Game: GoldenEye 007
Ranking: 36/100
Score: 83.77%
Ranking: 36/100
Score: 83.77%
Do do do-doo, do do doo… Do do, do-do doo… Yep, it’s a Bond
game. Despite its title of ‘Goldeneye-007’, this isn’t a Wii port of the old
N64 game. There’s no CGI Pierce Brosnan to be found here; this is a 'reimagining' with different levels, different controls,
and a CGI Daniel Craig. I would pose the rhetorical question of whether this game
leaves you shaken but not stirred, but I’m really not sure I can bring myself
to make the reference.
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| 'GoldenEye 007' for the Wii. Just like 'GoldenEye 007' for the N64, only not at all. (Source: IGN.com) |
Intro
The manual is short and to the point, giving you a
comprehensive list of controls and definitions of each option without
overcrowding the pages with dense text. The diagrams of the control setups are
big enough to be useful as a reference when playing. The menu screen is nicely
done; everything feels like a briefing via computer, from design and logo use,
down to the descriptions for options being written in an appropriate style.
Even the difficulty settings are given agent rankings and descriptions befitting
recruits rather than players, which is a fun touch - for example, easy mode is
called 'Operative' and the hardest mode is named '007 Classic'. There isn't
really any opening sequence before you are handed control of the game in the
form of a tutorial section, but this is handled as a training session. Once
completed, Judi Dench (yes, it's really her) gives you a briefing on your first
mission with holographic-esque graphical representations of locations. It all
really adds to the overall feel of playing secret agent. Once the first mission
is completed, you get a Bond-esque intro sequence with Daniel Craig (yes, it
really is him voicing the game and not a sound-a-like) shooting things while silhouetted
ladies swim about as one would expect from the Bond franchise. The cutscenes
are fun, yet in keeping with the more serious Bond we've had in recent years
and fit the tense, grim action you're participating in.
Sadly, the manual is a little bereft of graphical interest,
and when you start playing for the first time, you could be forgiven for
thinking that game throws you in at the deep end with no setup as to what
you're supposed to be doing; that doesn't happen until you complete the
training session. Once you get further into the game and it eventually gives
you a sense of what the game is about, there is a slight issue with the
cutscenes. Sometimes it isn't abundantly clear that you've moved from an
animated sequence to gameplay. Oh, and I was left a little slack-jawed in
horror at the intro sequence; Daniel Craig and Judi Dench? In 'Goldeneye'?
Given that the Craig-era films are meant to be prequels to all of the previous
films, I can imagine a few Bond fans getting a little disgruntled at the weird
continuity on display here.
It's a pity that there is little concept of what you're
supposed to be doing and what the story is before you even start. Even if it
was optional to view, it would be nice to get a brief cutscene suggesting some
sort of story when you start up story mode, as a new game takes you straight
into a tutorial if you select story mode. Perhaps a short voiceover from Judi
Dench's M to inform you of the need to compete basic training would be a nice
way of tying everything together. Adding something into the manual pertaining
to a mission briefing or the overall story would help in this, too*. I also think it would be nice if there was
some sort of transition phase between cutscene and action to denote that a
cutscene is over and the gameplay has started. Rather than adding a white
screen or a flashy transition sequence which would spoil the effect of the
seamless transition, perhaps all animated cutscene action could be kept in
third person and all gameplay in first person; it only really got confusing
when it went into first-person, but you still couldn't control the character -
you were left uncertain as to what your cue to start playing was. And really,
this follows the plot of 'Goldeneye' but with an M that wouldn't even be alive
at this point? They could have at least given it a different name and sold it
as '007 in...'.
*NB - as I have rented this game, the PDF of the manual may
well be missing this vital information.
