Sean Connery agreed to do this game because he saw an opportunity. He said in an interview: "I hate nothing more than being tied to only James Bond. But when they came to make the game and they asked me to do it I said yes. Regardless of anything, James Bond was good to me and made me a respected actor. I wanted a one last thing. And I didn't want someone else taking on MY Bond film."
+Derrik wRIGHT I think it was his way of doing a tribute to his older films. It was his film and it's not like he actually came back on-screen. It was a perfect way of acknowledging his run.
Anyone else find it interesting that both Connery and Brosnan's final performances as James Bond were for video games? Says a lot about how far the medium has come, at the very least.
Connery agreed to come back because From Russia With Love was his favourite bond film to film and his grandkids played a lot of video games . So basically the grandkids would be playing as their grandfather that's cool
I would have love EA to have made a video game adaptation of "The Spy Who Loved Me". I can imagine ski levels, fights with Jaws in Egypt, submarine car levels, and a raid on giant Stromberg Tanker and underwater base. So many possibilities for cool games with the Roger Moore era in general.
A video game return for Dalton or Brosnan would make far more sense than another film given both are in there 70's and it would be very much 'for the fans' but saddly it won't happen.
This will never happen but imagine if the Bond games became the 'What If?' series for Bond. So we got a Lazenby game that is all about revenge for the death of Tracy now they have the Blofeld rights back. Then we got another game for what would have been Dalton's 3rd film done in game form. There is no way either actor could play Bond now but in video game form they can be eternally young.....we can dream
Awesome video Sir!!! Choosing From Russia with Love from the Connery era was always a head scratcher for me too! Goldfinger or You Only Live Twice would make far better game adaptations, hell, YOLT entire plot plays out like a game! But I couldn't get over Connery's old man voice coming out of his young man face too. Same with the 2008 Ghostbusters game. I think EA noticed this and scrapped the idea after they hired Marlon Brando to voice The Godfather game (around the same time as From Russia with Love), Brando sounded so old and mumbly, they scrapped all his audio and hired a sound-a-like instead.
when you talked about being able to walk around the Q lab, I realised that Goldfinger is the only 60s film to actually feature Q lab(the rest of the Q scenes take place in M's office or they fly Q out to whereever Bond is)! There wouldn't be another proper Q lab scene until Man With The Golden Gun.
I was hoping EA would continue getting former Bond actors to reprise the role in games based on stories from the films and on original stories, like in Everything Or Nothing. It would be great to see George Lazenby and Roger Moore in their own Bond games. There are also lots of elements from the films that would make for excellent gameplay, like Little Nellie battle from YOLT, the ski chases from OHMSS, the boat chase from LALD, the parachute fight from Moonraker, the safari hunt from Octopussy, etc., etc.
Roger Moore was my favourite Bond so I too was hopeful that they'd give him a similar opportunity; IMO the logical choices would've been either TSWLM or Moonraker due to the scale of the action sequences, but then they could've just added stuff to any of the other movies like they did with FRWL. Just sucks that it can never happen now :(
@@jameskennedy4377 Not entirely. There is a group of Goldeneye Modders making TSWLM for the N64. Obviously not the third person extravaganza that could have been had with Sir Roger Moore (Rest in Peace), but it's looking great so far.
haha, connery's voice just doesn't match this young connery. I always see Indiana Jone's dad. It funny watching this but it is cool that they got Connery
Two shockingly underrated, under-recognized games for Playstation 2 that were based on movies: Scarface and From Russia with Love. Both were kinda masterpieces in their right.
Absolutely loved this game to death. For what they had to work with in terms of using the From Russia With Love story, they did a fantastic job. They easily could have made a new story line (which in all honesty i would have preferred) but they put a nice twist on a classic bond film. Hopefully EA get the license back since no one currently owns the Bond video game license right now. Great Review Calvin!
Some of the unlockables in the game were behind-the-scenes videos.....in one of them the developers discuss how they knew a lot of the things they put in the game broke continuity of the movies (Bond having a jetpack and Aston Martin before the films they first appear in) but they wanted to give the player a definitive Connery Era experience. So anything that was in the Connery movies had potential to be added.
Good work Calvin, I like to see that I'm not the only one who think it's great to walk around in MI6, I always thought that it was just me haha. Keep up the good work!
@@calvindyson great review Man to Me other than the Obvious N64 GoldenEye, This By Far is the Greatest Bond Game Ever!!!! I wished they remade it in PS3 I would buy it for sure!!!!! Yeah the Driving sequence could be a Little bit Hard, but come on you literally can drive the DB5 like what!!!!! Awesome Game!!!
I'd love to see a Bond game with Moore's likeness. Perhaps a game of The Spy Who Loved Me, or an original story. They'd best act fast, though, as he's not getting any younger. I feel EA mostly did a better job with the Bond licence than Activision did. Blood Stone was good, and Goldeneye Reloaded was good, but 007 Legends was dire, and QoS the game was OK but too short
TheAdam159 Yeah, a Roger Moore game would be fantastic, but only if it had his humor in it. Like, I don't want to see Roger Moore Mowing Enemies Down With An Automatic: The Game.
