James Bond has had video game adaptations since the medium first existed, but the franchise received a major boost with the groundbreaking N64 title GoldenEye in 1997. GoldenEye's success led to a lengthy stretch of successful Bond video games over the next fifteen years, but the series came to a screeching halt with the release of 2012's 007 Legends, a game that was supposed to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the film series and the release of Skyfall. To date, it was the last new James Bond game.
What makes the idea of 007 Legends sound great was that the player got to play as Bond through five missions representing the different eras of the character, though they would all be portrayed by Daniel Craig's iteration of the character rather than his predecessors. Nevertheless, it's still fun for new fans of the current Bond to see him live through classic films such as Goldfinger and License To Kill, but he also goes on missions through some of the franchise's less popular films like Die Another Day and Moonraker despite there being better options for those Bond Eras.
Despite all of the positive attributes and the good timing associated with 007 Legends, the final product was a disaster with critics. Most Bond games in the past received mixed reviews at worst, thanks to the action and big-budget the franchise always afforded. Reviewers weren't so generous with Legends, though. Many reviews point to gameplay that felt like it was lifted out of Call of Duty, only with worse action and stealth gameplay. In their review, IGN wrote that "The fact that is so shamelessly copies from the CoD playbook would be almost as forgivable if it actually did a good job of it, but 007 Legends is just so painfully dull."
Even with accurate depictions of series icons from Auric Goldfinger, Oddjob, Pussy Galore and more, this boost of nostalgia wasn't enough to save the game financially. Poor reviews led to poor sales; 007 Legends only cracked the Top 20 of the UK video game charts before quickly fading from memory. 007 Legends was supposed to be an exciting promotion for the then-upcoming Skyfall film; the game's structure is justified as Bond having flashbacks to previous missions while dying from the gunshot wound he receives in the film's beginning. The intent was to celebrate Bond's golden anniversary with a look back at the franchise's greatest hits, but instead, it became the agent's biggest flop. Activision removed 007 Legends from digital sales platforms just a couple of months after release, quickly washing its hands of the game. Not long after, Activision was finished with making licensed video games, putting an end to the James Bond video game franchise for a long time.
The story doesn't get any better after that, either. Shortly after 007 Legends' release, developer Eurocom, who had also worked on GoldenEye: Reloaded and Quantum of Solace, laid off three-quarters of their employees. A month later, they laid off the rest of their employees and shut down completely. The company was struggling around the time of 007 Legends' release and the game's poor sales were the final nail in the coffin. It has now been nearly a full decade since 007 Legends was released, and it remains the last James Bond video game to date, with 2015's Spectre and the upcoming No Time To Die skipping video game tie-ins entirely.
For Bond fans, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. IO Interactive announced in 2020 they were working on a new James Bond game, tentatively titled Project 007, which is expected to tell the origin of Bond and how he got his 00 status. IO Interactive is the same company that made the recent Hitman games, a franchise that certainly borrowed some elements from Bond movies and games. This time around it will be 007 who will borrow from Hitman, which will hopefully lead to a refreshing new game that wipes out the bad taste of 007 Legends.
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