When your screen's not awash with the smartphone's green, migraine-inducing pixellation filter, Blood Stone captures a lot of what makes the Bond film franchise so enjoyable in the first place. Once again, 007, with this week's interchangeable female companion in tow, embarks upon a globe-spanning mission to unravel a convoluted terrorist conspiracy -- orchestrated by your standard Bond villain with a sinister-looking facial scar, of course. Bizarre completes the checklist with loads of explosions, lengthy chase sequences, and a tied-to-a-chair interrogation scene or two.
That stuff's kind of a given, though. The part Blood Stone does better than previous Bond games is provide an insane gauntlet of action set-pieces that are absolutely worthy of the films that inspired them. One level, for instance, has you sprinting through a chemical weapons facility while the whole thing blows up around you. Another puts you behind the wheel of a large tow truck, careening through the crumbling streets of Bangkok in pursuit of an even bigger truck. Intense sequences like these put an exclamation point on the otherwise standard, cover-based shooting.
Hope you guys enjoy!