The true gaming royalty is a list of undeniable greatness throughout videogaming history. Mario, Halo, Duke Nukem, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Zelda, Doom, Sonic…. let’s face it, the list is quite long now but most of these games have numerous titles in their franchises and their roots have been elaborated on and fleshed out, given a comic book series or a really crap summer movie and generally, the experience has been cheapened by the big machine’s want for more money….. except one.
When Goldeneye exploded onto the N64 back in 1997, the whole world took notice. It broke so many rules that had been laid down and even today, still defies that which we consider normality. It was a 1st person shooter, on a console, NOT getting a release on PC, had an AMAZING 4 player split screen multiplayer mode, it was tied to a movie and DIDN’T SUCK and it even got likeness rights from the principal actors. It did everything right. Story, level design, controls, weapon choices, sounds, animations and top notch graphics for its time. In fact, I thought I’d have a bash at the old Goldeneye on N64 recently and, with exception to the graphics, it held up damn well to most run and gun shooters of today.
So, at E3 this year, it’s announced that a new Goldeneye was in the makes at Activision to much applause and jubilation. Me, I was somewhat skeptical when I heard the news. As soon as the word Activision was said, all that flashed in my mind was 2 statements made by the CEO of the company “I aim to take the fun out of videogame making” and “if a sequel cannot be exploited from a title, we will not pursue the franchise”. Horrible thoughts creeped into my head. Would we get a crap money spinner, purely banking on the name or will it be a flat-out HD re-skin of the original. What were we really in for? However, my feelings on the project’s credibility started to rise when I heard that it was only coming to Wii, that Eurocom were involved (they had helped in the production of a lot of brilliant N64 games) and that Daniel Craig would play Bond (because then it couldn’t be a re-skin since the role was originally played by Pearce Brosnan).
I don’t want to ruin the little surprises of this game so I’ll stick to the basics.
This game rocks hard!
It feels like the best bits of Goldeneye from the N64 have met with the best bits of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 1, hooked up, had an illegitimate love child and this is the result. The controls are fluid and seem to understand what your doing, even when you’re not sure yourself but it never feels like it’s holding your hand. The enemies come at you thick and fast and I don’t think I’ve seen a Wii game with this many enemies on screen at once, all trying their damnedest to kill you. There’s more guns in this game than in all of Iraq and there’s never a shortage of bullets. And bullets you will need. Oh yes.
Activision have been clear that this is a modern “reboot” of the Goldeneye story, hence the move to put Daniel Craig in the hot seat, so the story is different but it’s in no way better than the original. At the same time, it’s not worse either. The general elements are the same but they’ve been given a touch-up and it works really well. There are a heap of scripted action scenes in this game that do resemble the Call of Duty series and the voice acting is quite good. The orchestral score sets the spy mood perfectly and when you are spotted, the tempo heats up, your heartbeat get louder and the tension rises until you take down the last baddie standing.
The Wii has been pulling a few graphical marvels lately and Goldeneye is no exception. This game is beautiful. The snow covered Severnaya level was always a favourite of mine from the N64 but the new remade version is an experience that will stay with me for a long time indeed. All the main characters have brilliant detail but the environments steal the limelight.
The multiplayer is solid with up to 4 player split screen on the one wii and up to 8 players online. It is a shame that there never seems to be split screen online but i’m getting picky. All the typical modes are on offer, such as death-match, team death-match, golden gun and the like, with 10 different maps available from the get go but, unfortunately, they are not remade versions of the old N64 multiplayer levels. They are, however, well thought out and will become just as memorable as the archives and temple levels we all fell in love with 13 years ago.
I suppose I have to dig out some bad points. I mean, no game’s perfect, right?! Well… maybe Mario 64, but that’s it so far.
The levels are a tad short at times. Just when you’re getting really revved up for more carnage, the level seems to end and before you know it, the whole game’s over. Some of the best missions in the game only last about 15 minutes, but after going back over the old game, that finished relatively quickly too. The bodies disappear almost as soon as they touch the ground and there’s really no blood to speak of. But really, the same things happened in the old one so it does feel weird to draw it as a negative but it would have been good to see it fixed up for this new version.
Goldeneye on the Wii is a cracker of a game and it feels like we’re finally being rewarded for having faith in our peppy little Nintendo machines. This is one of the most solid and exciting shooters ever made and it is a crime for any of the old school Bond fans to miss this. It is a Bond of Duty: Goldeneye Warfare but the experience is sweet enough for anyone to enjoy the beauty of this title. My major fear is that if the cash cow looks fat enough, they may port this across to the other consoles and ruin the fun we’re having but until then, boy have we got some bragging rights in the nintendo camp!
– Stubby
7 comments
Skip to comment form
Score??
I wanted to hear about the takedowns. Are they motion based or button presses?
To Wvharskamp : Mr McVay and myself believe in opinion over scores and my last paragraph will always give the general overall feeling of the games experience for me ( I’m a bit artsy like that haha ) but if I had to give Goldeneye an honest score , it would be 9 out of 10. The only thing that stops it being a 10 is its length in single player and lack of those oldschool levels ( like temple ) from multiplayer. Thanks for reading :)
To dnleo : the takedowns are very similar to every 1st person shooter out there. Single button press in close proximity results in one of approx 5 different takedowns. Nothing new so i didn’t think to add it in and actually, i think I used it three times in the whole game coz i just loved the guns so much. Hope you enjoyed the review, cheers :)
Not exactly true dude, if you use a gun take downs can be done with the butt of the weapon just like real combat. I guess you can shake the numb chuck too if you like playing like that. The Wii golden gun controller. Being a PC to console convert, I never learned to play with the classic controller but I’m looking forward to it. I like this way better than Modern Warefare Reflex. Best of all not too many noob tubers out there. I’m so sick of that in Modern Warefare, where is the skill in that?
How long would you say it takes to finish this game???
Wow, really? Calling it a great game? It has little replayablity despite the fact that there are different difficulties? It’s taken elements from Halo and CoD, so much so that it is actually terrible. The levels guide you through them, it isn’t open like the original and it just becomes boring. If you shoot an enemy and don’t kill them with a silenced weapon they automatically know where you are, unlike the original where they’d have to see you(and hold wherever you shot them as well.) The time trial mode has just been tacked on with the cut-scenes chewing up valuable time and they are impossible to skip.
The switch to Daniel Craig didn’t bother me since the story was well morphed around him. The lack of gadgets was annoying and the fact that your health regenerated was stupid, it is just spoon feeding this generation. It was hastily put together as I was able to get stuck and fall off the map in a few of the levels, and I was surprised if I was actually killed in a level. The levels dragged on while the campaign itself was short, taking me approx. 11 hours to complete(SERIOUSLY, WHAT THE FUCK!?)
The game wasn’t all bad though, there were a few things I did like about it. The fact if you hid behind crap cover that as it got shot enough it would be destroyed as well as when looking down the gun it aided in aiming at enemies. Graphics wise it does push the Wii, many people complain about frame rate problems, I noticed it two or three times but it wasn’t major. The quick-time events became annoying and repetitive and a few of the ones that didn’t need to be there caused me to have to re-watch the fucking cutscene to complete the level.
Overall it is a typical FPS that has just been rolled out to make some money, I was horribly disappointed in the game. Activision have taken Rare’s original brilliant game and shoved a massive shaft up it then taken what was left on the shaft and made a game out of it.
This game is good sometimes and fking terrible at others
– not enough maps on multiplayer
-not enough weapons
-not enough modes
-no form of communication with the other players
-if you play in a team mode the games can be bias as hell stacking high lvl players against lowbies and it never changes.
bull