GoldenEye 007 Preview

By Christian Donlan Published 22 July, 2010

Dam it.

Several months ago, I went to visit Microsoft's UK headquarters and ended up seeing a man's heart breaking right in front of me. The man in question was an in-house XBLA producer who had just finished demoing the freshly-announced port of Perfect Dark to the European games press.

For half an hour, he'd talked about upscaled textures, new facial assets, an authentic multiplayer experience, the fact that Rare had come back just to redo the opening skybox, and the notion that the classic N64 shooter would only now be getting the frame-rate it deserved. Finally, face glowing with enthusiasm, he put down the controller and asked: any questions?

There was exactly one question. Now Perfect Dark was out of the way, did this mean we'd be getting GoldenEye next?

GoldenEye: such an unexpected classic, such an extended wait for anything like an official sequel. Fans have wanted this game for so long it can be hard to pin down exactly what they're after from it. Putting aside Rogue Agent, what would GoldenEye even look like in this decade, when there are the likes of Halo, Borderlands and Modern Warfare knocking around on consoles?

1

Apparently, the new melee moves are a response to Craig’s more physical interpretation of Bond.

Well, it turns out that GoldenEye looks like a Wii game. That's because it is a Wii game, albeit one that Activision appears to be putting quite a bit of effort into. You can tell the publisher's working hard on this one because it has poorly-applied depth-of-field effects in it, and they're quickly becoming shorthand for, "We are taking this Wii game seriously."

Rather than being a spiritual successor, Activision's latest returns to the scenes of Rare's original in an attempt to rediscover some of that early Bond magic. It features a reimagining of the GoldenEye story, the developers having muddled around with the narrative and replaced the out-of-date Cold War business with something a bit more contemporary - rogue generals, illegal weapons sales, that sort of thing.

The design team is promising that the new plot will still flow through some of the old choke points. To prove that, the latest demo build kicks off with an infiltration mission set at that dam in Russia - made famous in the movie with an incredible, near-silent freefall stunt, and subsequently made more famous in the game when some internet character did a speed run of the entire level in about 40 seconds.

2

The itinerary has been scrambled: Dubai replaces Monaco, and St Petersburg will be the skyscrapery version. Skyscrapery is definitely a word, incidentally.

The tone has changed somewhat this time around - it's night, it's raining and there's a nice brooding atmosphere building up under the large skybox. The faces are new too. Brosnan's been replaced by Craig, and Sean Bean's been replaced by… Someone who looks a bit like Sam Raimi, as it happens, but almost certainly isn't.

As a developer moves through the early stages of the level, picking off targets stealthily with nice melee takedowns and edging towards the first perimeter, the question everyone in the demo room is probably asking themselves is: does it feel like GoldenEye? Actually, it feels more like Modern Warfare: the pace of the encounters is very reminiscent of some of Soap's adventures, a squeeze of a trigger pops up a very familiar iron-sights view, and grenades, when they start flying, leave those same little indicators rolling around on your HUD before your legs get blown off.

You've got the option to take the level slowly and stealth your way through with a silenced pistol and sniper rifle, or pick up speed a bit and charge in with an SMG. There's plenty of cover to hide behind as Bond makes his way deeper into the compound, and it's destructible, too, which is pretty standard for most shooters, but makes a nice change for the Wii.

Whichever way you play, the level design seems to do a pretty good job of mixing things up, with a fight through the exterior of the compound followed by Bond and Trevelyan half-inching a truck to get them past the interior guard posts.

Things go pleasantly awry at a checkpoint - presumably when one of the waiting soldiers says, "Didn't I see you in the first Tomb Raider movie doing an iffy American accent?" - leading to an on-rails section as Trevelyan drives and Bond rides shotgun, and then it's into a much more claustrophobic kind of shooting experience inside the dam facility.

It's hardly spectacular, but the single-player campaign looks pretty decent so far - and, if you're balking at the idea of another overly-twitchy, arm-achey Wii shooter, it's nice to hear that you'll be able to use the classic controller (or Gamecube pad, apparently) instead.

3

The developer’s promising a handful of routes through each level, and 25 classic weapons to choose from.

That's certainly the best way to play multiplayer, judging from a few frantic matches on the show floor at this year's E3. Given the GoldenEye lineage, this is a part of the game the developers have been taking fairly seriously, with online and splitscreen options, 10 maps, and plenty of familiar modes including paintball and big hands.

