James Bond Needs Therapy | Semi-Ramblomatic

All this tells me is Yahtzee would love watching the Archer animated series, since the main char is a super smug ass who apparently has insane skills but is broken in many many...MANY ways.

It doesn't hurt, I think, that First Light's Bond doesn't default to violence. There are times when it's unavoidable, but since the License to Kill mechanic doesn't allow you to draw your weapon (if you even have one) until an enemy has drawn theirs, Bond has to rely on his gadgets, his wits and eventually his fists all before he's allowed to fire off a shot from his extremely limited ammo supply. It further helps that Gibson sells Bond's exasperation with having to resort to combat incredibly well.

It helps tremendously that Bond here, as in the movies, does fuck up. He loses. He gets caught, the villains make tangible gains against him and he suffers tangible defeats. He's not quipping on the concrete slab with a death machine pointing at him because he wants to be, he's there because he fell a step behind, and quipping to poke holes in his enemies and buy time. They were small mechanically but I loved the dialogue during those moments at the villains mercy. Pushing them to talk, because as long as they're talking (or punching) they're not killing you yet. You know he'll catch up with the villain in the end, but you don't know how many of his friends will survive along the way.

Also, something that i think helps is that James Bond is ever so slightly incompetent, with him getting himself captured or discovered half of the time

Ya know, I feel like yatzhee put together this whole video as a response someone else at Second Wind told him the only difference was that Drake is American and Bond is British and thats why he likes Bond more.

Another thing with Bond is he's not always in control of the situation he's in and it shows. Goldfinger is a great example of this there is desperation on his face when trying to talk Goldfinger into turning off the laser then has an unmistakable look of relief on his face when because he managed to pull it off. Later in the same film where he needs to deactivate the bomb in Fort Knox is clear he has no idea what he is doing and he is clearly getting desperate trying to stop the mechanism when someone else comes in and calmly flips a switch.

Boils down to "smug shouldn't hold up in a fight"

Snarkiness is, at its core, a defense mechanism. It's meant to project invulnerability. That means that somewhere underneath all the smarm, the character MUST be vulnerable. If your snarky wisecracker is *also* an unstoppable and unflappable violence machine, then you're just putting a hat on a hat.

I mean the 'Casino Royale' remake pretty much spelled out that Bond is living a facade, with Vesper Lynn confirming everything from how he dresses to how he behaves scream of one who does so because that's how they think refined, upper class gentlemen are supposed to act, not because it feels natural to them or they feel confident about doing so.

I think another reason why James works so well in first light is the whole context behind everything. In uncharted you’re just some guy, like an archeologist or something. You end up killing hundreds of people like it’s nothing. It feels a little out of place if you think about it for a bit But in first light, that’s your JOB. That’s what you were trained to do, that’s what you should be doing. And the whole “license to kill system” prevents you from gunning everyone down like a mad man. It feels more in line with the narrative

i think Yatzhee pointed out the one aspect that makes this character archetype work best: authenticity. The sarcasm isn't just there for the sake of being funny. After all the things we see from Bond it's easy to assume his comedic nature is his way of staying grounded after all the stress he has to endure. Not only that but unlike someone such as Nathan Drake, he has his somber moments and times where he isn't using his charm and charisma, allowing himself to be shown as a human being rather than a quipping dipshit. The most amount of emotion we see out of Nathan is when his brother is shot in Uncharted 4 and then comes back years later, and that took four fucking games to get to. Before that was when Sully was shot and he basically processed that in a manner of seconds. Not only that but there are consequences for Bond's actions. He suffers a few losses through the game, one of which was because of his own recklessness. Which is something we never see out of Nathan Drake. Bond has pushback and consequences for his behavior and attitude, while Drake doesn't. In one game we were able to see Bond's whole personality, meanwhile it took 4 entire games for Drake to emote more than a moderate amount of worry.

Paraphrased: "Look at you, barely held together by your pills and drink." - Silva from Skyfall. Bond isn't a healthy person. Never has been. Despite the charisma and capabilities, he's broken. You'd kind of have to be to do what he does without going crazy.

0:55 I will say I was initially turned off by Nathan Drake in the first Uncharted game UNTIL the scene where he basically tells Elena 'This is too much, this is too dangerous, I WANT TO LEAVE'. In the end he ends up thwarting the bad guys in a attempt to just leave which really struck me. Despite his quippy, sarcastic nature, he was willing to admit he was WRONG and that he was WAY in over his head and he wanted to leave, it did show there was more to the character. You do get that with Bond in this game. There is definitely a 'human' side to him. He feels he's constantly looked down on, wants to prove himself to be just as good as anyone else BUT ultimately he believes when he does something, it is ultimately for the 'right' reason. He's also unwilling to overlook the 'human cost' that people who tend to think THEY think 'above him' constantly make.

I've never played any of the above games, so I can't comment on the characters. That said, someone said you might like the show Archer, and I have to second that as it's a satire of James Bond with a significantly more broken spy. The part you might not like is the constant quipping, screaming, and the "just keep talking until it gets too much" moments (there are a lot of them, especially with Carol/Cheryl and Pam).

The writing man. The phenomenal writing in 007 is what sold me. When Bond is planning on robbing the Q department after Greenway's death ... Q invites him to share in a commemorative toast and Q says "Don't do it". There's that tremendous pause where both you and Bond are wondering if Q knows what he's going to do. Then Q finally says "Don't blame yourself". But it was a wonderful moment. The game is full of these brief wonderful moments of character growth that happen in brief bits of dialogue or other interstitial moments. Or the drive and conversation that happens with Greenway and then with Moneypenny on the phone before returning to the empty apartment full of ghostly memories. It's in the way Bond hastily descended the steps at the Gala to grab Isola by the arm. The game filled the interstitial moments with details that matter, and hid the interstitial moments that didn't (no loading screens unless you die).

I fucking love the combat system in this game and it’s genuinely one of the biggest reasons this game hits different. Tying it back to character as Yahtzee does here honestly is a good explanation as to WHY it works. When gameplay mechanics mesh with and back up the narrative to give it depth, and the aesthetic appeal of the animations layer on top, you get a magnificent cake of great design. Dammit now I’m hungry.

I think the thing that differs between Bond and Drake for me is that Bond always has to do something to trigger his surprising escapes from certain death. Drake seems to just get lucky and that's the only reason he ever survives. I can accept the ol' overly elaborate and easily escapable execution as a decision made by the villain to underestimate their opponent, but Drake never seems to do anything to prove the villain wrong. It may also help that Bond is at least ostensibly fighting for something more than a big pile of money.

This game had a very enjoyable tutorial during the training mission. Fight this guy, shoot this thing, drive this car. No fluff, no walking between while getting exposited at. Just a few minutes to teach you the system and off you go. So good.

James Bond's character being a facade is something that the books slightly confirm. After meeting and falling for his future wife, he briefly quit MI6 only to be pulled back in when said wife was killed, now effectively acting as a spy hoping to die feeling he had nothing left to live for. That kind of thought process is what made James Bond the perfect MI6 spy, a man with nothing to live for serving a dying empire. The movies never really explored this side nor did any of the games until First Light.

The "interactive training montage" is one of the best little things First Light got so incredibly right, I'm kind of shocked no one has done it before.