Video Game / 007 Legends

Live the legend.

The One With… all the defining moments from the series.

007 Legends is a First-Person Shooter video game released in 2012, developed by Eurocom and published by Activision for the Xbox 360 / PS3 / Wii U, which follows the exploits of James Bond (the Daniel Craig incarnation) in six of the secret agent's past adventures.

Set during the events of Skyfall, Bond (voiced by Timothy Watson) is mistakenly shot by MI6 sniper Eve during a confrontation with an enemy on top of a train in Istanbul, and falls into a river below. As he's sinking under the water, Bond flashes back to several key moments during the franchise's history, including sequences from the films Goldfinger, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Moonraker, Licence to Kill and Die Another Day. The game retells these incidents as an overarching narrative (using the Craig version of the character, similar to GoldenEye (2010)) that follows Bond's progression into an experienced secret agent.

The game was developed primarily to celebrate 50 years of the Bond character in film, and features one film from each actor (Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Craig himself) who has portrayed the secret agent. Each film comprises two missions, which feature a variety of moments seen in the films, along with additional enemy encounters and gameplay mechanics that emphasize the use of many gadgets, including Bond's smartphone and wristwatch. The game also features voice acting from a wide selection of past and present actors in the series, including Judi Dench, Richard Kiel, Michael Lonsdale, Carey Lowell and others, along with a split-screen multiplayer mode.

A Downloadable Content mission, based off of Skyfall, was released on November 9, 2012 to coincide with the film itself.

On January 3rd, 2013, Activision pulled the PC version of 007: Legends from Steam as well as their own online store. Notably, this happened less than 3 months after the game was first released and before it ever showed up in a Steam sale, resulting in a relatively limited number of people ever having bought it. As a result of all this, the only legal way to get the PC version is to import it from Amazon Germany, with the only other options being either pirating the game, or buying from a grey market source (i.e. Key resale sites or eBay sellers) who probably obtained it via piracy.

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This game provides examples of:

