Goldeneye 007

"GoldenEye" is one of my favourite James Bond movies of all time. It made the franchise become wilder than ever (Which means there were more explosives and so on) but fortunately it didn't forget its dry, dodgy camp humour from the past days. But, is the camp humour really that necessary in the 007 movies? Well, i'd say yes and no but mostly yes. I mean "Casino Royale" and "Quantum of Solace" were actually serious but i still think that they both lack that special, childish moments to be fully entertaining. Never mind that, "GoldenEye 007" is one of the very few license games that actually are GOOD games. The movie came out in 1995 but the game was out in 1997. Despite of being approximately two years late the game is much better than the movie ever was. In fact, the game revolutionized the entire (console) first person shooter genre, updating it in a way nobody didn't see that time. Very noticeable fact is that Rareware didn't just follow the entire movie, they actually expanded the plot, giving more chance to play scenes that weren't possible in the movie. Rare also added lots of their own material and even used some of different elements from other older Bond movies.

Unlike any other early 90's shooters such as "Doom", "Duke Nukem 3D", "Turok: Dinosaur Hunter", "Quake" etc. "GoldenEye 007" offers more mission orientated objectives and less straight shooting. It depends how much necessary action Bond really needs to do in order to complete a level. Usually stealthing and saving ammo are the main ideas to survive but sometimes Bond has to use fire power to reach his goal. Each level has three different difficulties. The harder the difficulty level, the bigger the task. Every difficulty level adds more mission objectives that needs to be done to complete a level. What makes it even more challenging is that Bond can't find any health at all to cure his wounds. The only way to prevent death is to collect bullet proof vests or simply dodge bullets as much as possible. If Bond dies, it's game over. If something important mission objective is being spent/destroyed/killed/not complete within chosen timeline during a mission then it's game over.

Even though "GoldenEye 007" is mostly a stealth 1st person shooter, the designers of Rareware have added lots of nice bonus stuff to make the game feel more entertaining. Just like in the movies, Bond can use his good old gadgets and gizmos during his missions, although they vary in every mission he chooses. That's not all, the game offers lots of different guns and weapons, which the best ones might be the tank and the golden gun from the "The Man With the Golden Gun" movie. When Bond has completed all the levels on the hardest difficulty, a couple of extra levels are then available. There are also hidden guest multiplayer characters to be played: Oddjob, May Day, Baron Samedi and Jaws. If using Game Genie codes player can open new characters to use other Bond actors in the multiplayer mode! Why were they deleted from the final version? Maybe Sean Connery didn't want to use his Bond model to be used in a shooting game, i don't know. However Connery and his fellow agent collagues are still inside the game's code so they can still be unlocked. Hidden secrets... There are some other funny stuff and hidden secrets as well. To unlock certain cheat codes Bond has to complete a mission as fast as possible plus it depends which difficulty he chooses. Some of them are pretty challenging to unlock but there also is an alternate way to unlock them. If using very secret complex button combinations during the game the codes can be opened. A fun fact is that the game's designers have scanned their faces on the enemy heads. I find it very absurd but the entirety is actually fun. I can actually recognize some of the team members such as Grant Kirkhope (one of the game's music composers) and David Doak.

Despite of the reputation of "GoldenEye 007" the game feels surprisingly outdated these days. The graphics are very grey and ugly, resolution is rather terrible but the game's worst thing is the framerate because it makes the game go very slow. Even if a minor object explodes during the game the smoke effects affect the framerate majorly. Very annoying. The second worst thing is the cheating enemy AI. Enemies can fire through solid objects (sometimes), throw grenades (which makes the framerate automatically go down), respawn almost in every possible level and so on. If an enemy is wearing a bullet proof vest and Bond decides to shoot the bad guy in the head area, the game says it is a torso hit. This means the enemy can stand lots of headshots which feels both unfair and unrealistic. I really don't like the multiplayer deathmatch mode either because i find it old and limited. Compared to "Perfect Dark" the differences are massive. Speaking of "Perfect Dark" it is more appealing and more polished (even though it also has some minor framerate problems). However "GoldenEye 007" isn't a bad game at all. I believe that only a British person can understand James Bond movies as a whole so it's not a surprise Rareware managed to do something like this.

To tell you the truth, the theme of James Bond has always sounded very nice. I'd say it is one of the most beloved and the most recognizable movie themes of all time. The questionable fact is that "GoldenEye 007" doesn't include Tina Turner's theme song "GoldenEye" at all which is a brave thing to be left behind. Maybe Rareware didn't have the rights to use the song, i don't know. Fortunately Graeme Norgate and Grant Kirkhope have managed to compose surprisingly enjoyable video game soundtrack. Even though the main theme keeps repeating during the game every now and then the mood suits somewhat perfectly. It actually tries to mimic Éric Serra's style who happened to be the main composer in the original movie. Robin Beanland made the cheesy elevator music for the elevators. When Bond is using elevators, muzak is starting to play.