+DarthRushy Press B to quip! Press Y to raise an eyebrow! Press A to use the awkwardly contrived watch gadgets that you were never told about! Press X to knock small Thai boys into the canal!
@@DarthRushy I think a Roger Moore Bond game would have been more of a point and click type game, like solve this SPECTRE puzzle to save Moneypenny or something similar.
I loved this game, and this is the best review I've seen of it. I feel you when you talked about wanting a Roger Moore movie game like this. I remember I fantasized about a Live and Let Die, or A View To a Kill game done with this engine. I even wrote out a summary for fun on how the levels would play out as they followed the movies' pots. What a dork I was even in my late twenties.
I like this game. Although Sean Connery's voice has aged considerably since Never Say Never Again, I do love his performance. He did seem to be having a blast here and there is quite a swashbuckling energy in his delivery. I also like the replacement voice performers. Peter Renaday as M is awesome (though I always got a Patrick Macnee vibe out of his voice rather than Bernard Lee, but he works really well) and I particularly love Kari Wahlgren as Tatiana, Karly Rothenberg as Moneypenny and Klebb, Phil Proctor as Q and J.B. Blanc as Kerim Bey. However, Brian McCole as Red Grant is quite possibly the weakest one here. He is not bad, but I just don't get the sense of dread from him as I do with Robert Shaw. But yeah, I think this game is a bit clearer than the movie (I love the movie, but it's just seventh favorite, sixth if you only count official flicks) and it is better paced, making for an enjoyable experience. 😁
I was just the same thinking they were going to continue! i thought the next game would be 'The Spy Who Loved Me' with Moore, he'd definitely return! we could have even had Lazenby back for OHMSS and Dalton for LTK or do original stories, then we would have a great Bond game for each Bond as we already had EON for Brosnan. When 007 Legends came out i thought that's what was going to happen, but then we got a Craig stand in and updates of classic Bond films.....shame
@@lukedaley17 Originally, some early game cinematics did show the Walther PPK without the silencer present. I am guessing it was later in the games development cycle that EA choose to keep it present at all times. Only in the multiplayer campaign can use fire it without the silencer.
Here's an interesting thought: what if they kept the Pheonix Fire storyline, kept it in the modern time period, but still had Connery doing the voice and likeness. Would certainly had been an interesting experience. Then again, setting it in the 60s could have been an interesting prequel. Maybe bridging the gap between Goldfinger and Thunderball. I always found Goldfinger to be the black sheep of the Connery films because it was the only one not to include S.P.E.C.T.R.E.
Screwed by the Lawyers: EA wasn't allowed to use the name SPECTRE for the antagonists due to a legal dispute over the film rights to Thunderball between MGM/UA/Eon Productions and now-deceased screenwriter Kevin McClory (which wasn't settled until 2013 when Eon's producers bought the last remaining rights to McClory's estate, Spectre resulted from that). They had to replace them with the Suspiciously Similar Substitute OCTOPUS.
I like this game more because it kindled my curiosity for Bond in general in 2008-09. Now I really enjoy the film series. It has so many films that if you're in a certain mood there's probably a Bond movie for you. & it was all thanks to this game for introducing me to the series & I give it a lot of love for that.
Maria Menounos (Eva Adara) is an entertainment reporter on American TV which might explain why she's not familiar to Calvin. I frequently see her in the movie theater ads so it was oddly amusing to see her before my showing of No Time to Die. I wondered how many people remembered her appearance in a Bond game.
The developers were also very accommodating with Sean on this game. All his dialogue was recorded at a studio in Nassau so there was no need to fly him out of the Bahamas.
As a serious pre-teen fan I hated this game because of all the shlocky stuff they added to the movie's storyline. But as an adult I loved this game! It's really underrated. If they had tropped the pretences and made this an original story it would have been THE best Bond game.
Glad to see you back, Mr. Dyson. Even more so with a new game review, as I've really enjoyed this series of videos. Good to know that I'm not the only one who longs for the thought of playing Phoenix Rising, as I was a kid in a candy shop when I first got my hands on Everything or Nothing. Fortunately, I was never teased with production stills from that game like I was with the Blood Stone follow-up Risico. Blood Stone is easily the most underrated Bond game, and the thought of a sequel that would have borrowed heavily from Fleming is mouth-watering to say the least.
I loved this game growing up. I remember you could get this magnum that had like three bullets but had like a 1 shot kill. Great review Calvin, see you next month
@ Quinn C, not to nitpick but the Wright Magnum has six shots not three. It is one of my favorites along side the Walther PPK and the AK 47. Also the Armor Piercing Rifle is another great weapon, especially how it useful it is in the later stages.
Perhaps they should do more Bond games based on previous Bonds. I’d like to see a video game based on the original plans for Bond 17 when Timothy Dalton was still attached.
My best friend Christian and I loved the multiplayer mode in From Russia With Love. I was the more experienced player and was winning a string of deathmatches against him one day and remarked that I was using the Bond focus mode to achieve this. Instead of thanking me for this good advice, he proceeded to mock me by putting on an upper-crust voice and saying 'Ooooh, my name's Pushon and I use Bond focus!'.
