Eurogamer Expo 2010: Goldeneye Hands-On Impressions

In 1997 a game was released that revolutionised console first-person shooters. Previously largely the domain of PC’s, it took someone special to make the FPS popular in the living room. It took Bond, James Bond.

Looking back at the original version of Goldeneye (developed by RARE), the single player was fairly average and because of the limitations of the Nintendo 64, it was graphically unimpressive to say the least. What really captured the hearts of the public was the local 4-player deathmatch and that was what was playable at the Nintendo booth at the Eurogamer Expo, traditional 4-player split screen action.

The first thing that hit me was that graphically, the game looks dull. I played on several of the stages that were available to us and they were all far too similar. Greys and browns dominated in a colour palette that is never going to inspire the imagination. The game looked drab. We specially requested fan-favourite stage Facility, thinking it would be similar to the N64 counterpart – but it was very disappointing and the same mess of grey.

Character models too were unimpressive. Obviously, this is only the Wii, so I don’t expect it to look as good as Modern Warfare or Crysis, but the animation and textures were not great – I would not have really known I was playing against James Bond, for example, if it hadn’t told me when I killed him.

There are some nice touches in there. Blood drips down the screen and the Bond theme play briefly when a player dies, just as it did in the original game. Some of the classic weapons and gameplay modes – such as Golden Gun mode – have returned too. A lot of the characters are recognisable from the Nintendo original also, with the advantages or disadvantages of including Jaws and Oddjob still polarising opinion.

But the main issue for me was that the game doesn’t feel great to play. The aiming is a little too light – perhaps this can be adjusted in the in-game settings (I could not try this out). The stages seemed too small, with the respawn points too close to one another, resulting in some very short innings. Gunplay also descended into close-quarters circling on many occasions, as the stages were so open.

Now I know what you might be thinking – “that sounds similar to the original game” – and perhaps the problem is that developers Activision have tried too hard to replicate the feel of the original. Games have made huge leaps and bounds since Goldeneye was first released. I think the fact that these aspects which were part of the fun of the first title are now irritating suggests that the game was best left alone.

James Bond will return… but did he really need to?

The game is due to be released in North America on November 2^nd, and Europe on the 5^th. Watch this space for a full review soon.