GoldenEye 007

The Good
In a world filled with bleak Doom rip-offs, one FPS shows through like a mile marker in FPS history. This game is Goldeneye 007, an Nintendo 64 console exclusive. In 1996, when video games were pretty much run, shoot, run, shoot game style, Goldeneye brought us a better experience in FPS.

The game is a video game make of the popular movie Goldeneye. You star James Bond obviously, and throughout 25 levels you get an elevated level of game play no one thought was possible before. I tried as hard as possible to make this review as short as possible and not to give it so much praise, but a few good words do not do this game justice. At all.

The first good thing about this game is the game play. Unlike traditional
FPS of those days, this one offered a one where you could do your missions how you wanted to. Doom's main purpose was to collect keys and get to the end of the level. Not this one. You had to take your time on this game. it wasn't blow your way through waves of enemies. You actually had to do missions based on the movie. These missions you could even fail, so your main focus was not only the guards but how to pull off these missions before you went off and shot everything that moved. The production values are amazing. Levels are open, allowing you to do your missions in any order possible. In fact, you can even finish the level without finishing your objectives and you can fail! There are briefings, excellently crafted in-game menus, stealth action. This title was simply revolutionary for its time.

The guns are better than most games. It has a selection of over 30 weapons and gadgets to complete your missions. These can range anything from a rocket launcher to mines to a fully automatic shotgun.

The level of difficulty selection added the most options to this game. On agent, secret agent, and 00 agent, new objectives were added for increasing the difficulty and enemies got much smarter, stronger, and faster. Beating the levels on a certain difficulty on a target time unlocks cool cheats, which especially make the game interesting. As well as this there’s 2 secret levels to unlock if you beat all of the levels on secret agent and 00 agent. Beating every level on 00 agent including the secret levels gives you 007 mode. This allows you to alter how quick, smart, tough, and accurate the games enemies are which adds even more game play. Unlocking every cheat and 007 mode game me a good 40+ hours of game play doing this without the Gameshark.

The AI is decent in the game. This is being extremely tough on it. Most of the AI in this Most enemies will shoot through windows to get to you. Others will shoot from a higher point of view such as the top of the stairs. To put it at best the AI is only decent, but pulls it through to make for a good experience anyway.

During the time it was made, it boasted the best graphics. Unlike the other FPS where the environment was 3D and the enemy was not, everything in this game is rendered 3D. The guns are made to precise detail. The outdoor levels are humungous! You can see far across the level without fogging that Turok brought. Not only that, but people fall over a different way depending on where you shot them. For example, if you shot a man in the crotch, he will hold it while he falls over and dies. Shot him in the arm and he will hold his arm. There are over 30 different guards in the game, and depending where you are, they will differ. Not only this, they all carry different weapons depending on who they work for (Russian infantry carry AKs, Spetznaz carry Klobbs). On top of this, all guards have different faces which are randomly cycled through 50 or more! How's that for detail!

Musical score is done fairly well in the game. Some of its a remixed version of the Bond theme, but other original scores are done extremely well such as the Surface music and the Bunker music. All of the music for this game is done very well, including the main menu music which seems to be just the ripped Bond theme these days.

The sound effects are pretty cool. There are different gun shot noises for every gun you use, and the soldiers grunts when you shoot them aren't the typical stuff you can rip off of a sound board. This shows how much work they put into making this game.

Lastly, multiplayer is entertaining with friends. It has a great level
of control, and you can unlock extra levels from one player to play in here which is extremely fun. You can set the gun set, there’s more than one style than just Deathmatch and each person can choose a handicap and a character. Though it seems like most games these days offer the same, its this game that started the trend.

The last reason to get this game is just because it revolutionized the FPS industry. You can't just read about it, you must play it to know how good it is. Once you play it you will know why. Remember this game out 1996. Most Bond games still aren't as good as this one. And this one was made 10 years ago.

The Bad
The AI in the game sometimes has holes in it. Sometimes they will run towards you and stop very close in order to get a good shot on a large open stage. This happens mostly on outdoor levels. However this is unnoticeable in most of the indoor levels so its not really a bother most of the time. The other problem is how horribly uncoordinated they seem to be. In especially tight levels filled with lots of guys, they can pile on top of each other like they are made of sand. 10 guys can be cramped into a tight space that it may just look like a huge blob of polygons with arms and guns. They can't shoot thought each other, but there is no friendly fire for them so they can plug a clip or two in their friends back and he won't notice a thing.