Familiar faces will also be returning, with eight Bond characters to choose from, and it's interesting to hear that the design team has decided to keep Oddjob as a rather cheap choice on the basis that it will lead to interesting "social interactions" on the sofa if someone keeps picking him before each game.

GoldenEye is shaping up to be a comprehensive package, then. With online support and a range of control options, the biggest hurdle Activision's latest faces isn't the platform, so much as the fact the appeal of the original is so tangled up with nostalgia. Activision's well aware of that, just as it's aware it's not something you can simply tweak in the engine - unless there's a slider for rose-tinted viewing.

While it's too early to tell whether that name is a blessing or a curse, one thing's for sure. Memories of Rare's game will certainly keep this new instalment on people's radars, but it's ultimately up to Activision to make certain that people keep it in the disc drive of their Wiis too.

Picture of Christian.

About Christian Donlan

Chris Donlan writes about games for Eurogamer and some magazines. His heroes include Eugene Jarvis, Errol Morris, and Linus Van Pelt.

Read more articles from Christian by visiting the Christian Donlan archive page.

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Comments (59) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • jambii267 #1 2 years ago

    EDIT: FIRST!?

    I will wait for review for this one, but looks great Wii fans deserve a good shooter!
    Edited by jambii267 at 23/07/10 @ 14:19

  • HarryPalmer #2 2 years ago

    Looks and sounds awful. Updating the cold war themes to something more contemporary?? Why?

  • insincere_dave #3 2 years ago

    They should call it Man With The Golden Heart and have Bobby Kotick as the main baddy.

  • NimbusTLD #4 2 years ago

    It features a reimagining of the GoldenEye story

    Oh god, I thought it was a straight port, not a remake!!! Noooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • rudedudejude #5 2 years ago

    Stop fucking around and just get the N64 port on XBL already. ffs.

  • kingmong #6 2 years ago

    ah, mp goldeneye. the king of stoned awesomosity back in the day

    it proved to me that, if you give a group of baked people something to argue about, they'll happily stay in one room for 12 hours
    Edited by kingmong at 23/07/10 @ 14:27

  • GAmbrose #7 2 years ago

    Updating it? But only the first part of Goldeneye was set in cold war era Russia (1986).

    The rest was soon loony (Trevalyn) getting back at the UK Government for sending his parents back to be killed in Russia and a rogue Russian General (Ouromov) using his military access to enable them to steal Goldeneye in the first place...

  • sonicyoda #8 2 years ago

    I own a Wii but never owned an N64. This is a no-brainer, however it turns out.

  • HarryPalmer #9 2 years ago

    @Sonicyoda - so, you're going to give Activision money even if its total wank and pisses all over the N64 versions corpse? (In a bad way).

  • Verwandlung #10 2 years ago

    At least it looks like the N64 GoldenEye.

  • X3Entente #11 2 years ago

    just get goldeneye on emulator ffs. Its tech is obviously aged, but its still really fun. You dont need rose tinted glasses either, just the feeling of mowing down another 20 hapless ruskies down a corridor in facility. best of all, theres no pretencious sentimental cutscenes, or meandering cliched scripted drivel. Just you, a ppk and a fuck ton of dead commies

  • geeza2020 #12 2 years ago

    Activision can suck my dick if they think im buying this. Stop trying to rape the memory of a great game for a quick fucking buck you cunts!

  • madgerald Verified Studio Head of PR & Marketing, Colossal Games LTD #13 2 years ago

    If people want to play GoldenEye so bloody badly they should get an N64 and a copy of the game.

    Otherwise STFU and play a newer FPS which is actually better :)

    No offence!

    *note GoldenEye is in my top ten list of great games. but it isn't the best FPS on the market today.

  • RedSparrows #14 2 years ago

    Sorry to say but I can't really see the point of this, other than putting another FPS on Wii - a genre it's gonna struggle with, despite the controls.

    It's Goldeneye, but....not quite...but has some more modern features...as seen in other games...not Goldeneye.

    Shall see!

  • Buenos_Estente #15 2 years ago

    Now i enjoyed Goldeneye like the rest of us and spent more evenings than i could get away with now playing it, but have little desirel to play a remake, reimagined or not...

    What I enjoyed the most was 4 people sitting in the same room shooting the crap out of eachother and moaning at the oddjob picker... oh and the golden gun, that was a cool mode.