When Kerim Bey brings the Aston Martin to Istanbul it always puzzled me why Bond reacts with 'interesting car,' as if this is the first time he's seen it, when he's already used it in the pre-title sequence. Anyway, great review - looking forward to the Quantum of Solace review, which platform are you reviewing? You know the PS2 version was developed by Nightfire's Eurocom right?
Fantastic video as always Calvin! This and Nigthfire are my favourite Bond videogames. Maybe they choose FRWL because it is Connery's favourite Bond film. This way, the producers of the game could convince Connery to play Bond again, in the videogame of his favourite film.
It seems EA went from producing movie tie-ins with Brosnan's Bond, then switched over to making original stories in the Brosnan era, then switched back to a movie tie-in albeit based on a film from 42 years prior. Activision on the other hand seemed most focused on retroactively working the events of the previous Bond series into the Craig universe.
Never got past the tunnel scene with the boat, course that was years ago, might've actually done better if I tried playing this game today. lol So anyways after the first 12 minutes was spoilers for me but this is one of the few times I welcome the spoils. ;D
The things I want to happen for Bond games are way too many to list...But if I could just list 2, they would be... 1. Bring back Timothy Dalton and make his third proposed movie into a game...I don't know if you've seen the articles on Mi6-hq.com, but they had a proposed screenplay for what Bond 17 may have been had it been made in 1991 and with Dalton. 2. EA Gets the rights back, because I feel like they would care about the quality of their games unlike Activision who only cared about making COD Re-Skins.
I would be a little worried about giving the rights back to EA, what with there mishandling of games like BF4 and such. I agree that they had some solid bond titles in the past, but I'm not so sure what they would do with the rights nowadays.
+lbonini1gaming Wasn't his third movie supposed to be Goldeneye? I really wouldn't want to see another Goldeneye game, there's like 20 other movies to choose from. How about The Man With The Golden Gun: The Game?
Well, his third movie was supposed to be something else and then it just sort of vanished and then Goldeneye got written. Something to do with Hong Kong or some other exotic location and arms dealers, I don't really remember for sure. The title was probably going to be "The Property of a Lady"...
Idk if youd read this but the reason they used FRWL is because it was the condition set by Connery for returning. His grandkids loved gaming and its his favourite movie of the bunch. Thats why they had to use this one
Calvin, this just popped up in my side-bar of videos to watch after I watched the M ranking video. After a few minutes in, I realized I HAD seen this particular YT video around 2015 or so! So I did discover you back then, but never knew it! :D As for the level trailers, there was a gaming magazine that would put out a disk each month with games on the disk for the subscriber to test out. Sometimes it'd be a trailer, other times you could actually play the brief part of the game--like Assassin's Creed. I remember geeking out when I saw this pop in the mag and seeing the graphics I was like, OMG! They look amazing! My estranged husband played the hell out of Goldeneye (N64) before we dated and were just friends and I enjoyed the brief times I got to see that. Then again my fav Bond film was/is Goldeneye. :) I am so enjoying wandering around your playlist as YT offers me "Go here!" "Try this one!" in my downtime. I sit down to rest to feel physically better and your videos bring a smile to my face and make the pain decrease as I enjoy your banter and your performance. I can tell the older ones weren't as polished as your current ones, but even this one is well done and a pleasure to watch. Thank you. :)
Just found your channel yesterday been Benj watching all your James Bond stuff 😊 fantastic. I’ve been thinking about getting this game since I’m a big bond fan as well but not sure which is the best port of this game , what would you recommend the PlayStation 2 version or the GameCube version.
What makes From Russia With Love Connerys greatest film is that the plot is complicated. It´s a damn good thriller. Noone wants a Bond movie where you know the villain and his plan within the first 15 minutes. It makes perfect sense, that they´ve made a game out of what many will say is the best film in the franchise and even Connery´s own favourite. The last level is ridiculous. The problem with this game is that the technology is often too advanced for the time in which the game is supposed to take place. They should only have focused on Connery movies to fill out gabs and not call something "Octopus". That´s just silly.
It's weird that they chose one of the most classic, yet grounded movies as the basis for a game. Goldfinger or Thunderball would be more obvious choices.
Love this game, only thing i found rather dull in the game were the 'bond moments'. Wich were nothing more than find some secret rooms but oh well. Great movie, great game!
Great review as usual and agree with mainly everything you said, this is probably one of my favourite 007 games, as I loved the idea of having a video game set on a much older Bond adventure. Plus seeing a return of Connery to the almost franchise. However as you said I was always asked the question on why they choose From Russia With Love, its a great movie and i think Connery's strongest performance but action wise there's just not enough for a video game but some how the producers managed to find some action for this game (though using mainly gadgets or cars) from other Connery bond films. If they had chosen Connery based Bond you would have thought they would have for something like Thunderball or You Only Live Twice, but not I'm not complaining too much From Russia is so good and it's just a shame this probably the only Connery bond adventure well see in a video game format, that was until we got the 007 legends game which uses the adventures from alot of bond films though it uses Daniel Craig's likeness! though less said about 007 legends is the better. Its such a shame we'll never see a Roger Moore type james bond game. Next i see is Quantum Of Solace which in my opinion probably along side Goldeneye Rogue Agent & 007 legends as being the worst james bond game.
Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love was an American comic book limited series published by Vertigo Comics in 2009 and 2010, and set in the world of Fables. The story portrays Cinderella as a secret agent, performing missions on behalf of Fabletown. Its title is an allusion to the James Bond novel From Russia, with Love.
Great review as always! This was one of my most favourite bond games, I remember having a lot of fun on the multiplayer with my brother, launching the missile was so much fun. Keep it up
Yay! I'm so glad that you'll be reviewing the Quantum of Solace game, as that was what made me curious about the movies! Even though it wasn't a great game (at least not as good as Goldeneye for Wii in 2010, cause I had a wii), it was what made me watch Quantum of Solace and then all 23 films. Now I'm a Bond film nerd!
Something I find about action games even from this era, especially ones that adapt source material; they would run of usable material for missions/levels and they had to make stuff up that wasn't in the orginal work. Sometimes it works out good, and sometimes it doesn't.
Sean Connery agreed to do this game because he saw an opportunity. He said in an interview: "I hate nothing more than being tied to only James Bond. But when they came to make the game and they asked me to do it I said yes. Regardless of anything, James Bond was good to me and made me a respected actor. I wanted a one last thing. And I didn't want someone else taking on MY Bond film."
+Derrik wRIGHT I think it was his way of doing a tribute to his older films. It was his film and it's not like he actually came back on-screen. It was a perfect way of acknowledging his run.
That's actually really admirable. Good on him.
He will always be THE James bond to me. His films were also some of the best in the whole series.
Funny Reviews 4 Life! I just watched Dr No again and he certainly does deserve to be considered best Bond,
Whenever I read a Sean Connery quote in my mind I do it in his voice
Maybe EA offered Connery a delicatessen...in stainless steel
A delicatesschen... in sschtainlessch sschteel?
Luckily there were no chimneys nearby!
Anyone else find it interesting that both Connery and Brosnan's final performances as James Bond were for video games? Says a lot about how far the medium has come, at the very least.
And 6 years after Kiel’s passing, Sean Connery followed him into the dark.
Rest In Peace, Mr. Connery, the true 007.
The oly true 007 is the one in the Fleming's books.
Connery agreed to come back because From Russia With Love was his favourite bond film to film and his grandkids played a lot of video games . So basically the grandkids would be playing as their grandfather that's cool
@wario2255 I would have liked a Sean Connery game with an original story. Much like what half of Bronson's games had.
Richard Kiel passed away today. Jaws was arguably the best henchmen in Bond History. R.I.P
MrJamesbondfan007 Jaws as well as Richard Kiel were great
Rest in peace Richard Kiel, Sean Connery and Roger Moore.
I would have love EA to have made a video game adaptation of "The Spy Who Loved Me". I can imagine ski levels, fights with Jaws in Egypt, submarine car levels, and a raid on giant Stromberg Tanker and underwater base. So many possibilities for cool games with the Roger Moore era in general.
I'd have loved that. Jaws and Roger having another battle would have been great...
Would've been awesome if the bonus levels were from other Sean Connery Bond movies.
The final story mission is basically the volcano lair from you only live twice
I wish they would do the same with Dalton to give him his third film as a video game. He's now around the same age Sean was when he did this
A video game return for Dalton or Brosnan would make far more sense than another film given both are in there 70's and it would be very much 'for the fans' but saddly it won't happen.
This will never happen but imagine if the Bond games became the 'What If?' series for Bond. So we got a Lazenby game that is all about revenge for the death of Tracy now they have the Blofeld rights back. Then we got another game for what would have been Dalton's 3rd film done in game form. There is no way either actor could play Bond now but in video game form they can be eternally young.....we can dream
I remember growing up playing this game, and loved it. It helped introduce me to classic Bond, and I will always respect it for that.
01kingmike I can imagine it being a great introduction to classic Bond for new fans
Tom Lock It was released in 2005.
Awesome video Sir!!! Choosing From Russia with Love from the Connery era was always a head scratcher for me too! Goldfinger or You Only Live Twice would make far better game adaptations, hell, YOLT entire plot plays out like a game!
But I couldn't get over Connery's old man voice coming out of his young man face too. Same with the 2008 Ghostbusters game.
I think EA noticed this and scrapped the idea after they hired Marlon Brando to voice The Godfather game (around the same time as From Russia with Love), Brando sounded so old and mumbly, they scrapped all his audio and hired a sound-a-like instead.
Didn't Brando die after recording a single line?
Rushy No, he only did one recording session and died afterwards, but he did record more than one line.
Hers the video. m.ruclips.net/video/S-_703JKzDk/видео.html
The Brando dialogue starts at about 40 seconds.
The issue with Brando wasn’t his age it was that his health was in such decline he was barely audible and was being drowned out by his oxygen machine
@@DarthRushy He did. He recorded the opening line and then sprung a gravy leak and deflated.
when you talked about being able to walk around the Q lab, I realised that Goldfinger is the only 60s film to actually feature Q lab(the rest of the Q scenes take place in M's office or they fly Q out to whereever Bond is)! There wouldn't be another proper Q lab scene until Man With The Golden Gun.
