Gamer’s Review: Goldeneye

“Ever wonder what it’s like to be 007?” – Video game trailer announcer.

Thanks to the critical and commercial success of Pierce Brosnan first entry as James Bond in “Goldeneye,” Rare co-founder, Tim Stamper became interested in developing a video game based on the film. Originally planned as a 2D platform like Mario, Mr. Stamper suggests they should make Goldeneye as a three dimensional shooter. Rare developers were inspired by id Software’s “Doom” and “Super Mario 64.” Both games were groundbreaking back in the ‘90s pushing technical boundaries. The game developers rewatched the film taking notes on which scenes should be included as a level. After two years of development, the game was officially distributed.

Released in 1997 (same year Final Fantasy VII came out) on Nintendo 64, it received universal acclaim from critics, fans and gamers alike. In addition to praise, the game was a huge commercial success. Goldeneye spawned later Bond games such as “The World is Not Enough,” “Agent Under Fire,” “Nightfire” & “Everything or Nothing.” Like Super Mario 64 influencing platform games, Goldeneye inspired first-person shooters.

Halo
Call of Duty
Half-Life
Deus Ex
Borderlands
Dishonored
Fallout
The Elder Scrolls
BioShock
Battlefield
Medal of Honor
Far Cry
Left 4 Dead
Counter-Strike

Anyway, the latest James Bond game, “007: First Light” is out in physical and digital format is making a lot of money. Before I buy it, I wanna share my thoughts on Goldeneye. This game made me a huge 007 fan since childhood.

It doesn’t matter if SPOILERS are listed. We’re already familiar with the film.

Smart & Dumb Qualities

Smart: Graphics at the time were decent. They got the likenesses to the actors.

Characters only speak through text dialogue. Although no voice acting present. I can already hear dialogue in my head after watching the film.

Whenever an enemy gets hit, death animations are pretty funny. You can tell this game has personality.

Soundtrack has some good tracks. It even retains Eric Serra’s trademark metallic “bong” sound effect from the film. Mr. Serra also did “Leon: The Professional,” “Nikita” & “The Fifth Element.”

Levels recreate notable moments from the film including the tank chase and the final battle, the cradle.

Gameplay/Mechanics

Presented as a first-person shooter game, you play as Bond in 18 missions completing objectives. All you do is save hostages, blow up stuff.
Enemy AI will shoot you if they see you on sight.
Combat’s the meat and potatoes. Aim and shoot enemies standing in your way. You can also karate chop a single enemy. Hold the R button enables you to manually aim.
Weapon Variety contains pistols, machine guns, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, grenade launchers, throwing knives etc. Some weapons allow you to dual wield.
To stay alive, look for body armor nearby. You’re gonna need it.
If you loose all your health, an instant replay of Bond getting killed. It’s like this game wants to provoke you. Encourage you to endure trial and error.
Gadgets are required to bypass certain objectives.
Three difficulty levels Agent, Secret Agent and 00 Agent. Which is Easy, Normal and Hard. The harder the difficulty, the more objectives you must complete.
Beating the game on normal or higher difficulty will give you cheat codes like turning characters into Donkey Kong’s body proportions. A big head and gorilla arms. The good old days when video game companies didn’t heavily rely on loot boxes and microtransactions.
Some levels require stealth. Doing that prevents an enemy from triggering an alarm. It’s best to use the modified PP7 silencer.
Once you finish the last level, you unlock two additional levels loosely based on “Live and Let Die” & “Moonraker.” Would’ve been nice to have a boss battle with Jaws.
Multiplayer lets you and your pals participate in a four-player battle as other characters besides Bond and good ones like Jaws, Mayday & Oddjob.

Random Thoughts

I’m giving Goldeneye N64 credit for introducing me to the James Bond series. As a result, my dad owned a collection of VHS tapes from “Dr. No” to Goldeneye. I give credit where credit is due.
When I was a kid, whenever I played multiplayer deathmatch with some friends, we compete on whoever wins gets to have a piece of candy, a sticker or a temporary tattoo.
Besides Goldeneye, I also used to play The World is Not Enough, Agent Under Fire, Nightfire & Everything or Nothing.

Dumb: I couldn’t find nothing wrong. I’m giving Rare developers an Extra Point for making a flawless game as possible.

The Final Verdict: A, FOR APEX!

To this day, Goldeneye still holds up. It continues to influence game developers to make first-person shooters like one of my favorites, the “Borderlands” series. If you still own an Nintendo 64 console, introduce Goldeneye to your kids and then show ‘em the film. Which James Bond video game is your favorite? Please leave a comment.