    Playing online these days, tho fun, never compares to those, alcohol stolen from my parents cabinet fuelled, multiplayer evenings!

  • nick_f Verified Senior Producer, Microsoft #16 2 years ago

    I suggest you all download Perfect Dark on XBLA while you're waiting.

    /bursts into tears

  • Shinetop #17 2 years ago

    The whole point of GoldenEye was that there was no cold war anymore. That's what the entire story was about. Updating it so that it's no longer about the cold war makes no sense whatsoever. Ugh.

  • Magiced #18 2 years ago

    If you like the game so much you want to rerelease/remake it why bother updating the setting?

    Are there people out there who'll look a James Bond game and go "Well, i won't buy this, its socio-political content is hopelessly out of date" (Presumably this hypothetical pedant won't watch the old films for the same reason)
    Edited by Magiced at 23/07/10 @ 15:08

  • Alf-Life #19 2 years ago

    I just don't get it... remaking an old Bond movie, with a new Bond actor... but then changing some of the story, but keeping the locations. Wtf is the point... sounds like they're trying to trade off on the GoldenEye name and a few nostalgic memorable locations.

    It's either the best tradeoff they could make to get around Rare/Danjaq potentially having some rights (removing Pierce Brosnan) ...or it's a cynical cash-in from the name.

    At least it's less cynical than Golden-bloody-Eye Rogue Agent, where the protagonist actually had a golden eye.

  • The-Bodybuilder #20 2 years ago

    does it feel like GoldenEye? Actually, it feels more like Modern Warfare:

    PASS!

  • the_dudefather #21 2 years ago

    Fair enough changing the aged style of shooting, but losing the non-linear mission structure is a shame, it's what set goldeneye and PD apart from many other shooters and give it a lot of replay value (guessing this from the preview, which suggests a more linear approach)

  • sonicyoda #22 2 years ago

    @HarryPalmer

    Personally, I like the look of it. It would be nice to have a decent Wii FPS that is actually a little more realistic, doesn't involve aliens (looking at you Conduit) or is actually a rail shooter.

    Again, I haven't played the original so it would be nice to play a game with no expectations. Also, who cares if Activision are publishing it? If it's good then it deserves to be bought, if it's rubbish then I'll trade it in!

  • sneetch #23 2 years ago

    I had a sinking feeling about this when I saw Daniel Craig's face instead of Brosnan's when they first announced it. Can't believe they've felt the need to mess with the basic plot. Goldeneye is still my favourite Bond because of the plot.

  • FogHeart #24 2 years ago

    Well isn't this thread interesting......this remark:-

    I will wait for review for this one, but looks great Wii fans deserve a good shooter!

    Gets (as it currently stands) 18 negs.

    While this one:-

    Stop fucking around and just get the N64 port on XBL already. ffs.

    gets 11 positives.

    The conclusion: most visitors to this thread have xboxes and hate that a game built for a Nintendo console is being remade for a Nintendo console. Wow.

    Hey, XBoxers, you already HAVE a WHOLE BUNCH of REALLY GOOD first person shooters. Is it so bad that one, just one is being made for the Wii instead? You're acting like the kid who wants everyone else's presents at Christmas in addition to his own!

  • Stuz359 #25 2 years ago

    You know what the best bit about Goldeneye and the original Perfect Dark was? The feel of the standard pistol. You could complete the entire game with just the pistol and not feel underpowered. If they fuck that feeling up I will be angry.

  • sneetch #26 2 years ago

    I was just wondering that InsertMoreCredits.

    Some people go to holidays in Spain, some people like rugby, therefore Spain will join the Six Nations Championship by 2010.

  • FogHeart #27 2 years ago

    Simple - a pretty harmless statement very quickly gets a massive negative reaction (what can that mean except 'Wii owners don't deserve a good game') and a statement demanding the game go to XBox owners gets a very quick very positive reaction. Hence there is a desire for the game not to be on Wii but XBox.

    I'm willing to accept plausible alternative takes though.

  • McFly55 #28 2 years ago

    Its sounding more and more like a generic shooter thats cashing in on the name. Different plot, different Bond, different levels. And I probably wouldnt have minded any of that if they at least tried to capture the feel of the N64 game. Reading that it feels like MW could kill it for me. If I wanted to play Modern Warfare, i'd fucking play Modern Warfare.

  • Weezer #29 2 years ago

    I wonder how much of the game's appeal is down to the wonderful N64 controller - the Wiiggle stick is a poor replacement IMO.

