Bit-tech: 007 Quantum of Solace Review

There are a few things to like about Quantum of Solace. The action is fast-moving and enjoyable in that weird guilty-pleasure kind of way and on the surface at least we like the way the story jumps back and forth.

In practice though it all falls apart. The gameplay is duller than watching Mr Bean re-runs in reverse and about as good-looking as watching Rowan Atkinson at all. Sorry, Rowan.

The levels look awful, have no sense of life to them and are basically just funnels used to push you on into the next tired, staid piece of gameplay. The enemies have the worst type of artificial stupidity and the whole experience feels remorselessly rewardless and empty. It's shallower than the puddle of vomit Bit-tech would rather drown in than continue playing – though the game admittedly isn't broken enough to warrant a lower score than this.

The game works on a functional level, they've got to give it that because they don't give truly low scores to games that play stably and smoothly, with auto-updating features and so on. Don't let that confuse you though – Quantum of Solace just isn't an enjoyable game on the PC. It's an underwhelming and very crude mess.