With a big gap between Bond films, it was Activision’s time to cash in on the “GoldenEye” name. While this is based on the story of GoldenEye, it’s not a remake of the Nintendo 64 classic, but rather a game based on an imaginary Bond film where the story of GoldenEye was adapted as Daniel Craig’s third Bond film. It originally came out on the Wii before a remastered version on 360 and PS3. While those versions look better, it’s the same game and I picked the Wii version because of the ease of getting screenshots and not needing to drag consoles out of storage due to a lack of backwards compatibility.
After a brief tutorial at MI6, Bond and 006 (who looks so young, it must be his first day on the job) are sent to investigate weapons trading at a dam. The first area of this heavily based on the N64 game, but that single area is the only similarity in terms of level design. 006 steals a truck and you have to shoot from the passenger seat before shooting your way through the rest of the level. The gameplay is heavily based on Call of Duty, but in GoldenEye, aiming and turning just feels stiff and awkward, it’s a massive step down form Quantum of Solace.
We get a opening credits that actually uses the original GoldenEye song, but instead of Tina Tuner, we get a bad cover of it. I would have much preferred something different to suit Craig’s era more. The placement of the song is also odd, in the middle of the opening instead of its normal place.
The facility serves as a tutorial for the stealth mechanics. You can hack objects to cause distractions and take enemies down with stealth attacks. However, stealth isn’t really important for any mission after this and it doesn’t work well anyway. I’ve had enemies say “I think I heard something” after shooting them with a silenced pistol, somehow unaware of the bullet wounds, while on the other side of things, if you hack turrets remotely, enemies will instantly shoot towards Bond’s location – when enemies are “alert” they simple know where Bond is, line of sight is irrelevant.
After 006 gets shot, Bond blows up the facility immediately. If they hadn’t been caught, the deal they would have stopped would have still happened due to how long it takes for the place to slowly blow up in a chain reaction. There’s a colossal base outside the facility you have to fight through as things explore before reaching to a plane and escaping. The game teases you with a motorbike before control is taken away from you and you just aim.
Bond’s investigation leads him to Zukovsky’s nightclub, where the gangster talks about Bond giving him a scar in the past. He reveals what information he gave to Ourumov before being assassinated by Xenia, who runs away claiming that Bond shot him. You have to fight your way out, but the setting and atmosphere make this the most best level in the game.
Heading to an arms fair in Dubai, Bond tries to stop Ourumov and Xenia from stealing an EMP hardened helicopter. You chase them through a frigate before placing a tracker on the helicopter. This game has a big theme of really dark corridors.
Heading to Siberia, the most notable part of surface is a really cool shot as the GoldenEye satellite hits. The snow in this level happens to form “corridors” for you to fight through as the Russian army takes out the guards of the facility. Bond kills as many people as he can on both sides as he makes his way into the bunker.
Even right after playing this…I really can’t remember much about this level other than Natalya running away and it just being really dark. I thought I heard 006 setting explosives and was wondering if we would get an early reveal of Janus, as it’s not really going to be a surprise to anyone in this version, but it instead ends with Bond and Natalya getting arrested.
This one follows the film a bit closer here, with Ourumov killing the defence minister and pins it on Bond, although the way he does it – shooting then running away crying “he shot the defence minister” – made me laugh, especially as the same thing happened in the nightclub level. This level was when I realised why I found the level design to be really off: it just feels like random rooms and corridors attached to each other, it doesn’t feel like any real building. Anyway, it’s time for the tank level.
It’s…fine. This might work better if there were other vehicle segments, but with aspects like the lock-on, this feels oddly like an arcade style game, like we’ve just stepped into a tank level from Star Fox. While you do have full control of the tank, it just feels very on-rails. After chasing Ourumov, he makes it to his train, parked in the middle of a construction yard.
The construction yard section is decent, with a few ways you can get through it, but he train itself is just a couple of carriages and not its own level. You end up meeting with Xenia and Ourumov (Janus hasn’t been revealed yet, so he’s not part of this bit), with Xenia killing Ourumov and setting the train on fire. Bond has to shoot a panel on the floor with a gun. I can understand trying to change the plot, but all the character of this moment has simply been removed. Natalya doesn’t even use her skills to discover where to head next – she just overheard Ourumov talking about a meeting with Janus at statue park.