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| Umm... That is not how you do stealth, Bond. (Source: IGN.com) |
Getting Going
There is a decent 'training' section before you get into the
game proper, which gives you a chance to familiarise yourself with the
controls. Once you're actually in the game proper, you still get useful clues
and information as you play along. Although the control method lulls you into
thinking you're playing a shoot 'em up, you're really playing a stealth game;
this game gives you enough hints and information to guide you through that, so
even someone who has never experienced that type of game would be able to get
the hang of it. Little things, such as pointing out how security cameras work
when you first encounter them and that you can shoot them down, or how and why
you might attach a suppressor, make it clear what you need to do to get through
each section without entirely spoon-feeding the player. In the first mission,
the checkpoints are generously placed, which helps a lot. Although you don't
have a health bar, a simple method of fogging the edges of the screen with
increasing levels of red make it clear when you're taking damage. As you heal
automatically if you don't take damage for a while, you can see if clearing,
too. Although this makes the job of shooting down your attackers more
difficult, it makes perfect sense and does add to that sense of dread when you
know you're close to dying. The radar always shows you where you need to head,
so even if you're baffled by what you're supposed to be doing, you know where
you need to go. Plus, 006 chimes in with amusingly snotty comments every so
often to remind you of your current objective.
The tutorial actually made the controls seem more
complicated than they are, strangely enough. As it kept referencing how you can
vault over some items or climb over other, or pull away vent hatches, it became
clear that all you did was use the A button as an action button to perform any
task that wasn't shooting. Also, I managed to pull out a camera phone during
the tutorial by playing around with the controls, but did the game ever mention
a single thing about this new toy? Nope. I was left wondering how I could use
it and apparently having no luck in making it do anything. You only get the
camera explained to you when you reach the moment that you're supposed to use
it. Curiously, it tells you that it can be used to provide help by scanning
your environment. I assume it will only give you help on the few occasions the
game expects you to want it, because I attempted to use it on numerous
occasions and it did nothing.
In the tutorial, grouping controls into shooting and action
would probably have made it easier to get used to for players. Keeping it
simple would have been a better way of showing players how to go through the
game; B shoots, A performs other actions, control pad allows you to scroll
through weapons, etc. Also, whenever you access an item for the first time, be
it a weapon or a phone, I'd like to see a brief text explanation of what it is
and how it works. For example, pulling out that camera for the first time
should have given me a few lines of text as per the training section simply
stating it could be used to photograph important evidence by pressing whichever
button it uses. I don't need to see it again, but for the first time I access
an object it would be useful. Also, as we're in a situation where we're given
briefing files which we can no doubt consult freely, there's no reason why Bond
can't access help from the pause screen which lets you look at anything in his
inventory and describe what it is and how it works.
Fun
The gameplay is certainly fun and well-paced; you aren't
just mindlessly shooting waves of enemies to clear a path, as there are quieter
moments where it is advantageous not to get spotted. One of the good things
about this game is that, although you have certain objectives, there appear to
be several ways to go about achieving them. To begin with you are mainly moving
from one checkpoint to another until you are required to use your smart phone
or shoot someone, but there are multiple achievable routes. You might be able
to sneak through a ventilation shaft to avoid enemies, or you can just open up
the main door and go on a killing spree. Both options have their pros and cons,
but it's left up to the player to decide, adding an element of tactical
decision making into the mix. There is definitely an element of stress when you
are surrounded by enemies, and the HUD display adds to this. As the first
person view is somewhat restrictive when it comes to surveying your
environment, the radar present onscreen allows you to see roughly where all
enemies in the surrounding area and what directions you can travel in. This goes
some way to countering the likelihood of getting lost in the myriad of dark,
dingy hangars and warehouses.
