Goldeneye 007

I am a James Bond STAN. As such, I love when things have a massive crossover into other media. Goldeneye was the first game I got for Nintendo 64, and the legacy of the game speaks for itself. My legacy with the tile has been so numerous, and with it coming back into modern day, I thought I would look at it. It wasn’t planned, but since I love I thought why not.

Goldeneye 007 (1997/2023) Nintendo 64, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

Story

As I love Goldeneye, the movie and game the story is similar. As with many movie tie in games they usually follow the story of the movie. Which this game does with a lot of the mission are taken from the game, and changed. Some of the changes makes sense from a video game perspective. While some changes are just bizarre and comical at the times. However, the game takes ques from the movie, and the novel to help explain a lot of the back story and exposition of the story.

For me personally, I enjoy the changes. I like that Runaway isn’t the same as it is in the movie. As due to the limitations at the time, it might not have been possible to it that way.  While I enjoy missions that have nothing to with the movie, such a Silo and Depot. These levels are fun, and give things a bit more a boost.

Gameplay

Goldeneye is a First Person Shooter (FPS), which was a first at the time. Of course now, every other game is one. It was interesting take for a James Bond game, which is why I see all Bond games as one. For this game it very much works. They way the levels work, you start off seeing the Bond, model then you are put into the head of Bond. Which makes the player feel like you are James Bond. It only doesn’t stop there. There a tone of gadgets, and calls backs that will make any fan feel like there are Bond. Only thing missing is the drinks and the girls.

There are a couple levels when I play make me feel like the game was an on rail shooter. Levels like Silo and Train, give that really strong impression. As the levels are very tight knit, and everything is very linear. Given that a lot of the placement of enemies and boxes and crates gives me that feeling. As it they would be places to pause, and duck behind to reload and heal. I feel like these levels were made first and were still included, but tweaked to make it work.

As I have learned a lot more about gameplay design, I’ve learned something that is not so great about the gameplay in the this game. Which is framerate. This game has ridiculous framerate drop. Which is something I never knew about at the time, I just wondered why did the game suddenly slow down? Now I know its frames would just drop to single digits. Which is something I’ve just used to over time, and some people complain about and call it un playable. But it’s an older game, it’s a product of its time.

History

As this game is just over twenty five years old, it has a large personal history. As it was my first game for the N64 it was the only game a played for a bit. As I didn’t know what to do I got lost a bit. Nor did I understand how the difficulty system worked. As such in the good old day of the 90s I didn’t really didn’t get too far without help. As a lot of people did levels for me, and have all the cheats unlocked, none if it was mine. A lot my play with it, was me replaying levels people had a done. I didn’t do it as the game frightened me. Which I understand now as getting shot in the game was disorienting, and mix that with the rumble Pak, it properly didn’t help.

When I was slightly older, I did rebuy the game. Using my memory of the levels I was able to get pretty far. It was hard due to forgetting it doesn’t have dual stick control, and auto aiming. I did manage to get to jungle, but that was it. I did have fun, and I did all of this over the course of a few years, but I never officially finish the game. Which is somewhat of a theme of a lot of the games I played when I was under 10. That all changed until recently.

Silo Screen

Re-Realise

There had been rumours for years of the game getting re-realised. When I heard I was always thinking, it would a new way to complete it. of course a lot of these things never happened up until earlier this year. When the game was released on modern consoles. I decided to get it without hesitation. Because I was going to be determined to complete this game after 25 years.

I got Xbox Game Pass (coming next season) for it, and boy was I addicted to the game. I played the game three days straight, after getting it. When I wasn’t working, I wanted to play it. Before I knew I had completed the main story, on Secret Agent difficulty. Was it hard at times? Yes. Did I enjoy the challenge? Yes I did. Was it everything I wanted it to be, yes it was. Even though it was a 25 year old game it didn’t stop me from having a good time. For me completing it was a personal thing for me.

As I said there are a lot of games I have owned or played, that I never got to finish. This was a game I’ve always wanted to complete. Which is why after finishing classics like Tomb Raider, Crash and Super Mario Bros. This was a personal goal of mine, and something I grateful to actully finish. While also having the achievements to say I have done so. It’s a great feeling.

Multiplayer

I could not talk about this game, and talk about the multiplayer. The bulk of my time of playing this game was playing this mode with friends. I mean that is just what you did back then. You have a group of friend, someone would pick Oddjob and then it was murder city for a good few hours. Wither it was playing with the golden gun, slappers only or rockets it was all good fun. Shame too much of that has moved online.

Sadly though, I havent had the chance to play it currently on the new consoles. I know in a few weeks I will be try and get a few games going with friends, and see if I can still have the same amount of fun as I did back in 98, 99 & 00.

Soundtrack

I almost forgot to mention the game soundtrack. It’s like it doesn’t sit in my head rent free after all these years. If you played the game you know. It matches up to how the movie sounded with its electric sounding moments. Overall I generally enjoy it. If you were to look on YouTube it has been covered so many times. Which what I like to listen to every once and a while. When I was replying the game this year the music was just a constant thing in my head. I had to just constantly listen to it. Of course the best theme in the whole game is the pause menu music, Chief’s kiss.

All in all, Goldeneye is personally one of my favourite games. Is it perfect, no but I enjoy it because of the fun and what I get out of it. Not many people would understand the stupid arguments had over slapping someone to death. While also enjoying playing as James Bond and feeling like I am living a recreation of the movie.