"Rumbled, not stirred."
Who hasn’t played this game? You? What’s wrong with you, huh? You some kind of instigator? First off, I have to say when Goldeneye came out, I didn’t rush to the store to buy it. I didn’t even rush out to rent it. In fact, looking back, I couldn’t have cared less about this game, because it had so many knocks against it right from the start. I didn’t like the fact it was based on a movie. 99.9% of all licensed games are crap. It didn’t help that it was based on a movie I watched for twenty minutes and then turned off in disgust when James Bond drove a motorcycle of a cliff and then jumped into a plane on the way down. It didn’t help that I am not at all a James Bond fan. It wouldn’t matter to me if Urkel played Bond in the next movie. It didn’t help that it was another "first person shooter like Doom and Quake", my most hated and despised gaming genres. So with that being said, somewhere in a moment of insanity, I dared to rent Goldeneye. I got it home, put it in the N64 and had to be torn away by my lovely wife, hours later. I was blown away! Rare had done the impossible as far as I was concerned. It had created a game which I had it in for right from the start, and made me a believer. This game is pure quality from beginning to end.
The first thing that floored me was the graphics and animation of the enemies. When I shot a guy in the leg, he reacted to it! When I shot a guy in the arm he dropped his gun. When I shot him in the head and missed, I blew his hat off! If you’ve read my editorial on "Are Advertisers going to far" you know that I think this game is incredibly violent and realistic, and I don’t agree that really young children should be playing it. However, that won’t stop my big fat adult video game playing ass from enjoying it. Hey, I paid my dues when I was young. I wasn’t able to bring pornography into the house until I was 13 years old! That’s a joke by the way!! ( I had to be 14.) :) Anyway, when you get a load of these environments that are not only huge but interactive, you will be using Star Wars SOTE for a hockey puck on the front street. Goldeneye loosely follows the movie plot ( I guess, remember I only watched until he jumped into that plane. Fake!) so you’ll be taken all over the globe fighting evil agents in a twisted plot to launch the Goldeneye satellite.
Rare has made this game a treat. They must have looked at the gameplay limitations of these kind of games and said, "Well, we can’t stray too far, but we can bloody well shake it up a little, and give them a bit of how’s your father!" (Rare is a British company, so excuse the nod to Austin Powers...) Not only is 007’s weaponry rather impressive, but he’s also got other gadgets he needs to utilize throughout the game; modems, camera’s, remote bombs, magnets, you name it! That’s what makes this games stand out. The variety in the mission objectives. Sometimes you’ll be blowing people away, sometimes you’ll be saving hostages, sometimes you’ll need to use stealth and not be noticed, sometimes you’ll be planting bombs, taking pictures, escaping.... The sky is the limit. One thing is for sure, you won’t be bored in this game.
The music in this game is based on variations of a theme (the Bond theme) and really adds to the atmosphere of the missions. It’s not intrusive or overbearing, it’s very spy-like and tasty.
As this is a Rare game, expect a high amount of difficulty. Luckily there are three difficulty levels all that require differing objectives in each level, so you can start off easy. If you accomplish certain objectives quickly, you will be rewarded with a plethora of cheats to choose from. Replayability goes through the roof when faced with the awesome amount of rewards awaiting the veteran player.
Of course there is the incredible four person deathmatch. This is worth the price of admission alone. Pick your characters and go a killing. This is a great extra that a lot of people just love. The framerate is great even with four split screens and the playing is intense.
The drawbacks to this game, are small, but mentionable. For a James Bond game, it’s odd that you don’t drive his Aston Martin, drink martini’s, sleep with women or even have the useful human ability to jump (Even Turok can jump James!). I know that’s nitpicky, but too bad. I also would have liked the ability to see James from a third person perspective (like Star Wars except with much better control), but maybe next time. Speaking of next time, Rare’s follow up to Goldeneye, won’t feature the James Bond name, but it will feature the same award winning gameplay. Who know’s maybe they’ll use Urkel!
Final Analysis: