A developer who worked on EA’s trilogy of James Bond games says he later realised a game like Batman: Arkham Asylum would have been a better fit for the character.
Chuck Beaver was localisation producer on EA‘s first Bond game 007: Nightfire (which was released in 2002), then designer or 007: Everything or Nothing (2003) and design producer on 007: From Russia with Love (2005), before going on to produce the Dead Space trilogy.
In a new interview with FRVR, Beaver says the three games were “a challenge” to make because comparisons would inevitably be made with the critically acclaimed Nintendo 64 title GoldenEye.
Despite this, working on Nightfire and Everything or Nothing allowed some “creative freedom”, according to Beaver, because they weren’t based on existing films, meaning “you can invent a lot of solutions that otherwise you weren’t allowed”.
The most difficult of the three, he said, was From Russia with Love, which was not only based on the 1963 film of the same name but saw Sean Connery returning to play the role again for the first time in two decades.
According to Beaver, the game was “such a challenge to adapt from the screenplay,” adding: “The James Bond films are not always a good match for single player missions because a lot of this stuff is happening very subtly.
“It’s not all gunplay, you know what I mean? It’s all spy play and not all of that is on the controller… that was a challenging one to do.”
After the release of From Russia with Love, the Bond licence moved to Activision, which released a further four Bond games – Quantum of Solace, a GoldenEye 007 remake, Blood Stone and 007 Legends.
Beaver said he recalled seeing Batman: Arkham Asylum some time after the Bond licence changed hands, and realised that was the sort of game his team should have made.
“We gave the license up to Activision after From Russia with Love and we were like, ‘oh, sorry, we would have loved to perfect it’,” he said. “And then, I remember Arkham Asylum came out – not shortly after, but after – we were like, ‘oh, that’s exactly what we should have done for that’. That was so good. But it was like, Batman is Bond in a cape and cowl. It was so fun to watch them nail the essence of that.”
He added: “It wouldn’t be hard to make a 007 game now because you have a lot of good examples of how to, gameplay-wise, do what happens in those movies. I thought Arkham Asylum was like: ‘Oh, that’s it. That’s it. That’s how to do that.’ And then now, they’ve got even more to go with. You could pull in, you know, Snake from Metal Gear Solid kind of gameplay.”
IO Interactive is the next studio to attempt turning James Bond into a video game with 007: First Light, which is set for release on May 27.