I was hoping EA would continue getting former Bond actors to reprise the role in games based on stories from the films and on original stories, like in Everything Or Nothing. It would be great to see George Lazenby and Roger Moore in their own Bond games. There are also lots of elements from the films that would make for excellent gameplay, like Little Nellie battle from YOLT, the ski chases from OHMSS, the boat chase from LALD, the parachute fight from Moonraker, the safari hunt from Octopussy, etc., etc.
Roger Moore was my favourite Bond so I too was hopeful that they'd give him a similar opportunity; IMO the logical choices would've been either TSWLM or Moonraker due to the scale of the action sequences, but then they could've just added stuff to any of the other movies like they did with FRWL.
Just sucks that it can never happen now :(
@@Scrummy64 I'd vote for TSWLM but either would have been excellent. It's too bad we'll never get the chance to see it.
@@jameskennedy4377 Not entirely. There is a group of Goldeneye Modders making TSWLM for the N64. Obviously not the third person extravaganza that could have been had with Sir Roger Moore (Rest in Peace), but it's looking great so far.
@@juliaobernesser349 Sounds interesting.
haha, connery's voice just doesn't match this young connery. I always see Indiana Jone's dad. It funny watching this but it is cool that they got Connery
Forget Moore. When am I getting my George Lazenby revenge story in game form? :P
*RIP Roger Moore*
I honestly wish they had made more classic bond movies into video games. Would’ve been a great way to keep us busy in between movies
Calvin, the cancelled Brosnan- starring game was called 'Phoenix Rising' not 'Phoenix Fire'. 'Phoenix Fire' is the name of a level from Nightfire :)
cabshdun Ahhhh yes of course. Good spot!
Calvin Dyson Thanks! Brilliant review by the way ;)
Calvin Dyson i like Daniel craig's james bond and movie casino royale
Brenda Nelson Oh god me too, he's my favourite Bond
@@calvindyson There were also rumors that Agent Zoe Nightshade was going to be in that planned game.
I believe FRWL was partially chosen to lure back Connery as it was his favourite Bond movie
Two shockingly underrated, under-recognized games for Playstation 2 that were based on movies: Scarface and From Russia with Love. Both were kinda masterpieces in their right.
The World is yours is what GTA: Vice City wanted to be. Fantastic (although I love Vice City too) game all around!
Absolutely loved this game to death. For what they had to work with in terms of using the From Russia With Love story, they did a fantastic job. They easily could have made a new story line (which in all honesty i would have preferred) but they put a nice twist on a classic bond film. Hopefully EA get the license back since no one currently owns the Bond video game license right now.
Great Review Calvin!
I don't see why they can't. I feel as though all the bond actors would be up for doing that.
Man a Roger Moore game would be pretty cool.
I love how Connery's Scottish accent slipped a number of times. I also love how he has a young face but the voice of an old man.
I remember hoping that they would follow this with a Goldfinger videogame, with Sean Connery coming back to voice the character
This game needs to be remastered on current consoles, this game was heaven back in middle school.
Some of the unlockables in the game were behind-the-scenes videos.....in one of them the developers discuss how they knew a lot of the things they put in the game broke continuity of the movies (Bond having a jetpack and Aston Martin before the films they first appear in) but they wanted to give the player a definitive Connery Era experience. So anything that was in the Connery movies had potential to be added.
Good work Calvin, I like to see that I'm not the only one who think it's great to walk around in MI6, I always thought that it was just me haha. Keep up the good work!
GeaussOnly Thanks, man :)
@@calvindyson great review Man to Me other than the Obvious N64 GoldenEye, This By Far is the Greatest Bond Game Ever!!!! I wished they remade it in PS3 I would buy it for sure!!!!! Yeah the Driving sequence could be a Little bit Hard, but come on you literally can drive the DB5 like what!!!!! Awesome Game!!!
I'd love to see a Bond game with Moore's likeness. Perhaps a game of The Spy Who Loved Me, or an original story. They'd best act fast, though, as he's not getting any younger. I feel EA mostly did a better job with the Bond licence than Activision did. Blood Stone was good, and Goldeneye Reloaded was good, but 007 Legends was dire, and QoS the game was OK but too short
TheAdam159 Yeah, a Roger Moore game would be fantastic, but only if it had his humor in it. Like, I don't want to see Roger Moore Mowing Enemies Down With An Automatic: The Game.
+DarthRushy Press B to quip!
Press Y to raise an eyebrow!
Press A to use the awkwardly contrived watch gadgets that you were never told about!
Press X to knock small Thai boys into the canal!
@@DarthRushy I think a Roger Moore Bond game would have been more of a point and click type game, like solve this SPECTRE puzzle to save Moneypenny or something similar.
GR was not good but blood stone is good
Fun fact he recorded his lines at his home in the Bahamas
I loved this game, and this is the best review I've seen of it. I feel you when you talked about wanting a Roger Moore movie game like this. I remember I fantasized about a Live and Let Die, or A View To a Kill game done with this engine. I even wrote out a summary for fun on how the levels would play out as they followed the movies' pots. What a dork I was even in my late twenties.