• Adaptation Distillation: In spades:
  • In addition to having Craig appear in a modern retelling of the classic Bond stories, Blofeld is based on an amalgamation of the three actors (Donald Pleasence, Telly Savalas and Charles Gray) who played him in the films, and several stories have slightly different outcomes (e.g. in the Licence to Kill chapter, Felix does not get his leg eaten by a shark).
  • The Skyfall DLC, while expanding on Bond's whereabouts after he was shot off the top of the train in Istanbul, is a self-contained story about Bond pursuing and defeating Patrice, without any reference to the missing MI6 list, Bond going 'off the grid', Raoul Silva or any other story elements from the film.
  • Numerous supporting characters were left out of the game, despite having prominent roles in the adapted sequences they would have normally appeared in, including comic-relief henchmen like Truman-Lodge and Professor Butcher from Licence to Kill, and Mr. Kil from Die Another Day.
  • Noticeably, Miranda Frost [Rosamund Pike] is compeletly absent from Die Another Day despite being vital to that films storyline, especially at the climax.
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • The revisiting of the classic films allowed the developers the ability to add new encounters during the missions, including Bond and Leiter using RPG's to take out a laser cannon outside of Fort Knox in the Goldfinger mission, and Bond using a minigun to take out Blofeld's troops in the OHMSS mission, to name two.
  • The Skyfall DLC, unlike the film, answers what happened to Bond when he went underwater just before the title sequence - he washes up on a riverbank and wakes up soon after, remembering the last words M said to him.
• Adaptational Heroism: Pussy Galore is unaware of Goldfinger's plan to kill everyone at Fort Knox, thinking it was just knockout gas, in the film it's unclear if she was aware of this.
• Adaptational Villainy: Due to Adaptation Distillation cutting out most his redeeming qualities, Gustav Graves is nothing more than a vicious Corrupt Corporate Executive with a God Complex, looking to show off the power of Icarus Satellite.
• A.K.A.-47: As with the GoldenEye remake - in fact, most of the weapons from GoldenEye Reloaded return and retain the models and names they had in that game. This includes aversions for the Walther weapons - except, amusingly, the PPK, which is now the "Bernetti TC32".
• All There in the Manual: While the game does a fair job of summarizing the plots of each Bond film it features, the Die Another Day segment fails to mentions the fact that Gustav Graves is a North Korean Colonel who's undergone experimental gene therapy to disguise himself as a British businessman, which can make you wonder about his motives for trying to help North Korea take over the world if you haven't seen the film.
• Always Close: Just like in the film itself, no matter how long you take while fighting through Fort Knox (and defeating Oddjob), Bond will always take off the bomb's lid when it has less than 20 seconds to spare.
• Artificial Stupidity: Both enemies and allies will do this frequently. Guards will run up to you at point-blank range to shoot at you, guards will forget about you if you stand in their sight and move away before their threat meter turns yellow, allies run out into the open and engage groups of enemies, and much more.
• Bag of Spilling: Several stealth sections result in Bond losing his weapons and being forced to make do without them.
• Bizarrchitecture: Blofeld's lair. Lampshaded by Bond and Draco.
  Marc-Ange Draco: This place is like nothing I've ever seen. Blofeld must have hired a madman to design it!
  James Bond: They're designed to break you down, psychologically.
• Bling-Bling-BANG!: Goldfinger's golden gun, which you collect pieces of during the first mission.
• The Cavalry: Much like the movie, after Bond is escorted off the plane in front of Fort Knox by Goldfinger's troops in the titular mission, the group is besieged by Felix Leiter and a group of CIA operatives Hidden in Plain Sight.
• Cable-Car Action Sequence: And interactive, no less, in the second OHMSS mission. Bond uses a piece of chain to ride down to a cable car, blows up a helicopter with an RPG and jumps across to a second car before the first one falls off the track.
• Calling The Old Woman Out: Subverted. In the Skyfall DLC, unlike the film, Bond accepts that M had to give the order to shoot him when he was on top of the train in Istanbul.
• Canon Marches On: While it's pretty obvious the game's absolutely not intended to be seriously canon, the events of Spectre render the game's events completely noncanonical, due to the film's take on the major character of Ernst Stavro Blofeld.
• Casting Gag: Jinx is visually based off of Gabriela Montaraz, who was initially set to play the character instead of Halle Berry in Die Another Day.
• Cherry Tapping: You can kill enemies either by repeatedly shooting them in the legs, or by bashing them in the butt with a rifle.
• Composite Character: Ernst Stavro Blofeld's character model is a combination of the three actors who portrayed him in the film series.
• The Computer Isa Cheating Bastard: Whenever the AI isn't being stupid, it'll do things like have targets drive through cars and trees during chase scenes without crashing or sic obstacles to sandwich you leaving you nowhere to go but crash and fail the chase sequences because the target got away.
• Continuity Nod: At the end of the OHMSS mission, when Teresa is killed in the drive-by shooting, Bond cradles her body and remember M's speech from the end of Casino Royale (2006) regarding Vesper's death: "You don't trust anyone, do you, James? Sometimes we're so focused on our enemies that we forget to watch our friends..."
• Continuity Snarl: The Craig films have been established as in a separate timeline to Dr. No-Die Another Day. Here, the game attempts to bridge the classic films with the chronology of the rebooted franchise, at the expense of glaring continuity issues such as Felix Leiter is portrayed and voiced by Demetri Goritsas, a Caucasian actor, yet in Casino Royale (2006) and Quantum of Solace, Leiter was played by Jeffrey Wright, an African-American actor.
• Cutscene Boss:
  • All of the bosses (and several enemy henchmen) in the game are subject to this. Hugo Drax in particular stands out as, unlike all of the other main villains, you don't even fight him in a quicktime event fistfight. Bond just straight-up kills him in the final cutscene without a fight.
  • If you count the Skyfall DLC as the last two missions of the game, then the Final Boss, Patrice, is an aversion. The fight with him, which takes up the entirety of the second DLC mission, is a traditional old-school FPS boss fight; he runs around shooting at you, and you have to pump more than 100 rounds into him to deplete his health bar.
• Cutscene Power to the Max: Bond accomplishes many feats in cutscenes that is he is unable to execute in-game. The first mission has him fire an EMP with his phone (which he can never access the function of at any other time) before jumping on a moving truck, running across it and jumping into Goldfinger's compound while rolling.
• Denser and Wackier: By virtue of adapting events from the older films, some aspects feel out of place for the Daniel Craig era, like Jaws and the Moonraker space station.
• Diabolus ex Machina: Just like the film, Teresa dies at the end of the OHMSS mission.
