Apr 12 2009
“GoldenEye 007″ (1997) *****
Story:
If you’ve seen the movie, then you know the plot here. James Bond loses his agent friend, Alec Trevelyan, on a mission at a Russian nerve gas station where everything goes wrong. Ten years later, a new organization called ‘Janus’ arises whom are suspected to have something to do with a stolen Pirate Helicopter and seem to be in command of a fearful EMP disrupting satellite known as the GoldenEye. The leader of this organization turns out to have a personal vendetta against James Bond. 007 joins forces with Natalya Simonova (a spy and programmer who is the token Bond Girl this time around) to battle Janus and bring them down.
Graphics:
The characters resemble their realistic versions from the films, it’s like walking through the Wax Museum in Times Square and looking at all of the celebrities. The levels never fail to satisfy as they are breathtakingly astonishing and resemble many of the sets and scenes from the movie itself. Last but not least, the textures here are way ahead of its time for a Nintendo 64 game.
Controls:
The controls are very suitable, especially the default mode which is basically where the stick aims and moves you forward and backward, meanwhile, the C buttons strafe you left and right. If this is not your cup of tea, then there’s several other configurations to select from. You’re bound to find one of them that works best for you.
Gameplay:
You as James Bond will gun down plenty and plenty of evil terrorists throughout the game in first-person shooter style. This may not be a smart tactical first person shooter like “Rainbow Six”, but it is far more entertaining and fun in a different way. But you also have to use some strategy here as just simply running down the hall with guns blazing will surely get you killed. All of the bad guys react astonishingly realistic, more so than say “Doom 64″, they will know when something’s not right once the guard next to him drops dead from a sniper shot.
You can shoot enemies in different body parts which will cause different reactions and movements. Your arsenal consists of about twenty-eight varying weapons - Explosives, laser guns, rocket and grenade launchers, knives, pistols, rifles, fists, uzis, remote and proximity mines, and even a tank. They have the Golden Gun here as well, also Bond’s favorite PP7 which comes in black, silver, and gold.
Aside from dispatching bad guys, there are objectives on every level which you must accomplish and they don’t always include killing everyone. The objectives are pretty much straight out of the movie (i.e. copying the key to the GoldenEye satellite, disarm bombs, etc.). There are eighteen main levels and two which need to be unlocked - Most of them are from the movie while a few have been added on. There’s plenty of variety in the levels (jungles, trains, boats, missile silos, train depot, and runway just to name some). Each area is as fleshed out as can be with absolutely excellent level design.
Overall:
This game has one of the highest replay values in both single player and multiplayer modes. Single player because the game has three levels of difficulty to choose from, each adding more objectives to the levels and smarter enemies to tackle, there’s a whole book of cheats and multiplayer maps to unlock by completing certain levels on a specific time frame. You can unlock levels and characters from previous Bond movies as well.
Multiplayer mode is a blast with options that are named after previous Bond films, some of which speak for themselves: You Only Live Twice, The Man With The Golden Gun, License To Kill, and The Living Daylights. Bond fan or not, this game is loads of fun; released nearly ten years ago in 1997, the game stills holds up its replay value to this day. “GoldenEye 007″ is a game to add right next to “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas”.
Rating: *****