I like this game. Although Sean Connery's voice has aged considerably since Never Say Never Again, I do love his performance. He did seem to be having a blast here and there is quite a swashbuckling energy in his delivery.
I also like the replacement voice performers. Peter Renaday as M is awesome (though I always got a Patrick Macnee vibe out of his voice rather than Bernard Lee, but he works really well) and I particularly love Kari Wahlgren as Tatiana, Karly Rothenberg as Moneypenny and Klebb, Phil Proctor as Q and J.B. Blanc as Kerim Bey. However, Brian McCole as Red Grant is quite possibly the weakest one here. He is not bad, but I just don't get the sense of dread from him as I do with Robert Shaw.
But yeah, I think this game is a bit clearer than the movie (I love the movie, but it's just seventh favorite, sixth if you only count official flicks) and it is better paced, making for an enjoyable experience. 😁
I was just the same thinking they were going to continue! i thought the next game would be 'The Spy Who Loved Me' with Moore, he'd definitely return! we could have even had Lazenby back for OHMSS and Dalton for LTK or do original stories, then we would have a great Bond game for each Bond as we already had EON for Brosnan. When 007 Legends came out i thought that's what was going to happen, but then we got a Craig stand in and updates of classic Bond films.....shame
Mark Cookson I can't express enough how much I would have loved that.
Calvin Dyson did you see the 'making of' video i posted in the comments?
That would have been awesome.
Can you imagine if they'd gotten Moore back to make an original Bond game? What an ungodly wasted oppurtunity.
"It's a blowjob joke kids!"
Lol 🤣 I died laughing at that part.
I have something important to say: The automatic captions interpret “Shaken, not stirred” as “chicken monster.”
That is all.
That damn pp7... always had a silencer on it!
That’s what I didn’t like. You don’t have an option whether to remove or keep the silencer like in Everything or Nothing.
@@lukedaley17 Originally, some early game cinematics did show the Walther PPK without the silencer present. I am guessing it was later in the games development cycle that EA choose to keep it present at all times. Only in the multiplayer campaign can use fire it without the silencer.
"Did somebody put a bomb over scotland?"
_raises hand_
Here's an interesting thought: what if they kept the Pheonix Fire storyline, kept it in the modern time period, but still had Connery doing the voice and likeness. Would certainly had been an interesting experience. Then again, setting it in the 60s could have been an interesting prequel. Maybe bridging the gap between Goldfinger and Thunderball. I always found Goldfinger to be the black sheep of the Connery films because it was the only one not to include S.P.E.C.T.R.E.
If the new bond game has Sean connerys likeness with an original story I’d go crazy
Screwed by the Lawyers: EA wasn't allowed to use the name SPECTRE for the antagonists due to a legal dispute over the film rights to Thunderball between MGM/UA/Eon Productions and now-deceased screenwriter Kevin McClory (which wasn't settled until 2013 when Eon's producers bought the last remaining rights to McClory's estate, Spectre resulted from that). They had to replace them with the Suspiciously Similar Substitute OCTOPUS.
I like this game more because it kindled my curiosity for Bond in general in 2008-09. Now I really enjoy the film series. It has so many films that if you're in a certain mood there's probably a Bond movie for you. & it was all thanks to this game for introducing me to the series & I give it a lot of love for that.
26:43 AH, GOOD! Everything or Nothing had a strange camera view in multiplayer, so it's good to see this other third-person 007 game did it right!
Rip Sean Connery
Is it just me or does Sean sound even more Scottish in this game than in the films?
Maria Menounos (Eva Adara) is an entertainment reporter on American TV which might explain why she's not familiar to Calvin. I frequently see her in the movie theater ads so it was oddly amusing to see her before my showing of No Time to Die. I wondered how many people remembered her appearance in a Bond game.
SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOT
The developers were also very accommodating with Sean on this game. All his dialogue was recorded at a studio in Nassau so there was no need to fly him out of the Bahamas.
As a serious pre-teen fan I hated this game because of all the shlocky stuff they added to the movie's storyline. But as an adult I loved this game! It's really underrated. If they had tropped the pretences and made this an original story it would have been THE best Bond game.
Was always happy that they did a Brosnan and Connery Bond game. Always wanted them to do a Roger Moore Bond game after. Shame it never happened.
Glad to see you back, Mr. Dyson. Even more so with a new game review, as I've really enjoyed this series of videos. Good to know that I'm not the only one who longs for the thought of playing Phoenix Rising, as I was a kid in a candy shop when I first got my hands on Everything or Nothing. Fortunately, I was never teased with production stills from that game like I was with the Blood Stone follow-up Risico. Blood Stone is easily the most underrated Bond game, and the thought of a sequel that would have borrowed heavily from Fleming is mouth-watering to say the least.
It’s not spectre
It’s a brand new villain company
It’s *shpekter*
Ahh yeshh, bond’sj arch nemeshish
I loved this game growing up. I remember you could get this magnum that had like three bullets but had like a 1 shot kill. Great review Calvin, see you next month
Quinn C The magnum is pretty great :D
Calvin Dyson Almost as OP as Xenia's insane machine gun from Goldeneye N64.
