Long before the days of Call of Duty and Unreal, Halo and Battlefield, back in the days when our favourite consoles today were but a dream in the head’s of the developers, there was the Nintendo 64 and there was GoldenEye 007. It may be a game that would cause pain to eyeballs so used to beautiful high-definition graphics today, but GoldenEye 007, in its heyday, was the very best first person shooter game ever to grace a games console. It’s a game that pushed other developers to work harder on the genre and, understandably, it’s a game that many original fans have long desired to revisit.
This aim was achieved somewhat with a new version of 007 for the Wii. The game was critically acclaimed and swiftly moved into position to battle for that elusive title, ‘Best Shooter on the Wii’. But now things are getting serious. Finally GoldenEye 007: Reloaded is heading for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360!
Storyline
There’s no denying that the vast majority of first person shooters aren’t exactly out to tell a great story, focusing on hard-hitting action instead. This is where 007 stands out from the crowd, with a plot just loosely based on the original movie starring Pierce Brosnan. Several updates bring the original movie into the present, including a replacement of Brosnan for the latest James Bond, Daniel Craig. A range of different missions and cinematic sequences work incredibly well to build tension as you progress through the story, but don’t detract at all from that all important action.
Gameplay
If you’re a fan of the Call of Duty series then it won’t take you long to realise that certain facets of 007: Reloaded’s gameplay certainly resembles that of the shooter phenomenon. Weaponry, in particular, could have been lifted straight out of COD; however there are plenty of differences to save this new title from ever being called a clone. Intelligent AI, for example, is boasted by the developer to learn your tactics, even retreating and regrouping should you start to take out too many enemy forces.
As opposed to a regular shooter where you would inevitably wander into any situation with guns at the ready, GoldenEye 007 gives you the option to test your stealth. Of course it is possible simply to mow down your enemies with whatever weapon you have to hand, but it’s a great challenge seeing how far you can sneak without being noticed. You may even find yourself wanting to replay the campaign, simply to see if you could get closer to your eventual target without making yourself known.
The levels of the campaign are pretty linear, as to be expected in a game of this genre, but online multiplayer modes will certainly add additional longevity to the title. As online multiplayer was one element that would have made the Wii version of this game even better, this is sure to be a feather in the cap of developer Activision and the 007 game franchise. Few details have been released as yet, but we do know there will be modes allowing for full on fighting, as well as modes that cater to your desire to play as Bond the spy.
An additional single-player mode of this game that didn’t appear on the Wii may also entice you. MI6 Ops basically incorporates four different types of game modes in the form of short and sharp challenge missions. Extraction, Assault, Stealth and Wave Defence are all game modes that can be enjoyed within MI6 Ops and, although you can’t play these games with a friend, you can still compete to rank highly on an online leader board.
Graphics
GoldenEye 007: Reloaded runs at a steady 60 FPS so graphics and animations are smooth throughout the campaign and MI6 Ops modes. Whether this excellent performance will be maintained in a 16 player online battle remains to be seen, but it certainly adds to the playability of the main game.
The great news with the graphics of GoldenEye is that the developer hasn’t simply sharpened up the look of the Wii game to make it HD, but that an all new engine has been included and every single texture and element of geometry has been recreated to produce an incredibly attractive game.
Conclusion
This is the perfect opportunity to take control of James Bond in a HD world. Whether you like running into an environment guns blazing, or prefer a more sneaky approach to toppling bad guys, this is the game for you.
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