James Bond 007: From Russia with Love is a third-person shooter video game developed by EA Redwood Shores and published by Electronic Arts featuring Ian Fleming's secret agent, James Bond, whose likeness and voice is that of Sean Connery. The game is based on the 1957 novel and the 1963 film of the same name. The game follows the storyline of the book and film, with adding in new scenes to make the game more action-oriented, as well as changing the affiliation of the main villains. Additionally, it features many elements of later Bond films to recreate the feel of the era such as the Aston Martin DB5 that debuted in Goldfinger and the jet pack from Thunderball. From Russia with Love is also notable in that it is the first video game to use Sean Connery's younger likeness as James Bond and the first to include all new voice work by the actor after twenty-two years away from the role. From Russia with Love is the last James Bond video game by Electronic Arts marketed before they lost the rights to Activision in 2006. It is the second-to-last video game released by MGM Interactive and the last James Bond video game until the release of in 2008.
Gameplay
From Russia with Love features a third-person multiplayer deathmatch mode.
Plot
One of the changes to the plot of the video game is the absence of the villainous organisation SPECTRE, who played a vital role in the film. Due to legal issues that have plagued the James Bond film series since 1963, the organization was renamed "OCTOPUS" and appears to lack a central leader in the same vein as Ernst Stavro Blofeld. The SPECTRE name was tied up in a long-running dispute over the film rights to Thunderball, between United Artists/MGM and the now-deceased writer Kevin McClory. The game begins with a pre-title sequence in which Elizabeth Stark, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom's daughter, is kidnapped by OCTOPUS while attending a party. Bond was assigned to attend the party for just such an event, and he defeats OCTOPUS and rescues Miss Stark. Similar to the film, OCTOPUS has conceived a plan to embarrass British secret serviceagent 007 for the death of Dr. Julius No from the film Dr. No, in which No was an agent of SPECTRE. The plan involves the theft of a Soviet encoding machine known as the Lektor with the help of a defecting Soviet agent, Tatiana Romanova. However, Romanova is being used by OCTOPUS to lure James Bond into a trap; their ultimate goal is to let him obtain the Lektor and then ambush him for it, killing him in humiliating fashion as well. Romanova is sent by Rosa Klebb, an agent of the KGB who has secretly defected to OCTOPUS. Her immediate subordinate, Donald "Red" Grant, protects Bond through the first half of the game and attacks him in the second. The game ends with a final assault on OCTOPUS headquarters, during which Grant is fatally shot by Bond.
From Russia with Love is the first title developed by Electronic Arts Redwood Shores to use an integrated game engine for the third-person shooter action and driving segments. It was a new engine that was not based on any of the technology used for previous titles in the series but the result was similar to Id Tech 3. The game was written by Bruce Feirstein who previously worked on the film scripts for GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies and The World Is Not Enough, in addition to the script for the 2004 video game '. Feirstein would also go on to write stories for future Bond games at Activision, including the 2010 remake of GoldenEye 007, third-person shooter ', and 50th anniversary game 007 Legends. The game's soundtrack was composed by Christopher Lennertz. Additionally, Vic Flick, best known for playing the original guitar riff in the James Bond Theme announced that he contributed to Lennertz's score. On April 5, 2005, Sean Connery was slated to lend his voice and likeness for the game. Connery said "As an artist, I see this as another way to explore the creative process. Video games are an extremely popular form of entertainment today, and I am looking forward to seeing how it all fits together". On October 20, 2005, From Russia With Love was complete.
Reception
From Russia With Love received "mixed or average" reviews according to aggregating review website Metacritic. Many points were given to the enhanced graphics and play difficulty. The Times gave it a score of four stars out of five and stated that "It's enough to make you toss your trilby on to a hat-rack in delight." However, Maxim gave it a score of six out of ten and stated that though the game was challenging, "it's also sometimes pedestrian, with a host of uninspired levels and dim bad guys ruining what could have been the triumphant return of 007." Within three months of its release, it had sold approximately 277,000 copies.
