Back in the day, if you had an N64, chances are you had GoldenEye. I am not particularly proud of what I am about to tell you, but I’m certain I am not the only one. GoldenEye for N64 was my first real First Person Shooter. I didn’t do much PC gaming until a High School buddy showed me the light. The fact of the matter is that GoldenEye was pretty influential in many ways for a lot of people. It was fun, fast paced, challenging, and had wonderful multiplayer. When it was announced that they would be remaking it for the Wii, part of me became very scared. I was worried they would ruin what had been a big part of my gaming life and forever sully a legendary game.
For the most part, the remake lived up to the hype. The first thing you will notice is Bond is now Daniel Craig to reflect the new movies. Then of course the graphics have been highly improved since the days of the N64, but this is limited by the Wii’s power. There are plenty of jaggies and a few clipping issues here and there. Some of the lighting in areas becomes far too dark and makes it difficult to see enemies. Overall, the graphics did not turn me off or hinder my gaming experience.
The story has been pretty much overhauled. It’s still the same basic “Stop evil person from using the GoldenEye satellite on England” premise from the first game. The same plot twists exist, though I wont give them away for anyone who hasn’t played the original. Some of the characters have been omitted, such as Boris. I guess it had to do with the way they re-did the story. They also added a few minor characters to reflect this as well. Overall though, I’d have to say they really did a great job with the story. It feels more like a Bond movie with its pacing and action.
There are many familiar mission maps in this game, or at least you think so at first. The names are pretty much the same, but they are totally revamped. Most of them are completely different. You will notice this right from the start in the Dam. They have even added a few levels too. The level design is much more varied now and richer with cover and stuff you can destroy. One thing that’s good and bad at the same time is that much of the cover can degrade. Its great from a game standpoint, but it’ s bad if you’re trying to hide from oncoming fire. There are a lot of enclosed areas, but there are a few outside big open space type levels that mix into the progression as well. There are plenty of hidden areas with weapon crates to be found, but for he most part it urges you along a linear path. There are several difficulty settings, each giving you more objectives and making the enemies tougher.
The multiplayer is pretty fun. With the Wii, there are always people worried about the lag, but from my experience I was only in one match with lag. Other than that the frame rate was pretty good. There are tons of modes too, basic death matches to team combat as well as an assortment of special type matches. Two of these are Hero and GoldenEye. Hero is fun, its four versus four, except one person from each team becomes a Hero. The Hero deals more damage and has more health. If you stand near a hero, you regenerate health. You get more points for killing the hero. Its a pretty entertaining mode. GoldenEye is probably my favorite mode. Basically there are like five or so computer consoles. Your job is to hack them to help move the GoldenEye satellite over the opponents base. The more consoles on your side the faster it moves. Its pretty much your standard capture the node type gameplay, but its a welcome spin on it. The rewards for multiplayer include your standard CoD type level up system where you unlock new weapons and abilities to creature your own outfit of weapons.
This game is not without fault however. The biggest problem is the AI. It can be quite difficult-stupid. The stealth elements are pretty much ruined by the poor AI. At the beginning of the game, it clearly tells you crouching makes it so that enemies can’t hear you. So as I am sneaking on the first watch tower, the enemy has his back turned and I keep a slow pace. At least thirty yards away, I hear “TARGET SPOTTED” and the guard turns around blindly shooting towards me! There are several moments where there is no possible way anyone could see you and the guards just start shooting. Then when you break stealth you pretty much have one choice and that’s to clear them out. Normally in a stealth game, you can run away and escape to hide again. Well, in this game, the guards just stand there and keep shooting. They often times don’t even come after you. They simply stand there and shoot. You could be three rooms over and they’re still shooting. Other times there will be two guys having a discussion, and a patrol walks up pretty close to them. With a silencer you can take out the patrol and the other two just ignore it. This game needs to make up its mind when you try to be sneaky. Sometimes the enemies can be so overwhelming it can be difficult, unless of course you find something big and metal to hide behind while your health regenerates. While on a mission, you get nav points which tell you where to go. Well, be careful, because if you have multiple objectives, it will often make you miss one of them which can result in not finishing the level properly. One other minor gripe is that in the original GoldenEye, there were several weapons you could dual wield. In this version you cannot. This makes me sad.
[review title=”GoldenEye 007″ pros=”Great FPS action for the Wii. Seems to improve a lot on the original game. More in depth story. Fun Multiplayer. Better Level design” cons=”AI is TERRIBLE. No Dual wielding. ” verdict=”The Wii has only a handful of really good FPS games. This one is definitely worth looking into if you do own a Wii. If you feel nostalgic, this might be a nice pick up or you could get the original in the virtual console. This game is very fun, but If you own any of the other consoles there are much better shooters available.” score=75]