GoldenEye 007 review
It wouldn’t be James Bond without Russians in the snow.
Finally, I took on the single player mode. Like I said before, I didn’t know the story of the first Goldeneye before I played this game, and I didn’t much care to. Up until I saw Casino Royale, Bond stories had been far too campy and over-done for my tastes, but after playing Goldeneye on Wii, I can safely say that I am all the more motivated to go back and give this 007 classic a watch.
From start to end, Goldeneye 007 on Wii is, hands down, basically the best first-person shooter single player experience available this generation. No, I don’t include games like Metroid Prime or Bio-Shock, but I am factoring in my previous favorite campaign from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, so this is no light statement. I loved CoD4, and I cursed anyone who said it was anything less than fantastic, but after playing Goldeneye 007, I am now fully aware of the first shooter since 2007 that has kept me engaged and amazed for longer than an hour or so at a time.
The game follows the story of James Bond (Agent 007 for MI6) as he tries to recover some sort of weapon of mass destruction from some Russians or Chinese people or something: There’s nothing particularly special about the plot. It’s your standard 007 romp, complete with the love interest and the explosions, but the story is not where the magic lies in this game. While it does some good work at keeping you on the edge of your seat, the real meat of it comes from the perfection with which the game has executed that simple story.
Remember when you saw Casino Royale for the first time, and you thought “Man, finally a serious Bond movie that isn’t a campy over-done secret agent movie.”? Well, it is safe to say that Goldeneye 007 is the Casino Royale of James Bond video games. The stiff gameplay, the poor voice acting, and the uninspired set pieces have all been taken out and replaced with what is simultaneously the best action game I’ve played in years, and also the most atmospheric. “What!?” you say “A good action game on the Wii!?”. I know, it’s hard to believe, but there will be no jokes about this shooting experience.
One of the first things I noticed about the game was the engine it was running on. The developer, Eurocom, also created the incredibly visceral and cinematic Dead Space: Extraction, and it’s clear that this game is running on the same engine as that. Not only does this completely dismantle the excuse that the Wii “can’t handle anything beyond on-rails with these graphics”, but it also showcases how utterly brilliant the engine actually is. Textures are smooth, animations are fantastic, the AI is smart, and because of their experience with it in Extraction, Eurocom has filled Goldeneye will more interactive cinematic moments than you can comprehend. My favorite thing about using this engine, though, is that the game really feels like a Dead Space game during moments where you’re creeping through air ducts and sneaking in sewer systems to avoid enemy patrols, which is a very welcome aesthetic.
Beyond the graphics, though, are the controls. Taking inspiration (as every Wii shooter should) from the very well put together game The Conduit, Goldeneye features a slew of control customization options, including the ability to use the Classic Controller Pro or the Gamecube controller instead of a Wiimote and Nunchuck. Personally, I stuck to my infrared controlled Wiimote to shoot with, but for those that are more comfortable with more traditional control options, those are certainly available as well, which is great, because Goldeneye can be a tough game.
Note: Actual controller not that shiny.
For the most part, the game can be played in two ways: as a stealth game, or as an action game. As you up the difficulty, however, you need to become increasingly reliant on the former of the two, because the game really does get tough. On the hardest difficulty, the game takes away regenerating health (hooray!) and gives you body armor. If you get hit, you stay hit; there’s no running to cover for a three second breather and then getting back into it. Thankfully, the levels are so well designed, that every single one pretty much has two routes to get from the beginning to the end: You can take the traditional, Metal Gear Solid style route and carefully sneak behind and around guards, silently disarming them as you go, or you can do it like Sam Fischer (Splinter Cell) and look for the sewage pipes, grates, and ladders that go over, under, and around enemies, carefully waiting for patrols to move by as you go from area to area. It is, in essence, the closest I’ve felt to actually being a spy in any video game because of the choices and thought you need to put into it.
In addition, the game isn’t light-gun style like many shooters today often are, despite having the CoD aesthetic online. It’s not a game where you move from area to area, and enemies are (generally speaking) all in front of you, popping in and out of cover to shoot at you. Goldeneye has enemies who are behind you when you least expect it, right outside of grates that you’re sneaking through, and who will use your same sneaking routes to run behind you and take you out from there. Just as any good secret agent needs to do, this game requires you to look, and think, before you make any move. I can’t tell you how many times my brash actions had me stumble into situations that were incredibly sticky, often to me simply restarting at the last checkpoint. Don’t be fooled: Despite being a modern shooter, this isn’t a shoot-em-up fest.
Tell me this doesn’t look a bit like Dead Space.
All in all, Goldeneye 007 is, by one definition, an utterly perfect game. There isn’t anything really wrong with it- the graphics, multiplayer, controls, AI, music, and cutscenes are all fantastic- but you can’t help but wish they had put in just a few more multiplayer options. In my mind, I compare it to the classic game Star Fox 64. Everything about that game was awesome, but it could have been even better if they would have added just a bit more here and there. Regardless, you’re looking at one of the best shooters to grace this generation, and without a doubt the best shooter I’ve seen on the Wii thus far in its lifetime. It’s just too bad it took developers this long to figure out how the console works…
Bottom Line: If you don’t hold it up against your memories of the original game, Goldeneye 007 is a near-perfect experience and is one of the best first person shooters of this generation.