The first area of this level looks great, with plenty of statues of different sizes, but it slowly turns into a generic looking compound with some underground corridors joining different parts of it together. Here 006 reveals himself as Janus. His motivation in this game has been altered a lot: it’s no longer about revenge, it’s about “bankers and their bonuses”. Because the government is now corrupt and treat people poorly, he’s become a terrorist that plans on launching an EMP attack on London, killing thousands of innocent people in the process. He traps bond in a helicopter set to explode, but a quick time event lets him escape.
Oh, and Natalya was told to sit in the car, but instead gets captured. Luckily Bond spotted a computer with a map to where 007 will control the GoldenEye satellite from: a solar energy station in Africa.
After crashing in the Jungle, this is a level where you think you can be stealthy, but taking over the turrets simply turns stealth off (you can’t get past them if you don’t hack them). If stealth did work properly, then this would be a really good level, as there are sections where it semes like you can set off turrets as a distraction while taking a different route. It ends with a quicktime event fight against Xenia.
Heading towards the solar facility, it looks fancy, but doesn’t make a lot of sense as the system isn’t designed to send signals to precise locations in space. You fight through an entire army before getting captured – luckily the final few guards were the only ones that were told to not kill Bond.
In the tower, it’s revealed that they need Natalya to arm the satellite or something (Boris is nowhere to be seen), but Bond sets off an explosion elsewhere in the facility and the satellite will fire just fine, and Natalya is the only one that knows how to stop it. I’m not really sure why 006 brought her here. After you protect her for a bit, it’s time for the final encounter.
There are three stages to the final fight, the first is a quick time event. The main part of the fight turns 006 into a bullet sponge enemy with ridiculously bad AI as 006 spends half his time hiding behind a cover while you stand behind him, repeatedly shooting him in the back. After a few hundred bullets, he flees for the final quick time event fight ending with a slow mo “quick” draw.
This version of GoldenEye isn’t a bad game, it just isn’t a good one. It’s a pitifully average shooter, but its flaws are just highlighted more by Activision cashing in on the love for the N64 game.
After a brief tutorial at MI6, Bond and 006 (who looks so young, it must be his first day on the job) are sent to investigate weapons trading at a dam. The first area of this heavily based on the N64 game, but that single area is the only similarity in terms of level design. 006 steals a truck and you have to shoot from the passenger seat before shooting your way through the rest of the level. The gameplay is heavily based on Call of Duty, but in GoldenEye, aiming and turning just feels stiff and awkward, it’s a massive step down form Quantum of Solace.
We get a opening credits that actually uses the original GoldenEye song, but instead of Tina Tuner, we get a bad cover of it. I would have much preferred something different to suit Craig’s era more. The placement of the song is also odd, in the middle of the opening instead of its normal place.
The facility serves as a tutorial for the stealth mechanics. You can hack objects to cause distractions and take enemies down with stealth attacks. However, stealth isn’t really important for any mission after this and it doesn’t work well anyway. I’ve had enemies say “I think I heard something” after shooting them with a silenced pistol, somehow unaware of the bullet wounds, while on the other side of things, if you hack turrets remotely, enemies will instantly shoot towards Bond’s location – when enemies are “alert” they simple know where Bond is, line of sight is irrelevant.
After 006 gets shot, Bond blows up the facility immediately. If they hadn’t been caught, the deal they would have stopped would have still happened due to how long it takes for the place to slowly blow up in a chain reaction. There’s a colossal base outside the facility you have to fight through as things explore before reaching to a plane and escaping. The game teases you with a motorbike before control is taken away from you and you just aim.
Bond’s investigation leads him to Zukovsky’s nightclub, where the gangster talks about Bond giving him a scar in the past. He reveals what information he gave to Ourumov before being assassinated by Xenia, who runs away claiming that Bond shot him. You have to fight your way out, but the setting and atmosphere make this the most best level in the game.