@ Quinn C, not to nitpick but the Wright Magnum has six shots not three. It is one of my favorites along side the Walther PPK and the AK 47. Also the Armor Piercing Rifle is another great weapon, especially how it useful it is in the later stages.
Perhaps they should do more Bond games based on previous Bonds. I’d like to see a video game based on the original plans for Bond 17 when Timothy Dalton was still attached.
My best friend Christian and I loved the multiplayer mode in From Russia With Love. I was the more experienced player and was winning a string of deathmatches against him one day and remarked that I was using the Bond focus mode to achieve this. Instead of thanking me for this good advice, he proceeded to mock me by putting on an upper-crust voice and saying 'Ooooh, my name's Pushon and I use Bond focus!'.
When Kerim Bey brings the Aston Martin to Istanbul it always puzzled me why Bond reacts with 'interesting car,' as if this is the first time he's seen it, when he's already used it in the pre-title sequence.
Anyway, great review - looking forward to the Quantum of Solace review, which platform are you reviewing? You know the PS2 version was developed by Nightfire's Eurocom right?
* Connery had throat surgery before recording this ... game was rushed, still healing. So his voice is injured
”Rashan clocks arr alvays-”
*KABOWWWWMRROOMMRRR*
Long live Sean Connery 😔
Fantastic video as always Calvin! This and Nigthfire are my favourite Bond videogames. Maybe they choose FRWL because it is Connery's favourite Bond film. This way, the producers of the game could convince Connery to play Bond again, in the videogame of his favourite film.
I’m glad this is Connery’s goodbye to Bond, rather than Never Say Never Again.
I like both! :D
R.I.P. Sean Connery
He got smack in the face with EA big balls of money. Bags! I mean bags!
The Living Daylights needs a game
It seems EA went from producing movie tie-ins with Brosnan's Bond, then switched over to making original stories in the Brosnan era, then switched back to a movie tie-in albeit based on a film from 42 years prior. Activision on the other hand seemed most focused on retroactively working the events of the previous Bond series into the Craig universe.
Never got past the tunnel scene with the boat, course that was years ago, might've actually done better if I tried playing this game today. lol So anyways after the first 12 minutes was spoilers for me but this is one of the few times I welcome the spoils. ;D
I ALWAYS struggled with this level.
Did you make it yet?
The things I want to happen for Bond games are way too many to list...But if I could just list 2, they would be...
1. Bring back Timothy Dalton and make his third proposed movie into a game...I don't know if you've seen the articles on Mi6-hq.com, but they had a proposed screenplay for what Bond 17 may have been had it been made in 1991 and with Dalton.
2. EA Gets the rights back, because I feel like they would care about the quality of their games unlike Activision who only cared about making COD Re-Skins.
I would be a little worried about giving the rights back to EA, what with there mishandling of games like BF4 and such. I agree that they had some solid bond titles in the past, but I'm not so sure what they would do with the rights nowadays.
+lbonini1gaming Wasn't his third movie supposed to be Goldeneye? I really wouldn't want to see another Goldeneye game, there's like 20 other movies to choose from.
How about The Man With The Golden Gun: The Game?
Well, his third movie was supposed to be something else and then it just sort of vanished and then Goldeneye got written. Something to do with Hong Kong or some other exotic location and arms dealers, I don't really remember for sure. The title was probably going to be "The Property of a Lady"...
lbonini1gaming Dalton announced he was leaving the same year Goldeneye came out. It was written with him in mind.
Either way there was a Bond 17 script and storyline written intended for Dalton, look for it on the mi6-hq website, you'll find it.
Idk if youd read this but the reason they used FRWL is because it was the condition set by Connery for returning. His grandkids loved gaming and its his favourite movie of the bunch. Thats why they had to use this one
Excellent stuff, thorough and balanced review. Entertaining, too. Good pace.
Fun Fact: This is the only game Sean Connery agreed to be a part of.
Calvin, this just popped up in my side-bar of videos to watch after I watched the M ranking video. After a few minutes in, I realized I HAD seen this particular YT video around 2015 or so! So I did discover you back then, but never knew it! :D
As for the level trailers, there was a gaming magazine that would put out a disk each month with games on the disk for the subscriber to test out. Sometimes it'd be a trailer, other times you could actually play the brief part of the game--like Assassin's Creed. I remember geeking out when I saw this pop in the mag and seeing the graphics I was like, OMG! They look amazing! My estranged husband played the hell out of Goldeneye (N64) before we dated and were just friends and I enjoyed the brief times I got to see that. Then again my fav Bond film was/is Goldeneye. :) I am so enjoying wandering around your playlist as YT offers me "Go here!" "Try this one!" in my downtime. I sit down to rest to feel physically better and your videos bring a smile to my face and make the pain decrease as I enjoy your banter and your performance. I can tell the older ones weren't as polished as your current ones, but even this one is well done and a pleasure to watch. Thank you. :)
Little did Calvin know, nine years later Maria MA-NEW-KNOW-??? would haunt us Americans at our gas station pumps.