• Disney Villain Death/No One Could Survive That!: In the OHMSS mission, unlike the film where Blofeld smashes into a tree while fighting Bond on a bobsled, in the game Bond throws him off a cable car and he plummets several hundred feet. Bond declares his status as "unknown, presumed killed". He of course still survives and returns to kill Tracy in the ending. Hell, after that, being dropped down a chimney doesn't seem that bad.
• Doomed by Canon: Tracy Vicenzo, of course. What, you didn't think her and Bond were going to stay married, were you?
• Drives Like Crazy: In the Skyfall DLC. During the Istanbul chase, cars will race towards Bond at high speed while he's on the motorcycle, even though they're driving through narrow streets with sharp turns.
• Dull Surprise: Bond doesn't seem to be overly bothered that Jill Masterson is dead and covered in gold paint (at the beginning of the Goldfinger mission). Though this could be due to the fact that Bond had already seen someone (Agent Fields) die in a similar manner, as the game takes place between Quantum and Skyfall.
• Elite Mooks: Enemies in combat armor can take about twice as much damage as regular mooks, making headshots much more useful against them. Squads of them tend to show up if you set off an alarm during the stealth segments.
• Escort Mission: One in almost every chapter, including escorting Pussy Galore in the Goldfinger mission, and Teresa (and her father) in the OHMSS mission.
• Elevator Action Sequence: The Space Port level from Moonraker has one, unusually for a First-Person Shooter.
• EMP: In the intro to the first Goldfinger mission, Bond uses an EMP to take out a fighter jet that's just flown into the titular villain's facility.
• Framing Device: The game begins with a scene from Skyfall, and flashes back to the classic missions while Bond is sinking in the water after being shot off the top of a train.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Notably, at the beginning of the Goldfinger mission. Tanner tells Bond that he is in a stealth mission and should stay quiet. What then follows is Bond detonating an EMP that destroys an entire compound full of fighter jets, coupled with mooks who will immediately spot you and start firing as soon as you gain control.
• Groin Attack: How Bond attempts to impede Jaws in the Moonraker level. Unlike the film, however, (in which Jaws no-sells the move), he audibly groans in pain in the game (complete with a clanking sound).
• Hammerspace: When Leiter rescues Bond at Fort Knox, he gives Bond an assault rifle (not the one he was carrying) that he seemingly pulls right out of his back.
• Hollywood Hacking: Any device, no matter how secure the data is, can be hacked in just a few seconds by Bond's smartphone.
• Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: Much like Goldeneye Wii, the difficulty levels include Operative (Easy), Secret Agent (Normal) and 007 (Hard). Unlike Goldeneye, however, the game lets you choose whether you want regenerating health or medical kit pickups - it is no longer restricted to 007 difficulty.
• Implacable Man: Jaws and Oddjob, of course, who you fight several times in each of their respective missions.
• Ink-Suit Actor: All of the All-Star Cast's voice actors have the same in-game likenesses.
• Instant Sedation: At the end of the first Goldfinger mission, the villain's henchman injects Bond in the knee with a tranquilizer, which instantly knocks him out. No 'needle to the knee' jokes, please.
• Mission Control: Both M and Tanner (in the Craig-era films) fulfill this role.
• Mission-Pack Sequel: The game is built on the same engine as the 2010 ''Goldeneye'' remake, and uses many of the same weapons and other assets such as textures and animations.
• The Name Is Bond, James Bond: Subverted. In the first Goldfinger mission, Pussy Galore begins to ask "Your name is...?" before he cuts her off with a curt "James Bond."
• No Ending:
  • The Goldfinger section ends just as Bond pulls himself into the cockpit of the falling airplane, leaving it to the player's imagination as to whether or not he fired the ejection seat like he did in the film.
  • Bond (and Holly) get ready to make their escape from Hugo Drax's space station...and then the credits roll. Whether or not they escaped is never resolved, as the Skyfall DLC picks up an undetermined amount of time afterwards.
  • The Skyfall DLC, unlike the film, ends with Bond stopping Patrice (without finding the poker chip) and accepting M's explanation that letting Eve take the shot was something she had to do. He is then told to wait for a phone call regarding his next mission, and the game ends.
• No Indoor Voice: Bond is noticeably loud throughout the game, even in cutscenes where he's supposed to be eavesdropping on sensitive conversations. In the Goldfinger mission alone, he starts talking to M before Pussy Galore and Ling have even left the room. A few minutes later, he loudly tells M that he's going to listen to Goldfinger's conversation with Galore while he's hidden in a train car and Auric is less than a foot away from him.
• No Name Given: Unlike the film, in which Naomie Harris' character is identified as "Eve" (and at the end of the film, as Eve Moneypenny), her character in this game is never identified, and she is only referred to as "the agent".
• Offscreen Start Bonus: If you turn around at the beginning of the Skyfall DLC and take the time to scan the area with the two dead agents, you will find a fingerprint that directly identifies who Patrice is.
• Press X to Not Die: Several times throughout the campaign, notably whenever Oddjob throws his hat at you.
• Product Placement: Notably, the game starts with such a moment. (In a recreation of a scene from Goldfinger, no less.) When Bond finds Jill Masterson's gold-painted body, he picks up a Sony Xperia phone next to her and gazes at the logo for several seconds before answering a call.
• Race Lift: In Die Another Day, Gustav Graves was a Korean man who got Magic Plastic Surgery to become a white, Englishman. Here, due to Adaptation Distillation, there is nothing to suggest he wasn't born Gustav Graves.
• Regenerating Health: Notable in that you have the option of this, or "Classic" modes with a traditional health bar and medkits.
• Shoot Out the Lock: Weapon crates must be opened by shooting off the lock. Hilariously, you can also do this with a melee attack.
• Spared by the Adaptation: In the Skyfall DLC, Bond stops Patrice from shooting his intended target in Shanghai, unlike the film (where Patrice assassinates his target before Bond moves to stop him). Also, because of the Adaptation Distillation of the material, the MI6 head office is never bombed in the game, and the intended casualties never occur.
• Split Screen: The offline multiplayer mode features this.
• Stealth-Based Mission: The first Goldfinger mission has a section dedicated entirely to stealth, although it's not required for game completion - you can choose to ignore the tutorial and go through the game guns blazing.
• Useless Useful Stealth: Trying to get through a level using just a silenced pistol and stealth takedowns is pretty much impossible here; you can't hide the bodies of fallen enemies, and an enemy discovering the body of their buddy will cause everyone in the area to zero in on you.
• Wire Dilemma: Played straight in Fort Knox, unlike the film that inspired it (where a technician switches the bomb off for Bond). The only advice Felix gives is not to pull the wrong wire. Bond then pulls a red wire, stopping the countdown completely.

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