  • xandaca #30 2 years ago

    It's always a pleasure to have another FPS on the Wii, especially one inspired by my favourite game. Wii pointer aiming, if the framerate is consistent, is enough fun on its own to overlook even fairly mediocre design elsewhere - hence The Conduit not being lumbered with scores at least 20% lower than they were. Can't see the point of having Classic Controller, as anyone using twin analogues against someone using the Wii remote will almost certainly get annihilated in multiplayer, unless the remote user is a complete amateur and there isn't some pretty heavy rebalancing to annul the deficiencies of analogue aiming. The single-player is what I'm most looking forward to though, especially as Eurocom have confirmed that there will be cheats and it sounds as though they want each mission to be replayable. Fingers crossed for a proper stealth system and non-linear objective completion too.

  • Tomo #31 2 years ago

    Sounds terrible. Turning Goldeneye into Modern Warfare is a fucking travesty.

  • rudedudejude #32 2 years ago

    Look all these people whining about xbox owners...

    The simple fact is it will be a pile of shit, between 4 - 6/10. It's a shooter, on the Wii. the graphics will likely be worse than the original on the N64 and the gameplay will be shoddy as hell. Activision, in doing their market research have obviously decided at some point that the Wii market will be receptive of continued FPS shite and will buy this by the bulk. They've chosen the Wii as they expect to make more profit through this channel (with it priced at £30+), probably because of the 'target audience' of the Wii.

    Regardless, it'll be shit. With probably a quarter of the investment of this Wii crap they could have made a perfect direct port of the original on to xbox live and sold 10 times more copies of the game.

    I own a Wii and FPS just do not work - Metroid was good but outside of that? Please.

    It's about choosing the right format for the right game, not xbox fanboiism

  • YoshiMcTaggis #33 2 years ago

    I think the current combined film & game "reimagining" hit to shit ratio is 1:215

  • sneetch #34 2 years ago

    @FogHeart
    I'm willing to accept plausible alternative takes though.

    Ok, how about this:

    jambii267's comment may be negged for two reasons that I see:
    1) the FIRST winds people up for some reason, this is the main reason I think.
    2) the "Wii fans deserve a good shooter" can be seen as saying that the Wii doesn't have good shooters. Regardless of your opinions on whether or not the Wii has good shooters I think we can agree that that could wind people up.

    If he'd said "another good shooter" and left out the FIRST then I'd imagine his post would have a positive rating.

    Adam_T's comment on the other hand is a call for a popular Rare game to join its spiritual successor (Perfect Dark) on XBLA as soon as possible. Apart from the "stop fucking around" bit I can't really see all that much wrong with it.

    Edit: It's also important to note that Adam_T is not talking about wanting this game on XBLA, he's talking about the original N64 version.
    Edited by sneetch at 23/07/10 @ 16:46

  • clearblue #35 2 years ago

    Change the locations, change the characters, release it 15 years after the film. Goldeneye? Yeah good one.

  • Raiko101 #36 2 years ago

    I'm all for this, but i'll wait to see what the reviews are like first. It looks and sounds great so far, and i'm a big fan of Wii FPS controls. There's split screen and online too, which will probably be quite different to all the Modern Warfare-like FPSs currently doing the rounds.

  • Chufty #37 2 years ago

    Front page picture looks like Bad Company 2

  • smelly #38 2 years ago

    >the graphics will likely be worse than the original on the N64

    Yes - it's an fps - so gameplay doesnt matter - only graphics. Says a shit tonne about the genre.

    I also TOTALLY agree it should be on the 360.. Afterall, fps's are the one genre the 360 is lacking in isnt it?

    .. erm.. oh wait.. forgot to add "hahahaha these graphics look like a ds game.. wiilol.. etc etc" in order to please the fanboys.

  • Cheddar99 #39 2 years ago

    Leave my childhood memories alone Activision.

  • WJF #40 2 years ago

    'who really wants to play a dated fps made 14 years ago?'

    People still play Doom, still buy Doom II, too, if the recent XBLA release is anything to go by. I personally go back to System Shock, Doom and Quake 3 occasionally.

    Sure, that's certainly the minority, but the really great FPS games are still good even by modern standards if given more than just a cursory look. Goldeneye, sadly (I loved it at the time), was a game of its time. It was the 'proof' that FPS could be done on a system that wasn't a PC, and the four player split-screen, 'no need for a LAN party' was pretty much unique to the genre as a whole.

