Where were you in 1997? I know where I was, I remember it well, being sat in my kitchen, controller in hand... then it came; the Bond theme. Da, da, da, da, da, da, da da da da da!
Yes, Goldeneye was the main event, and after the awesome (and often overlooked Blast Corps) developer Rare had some work to do.
Goldeneye puts you in the shoes of 007 and, name aside, the game is only loosely based on the movie.
You play the game literately looking through James Bonds eyes, you only see your character in brief cut-scenes, all built around 18 varying levels, which all start on Agent (easy), but you can up the difficulty as you progress, choosing to replay the levels if you do so desire.
The levels are all filled with enemies, which were impressive AI; if they knew you were behind a door, they might not come rushing in to get filled full of bullets. But they still did sometimes.
Once they're down, you can gather ammo and weapons from enemies, and as you start to do so, you realise that select weapons are far more useful on levels than others. Be it a Sniper Rifle, Walther PPK, Automatic Shotgun, or if you're feeling reckless, how about two handed weapons? Throwing Knifes anyone?
The choice of weapons on hand is fantastic, and even though there's only one route you'll be taking, the game manages to allow you to find your own, just by the weapons you choose to use.
Now, what's a 00 Agent without his gadgets, eh? You're just in luck, remote mines, magnet attract watches, camera, data thieves, key analysers, laser watches, and many more! One stand-out gadget part, is on level 9, where you find yourself in a cell, with nothing but your magnet attract watch. Believe me, figuring out how to escape is just awesome.
But that's all in single player, how about some multi-player action?
Goldeneye was by far, the most fun I've ever had with a multi-player game. The fact my friends would come round before school (bare in mind we'd set off for the bus at 7:30am; they were round for 6:45!) so we could have a blast for half an hour, then many more hours after school was just insane.
But it really was a great multi-player game, deathmatch being a favourite, but there are a wide and varied amount of options to choose, tweak and play.
At the given time (1997) first-person shooters weren't all the rage as they are today, and Goldeneye honestly made all that change.
The game was sublime. Great character AI, brilliant controls, great stealth and shooter mix on top of a (still great) multi-player. No wonder the game went on to sell eight million copies. In fact, it was only a whole decade later, that the release of Halo: Combat Evolved on the original Xbox stole the title away from Goldeneye.
A decade. Now, if that isn't impressive, nothing is.
If you fancy some Retro gaming, you can probably pick yourself up a Nintendo 64 with Goldeneye for something ridiculously cheap, so go searching!
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| Platform: Nintendo 64 Players: 1-4 Rumble Pack: Yes Developer: Rare Release: 25 August 1997 |
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