It is a weird thing, looking back at 2010. Daniel Craig was arguably at the peak of his "gritty Bond" powers, yet Quantum of Solace had left a bit of a sour taste for some, and Skyfall was still a couple of years away. In that strange cinematic gap, we got something better than a movie. We got James Bond 007: Blood Stone.
Developed by Bizarre Creations—the same geniuses behind Project Gotham Racing—this wasn't your standard, cheap movie tie-in. It was an original story. It had a Joss Stone theme song. It had Judi Dench. It had Craig’s likeness and voice. Honestly, it felt more like a "lost" Bond film than a video game. But then, almost as soon as it arrived, it vanished. The studio closed, the licensing rights got messy, and now it’s basically digital abandonware.
If you haven't played it, you’re missing out on a piece of 007 history that actually understood the character better than some of the multi-million dollar films did.
Why Blood Stone Hit Different
Most Bond games try to be GoldenEye. They want that first-person shooter magic. James Bond 007: Blood Stone went a different way. It was a third-person action-adventure, focusing on "hand-to-hand combat and high-octane driving." That sounds like marketing fluff, but Bizarre Creations actually pulled it off.
The combat was brutal. You felt every punch. It used a "Focus Aim" mechanic that you earned through melee takedowns, letting you chain together rapid-fire headshots. It was cinematic. It was fast. It felt like the staircase fight in Casino Royale stretched out over eight hours.
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Then there’s the driving. Because it was Bizarre Creations, the car chases weren't just an afterthought. They were the soul of the game. Whether you were tearing through the streets of Istanbul or racing across a frozen lake in Siberia, the physics felt weighty and dangerous. It wasn't just "press X to go." You had to actually drive.
The Plot That Actually Felt Like Fleming
The story starts with a G20 summit in Athens. Bond prevents a suicide bombing, which leads him down a rabbit hole involving biochemical weapons and a shady figure named Stefan Pomerov.
Unlike many games of that era, the pacing was relentless. You go from Athens to Istanbul, then to Monaco, Bangkok, and eventually Burma. It hit all the tropes:
- The glamorous femme fatale (Nicole Hunter, voiced by Joss Stone).
- The high-stakes casino scene.
- The massive industrial sabotage.
- The "who can I trust?" paranoia.
Bruce Feirstein wrote the script. If that name sounds familiar, it should. He wrote GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, and The World Is Not Enough. He knew how to pace a Bond story. He knew how to give Craig those dry, biting one-liners that define his era.
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The Tragedy of the Cliffhanger
Here is where it gets frustrating. James Bond 007: Blood Stone ends on a massive cliffhanger. Bond finds out there is a "double agent" or a puppet master behind everything—someone even higher up than the main villain. It set the stage for a sequel that would have presumably tied into the broader 007 mythos.
But it never happened.
Activision saw the sales figures, which were "meh" at best, and decided to pivot. Shortly after the game's release, Bizarre Creations was shut down. The planned sequel was scrapped. We were left with a story that has no resolution. To this day, fans debate who the "Mole" was supposed to be. Was it Bill Tanner? Someone else in MI6? We will probably never know for sure, as the developers have remained mostly tight-lipped or have scattered to other studios.
Is It Still Playable?
If you want to play it today, it's... complicated. You can't buy it on Steam or the Xbox Store anymore because the licensing rights expired years ago. You’re looking at tracking down a physical copy for the PS3 or Xbox 360, or finding a second-hand PC DVD-ROM.
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Surprisingly, the PC community has kept it alive. There are patches out there that fix the "FOV" (field of view) issues and make it run on modern Windows 11 systems. It actually looks remarkably good in 4K. The character models for Craig and Dench have aged better than most games from 2010.
What Collectors and Fans Should Do Now
If you are a Bond completionist, this isn't just a "nice to have." It is a "need to have." While GoldenEye gets all the glory, James Bond 007: Blood Stone captures the 21st-century Bond better than almost any other medium. It bridges the gap between the gritty reboot and the more polished later films.
Actionable Steps for the 007 Enthusiast:
- Check Local Retro Stores: Don't pay the inflated eBay prices just yet. Check the "bargain bins" at local game shops. Since it's not a "classic" like Mario, it often gets marked down to $5 or $10.
- Look for the PC Version: If you have a disc drive, the PC version is the superior way to play. Community-made "fix-its" allow for controller support and widescreen resolutions that weren't native at launch.
- Listen to the Soundtrack: Even if you don't play the game, find the title track "I'll Take It All" by Joss Stone and David A. Stewart. It is a genuine, top-tier Bond theme that never got the radio play it deserved.
- Emulate with Care: If you're into emulation, the RPCS3 (PS3 emulator) can run it, but it requires a fairly beefy CPU to handle the physics-heavy driving sequences without stuttering.
The reality is that we might never see another game like this. Modern Bond games, like the upcoming "Project 007" from IO Interactive (the Hitman creators), seem to be moving toward stealth and social engineering. Those are great, but James Bond 007: Blood Stone was the last time we got a pure, cinematic action-thriller that let us feel like a blunt instrument in a tuxedo. It’s a piece of history that deserves more than being a footnote in a Wikipedia article about defunct studios.