Goldeneye 007

Thirteen years ago, Rare brought one of the most important first-person shooters to the Nintendo 64, taking a quantum leap which only Valve’s _Half Life_ would ever hold a candle to. The monolithic success of 007’s first 3D outing was also a huge surprise for its time: a decent movie-spinoff was baffling enough, yet this was a time where PCs still ruled the gaming world – the very thought of a console FPS was borderline illegal. But Bond didn’t just impress on the single-player; split-screen multiplayer was the real staple of _Goldeneye 007_’s legacy, with a slick range of maps, modes and mods to effortlessly deliver a social experience which would never be replicated in its lifetime.

So when Nintendo announced at this year’s E3 that Activision and Eurocom were teaming up to bring back the most influential FPS of all time, such news was understandably met with a mixture of nostalgic giddiness and apprehension. Rare, the team responsible for conceiving _Goldeneye_ – amongst a range of other quality titles – soon dissolved after being sold to Microsoft in 2002. With its founding members leaving five years later, what now exists of Rare, Ltd. under the Microsoft umbrella is a distant memory of a team once responsible for such successes as _Donkey Kong Country_ and _Perfect Dark_ Handing the gig over to Eurocom (or indeed anyone else) was definitely a risky move, and whilst the UK-based company has produced enough decent titles to warrant such responsibility, their more recent film-tie offerings have left a fair amount to be desired. But the fears more loudly voiced were aimed at the publishers, Activision, due to having their name so well tied to the smash-hit _Call of Duty_ series. Suspicions were afoot that this might just end up a cash-cow brother of the war franchise, sacrilegiously tagging on the _Goldeneye_ name to pull in the nostalgia market. Whichever way you swing it, this is a game which has shored on a wave of reservations.

The question is: how does it all stand up? And luckily the answer is impressively well. As anyone who’s sampled footage of the gameplay will be very aware, this isn’t just a standard remake that’s being reshaped for a modern-spec console, but an effort to bring the _Goldeneye_ story, characters and weapons into a modern-day milieu. So out with Pierce Brosnan and in with Daniel Craig, out with the camp henchmen uniforms, and in with some more serious attention to environmental detail. This isn’t just about fighting for Queen and country anymore either but, as the game’s traitorous Alec Trevelyan avows, “the bankers and their bonuses”. However, these changes are nothing to be scoffed at. Whilst the campaign prides itself on following the old _Goldeneye_ diegesis, it also uses its freedom to take plenty of its own twists and turns along the way. Eurocom claim that legal reasons prevented an all-out remake from being possible, but all the familiar landmarks of the N64 are still here: the opening Dam Facility infiltration mission still involves the infamous assault on a guard in the toilet, and even the St Petersburg Tank chase has been revived. But the maps have also had a big shake-up to bring _Goldeneye_ in line with today’s expectations, whilst a menagerie of newer weapons bring a bit more of a selective way of tackling a mission; Players can go full-007 and meander stealthily through the course, or opt for a more explosive, all-out approach – and there are benefits and drawbacks of embarking each level in these different ways. The simple enemy AI has also had a functional overhaul: henchmen dive and duck for cover, using their environment for tactical advantage and making it all the more difficult to pick them off.

Of course, a big trepidation for fans of the original is how the Wiimote-Nunchuck system performs with the mechanics of the game. The system has been lifted directly out of previous _Call of Duty_ titles for the Wii – offering the ability to run, vault over obstacles and aim down-barrel – so anyone who has played the recent _World at War_ will be familiar from the get go. But newcomers can be rest assured that after five minutes of easing into the point-and-press gameplay, they may never look at a conventional controller again. The movement is fluid and responsive, shaking the nun-chuck to melee an opponent doesn’t feel gimmicky, and the cutscene quick time events are tight. But if the more orthodox style is for you, the options to wield a Gamecube or Nintendo Classic controller are available.

Something which _Goldeneye 007_ flags most prominently is the importance of level design: the campaign levels, whilst feeling vast on the face, are actually quite linear in structure with only a few alternate routes here and there. While this isn’t hugely detrimental to the enjoyment of the campaign, the lack of level ingenuity does stick out in the multiplayer mode. Only a small handful of maps exhibit the same nooks and crannies of the original, and it’s just a shame that some of the best set-pieces have been removed; Facility’s toilets have been taken out entirely, which will be painful news to the fans who enjoyed hours of “Guess which cubicle the guy with the rocket launcher is hiding”. As for the humorous modifiers which made the original multiplayer that little bit more edgier, only the Paintball mod (every shot sprays a colourful blemish on its target) and Nick Nack mode (everyone is dwarfed) make their comebacks. This is all forgivable, however, given that the experience is still solid and a hell of a lot of fun in its own right. And for those who don’t have a spare controller/friend lying about, the online mode is an absolute blast. _Goldeneye_’s XP system allows players to level up and unlock new weapons and modes, whilst the impressively lag-free performance really shows off the Wii’s potential.

As the pressure for developers to push realism and detail in their games is ever-increasing, there’s definitely a sense that the fun of yesteryear’s multiplayer experiences is being left behind. Now that the online era has taken multiplayer global, gone are the days where we would gather around the television and enjoy the banter of our friends, rather than taking verbal assaults from an angsty American twelve-year-old living in some basement dwelling. Or maybe it’s just time to accept that the multiplayer gamer has changed, perhaps it’s more about getting those notches on the kill score and lining up those achievements which are better achieved through the more open-plan level designs and intensive approach of the more serious shoot-’em-up franchises. Whichever stance you take, _Goldeneye_ sits somewhere in the middle of this sea of change.

As Activision rightly claims, this is about “bringing multiplayer back to its roots” and though _Goldeneye_ doesn’t completely revive the nostalgia it desperately appeals to, it sure as hell tries. The end result is a smorgasbord of old and new, but Bond shines best when standing on its own two feet – and players will find the experience hugely more rewarding with the nostalgia goggles off. So get your friends round, order a takeaway, fight over who gets the dodgy controller and savour the banter because _Goldeneye_ for the Wii isn’t about repeating the past, but remembering what makes a great gaming experience. One thing does have to be said, though: Oddjob’s still a bloody cheater.