James Bond 007: Blood Stone Driving Hands-On

A James Bond action adventure punctuated with flashy vehicle sections, Blood Stone stars Daniel Craig as 007 and Joss Stone as Bond girl du jour Nicole Hunter. We took them both for a spin in Siberia, chasing down Russian villain Pomerov through fiery wrecks, crumbling towers, thin ice, and attack helicopters.

Who's making it? Liverpool-based Bizarre Creations gives Blood Stone a solid pedigree on the driving and racing front; this is the studio that brought us Project Gotham Racing and, more recently, Blur. Bizarre's experience with running and gunning is less extensive, with arcade-y third-person shooter The Club its most notable stab at the genre.

What it looks Like: Though Blood Stone isn't primarily a racing game, the driving experience at least appears to be more than tacked-on vehicle segments. We went behind the wheel as Bond in Siberia, in the game's level 2.4, titled "A Train to Catch." We were in pursuit of Pomerov, a Russian of unspecified villainy, as he made his escape on a train through an industrial-looking area and onward over a frozen river.

The level began on the road, resembling nothing so much as chaotic racer Split/Second: We swerved and dodged through an unusual abundance of fuel tankers, with explosions on all sides as Pomerov's train--tracked with a waypoint marker--sped off ahead on a parallel rail track. Bond girl Nicole Hunter, meanwhile, chipped in helpfully from the passenger seat. (Of a concrete tower already collapsing onto the road in front: "James! The tower!")

We went off-road via a micro cutscene; Bond took the car off a ramp and onto a partially frozen river, alongside which Pomerov's train ran on a raised rail track. Then, instead of explosions filling the frame, snow spattered the lens--the game throws a lot at you visually and verges on distracting at times. As we raced along the icy surface of the river, we had to slalom around unfrozen patches, occasionally mounting the sloping sides of the riverbank to avoid plunging into the water and meeting an instant death.

Midway through the river section, Pomerov dispatched an attack helicopter to deal with us. It fired on the car and on the ice but seemed more like action cinema spectacle than genuine hazard--it was the open water and not the helicopter that put an end to us a handful of times. The driving sequence ended with Bond taking the car off an ice ramp and landing it on the back of Pomerov's train. At this point, the game segued into a third-person action segment, which wasn't available for play.

What you do: Blood Stone is far from a simulation-like driving experience. This is one-button-style driving that rewards quick reflexes, not realistic racing lines. On the Xbox 360 version of the game, controls are straightforward: You use the left and right trigger to brake and accelerate; you use the Y face button to switch between first-person and camera-behind-the-car views.

How it plays: The driving feels arcade-y, with plenty of drift. The damage modelling is not extensive and crashes aren't terminal, though they can slow you down enough to let the train get away. The train's onscreen marker is labelled with distance, and one or two full-on collisions will lose you enough ground to mean game over--happily, checkpointing through the sequence is frequent.

What they say: Blood Stone is an original, authentic Bond adventure that combines driving with gritty unarmed combat and gunplay.

What we say: Driving isn't the heart of the Blood Stone, though with Bizarre developing the game, we were already expecting compelling vehicle sections. If this Siberian driving level was representative, Blood Stone's driving sequences will be short and action focused, heavy on the Split/Second-style spectacle, and used to link the on-foot, run-and-gun levels. Expect more chase sequences.