It becomes swiftly apparent that first person is not the
most ideal viewpoint for a stealth game; it's rather difficult to see where
enemies are until they have spotted you and all too easy to attract the
attention of guards when you are crawling through an area which appears to be
uninhabited, according to your radar. If you were meant to just swan about
gunning down enemies, then this would be okay, but you're clearly not. The game
includes surveillance cameras you can shoot down, suppressors you can attach to
certain guns so as to make little noise, amongst other things. Factor into this
that the environment is dark to the point that you can't see where you're going
at times, a setup which inexplicably doesn't allow you to look very far up or
down, and areas where you have to wander around ditches until an icon appears
allowing you to climb up means you have a lot of situations where you can easily
get spotted by guards through little fault of your own. Oh, and you can't skip cutscenes if you have to restart at any point. I tried.
I think it would help if the game was either a little more
forgiving on the stealth aspect, or gave you a little more control with regards
to movement and vision. For example, if guards didn't attempt to investigate a
slight noise unless they heard it more than once (and you got a warning
soundbite of them wondering if they heard something) then the restrictive
controls wouldn't be as much of an issue. Or, if the guards were as sharp as they
currently are, but you were able to look up and down, or be able to vault or
climb if you were in roughly the correct area. You also didn't seem to be able
to hide in the dark shadows, which would be nice - if I can't see where I'm
going, why would a guard be able to spot me? And please, game, let us skip the cutscenes when we choose to!
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| You can attach a suppressor to certain guns; perfect for when you want to sneak up behind someone and shoot them through the head. It's the gentleman's way. (Source: IGN.com) |
Visuals
The tutorial used a predominantly black and white colour
scheme with anything of interest displayed in colour, which looked really funky
and interesting. Not only did it give you a sense of fakery surrounding the
scenario, but it meant that anything you needed to interact with was clearly
highlighted. The actual missions were nicely realised; the Russian base had a
suitably grim, wet and depressing air to it. The HUD worked well, too. The
information on ammo for your selected gun was clear but unobtrusive, and the
method of denoting deteriorating health by making the screen increasingly foggy
with red made it both clear how close you were to dying, and also added an edge
of panic to proceedings by making it more difficult to see in a way that felt
realistic, rather than a cheap way of getting you killed.
As much as I appreciated the visual effect of the tutorial
colour scheme, I found it awkward to handle when it came to playing. Whenever I
looked around the area, I struggled to really see what I was doing a lot of the
time. Another slight irritation was how dark some of the dark areas were. When
you're trying to find a route to a location, but all you can see in front of
you is blackness, it can prove rather irritating. I ended up whipping out the
smartphone simply to take advantage of the slightly different contrast levels
you get through its screen. This darkness also made it difficult when trying to
work out whether you could climb up a ledge or not; there was a moment near the
beginning where I went into a ditch to keep hidden, but had to wander aimlessly
around the pitch black of the ditch edge until a climb icon appeared - there
was no real way of being able to see where any ledge might have been.
Perhaps it would be nice if you had access to a torch? This
would allow players to look into the dark areas to see if there are any
suitable crawl zones or ledges to climb up onto, but it could be a double-edged
item that attracts the attention of nearby enemies if you use it for too long.
The training section is short enough that the black and white colour scheme won’t
be too much of an issue, but maybe a similar effect could be achieved by muting
the colour palette for every part of the screen you don’t interact with and
keeping it bright for all interactive elements?
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| Enemy guards are easily spotted with this gunsight. Either that or they heard luminescent white was a good look this season. (Source: gamespy.com) |
Intelligence
The fact that the game has varies difficulty levels is certainly
a good thing; stealth games are not my area of expertise, yet I was able to
make slow progress on 'Operative' mode (the easiest mode available, and the
default one). The guards seem to react fairly sensibly; you can sneak up on
them if you move while crouching (as you can't move very fast and are quiet),
but if you rush towards them while at full height, they are likely to hear
you. Firing loudly draws the guards'
attention, while shooting out security cameras means you are less likely to be
detected. Also, enemies will not only remember where you are if you hide behind
a wall or a truck, but they will try and evade your fire, too.