Would absolutely love them to do other films with correct bonds alas its now too late for Sir Roger
Theres also a Felix Leiter comic book out
Just found your channel yesterday been Benj watching all your James Bond stuff 😊 fantastic. I’ve been thinking about getting this game since I’m a big bond fan as well but not sure which is the best port of this game , what would you recommend the PlayStation 2 version or the GameCube version.
what we need now is a lazenby game with a new story, so his canon will boast at least two outings....
I use to love the DB5. Going at high speed then slam the brakes spinning the car around. Good times. I actually miss that game.
Connery came back cus his kids loved video games and his favourite Bond film was From Russia With Love
Love your content, I hope you can update this review a decade later! It could be a fun experiment.
Is Goldeneye Reloaded multiplayer still alive on PS3? Last time I checked I didn't find many people playing unfortunately....
I love this game. The movie was also my second favorite bond movie after Goldeneye. A big fan of Red Grant.
What makes From Russia With Love Connerys greatest film is that the plot is complicated. It´s a damn good thriller. Noone wants a Bond movie where you know the villain and his plan within the first 15 minutes.
It makes perfect sense, that they´ve made a game out of what many will say is the best film in the franchise and even Connery´s own favourite.
The last level is ridiculous. The problem with this game is that the technology is often too advanced for the time in which the game is supposed to take place. They should only have focused on Connery movies to fill out gabs and not call something "Octopus". That´s just silly.
AHHHHHH good to have you back Calvin!
It's weird that they chose one of the most classic, yet grounded movies as the basis for a game. Goldfinger or Thunderball would be more obvious choices.
Love this game, only thing i found rather dull in the game were the 'bond moments'. Wich were nothing more than find some secret rooms but oh well. Great movie, great game!
Waiting on the “Call Me Bwana” in depth review 😂
Gameplay is and should be more important than story. Also I don't want simplification.
Great work Calvin! Can't wait to see your thunderball review with new thoughts!
RIP Sean Connery
Really liked your review Calvin, looking forward to your next one already :)
harrynaulls 234 Thanks :)
Great review as usual and agree with mainly everything you said, this is probably one of my favourite 007 games, as I loved the idea of having a video game set on a much older Bond adventure. Plus seeing a return of Connery to the almost franchise. However as you said I was always asked the question on why they choose From Russia With Love, its a great movie and i think Connery's strongest performance but action wise there's just not enough for a video game but some how the producers managed to find some action for this game (though using mainly gadgets or cars) from other Connery bond films. If they had chosen Connery based Bond you would have thought they would have for something like Thunderball or You Only Live Twice, but not I'm not complaining too much From Russia is so good and it's just a shame this probably the only Connery bond adventure well see in a video game format, that was until we got the 007 legends game which uses the adventures from alot of bond films though it uses Daniel Craig's likeness! though less said about 007 legends is the better. Its such a shame we'll never see a Roger Moore type james bond game. Next i see is Quantum Of Solace which in my opinion probably along side Goldeneye Rogue Agent & 007 legends as being the worst james bond game.
Their is 51 years between Sean and Natasha very creepy could they have not got a older woman to voice the character.
Jeez he is old enough to be her grandfather.
True, but at least it isn't Tanya Roberts (Stacy Sutton) with Roger Moore.....
I wore that opening dinner suit for my prom.
Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love was an American comic book limited series published by Vertigo Comics in 2009 and 2010, and set in the world of Fables. The story portrays Cinderella as a secret agent, performing missions on behalf of Fabletown. Its title is an allusion to the James Bond novel From Russia, with Love.
The only major issue I had with this game was the pain in the ass underground cistern boat level
That was actually one of my favorite levels; I felt the other boat level along the coast was the worst.
I almost forgot quantum had a video game. Great vid Calvin
Great review as always! This was one of my most favourite bond games, I remember having a lot of fun on the multiplayer with my brother, launching the missile was so much fun. Keep it up
Yay! I'm so glad that you'll be reviewing the Quantum of Solace game, as that was what made me curious about the movies! Even though it wasn't a great game (at least not as good as Goldeneye for Wii in 2010, cause I had a wii), it was what made me watch Quantum of Solace and then all 23 films. Now I'm a Bond film nerd!
Great video! Glad to see you got Jimmy Carr in to talk about the threat meter 😉
Sean Connery also returned to voice the character in an animated short called "In Service of Nothing".
That's a voice impression by another actor, a good one though.
@@EJBS1991 i certainly couldn't tell.
Something I find about action games even from this era, especially ones that adapt source material; they would run of usable material for missions/levels and they had to make stuff up that wasn't in the orginal work. Sometimes it works out good, and sometimes it doesn't.
Your impression of Natasha Bedingfield’s character sounds impeccably like Brian’s Mother from Monty Python’s Life Of Brian (played by Terry Jones
I wish they would made more Sean Connery Bond video games. I would loved to seen Dr. No, Thunderball, Goldfinger and You Only With Twice.
So glad you are making movies again!
Also, Call Me Bwana was the only non-James Bond film made by EON productions apparently.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_Me_Bwana