My Favorite Games, Vol. 1.7 - Goldeneye 007 (11/27/09)

In 1953, James Bond was first given his 00 status.  Ian Fleming's first work, Casino Royale, was published that year to great acclaim.  The first film would come out in 1962 and actually be the sixth in the series of eighteen actually written by Fleming (fifteen of which have been adapted into films at this point).  As the films came out and time passed, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the source of the antagonist in many of the books, would no longer work in a major motion picture without causing issues with Russia (like the previous film, Liscense to Kill, had).  As such...this story was written to update the character for the times rather than continue making the Russians the enemy, as was the plan with the proposed Property of a Lady adaptation.

The GoldenEye Movie Poster

GoldenEye was released six years after Liscense to critical acclaim and financial success.  For those unaware, it tells the story of Russian ex-patriots trying to move their state back into the cold war by manipulating a satellite to fire EMP bursts that can obliterate specific targets, and Bond trying to stop them.  It's pretty standard Bond Fair.

However, that's not the point of this review.  No, this is about the first real amazing console FPS that was released two years later, GoldenEye.  Loosely following the plot of the film, the game adds more action based scenes, cutting down on the stealth aspects of the films, but it removes many of the dramatic aspects simply because they didn't work for the game.

Box art based on the original poster

However, the story is not why we played this game.  No, it was the multiplayer.  This was the first time we could play four player deathmatches on the console, and it was awesome.  It's because of this game that we even have ones like Halo 3 or Modern Warfare 2.

A shot from the multiplayer deathmatch

The controls for the game were the best we'd gotten on consoles for an FPS.  Targeting was automatic, save for precise shots, which required you to stand still and target carefully.  Melee weapons weren't autmatic yet and had to be actually equipped, but you could store every single weapon in the level in your inventory, or with the cheats, have them there already.  Duel wielding was also available for the first time in this game (though it had to be the same weapons).

Vehicle driving was kept to a minimum with only two tank driving, however, it was still fairly comprable at the time to other games that were solely based around this concept, i.e. Battletanx also on the system.  Gadget usage also was a rather new concept in console FPS.  Generally based in objective, it also included the proximity and remote mine usage in the wonderful multiplayer.

Graphically, this game is far from the greatest...but for the time, it was one of the best looking realistic 3D games, which is kind of sad when you think about it, but it works for what it is.  Compared to Marathon: Infinity, a PC FPS that was released around the same time, it looks much better though.

Comparison of the two games GoldenEye (August '97) and Marathon (October '96)

If you haven't played it and love any of the Halo or CoD games, you should retrace your roots.  This is an amazing game I promise you'll love.  Let me know what you think.

-Sara