He’s (finally) back. Goldeneye 007 returns to a Nintendo platform.
This may be the closest we get to an “update” of the classic GoldenEye game that made the Nintendo 64 worth owning, as the original game has a tortured, and now convoluted, history of license ownerships which made chances of a re-release/update to the original slim to none. Activision, now holding the Bond license, have opted to take their strong Modern Warfare engine and adapt it for the reimagining of the GoldenEye story on Wii.
Does the game exist solely to make a quick buck off nostalgia or is there anything compelling for FPS and Bond fans to get excited about? Hit the jump to see if Bond plays well with controls shaken rather than stirred.
VITALS
Title: GoldenEye 007
Console: Wii, DS
Developer: Eurocom
Publisher: Activison
Available: Now
As mentioned, GoldenEye uses the foundation built for the CoD: Modern Warfare Reflex port on the Wii with what is essentially a James Bond skin… and I don’t necessarily mean this as a slight to the game. If you are familiar with how Modern Warfare plays, and more specifically, plays on the Wii, you will know it’s one of the best adaptations of the FPS mechanic to a console motion control scheme. It plays just as you would expect it to right off the bat, and even has a very similar yet brief training exercise in a shooting gallery, as seen in Modern Warfare, to coach the user on the “snap-to” type aiming system. On control schemes alone, Activision lets you play this game with damn near any and everything that plugs into the Wii, even the Wii Zapper.
Protip: If you have a GameCube Wavebird adapter plugged in to controller port one, but don’t intend to actually play the game with that controller, I suggest you remove it or risk restarting your console 10 times as a result of trying to figure out why the controller in your hand is not responsive. The game is a bit presumptions that anything plugged into the GameCube ports is the controller you plan to actually use.
In my play through, I felt the Classic/GameCube controller, or traditional Wii pointer + Nun-Chuck combination was best. In a very brief attempt to use the Zapper it was like trying to rub your head and pat your tummy, since you are aiming the reticule on screen but controlling the player at the same time, and was difficult to disconnect the two the movements.
At this point, if you own a Wii and like FPS games, you should have a strong idea as to if the “pointer + nun-chuck” combination suits you. I found it to play just fine, though it seems nothing still matches the controls of the Metroid Prime games. But, I will say that I preferred this control scheme to the one found in the Conduit. However, that may be because of the “snap-to” mechanic, where you can aim down the sights directly at the enemy once you are aiming in the general direction… like “TAB” auto complete for shooters! While using the “pointer + nun-chuck” makes the game feel a lot faster I wouldn’t let my casual friends who remember the “good ole’ Bond” play with anything but a controller, as it does take some getting used too. It is a bit disappointing that there was not custom key mappings to really tailor your control preferences, but there is a swath of predefined control schemes, and it’s not difficult to find the one that works for you.
The single player campaign is quite good. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I first jumped in, but within minutes it was apparent that this was built on the Modern Warfare core, and I was actually glad to see that since I was instantly familiar with how to play. The game is not a “shot for shot” recreation of the original game or movie; it really is a re-telling and works greatly in the game’s favor. Because of this, while you know the original story, it is different enough to feel new but nostalgic enough that you get excited for the next level. You might start wondering how they will recreate a scene that you know is coming up next — like the now infamous giant bomb/cart scene.
GoldenEye stays true to its roots, adapting the solid Modern Warfare code to allow for more stealth, sneaky game play found in the original. You need to crouch to go unnoticed, shoot out cameras to avoid detection, shoot fire extinguishers to knock out some guards chilling at the water cooler, and so on. I do have to say, though, that some areas where you are certain that you are being stealthy will leave you suddenly running after being “spotted” by who-knows-what, while other times hitting a gas can to clear a room has some how avoided setting off any alarms.
There are some minor level design gripes, however. In addition to some the of the stealth issues, sometimes you can easily get turned around by the on-screen queues. There are sections of the game where you need to collect intel by snapping photos with your Blackberry-ish smart phone, and an icon pops up on screen. Sometimes this indicator can pop up prematurely, forcing you to start playing a game of “hot or cold” wandering aimlessly looking for the whatever needs to “snap”. It can sometimes be completely wrong, too, sending out a local beacon for a completely different room than you are in.
The final design grip that I had — and this one threw me for a bit — was during the climactic battle scene. Based on the length of time that the movie and previous game have been available, it should be no secret by now that you end up in a shoot-out with Trevelyan. I must have found some sort of infinite loop glitch with the battle. Each time I caught up to Trevelyan, who runs in a set pattern around the room, an enormous amount of enemies would begin to pour in. Clear the enemies, catch back up to Trevelyan, and the process begins again. It was quite challenging to stay alive through the horde-like assault. Had I just given him a bit more breathing room, or waited for him to come to a stop, I could have practically shot him standing still. This… made things way more tolerable.
The voice acting for Daniel Craig’s version Bond was decent, with the supporting cast, Natalya (played by Kirsty Loretta Mitchell) and Trevelyan (played by Elliot Cowan) providing a much better performance. It may be a case of a “voice actor” vs. a “Hollywood” actor but there would be scenes where Daniel Criag delivered his lines as if the voice director yelled out “Hey, read whats on that sheet”. This is mostly apparent when you have just performed some death-defying escape, where one would expect the character to be grasping for breath when trying to speak. Yet, Criag is calm, cool and collected. Obviously, thats part of the Bond swagger, but here it just comes off as unrealistic.
There are obvious technical challenges that comes with Wii development, and it is hard to miss with some of the voice compression. If you play this game with some nice speakers turned up like you’re ready to watch a Bond film then you may find some of the dialog hard on the ears. It can sound tinny, and garbled, like a 96kpbs MP3 downloaded off Napster in 1999. However, the over all music and sound effects were very well done, with an emphasis on minute details. The developers went so far as to insert the iconic GSM “derka-derka” sound when Bind uses his phone.
Visually the game is serviceable, and while it does try to push the system it ends up being apparent to the player that the system is being pushed. It’s not hard to miss dropped frames when the action is very hectic, stuttering/choppy movement in an attempt to “hide” a load screen, a heavy read on the disc as the Wii loads a new area, etc. There are definitely some areas of the game that look markedly better than others. I thought the frozen tundra in Russia specifically was the best-looking area of the game. Perhaps the setting, accompanied by the falling snow particles, helped mask imperfections to give the level a more visually stunning style than others, but over all the game doesn’t achieve (or even attempt) Conduit‘s or Metroid‘s levels of visual prowess.
Of course, multi-player is the staple that made the original GoldenEye such a classic. I feel Activision didn’t have much of a concern here since, as mentioned over and over, this is Modern Warfare with a GoldenEye skin. The same great online multi-player is here, along with the leveling mechanic, finding games was not difficult, and online performance was surprisingly very good. The frame rate of course, takes a hit with the multi-player but thankfully doesn’t detract from the gameplay. Since there was already an incredible foundation to work from, you can’t lose by throwing in a ton of gameplay modifiers with some local split screen multi-player as well.
GoldenEye 007 takes the memories we had of the N64 classic, rather than the actual game, and makes it much more modern and enjoyable. If great, classically-inspired multiplayer gaming is what you crave, then this is a must have.
This review is based on a copy of the game provided by the publisher. Images courtesy of Activision.
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