Sometimes, it seemed a little bewildering as to how guards
had even noticed your arrival. There was one section where I died after
overhearing some guards with bad Russian accents. When I respawned at the
checkpoint and repeated the exact same set of actions, I was spotted so early
on that I had to shoot the two guards I eavesdropped on before I even got close
to their station. Did the game decide that because I had done that once, they
would be wise to it? Were the guards' reactions set up to be completely random?
I just don't know.
Perhaps if the guards gave you a little warning that they
had noticed your arrival it would help; such as commenting that they might have
heard something, then dismissing it. This way you have a fighting chance to
correct whatever you've done by shooting out a surveillance camera or finding a
better hiding spot. If you got one moment where you were aware you had
attracted attention without any consequences, it would make it feel less cheap
when you were spotted properly if you didn't take appropriate steps to rectify
your situation.
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| These guards haven't spotted you. Yet. Which is strange given the one on the balcony appears to be staring right at you. (Source: gamespy.com) |
Immersion
What I did enjoy about this was that it felt like a Craig-era
Bond film. The tone was gritty and serious, the music was sombre and became
increasingly tense as you got closer to completing objectives, and there were
no secret missions to use sleazy chat-up lines on any scantily clad ladies.
Yet. The gameplay was also a nice combination of shooting, sneaking and
tactical manoeuvres. It's very easy to get sucked into the missions and get
annoyed with yourself when you draw the attention of the guards. Another nice
factor is that the different guns cause varying degrees of damage and also have
completely different gun sights which make aiming easier or more difficult,
depending. Not only are you thinking about your environment, your goals and
where the enemy are, but you're also thinking about which weapon you would be
best off equipping; for example, you don't want to shoot out a camera with a
noisy AKA-47, you don't want to snipe using a gun with short range, and if
you're hopelessly outnumbered, you want to be blasting away with a gun that
will cause the most damage as quickly as possible. All these little details
force you to pay full attention to the game and it is easy to lose a few hours
as you try to complete each mission. Another nice aspect is the mission-based
set up of the game; it breaks things up into manageable sections so you always
feel as though you could play just one more mission before switching off the
console.
One thing that was a little jarring about the game were
number of QTE-esque scenarios that were present, especially in the beginning.
There were very short sections of gameplay between cutscenes, and a baffling
truck chase sequence where it was impossible to lock onto any enemies for long
enough to fire, yet you were still able to complete it - I wouldn't have been
surprised if you could have just run through it without touching a single
button and still got through fine. As mentioned before, the fact that the
cutscenes blend seamlessly into the gameplay sequences actually pulls you out
of the game, because you're not entirely certain if you're about to be given
control or not.
If there was more gameplay between some of the cutscenes, it
would feel as though you had more control and weren't just pressing buttons to
advance the plot. Or even if they just made the whole truck chase a cutscene;
it wasn't particularly long, and it certainly wasn't long enough to get to
grips with before it was over. Also, I maintain that it would be better to keep
all the cutscenes in third person view and the gameplay in first person, purely
because it provides a good reference for the player as to whether they need to
prepare themselves for gameplay.
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| Daniel Craig in WiiGI form. See what I did there? (source: IGN.com) |
Cameras
The camera is first person and is aimed by pointing the Wii
remote at whichever direction you wish to look in. As you move with the control
stick on the nunchuck, this makes it very easy to control both the camera and
move it precisely where you want to see.
Trouble is, although you can look up a reasonable distance,
for some inexplicable reason you can't really look down. This really makes no
sense, given that you have to climb up and down ladders and staircases. surely
any self-respecting agent in a perilous situation would want to see where they
were going if they were planning to climb down a ladder or walk of the edge of
a gangway.
I've played games with a similar control system before, and
all of these allowed you to look up and down with the same freedom you have in
real life. I can see no reason why this game couldn't have done the same and
allowed you to point the Wii Remote further up or down in order to further view
your surroundings.
