In short
The previously Wii exclusive GoldenEye 007 has now made its way to the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 and enjoying the HD goodness. GoldenEye oo7 Reloaded is a surprisingly complete package with solid gameplay and plenty to do. While it’s certainly no AAA big-budget title, it is entertaining and should please Bond fans to a certain extent.
Developer: Eurocom
Publisher: Activision
For fans of: Shooters, action, Bond flicks
Reviewed on: Xbox 360
Also available on: Playstation 3
If we had to give it a numerical score: 7.5 out of 10
Overview
Reloaded’s singleplayer campaign is based on the campaign from the Wii version and is just about identical. The script is written by Bruce Feirstein who also wrote the GoldenEye film, and stars Daniel Craig as Bond. The game, like the film, has an all-star production cast starting with Eurocom as developers. Nicole Scherzinger did the lead song while David Arnold composed the soundtrack as he did with the movie. Judi Dench plays Bond’s boss – M and Craig is partnered by Rory Kinnear as 006.
GoldenEye differs from the film thanks to technological advances such as Bond’s Smartphone amongst other modern toys that would be commonly found in a Bond flick. The story plays out like the Bond film and has our favourite agent tackle the Russians in an adventure only common with the agent. All the gadgets, the stealth and all the shooting that fans would expect.
Gameplay and Features
New to Bond game’s is the afore mentioned Smartphone that brings new features and activities that Bond will need to do to complete the stage and all objective. From using the phone to scan people and bring up their profiles, to snapping pictures of items that are sent to HQ for closer inspection, all in the aim of bringing Bond closer to the objectives at hand.
The gameplay is generally solid – borrowing the shooting mechanics from the Publishers’ Call of Duty brand was never going to be a bad thing. It only falls short of being truly great in some areas. For example, the cover system is solid but not as evolved as it could and should be – you can peer over objects from cover but not around them or corners. This is surprising for an espionage game where being able to sneak around while staying in cover play a primary role, so in this area I was a bit of let-down.
The gameplay has you generally do all the activities you would expect – stealth, to silenced shooting to the explosions and fighting. Everything works well but was very simply designed. The shooting mechanics were the highlight for me thanks to its accomplished source. The overall gripe I have with the gameplay is that nothing is groundbreaking, and does not compare to my favourite stealthy action franchise – Splinter Cell. I feel more could have been done with the gameplay, it just doesn’t feel like a big-budget title. I mean everything works, but there are no surprises or grandeur.
I was however pleasantly surprised on how much there is to do in GoldenEye 007 Reloaded. The singleplayer story is just the beginning, with M16 Ops extended the singleplayer experience. M16 Ops again looks to Call of Duty for design and is similar to the spec ops activities in Modern Warfare. The unlocked areas that you completed in the campaign all have you carry out a variety of agent missions, from clearing out masses of enemies to needing to take enemies down in a stage while remaining in stealth. There was some nice surprises here and there is plenty more hours here for the singleplayer to carry on with the selfish route.
Then there are plenty more multiplayer modes and maps to compete in, and I was again pleasantly surprised by just how well these online multiplayer modes worked. There are modes varying from the regular team versus team, to ‘Bomb Defusing’ which sees two teams compete to collect and plant explosive in designated locations. Then there are somewhat unique modes like ‘Escalation’ and ‘Detonator Agent’. The first features a preset series of weapons and you need to kill with that weapon to progress to the next. Then ‘Detonator Agent’ uses bombs and as the name suggests, players need to either detonate or diffuse them.
I would never have thought a Bond game would have a serious multiplayer factor, but GoldenEye 007 Reloaded not only works, but for now it is easy to fill up a lobby online. How long this will last remains to be seen as I think one of the title’s biggest Achilles Heels is the fact that it was released amongst the shooting giants. Had GoldeEye 007 Reloaded been released in one of the quieter quarters for the online shooter market, I suspect this could get a decent online following.
Sound and Visuals
GoldenEye 007 Reloaded’s presentation is modern, crisp, neat and user-friendly – it looks like something straight off a pc’s screen at Bond’s headquarters. The menus were well designed to make navigating through the abundant options an absolute breeze.
The graphic quality is overall good, not fantastic, with the highlight of the visuals being the pre-rendered cut-scenes. The graphics are neat and clean but not super-defined or textured, the graphic level is notably better than the previous Bond title though. Craig does not look awkward at all in this one which I thought was a problem in the previous title. The environments also could have used more texturing, but again are neat and clean with not many flaws that I noticed. The character animations were pretty well designed but could also have used a little more vivacity. At this stage in the current generation I expect a little more in the graphics department.
The sound was well designed and put together with the voice-acting being the obvious highlight here. The sound-effects are all apt and realistic enough without blowing me away. Being a Bond game, the scoring is an absolute splendour thanks to the man who put it together and the fact that he did the same for the flick.
Conclusion
Eurocom certainly did a fairly good job with this latest Bond instalment, but it was clear to me that the studio was constricted. Firstly by bringing the game over from the Wii and then by the story – freedom in design was the last thing the developers had. Being such a massive Bond fan probably makes me more critical than most that the game does not aspire to anything grand.
The gameplay is solid, there’s loads of value especially considering the modest price-tag. The multiplayer modes are surprisingly good as are most other aspects, but then it falls short on a few small aspects that added up for me. If more freedom and creativity was used with the gameplay, things like the cover-system, GoldenEye 007 Reloaded would have been a more rewarding experience for me. I played through quite happily, but I was never blown away, and with one of film’s greatest characters I want to be blown away.
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