  • SEVQA #41 2 years ago

    Stop fucking around and just get the N64 port on PSN already. ffs.

  • Raiko101 #42 2 years ago

    Games do age well. Super Metroid remains as awesome as ever. As does Super Mario Bros 3. Anyways, I thought it was well known that there are legal issues preventing Goldeneye being released on any platform other than Nintendo. Activision wouldn't pass on the opportunity to cash in on something like this on every possible console if they could.

  • Amgzone #43 2 years ago

    Remember playing this on the old N64, still got the cartridge for it. Just wish it would come on on XB, not gonna go out and buy a Wii just for this one game!

  • bemaniac #44 2 years ago

    I need to recreate the 90s feeling of hiding in a toilet air conditioning system surrounded by strategically placed proximity mines whilst my friend thinks he can kill me down below. Heh he rarely got close.

  • bionutz #45 2 years ago

    @bemaniac: Camper! :p

  • dr_faulk #46 2 years ago

    I can't find the video of the 40 second Dam speed run!!! =(((

  • Dylbot #47 2 years ago

    This has 6/10 written all over it. Oh Acti, only you could take a guaranteed hit like Goldeneye and fuck it up so very much.

  • Rubarack #48 2 years ago

    Goldeneye a guaranteed hit? It seems an impossible task to me, if it's similar to the original then it will be dated, different and it will be "not enough like the original".

  • Mono_X #49 2 years ago

    Exactly, calling your game Goldeneye instantly adds a massive weight of expectation to it. Your game will be (most likely unfavourably) compared to one of the all time greats.

    Just ask EA about it.

  • guernican #50 2 years ago

    "'it proved to me that, if you give a group of baked people something to argue about, they'll happily stay in one room for 12 hours"

    Jeez, just the 12? Lightweight ;)

  • Acrid #51 2 years ago

    This'll probably be shit, but I hope it's not.
    If it turns out to be good I'll gladly pick it up pre-owned so that Acti don't see a penny of my money.

  • septimus #52 2 years ago

    Wasted opportunity. The Wii can keep it with no loss to other consoles after reading that.

  • flanker22 #53 2 years ago

    all i have to say is fuck nintendo for cock blocking rare when they did the remake 2 years ago. instead nintendo basically said "no we dont want to make money we rather activition make all of it? and completely shit on the original by making unnecessary changes.

  • cybertenchi #54 2 years ago

    @Sevqa. Not gonna happen. Not unless MS sells RARE to Sony. You'll have to keep dreaming, I'm afraid.

  • elmerfudd #55 2 years ago

    have any you PLAYED GE007 on N64 recently?

    It's shocking. the multiplayer maps are AWFUL.

    I'm looking forward to this, if only to see if the MP is any good.

  • TwitchyMcTwitch #56 2 years ago

    over the top enemy hit reactions and no health Regen or its not Goldeneye!!

  • Lionheart #57 2 years ago

    Brosnan > Craig

  • EclipseDj #58 2 years ago

    @FogHeart - I own a 360 and a Wii, personally I love the Perfect Dark remake on XBLA. It is done very well adding better frame rate, online modes, sharper textures, improved character/gun models and alternative control options but without taking away the 'feel' and look of the original game. But I honestly feel it has flown under the radar somewhat on 360 and just isn't appreciated by the masses, the CoD MW and Gears fans who wouldn't give this or even a GoldenEye remake the time of day.

    As much as I'd love to see a similar remake (not this re-imaging) I am more than happy with Perfect Dark XBLA (Technically it was the superior game anyway and has a handful of GoldenEye maps and weapons) But if a proper remake is done I'd like to see it on both XBLA and on 3DS. The 3DS could do ALL the things the PD remake achieved (framerate/graphics/online) and also add the 3D element. If a deal can be struck to let Microsoft and Nintendo re-release a proper re-make in this way, then both camps should be more than happy.

    This new Wii GoldenEye will hopefully sit alongside the new CoD: Black Ops as two of Wii's best FPS, but I have my doubts it will match the 'fun' of the original multiplayer.

  • paulolime #59 2 years ago

    Kream London is filming a new media project and is looking for outgoing groups of friends to talk about one of the best shooters of all time. For more information please call Paul on 0207 096 6679 or drop him a line on aulh@kreamlondon.com">paulh@kreamlondon.com