007 Legends

007 Legends is a 2012 first-person shooter developed by Eurocom and published by Activision. Released in October 2012 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, and later the Wii U, the game was designed to be a massive, celebratory event to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the James Bond film franchise and the theatrical release of Skyfall. Instead, it became a notorious critical and commercial disaster that single-handedly killed its development studio and put the entire James Bond video game franchise on ice for over a decade.

Core Concept and The “Craig-ification”

The premise of the game is actually a brilliant concept for an anniversary title. The narrative uses the opening scene of Skyfall as a framing device. When Bond is accidentally shot by Eve Moneypenny on top of a moving train and plunges into the river below, his life flashes before his eyes.

This allows the player to experience six distinct missions, each based on a classic film from a different cinematic era of Bond:

• Goldfinger (Sean Connery)
• On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (George Lazenby)
• Moonraker (Roger Moore)
• Licence to Kill (Timothy Dalton)
• Die Another Day (Pierce Brosnan)
• Skyfall (Daniel Craig)

However, Activision made a highly controversial creative decision. Instead of letting players play as the classic actors, the game retcons everything to star Daniel Craig’s iteration of Bond. This resulted in an incredibly jarring anachronistic mess. You are playing out the plot of 1964’s Goldfinger, but Bond is using a modern Sony smartphone to hack computers, and MI6 agents are talking about modern geopolitics.

Gameplay and Features

Built on the same engine as Eurocom’s highly praised 2010 remake of GoldenEye 007, Legends stripped away much of the charm in favor of desperately trying to copy the massive success of Call of Duty:

• The CoD Clone: The sophisticated, objective-based stealth of classic Bond games was largely replaced by loud, linear, Michael Bay-style shooting galleries. Bond regenerated health by hiding behind cover, and the gunplay felt identical to a generic military shooter.
• The Smartphone Gadget: Bond’s iconic suite of gadgets was mostly condensed into a magical smartphone. You constantly had to pull it out and use different “filters” (electromagnetic, biometric, etc.) to scan fingerprints, hack keypads, or find hidden wires, which quickly became a tedious chore.
• Forced Melee Boss Fights: Rather than massive, dynamic showdowns, every major encounter with iconic villains (like Jaws, Oddjob, or Blofeld) ended in the exact same, highly repetitive quick-time event. The camera would lock into a boxing mini-game, forcing you to flick the analog sticks left and right to dodge and punch until the villain fell over.

The Skyfall Controversy

The most baffling aspect of 007 Legends was its launch state. Despite the game’s entire marketing campaign being tied to the release of Skyfall, the Skyfall mission was not on the disc when you bought the game.

Because Activision did not want to spoil the plot of the movie before it hit theaters, the game ended abruptly after the fifth mission. Players had to wait several weeks for the movie to premiere, at which point the final Skyfall chapter was released as a free downloadable update. If you didn’t have an internet connection, you literally bought an unfinished game with no ending.

The Tragic Legacy and Delisting

The development of 007 Legends was notoriously rushed, mandated by Activision to hit the strict anniversary deadline. The resulting lack of polish, terrible enemy AI, and generic gameplay led to brutal reviews from critics and fans alike.

The fallout was immediate and devastating. Due to the game’s massive commercial failure, Eurocom, a beloved British studio that had been making games for 24 years, was forced to shut its doors permanently just two months after the game launched.

Shortly after, Activision officially relinquished the James Bond license. By January 2013, less than three months after its release, 007 Legends (along with all other Activision Bond games) was permanently delisted from all digital storefronts.

Quick Note

007 Legends is a tragic misfire of what should have been the ultimate James Bond tribute.

In short: It took half a century of incredible cinematic history, painted over it with a generic Call of Duty brush, and forced it out the door unfinished. It remains a fascinating piece of lost media that sent the world’s greatest secret agent into digital exile, where he has remained until IO Interactive’s upcoming Project 007.