When I heard that a ‘GoldenEye’ game was coming to the Xbox I was very excited. I had high hopes, not because I was a fan of Rare’s GoldenEye on N64, I knew the concept was going to be different, but because of the hype generated about the game. I heard allot of cool features, and finally we were going to play a bad-ass ‘00′ Agent on the Xbox. The rules of James Bond were going to be thrown out the window, and we would take control of a ruthless agent that has been disbanded from the Agency to join the criminal side of the Bond universe. I couldn’t help thinking of the possibilities; the features of the ‘golden eye’ sounded great, dual wielding, Rogue Bonuses for being a real prick with your enemies!

To an extent, I am still excited about the possibilities, but having played through the game I can say it hasn’t met my expectations, so the possibilities I am excited about aren’t in this game, but perhaps a cleaned up, revamped sequel that may or may not ever come. That said, I do have much to say about the latest installment to the Bond series of games, GoldenEye Rogue Agent.

Gameplay

The general story of the game at first is hard to see, in fact, you really won’t appreciate it until you have been two thirds through the game. The story actually has a double plot twist, I’m not going to ruin it for anybody, but it is interesting in it’s own right and did make me score a couple decimals higher in this review. The problem is, you see, that most gamers would never come to appreciate the story since the beginning of the game is such a bland, boring turnoff. I think most players will stop the Campaign after a couple levels and move on to multi player due to this.

You start the game as this ‘rogue’ agent who has joined forces with Goldfinger, well, he works for him so to speak. You find out that you have a medically implanted ‘golden eye,’ due to a shot in the head, but the development and description of the main character is so minimal you’re left wondering what happened as you start the first mission. To make matters worse, your character has almost no verbal interaction throughout the entire game, making it difficult for gamers to bond with him, no pun intended. So what you have at the start is basically half a story, an unknown protagonist, and then level after level of mediocre first person shooting.

As I stated above, I had expected the GoldenEye technology that was implanted to be really cool, and it is, but you aren’t really required or encouraged to use it throughout the game, and you literally could go through about 90% of the areas without using your GoldenEye abilities at all. This was a real let down, and it is a shame that it wasn’t required of you to use the technology, for the simple fact that it is so cool, even if we have seen elements of it in different games. You have four types of abilities with your golden eye; MRI Vision (see through walls, objects, etc.), EM Hack (hack electronics and jam weapons), Polarity Shield (deflects bullets and builds a charge that can be directed at enemies), and Induction Field (move enemies with your eye). Using all of these abilities is satisfying, because it is something different, but aside from a couple instances you aren’t required to do so to progress through to the next level. The only semblance of an effort to make you use these abilities aside from the rare instances where you need to hack something, is a Rogue Bonus gained by using the Induction Field to kill enemy foes, and that really just boils down to a number at the end of the level for doing things you would normally do in a FPS.

The actual gameplay mechanics and weapons suffer as well. It’s hard to get the sweet spot when controlling the character, adjusting the look sensitivity helps, but only a bit. This is just one slow shooter, no matter which way you slice it. The weapons, although some are quite unique, have a tendency to do just about nothing to an enemy when fired at them. Pick someone off with the Longbow (GoldenEye’s version of a sniper rifle) and they’ll die in one shot to the head, but there are only about 3 weapons in the game that have this affect. For the rest, the bullets just seem to bounce off, and the only way to kill someone is by the sheer number of shots. I have to admit, while I have my complaints, I did have some fun playing the game, but it was mostly playing my own little mini-games with the fairly-decent AI, like sticking one with an MK Detonator and waiting til he got in a group to kill them all.

The run and gun atmosphere, which is geared towards dual wielding throughout the majority of the game is fine for a FPS, but the slow mobility, coupled with weak weaponry, huge areas and sometimes lengthy runs between save points make it somewhat of a chore to get through the campaign.

Control / Playability

As I mentioned above, no matter what sensitivity settings you have active, the movement in GoldenEye will seem slow paced for any experienced shooter. The controller layout itself works similar to many FPS games on the market, with a couple notable exceptions. Obviously the GoldenEye controls needed to be somewhere, and EA put them on the D-Pad, which works well for selecting the type of ability, but in order to actually use the ability you will need to press the White button, which can seem a bit awkward at first. Another odd configuration they have set up is the zoom function on two handed weapons that have a zoom feature, in order to zoom in you need to press the left trigger. I had a hard time adjusting to this and one must wonder why EA didn’t just use the ‘press’ thumb stick buttons for both of these actions as most other FPS games do. Of course, this is the default configuration, there are other options available.