Another two minor problems come with graphics. Sometimes when the situation of 10 guys piled on the screen at once occurs as mentioned above, the frame rate can slow down. Also, there tends to be some clipping problems where guards can stick his arm through his friends chest and shoot at you and actually hit you. This can also happen with walls. However these defects seem to be more of weird coincidences than defects and you will probably not notice it most of the time since you are too busy plugging away at bad guys to care.

This is more of an annoyance than a defect, but Bond makes this weird breathing noise when he is shot. Seems like he should say "F, that really fing hurt!" rather than just act as though he is hyperventilating. Nice try at deception Bond, but the bad guys are still shooting.

Even with these minor defects, it still adds to the whole Goldeneye experience.

The Bottom Line
If you are a fan of the Bond video game series, then this is a must buy. This is the game that started it all. All other sequels tend to be compared with this one when it comes to originality and game play. Most people still consider this the best one of the series. So if you own a Nintendo 64 and haven't played it yet, I highly recommend that next time you’re at a game store or on eBay that you check it out. It's guaranteed to blow you away.

The Good
Story: An helicopter that is not effected by E.M.P blasts is stolen and MI6 agent of the devision 00 James Bond, code number: 007 has been sent in to find this helicoptor, the plot thickens as an outpost on the coast of Russia is destroyed and an foe emerges, such a foe that Bond will find hard to kill.

Menu: A crosshair style cursor on a dossier menu. Very nice.

Difficulty: Each setting brings more objectives and more harder to beat foes.

Graphics: Very good. The textures are real and add alot of character to the game. The game's levels have been lifted straight from United Artist's movie set blueprints and recreated piece by piece for the game. (more on that later). The guards are all in their lovely brown overcoats and wearing deer hunter hats, just like in mother Russia. The weapons are well detailed too, from the lines on the ammo clip to the tiny sight bump on the end of the barrel. The guards all have different facial expressions, these are all done at random and look very real, the faces on the main stars match up with the ones from the movie almost perfectly. The levels range from the famous bunjee jump at Arcangel dam at the start of the movie to the battle atop a suspended antenna array. Also when you get hit, you stay hit. Nice touch that, body armour can be found to act as a shield. Bullet holes and burn marks from weapons apppear on the walls and floors. And reflective glass shatters

Sound: Brillant: Each level has a different trademark theme to it. The third level even has a remix of the Bond theme halfway though the music track. Weapons are good as well, from the clink, clink of a grenade to the sound of a gun being dropped from a guard all adds to the bond atmosphere.

Gameplay: This game made a new name for first person shooters back in 1998. Firstly was the stealth option, sneak, and we mean sneak. Make too much noise with that weapon and guards will fill you with lead. The guards also react to where they are shot. In the arm: They will grab and wince, Foot, hop about a bit, hand, shake it, head...die. This can also be an advantage, low on ammo? shoot in foot, then take to the head. The A.I of these guards is incredible, they are not just drones, they duck, jump, weave, roll and simply side step from you. They also duck behind crates as well as do this annoying charge attack. Cameras play a vital role to steal, while you may not fail your mission, it will be harder with more guards in the house. Glass can be shot through, many panes in fact with any weapon. Speaking of weapons there are about 20+ different weapons, from the PP7 (PPK) to the Sniper rifle's butt. All have different strategy and reload times. Some can be paired in each hand for an Arine akimbo style play. Multiplayer is the jewel of this game's crown. With up to four players in 8 arenas, slugging it out with weapons from throwing knives to timed mines. There are also different types of gameplay from "You only live twice" (You can die only twice) to "the man with the golden gun" (the golden gun kills instantly). All are very enjoyable, the characters that can be chosen are huge in range, from Bond to Goldfinger's mute handyman: Oddjob.

The Bad
Some weapons were either too crap (The Klobb) and some were just too killer friendly (RC-P45). Some graphical glitches, such as the sprites (2D carboard cut out like graphics) did not react to explosions and often remained infront of the explosion. But that is all that there is to this great game.

The Bottom Line
Not just for fans. I became a Bond fan AFTER I played this game. You will love it.

The Good
Rare have done what many have failed: combine a single player mode which actually takes skill to beat with a great mix of multiplayer modes that will keep you going for hours on end. Speaking of which, you'll never stop once you get into the multiplayer modes with a few mates. Not that it's a bad thing.

The Bad
The enemy can be really stupid at times, and there are places where the backgrounds break up a little.

The Bottom Line
It's the best 4 player game on any system to date, and is the first movie to game conversion that actually works.