourne Conspiracy is one of those games that is really cool to watch, but has depth equivalent to a kiddie pool. There is fun to be had here, especially since the fighting system is pretty cool, but you can blast through everything the game has to offer in 10 hours. The Bourne Conspiracy is certainly worth a rent if you need a quick, entertaining blast, but it's not really recommended beyond that.