GoldenEye 007: The Gold Standard of the First Person Shooter
When you hear the term “First Person Shooter”, what’s the first game that comes to mind? For many now a days it’s likely something like Call of Duty. Older generations might tell you Halo. For me however, there’s one that I felt like was the FPS at last realized and showed the potential this kind of game can bring. Not only one of the most legendary multiplayer games of all time, but to me one of my favorite video games of all time in general. GoldenEye 007.
GoldenEye is a spy/action movie, released in 1995 and the seventeenth James Bond film. Hey when you’re one of the pillars of early action movies, you can have this many films. This was in fact the first James Bond movie in six years and the first in the 90s, so there’s kind of a sense of a reboot of the idea of a James Bond action movie. This isn't your grandpa’s 007. The story is about a UK secret agent James Bond (Code name 007) as he tries to stop a rouge agent who has defected and want to use a satellite in order to send am election pulse (EMP) onto London and shutting down all electronics. resulting in as you may guess, all hell breaking loose. GoldenEye is the code name of said satellite. The movie is full of twist, turns, over the top bad guys, and of course a fair share of bond girls and cool secret agent gadgets.
The video game adaptation was not released until 1997 by Rare, nearly two years after the theatrical release. Rare was just coming off their high from finishing their Donkey Kong Country trilogy. But how would they fair in the evolving 3D gaming revolution? Also how how well could they do something like a First Person Shooter? oddly enough, The fact that when you say GoldenEye, more people likely think of the video game first before the movie itself, that’s how you know you’re in for something special, when a game based on a piece of media has more of a pop culture impact that the actual piece of media.
GoldenEye was originally going to be a rail shooter in the likes of Virtua Cop, but then was made into a first person shooter (FPS) where the player can freely walk around wherever they want, making the game feel more like the likes of Doom and Wolfenstine at the time. GoldenEye thanks to the power of the Nintendo 64 could show that a more realistic setting for an FPS could be possible and I think that’s one of the biggest appeals to Goldeneye and why I think people prefer it’s multiplayer over other games.
Another big appeal involves the controller. As you might know the Nintendo 64 controller is… kind of strange, but it has the Z-button that’s on the back of the control where your finger sits. hitting buttons with fingers is not new with most cases L and R buttons being on the top, but Z being behind the controller was quite new at the time. The Z button is what you use to shoot your gun. So it’s like you are using your finger to shoot as you would a real gun. This blew my mind back then and adds an element of immersion in GoldenEye that was not done before it. A great example of innovation by design.
GoldenEye is a first person shooter. You are in a first person camera and in the eyes of James Bond. You can pick up different types of guns and other items to help shoot bad guys who are also of course shooting at you. Trying to complete tasks/missions in each level in order to complete the mission and move on to the next level. You can fail these missions if the task is not met, leaving you locked out from beating the level, meaning you have to abort the mission and start over. The mission is also a failure of you of course, lose all of your health and die. GoldenEye 007 has a streak of blood go over you as you fall to your death in first person much like the infamous intro to each James Bond movie. Even dying in this game is freaking cool as it’s a neat spin on the famous intro to Jame Bond movies with blood dripping from the top of the screen down.
There are all sorts of guns you can use. Anything from 007’s standard pistol, to machine guns, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, land mines, you name it. Part of the fun of the game is finding that new gun and seeing how it can be used to shred the bad guys and finding fun ways to take down opposing forces.
There are three difficulties to pick from in the single player/story mode, where you play some of the best moments from the movie. The difficulties are Agent, Secret Agent, and 00 Agent. Agent is the normal and easiest mode. Once you beat a level on Agent, you unlock the next level and get the Secret Agent difficulty on the one you just beat. Beat said level on Secret and you can pick 00 Agent, the hardest of the three and always has the most objectives to do. There are often times you might have 1–3 missions in the Agent difficulty but could be 4 to 5 on the harder levels. Not to mention there might be harder enemy placements, cameras or extra turrets that were not there on Agent, and a few other small changes to makes the objective much harder.
The first level in “Dam” that has you crossing on top of a giant dam is very straight forward while not feeling too much on a single rail, you can veer off and find other areas. You will need to do some searching in order to beat this level on the later levels. This level ends with James Bond bungee jumping off the Dam, one of the most iconic moments in the movie. Doesn't look as cool as the movie because low-poly Nintendo 64 graphics but hey it’s still cool to see a big movie moment in the game. Something that was not done that often at this time.
The next level is Facility, this is where first time players will most likely hit their first gear check. There’s 4 objectives you have to do this time. Also don’t shoot the scientists or else that will also result in a failed mission. Luckily for you they are not very smart sciences and sure love to get right in the middle of the crossfire and getting killed, resulting in you failing. I’m being sarcastic here but for many first time players, this might be where they start to struggle as you can just run and gun down everything here like you could in the first level. I would recommend having this level later as the next few levels are not too bad but this is kind of a major part of GoldenEye’s story in movie and game so it’s a necessary evil here.
Here we get a major plot point where you and Alec Trevelyan, another MI6 agent to help James Bond in a mission. Sadly he is killed in the process (so it seems) as Bond escapes in a airplane, this being the set piece for the third level in the game in Runway.
The single player campaign has you going from level to level some being from scenes from the movie and some filler levels in there to boot. One of my favorite levels is “Surface”, that has you in a massive snowfield. It’s so fun finding the high ground with a sniper rifle and getting the jump on people. It’s one of the most open world like levels in the game and I love it for it.
