It really does seem like a dream come true, of sorts. After years of rumors and broken dreams, GoldenEye 007 has finally landed on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. But now it’s “reloaded”. Bond has brought along all the stars of the original GoldenEye with him, but something has changed about our favorite British spy. If you don’t already know, developer Eurocom has gone all Dr. Frankenstein and melded the old and the new to put the current Bond, Daniel Craig, into the weaponized shoes formerly occupied by Pierce Brosnan.
The single-player campaign in this new and improved GoldenEye 007 provides players with upwards of ten hours of gameplay on the first play through, but as we all know from the original, half the fun is playing through again and again on harder difficulties. The harder you play GoldenEye on, the more intense and speedy the action gets with new tasks thrown into the mix. Enemies will begin to respond faster and the overall pacing seems more frenzied. One of the coolest features is the Classic Bond Mode where your only life-line is to use health packs since your health bar no longer regenerates automatically. In addition to killing Trevelyan’s forces, you also have to accomplish various tasks and objectives on each level. These objectives won’t have you pulling your hair out, but much in the same way that combat has changed up, the objectives on each level keep things fresh. They keep things challenging and fun, even for the N64 diehards.
Combat in GoldenEye 007 Reloaded is as smooth as ever. James Bond isn’t just a hired gun out to kill anything he sees. He’s a spy. Fans that prefer a stealthier approach will be happy they have a variety of melee takedowns they can use as they sneak in like a cat and avoid direct confrontation and use stealth melees. However if running and gunning is your thing, then you can make your entrance known and enter into close-quarters combat with waves of henchmen. It’s all up to you on how you want to take down your enemies. Personally I’m a fan of stealth, but on more than a couple occasions I set off the alarm and brought attention to myself just to change things up and mow down the mindless goons as they tried to stop me. GoldenEye 007 Reloaded might not have the choices of Dues Ex, but you can approach each level and situation differently. Since this is already the second remake of the N64 classic, Activision has been nice enough to include something new that the Wii remake didn’t get. The MI6 Ops Missions, exclusive to Reloaded, puts players in a sort of survival Horde mode. The AI seems to suffer in MI6 Ops, but not enough to ruin the experience of taking down wave after wave of mindless henchmen. You can avoid confrontation in MI6 Ops too, but this extra mode is more about killing than the campaign.
Multiplayer in GoldenEye 007 Reloaded offers something the N64 just couldn’t; and that’s online multiplayer. The well-design levels provide fast and frenzied action when shooting friends online with little to no slowdown. With basic variations on all the classics like Capture the Flag and Death Match, you’ll be spending most of your time playing multiplayer just like the original. The best part is that multiplayer now supports 16 players online with new maps and weapons, but for the most part is the same offering we got with the Wii remake. One of the things that made the original so impressive and memorable was the wide range of modes and customization options for matches. Somehow the amount of available options, which hasn’t changed all that much from the original, still makes a lot of modern-day shooters seem rather bare bones. There’s a lot of fun to be had with tweaking the matches and setting up just the right scenarios to crush your friends. The impressive roster of Bond characters to choose from also means everyone can take on their own personality when playing against other humans.
One of the strangest things about this remade remake (intentional) is that the graphics engine was apparently built form the ground up to take advantage of the Xbox 360 and PS3, but you wouldn’t know it from the visuals. This isn’t to say that GoldenEye 007 is an ugly looking game. If you played the last version on the Nintendo Wii, you can see that some major strides have been made with the graphics, but at the same time it doesn’t compare to other current shooters like Activision’s own Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 or EA’s Battlefield 3. The graphics do a nice enough job and while you won’t be disappointed, the visuals do look a little dated and bland at times. Thankfully there’s no glitches or on screen issues even in a full match online with multiple options in place.
Overall Eurocom has delivered another fun Bond shooter for Activision that provides enough nostalgia that N64 purists will be able to play it and walk away satisfied. Those new to the franchise who never picked up the batarang N64 controller or even played the Nintendo Wii remake will find plenty to like as well. You don’t have to be a fan of James Bond to appreciate this solid shooter. The solid single-player campaign provides just over ten hours of gameplay which makes the price of admission worth it. Add on the loads of multiplayer modes and options and it’s hard to walk away disappointed from this one. If you liked the original or are just looking for a fun shooter to play online and never really got into games like Call of Duty, then this might be the perfect shooter for you.
GoldenEye 007: Releloaded is available now for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 for MSRP $59.99 and is rated T for Teen: Blood, Mild Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, Violence by the ESRB.
