Things still explode with pleasing frequency and there are still massive action-game shootouts and chases (on foot, anyway - there are no vehicles, but at least that means no terrible motorbike sections), but it's underpinned by a slightly more subtle gameplay system that leaves room for alternatives, and has the potential to do the licence justice.
Instead it's got intelligent AI, encourages smart use of the environment to conserve ammo and for cinematic effect, and leaves plenty of room for stealthy violence. The development team at Treyarch, using the Call of Duty 4 engine, is aiming to build a Bond game that doesn't cast him as a mindless Rambo, running through corridors and shooting anything that pops predictably out from behind a wall.
But the licence, having both plumbed the absolute depths and scraped sort-of respectability under EA, is now in new hands, and consequently the next James Bond videogame comes with new promise. Every time a new Bond game is announced, there's that faint, distant hope that this will be the one, this will be the next GoldenEye, or at the very least it won't be the fumbling, half-finished mess that licensed movie-based games are notorious for - and we're always disappointed in the end.
