From Russia With Love [PSP]

Suddenly the PSP is almost jammed with action/stealth games. Syphon Filter and Splinter Cell both migrated to the portable last month, and now James Bond is trying to bring world class to gaming espionage. If only he had better weapons than this rather middling caper, which is often as dry as his martini.

Just as it did on consoles in 2005, From Russia With Love recreates and expands upon the film of the same name. Connery shows up to voice Bond; the vehicles, jetpacks, and weapons return; and so does the aggressive but not particularly smart AI. As a port, this is an expert job. Almost everything from the original release is intact, and EA has even added a couple of small details, like new multiplayer options and a gadget for the solo campaign.

But an expert port just means that the original game is intact, not that it's been improved. Russia remains bland and colorless, an overly linear storyline that shoehorns Bond's style into a cookie-cutter run-and-gun actioner with poor driving segments. Everything has been optimized for the lowest common denominator, making exploration, secrets, and the thinly hidden "Bond moment" in each level feel like a joke. Connery's dialogue is minimal and inconsequential; most of the time the game just doesn't feel like Bond.

It would be unfair to say that nothing had been improved. The targeting lock-on mechanic and basic character movement actually feel better here than on consoles, leading to slightly more fun during the interminable shootouts. There's also an alternate control scheme similar to the Syphon Filter system of using face buttons to aim. There are also some new mini-games, though they feel more like something for Liberty City than James Bond.

With the focus aiming mode, grenades can be shot off belts, guns out of hands, and the ziplines of incoming soldiers can be severed. It's the best part of a game that desperately needs some zing, but it's still not as good as other stealth-action hybrids on the PSP.

The same holds true for the multiplayer options, which use four included maps and two jetpack-based modes in addition to deathmatch fare. The optional bots are slightly smarter than the stunted in-game AI, and with humans, the game can even be fun. But it's never so much fun that anyone should buy in solely for multiplayer.

We recently knocked Splinter Cell Essentials for not being as good as Syphon Filter...and this isn't quite as good as Essentials. From Russia with Love is one of the better console-to-PSP ports we've come across, but even the best port can't make a young gun out of an aging agent. But we probably shouldn't be too surprised that Russia emphasizes repetitive action over character and style: it's just following lessons learned on the big screen.