The game boasts an auto aim feature as well, which if used, will produce an “I wonder what I’m going to hit” feeling, as you get in most games with auto aim enabled, just turn the auto aim off, on this and all games. One other thing I would like to touch on is the aiming reticule, it’s simply a red dot, which is nice when you’re trying to get a good view of the surroundings, but not so great for targeting, as you’ll often confuse the landmark directional indicator with the reticule and shoot at a wall or something else that poses you no harm. The dual wielding feature handles just about the same as we’re accustomed to from ‘that other’ FPS with the feature, and to EA’s credit there are a bunch of interesting and uniquely named weapons which will create some good combinations.

Xbox Live

If there is a saving grace to GoldenEye it’s the multi player modes, including split screen, Xbox Live, and System Link. You’ll get more out of the huge levels in multi player than you will anywhere else in the game, and be able to utilize the environment to your advantage, not to mention the fact that, depending who you decide to play with, they may be better than the AI in Campaign mode. We took a look at Xbox Live and Split Screen, but didn’t connect for System Link games during our review of the game, we expect system link to play even better than Xbox Live, which was a good integration and mainly lag free. There are several modes of gameplay, with extra options (such as Turbo Speed, Lethal Strike, Deathtraps, and Rapid Eye Recharge, as well as about 20 different maps available to play in the multi player modes. You can also select a skin for your character in the online/multi modes, so you aren’t limited to a room of clones fighting each other.

Graphics / Presentation

GoldenEye on the Xbox is a decent looking game, but there is really nothing groundbreaking in the design or environments. The enemies all look similar, with very little variation between them at all throughout the entire game, with the exception of the Elite Commanders, who guess what, all look similar. The interface is definitely sharp, slick, and well done, but once you’re into the meat of the game the colorfulness fades. Some of the architecture is rendered well and the levels are absolutely huge, but looks like it could have been tweaked up a notch from the development team. Weapon animations are all good, especially those of the main character, while the others are less detailed. The enemy AI does have a fair amount of flexibility when it comes to being creative and performing different moves to evade you, which all looks pretty smooth, but you’ll laugh the first time you see 7 android look-alikes do a barrel roll to avoid a single grenade.

GoldenEye Rogue Agent Screenshot

View all GoldenEye Rogue Agent Screenshots

GoldenEye Rogue Agent Screenshot

Audio

Featured in Dolby Digital the sound is above average, but not a whole lot more. The music is repetitive, and while they are good tunes and beats to listen to during a shooter, can become a bore just as quick as the gameplay. The CGI scenes are done really well, as expected, voice acting included. The enemies will shout out commands to each other, as well as give your location away if you are spotted, which was nice to see, but after the first 20 times of the same phrase it will get old, luckily they have a few up their sleeve so this problem doesn’t creep up on you right away.

Replay Value

Once you play through the Campaign Mode, there is no reason to go back. Sure you could go and try to score higher Rogue Bonuses on each level to unlock some artwork, but I think the initial frustration of the game will hinder this from actually becoming a reality for most. The only true replay value the game has is with its multi player modes, if you happen to have a bunch of friends who picked this title up, then you could play for weeks and have a blast. The question is, with several Xbox Live shooters that are more fluid and playable, why would you sacrifice?

Overall Score

Overall Score: 5.1/10 [not an average]

Additional Comments

I would have liked to see EA tweak GoldenEye Rogue Agent a bit more before releasing it. There was allot of hype around the game, and in a sense I think it actually worked against them in the long run. Gamers were expecting an evolution in FPS gaming, and what they got was an uninspired effort to a game and premise that has so much potential. Do not be fooled, this is no follow up to the N64 classic. If there is a sequel to GoldenEye Rogue Agent, and I really hope there is so they can redeem the name, then I would expect that EA and the involved developers would take a good look at the gameplay mechanics, weapon system, and level design to really come out with a title we can all be proud of, and long to play.

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