Heading to an arms fair in Dubai, Bond tries to stop Ourumov and Xenia from stealing an EMP hardened helicopter. You chase them through a frigate before placing a tracker on the helicopter. This game has a big theme of really dark corridors.
Heading to Siberia, the most notable part of surface is a really cool shot as the GoldenEye satellite hits. The snow in this level happens to form “corridors” for you to fight through as the Russian army takes out the guards of the facility. Bond kills as many people as he can on both sides as he makes his way into the bunker.
Even right after playing this…I really can’t remember much about this level other than Natalya running away and it just being really dark. I thought I heard 006 setting explosives and was wondering if we would get an early reveal of Janus, as it’s not really going to be a surprise to anyone in this version, but it instead ends with Bond and Natalya getting arrested.
This one follows the film a bit closer here, with Ourumov killing the defence minister and pins it on Bond, although the way he does it – shooting then running away crying “he shot the defence minister” – made me laugh, especially as the same thing happened in the nightclub level. This level was when I realised why I found the level design to be really off: it just feels like random rooms and corridors attached to each other, it doesn’t feel like any real building. Anyway, it’s time for the tank level.
It’s…fine. This might work better if there were other vehicle segments, but with aspects like the lock-on, this feels oddly like an arcade style game, like we’ve just stepped into a tank level from Star Fox. While you do have full control of the tank, it just feels very on-rails. After chasing Ourumov, he makes it to his train, parked in the middle of a construction yard.
The construction yard section is decent, with a few ways you can get through it, but he train itself is just a couple of carriages and not its own level. You end up meeting with Xenia and Ourumov (Janus hasn’t been revealed yet, so he’s not part of this bit), with Xenia killing Ourumov and setting the train on fire. Bond has to shoot a panel on the floor with a gun. I can understand trying to change the plot, but all the character of this moment has simply been removed. Natalya doesn’t even use her skills to discover where to head next – she just overheard Ourumov talking about a meeting with Janus at statue park.
The first area of this level looks great, with plenty of statues of different sizes, but it slowly turns into a generic looking compound with some underground corridors joining different parts of it together. Here 006 reveals himself as Janus. His motivation in this game has been altered a lot: it’s no longer about revenge, it’s about “bankers and their bonuses”. Because the government is now corrupt and treat people poorly, he’s become a terrorist that plans on launching an EMP attack on London, killing thousands of innocent people in the process. He traps bond in a helicopter set to explode, but a quick time event lets him escape.
Oh, and Natalya was told to sit in the car, but instead gets captured. Luckily Bond spotted a computer with a map to where 007 will control the GoldenEye satellite from: a solar energy station in Africa.
After crashing in the Jungle, this is a level where you think you can be stealthy, but taking over the turrets simply turns stealth off (you can’t get past them if you don’t hack them). If stealth did work properly, then this would be a really good level, as there are sections where it semes like you can set off turrets as a distraction while taking a different route. It ends with a quicktime event fight against Xenia.
Heading towards the solar facility, it looks fancy, but doesn’t make a lot of sense as the system isn’t designed to send signals to precise locations in space. You fight through an entire army before getting captured – luckily the final few guards were the only ones that were told to not kill Bond.
In the tower, it’s revealed that they need Natalya to arm the satellite or something (Boris is nowhere to be seen), but Bond sets off an explosion elsewhere in the facility and the satellite will fire just fine, and Natalya is the only one that knows how to stop it. I’m not really sure why 006 brought her here. After you protect her for a bit, it’s time for the final encounter.
There are three stages to the final fight, the first is a quick time event. The main part of the fight turns 006 into a bullet sponge enemy with ridiculously bad AI as 006 spends half his time hiding behind a cover while you stand behind him, repeatedly shooting him in the back. After a few hundred bullets, he flees for the final quick time event fight ending with a slow mo “quick” draw.
This version of GoldenEye isn’t a bad game, it just isn’t a good one. It’s a pitifully average shooter, but its flaws are just highlighted more by Activision cashing in on the love for the N64 game.