We’re On a Boat

Although it might not count for much, credit is due to Domark for trying, again and again, to make some kind of workable James BondThe world's most famous secret agent, James Bond has starred not only in dozens of books but also one of the most famous, and certainly the longest running, film franchises of all time. video game. From 1995 through the start of the next decade the company had the license for the world’s most famous secret agent and they certainly tried to find any game concept they could shove into that character’s world. Is there a mechanic they could lift from a James Bond adventure that they could then spin out into a full video game? Well, they were going to do it.

Their third effort (after 1985’s A View to a Kill and 1987’s The Living Daylights) was an adaptation of 1973’s Live and Let Die, the first of the Roger Moore movies from the franchise. Although, calling this an adaptation really requires us to stretch the bounds of that term. What we have here is a speed boat racing-and-shooting game originally developed by Elite Systems International as Aquablast. The team at Domark saw the game in action, thought that the ship gameplay vaguely resembled the speedboat scene in the film, and said, “hey, we have the license. Let’s make this Live and Let Die.”

Because of this we have a very plot-light version of the adventure. There’s no stealth, no exploration, and nothing that even vaguely resembles that actual story from the film. If you were expecting to see a pixelated Moore as Bond or a pixelated Jane Seymour as Solitaire, you’ll be sorely disappointed. They don’t even appear on the title screen (likely because Domark didn’t want to have to pay the licensing fee for their likeness rights). Instead this is all boat action, all the time, as if this was never meant to be a James Bond game at all (which it originally wasn’t).

If you can get past that, the mechanics of Aquablast… I mean, Live and Let Die are pretty good. The game is broken up into four missions, which you can do at any time, each with their own leaderboards. You start with a training mission shooting at targets, just to get the mechanics of the game down. From there you can do either training runs in either the Arctic or the Sahara (neither location, notably, showing up in the movie) before moving on to a boat run in New Orleans.

Your goal in each of the three missions is to cruise down the river, taking on the enemies that show up while avoiding the various obstacles, all so you can reach the end of the path and fire a missile at the enemy base lurking there. Blow it up and the mission is successful, but if you fail, because you ran out of gas, were destroyed by the enemies, ran aground, or simply didn’t have the missiles to do the job, then it’s mission over and you have to try again from the beginning. Do not pass Go and all that.

It’s honestly a fairly forgiving game. Sure, each of the main missions are about seven minutes each, so if you fail and have to restart that can feel like a bit of time lost. On the other hand, though, you can redo missions as often as you like, in any order you want, so even if you have to restart at least you’re not forced to replay the whole thirty minute game all over again. You can try, fail, go back, and try again at any time. Completing the missions is the goal and the destination.

Getting in your way along the river are a few different obstacles. There are, of course, other boats that you need to avoid (or kill), as well as enemy gunnery depots on the banks. There are rocks that will rise from the water to hit you, and enemies that will fly in and shoot at you. It can create a bit of a hectic time as you’re avoiding, shooting, bombing, and driving all at once. Thankfully the game never feels so difficult that you feel like it’s cheating. If you lose that’s because you couldn’t anticipate and react and not because the game was unfair.

You do have to be mindful of power-ups that come along as well. Fuel will slowly, but constantly, drain from your boat so you’ll have to pick up floating canisters along the way to refuel (we won’t think about the environmental damage those canisters are likely causing). At times MI6 choppers will also fly through, dropping off weapon refills. You only have a limited supply of missiles so you have to make them count, especially when you need them to not only break certain barriers in tunnel sequences along the river, but also have one to shoot off at the end to blow up the enemy base.

The river is pretty varied in the game. It’s not just a straight shot down; the water twists and turns, curving around while enemies and obstacles move into view. And there are times where it really gets wild. It’ll thin down, or split, making you be extra careful about running aground. Sometimes it’ll run up against a mountain side, and for some reason you can slide up and down the mountain like a halfpipe, using it to avoid obstacles that would otherwise kill you. It goes all over the place, and feels not just long but distinct. It’s an interesting path to wander along for seven minutes at a time.

With all that said, you are functionally doing the same thing for at least thirty minutes (if you’re good and can get through all the missions) or more. It’s you, in a boat, cruising down the rivers, avoiding the same obstacles and killing the same enemies over and over. Each river is distinct, but the overall feel does get very repetitive. I understand that Domark didn’t want to make mini-game compilations and they avoided changing things up in their games, overloading with too many mechanics so that the games could focus on doing one thing well. And that’s fair. Live and Let Die is a very solid boat game… it’s also a pretty tiring one after a little while.

I would like a little something extra to change things up here. The mechanics, look, and feel of this game are solid, but there’s only so much time you can spend going down the samey rivers, over and over, before you wish there was a little bit of platforming, or a puzzle sequence, or something to change up the gameplay from time to time. Hell, I’d take a bit of story to link all these sequences together, anything to make it feel more like a fleshed out James Bond game and not just one mechanic forced to carry an entire title.

Live and Let Die is pretty decent, at least for a mid-1980s PC boat game. But it lacks that spark to take it from good to great. If all you want is a fun little boat game that you’d play for a few minutes at a time and then ignore after, Life and Let Die provides that. Anyone looking for anything more from a James Bond game, though, needs to look elsewhere.