At one point in the story mode, you are captured and put in a jail cell along with a cellmate. There we meet up with a Russian hacker named Natalya Simonova. She will play the roll of our main Jame Bond lady today. You both decide that you need her hacking skills and James Bond’s spy skills in order to stop the GoldenEye satellite from causing havoc to England and possibly the rest of the world.
Unfortunately, this is where we hit GodenEye’s main issue and I think what is many people’s issue is with the game. As you both escape, you have to leave the hidden bunker with Natalya. This will be an escort mission where you not only have to keep yourself alive, but her as well. Let’s just say the AI for Natalya is… questionable. At times getting stuck at doors, not going where you want her to go, even at times getting flat out stuck, making completing the mission impossible, or just walking right in front of you into the cross gun fire. Computer AI was not the best in 1997 and with no way to give commands, it feels like more of being on a leash than being able to go around freely and shoot bad guys. It takes away something I think GoldenEye thrives in and that’s being able to go around anywhere at anytime, there’s a sense of the open world. These protect Natalya missions takes that away from you. I can’t get super mad at the game as computer AI in video games in 1997 is bound to have its issues but I feel like it’s too much of a red flag in this game to not discuss it.
One level that goes into everyone’s mind that have beaten this game is the level known as Control, where you once again, paired up with Natalya and have to protect her as she uses her computer hacking skills for you to get deeper into the level. The level starts in an elevator with some fun elevator music, almost as if it’s putting you into a false feel that this level won’t be bad… oh no! Between some pretty tough solders to shoot down, turrets around annoying corners, and a very annoying part of the level where you have to protect Natalya from what seems to feel like a never ending onslaught of people trying to gun you and her down, Control is the mother of all gear checks when it comes to this game. Back then I use to rent this game at a local store. More times than not, there would be a file that would always be stuck on Control and just hit a brick wall. It was a rarity to find a file that had the game beaten. Likely the lowest point of GoldenEye for me as it kind of exposes the issues I have with the game all front in center. It’s not bad enough to the point that it runs the overall experience of GoldenEye 007, but it can be quite annoying. Just a unfortunate case of video game AI not quite being where it needed to be at the time.
Computer AI issues are not just with Natalya, there’s a level late in the game called Caverns, where you have to compete missions all while avoiding killing any scientist. You’ve had to deal with avoiding scientists before but here it feels like they are always next to explosive equipment or will like Natalya walk into gunfire or if something blows up, just walk into the explosion and die. Again, you feel like you’re on the luck of the AI hoping they don’t do anything absolutely stupid that costs you from competing the level. Besides GoldenEye having its escort missions and friendly CPU AI issues, the single player mode is quite fun and ends with an amazing level with an iconic scene from the movie. Single player has its highs and lows but overall is a great experience.
There is one thing I want to point out before I get into the games legendary multiplayer that’s in the single player mode. And it has to do with how this game does cheat codes. Yes, GoldenEye has cheats you can earn. Things as small as starting with a rare gun, to flat out invincibility. However, you don’t just enter a special code your friend or you find out about. You gotta EARN these by beating a specific level on a specific difficulty within the time limit. For the way cooler cheats, you have to speed run you way into the level because these times are very tight that require no room for error. I like to think this was responsible for bringing up a generation of speed running for some. A very cool way to do cheat codes as it’s something you have to earn and be really good at the game. Meaning you will consistently be replaying levels out of choice in order to get beat that time limit.
Now the moment some readers have been waiting for, let’s talk about the multiplayer game play that made GoldenEye 007, the stuff of legend. Thanks to the 4 controller ports on the Nintendo 64, you can have 4 player multiplayer mayhem. You can do classic death match where the most kills within a time limit or hit a number of kills wins the match. You can pick from a per-load of guns for each game. Sadly you can’t pick what guns specifically you want, so you’ll have to make due with the let’s call it a playlist of guns provided. A little annoying that you can’t just pick your favorite weapons in the game but we make due. There’s also tons of modes and playable characters in the 007 universe that you can play as. Sadly none of the older Bonds are there (were scraped likely do to actor/license reasons) and don’t be that one friend that picks Oddjob, who’s smaller than everyone else therefor makes him a harder target to hit. You know who you are.
As I said you got your standard death-match, but other modes too based on older Bond films. One mode being where everything kills in one shot, capture the flag, and one of my favorites, Man with the Golden Gun where the only way to score is to kill with the Golden Gun, a one shot instant kill gun, but only has one bullet in the chamber before needing to reload, so you better make your shot count. GoldenEye’s simple yet fun multiplayer game play is very addicting and it’s easy to see why it was a must play for any party in the late 90s on the Nintendo 64. I feel like GoldenEye’s multiplayer is what’s made it stand the test of time. Some may say the game has aged like milk, and that may be true, but I’m always down for playing some GoldenEye with the guys.
Throughout the years, GoldenEye 007 had gain a reputation for being one of the greatest multiplayer video games of all time. With it’s free movement, tons of fun guns to play with, 4 player non-stop fun, and a pretty good single player mode. It’s easy to see how and why GoldenEye was such an influence game in the FPS (First Person Shooter) genre. There were other spinoff games like GoldenEye /Rouge Agent that tried to recapture what made GoldenEye so legendary, only to come up short. A good chunk of the GoldenEye team would later in the PS2 era make in TimeSpliters, another game I would love to cover one day.
Sadly, we would not get another James Bond game from Rare as EA would pay a pretty penny for the James Bond license. However, that would not stop Rare from making a new FPS game like GoldenEye. That game would become GoldenEye’s spiritual successor in “Perfect Dark”, but that’s a mission for another time.
