There's a lot of public discussion whenever the James Bond franchise rotates in a new actor to take on the world-saving tuxedo-and-fancy-gadgets adventures. Can Bond be blonde? How about Australian? But here's the real question: Will he even come close to living up to Sean Connery? And for all the entertaining-to-acceptable attempts that others have made to fill Connery's well-polished shoes, no one's quite done it. Now Connery's back as Bond, kind of, in James Bond 007: From Russia With Love, an adaptation of Connery's second Bond adventure. (Quick point of reference: It's the one with the bellydancing and the endless fight aboard the Orient Express.) Through four decades of accumulated phlegm, Connery doesn't quite sound like his old self in From Russia's cutscenes, but the spry delivery proves that, as a later title song asserted, nobody does it better.
But what about the game? A third-person shooter with some light puzzle-solving and the occasional side trip in a fast-moving vehicle, it's an awfully familiar but ultimately satisfying combination of proven elements, kind of like the Bond series itself. As Bond, you dispatch evil Russians with a variety of weapons while uncovering a sinister scheme for world domination.
The designers have done a fine job with the early-'60s production design and the game plays like a breeze, at times too much like a breeze. There's little here in the way of new challenges and the single-player mode—the real meat of the game—won't take up too much of your time. Still, it's hard to put down, especially when each level dangles the promise of a "Bond Moment" that allows players to execute a particularly impressive stunt—swinging through a window while dispatching villains with a machine gun and that sort of thing—in high Bond style.
Beyond the game: Sure, it's a purely virtual flirtation, but it's still kind of creepy when the decades-younger-than-Connery Maria Menounos shows up.
Worth playing for: Two words: Laser wristwatch.
Frustration sets in when: The score, a pastiche of John Barry-like elements that avoids the famous Bond themes, starts repeating itself. Again.
Final judgment: Fun's fun, even if From Russia With Love does little to set itself apart from other Bond games.