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| You aren't restricted to guns. You can punch or shake people, too. (Source: gamespy.com) |
Controls
Although the training section makes the controls appear
complicated, they're reassuringly simple and easy to use. The Wii Remote looks,
the Nunchuck moves your character. You shoot with the trigger (B) button on the
Wii Remote, you press A to perform any other action. The Control pad on the Wii
remote allows you to scroll through weapons and select your smart phone. That's
it. Easy to remember, easy to use. You can even lock onto enemies with the Z
button on the Nunchuck. You won't spend ages trying to grasp the controls of
this game. There’s even differing levels of sensitivity and controller presets
to make it easy to find the set-up that suits your playing style the best.
Having said that, the lock-on mechanism is probably the most
frustrating aspect of the entire game. It doesn't appear to lock onto the enemy
nearest your cursor, but the enemy nearest your character. This means you will
frequently find the view suddenly snap to a blank wall because the nearest
enemy to you has taken cover, and you get shot repeatedly by the enemy you were
trying to lock onto in the first place.
It seems far more logical to implement the lock-on feature
to go for the enemy nearest your cursor at the time of pressing the Z button;
at least that way, you won't be surprised if said enemy ducks behind a wall and
you can attempt the process again with a more exposed guard. You would still be
able to quickly select guard after guard and riddle them with bullets this way,
but without the irritation of your view vanishing from where you were aiming
and ending up dead as a result.
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| You can also use your smartphone, but only when the games says it's okay. So, no chance of Bond adding to his Facebook page of 'Doors from Around the World'. (Source: gamespy.com) |
Ideas
The stealth aspect of this game is certainly interesting and
makes it a little more cerebral than running around shooting everything that
moves. There's also the option to turn on additional missions, which gives you added gameplay. The Bond aspects, such as the actors and other franchise nods, are not
overused and add to the experience. There is also a multiplayer option where
you can play your friends both via split screen in the same room, and also over
an internet connection. Another nice aspect of the game is that you can get
through missions in different ways, be it by sneaking around and drawing as
little attention as possible, or storming in and taking everyone out quickly.
The fact that the HUD is kept as simple as possible works well in this game,
adding to the sense of realism. Even the slightly obtrusive dot onscreen which
denotes the distance from the next checkpoint feels natural because of this.
Despite this, it is still a rather linear game, as there is
no scope to decide how best to tackle the series of objectives for each
mission, or even to see what all the objectives are for each mission. I also
have a bit of an issue with the help features. It's great that the game gives
you hints when you stumble across a new addition to the gameplay, but it's not
so great when that same hint keeps popping up and pausing the game every time
you die and respawn near that trigger point.
I'd like to have seen a little more of a sandbox element to
the missions, where you could be given a list of objectives per mission on an
accessible map and complete them in whatever order you liked. Oh, and I'd
certainly appreciate it if hints only appeared once and were then accessible
from your pause screen. That way I've had my attention drawn to the important
piece of information, but I am free to peruse it whenever I choose, and not
every time I pass the trigger point for said piece of advice.
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| Multiplayer mode lets you play as Scaramanga and Oddjob, which may be reason enough to play this game. (Source: IGN.com) |
Memory
The overall feel of the game does put you in mind of a
Daniel Craig-era Bond film; gritty, dark and dangerous. This is the main thing
that sticks in your memory about the game experience. The film characters and
voice overs are used in a way that enhances the game, rather than making it
feel gimmicky. The other good thing about this is that the game stands on its
own merits and doesn't feel like a shameless cash-in. Another highlight is the
attention to player customisation; there are a large variety of ways to make
the game easier or harder, while being simple to set up. You have around five
different difficulty levels and a variety of pre-set control mechanisms, as
well as a degree of choice over control sensitivity. I think most people could
pick this game up and make some progress, and any players who want more of a
challenge could easily select a couple of options to get that.
Put simply, the most rage-inducing part of this game is the
lock-on function. I genuinely think that is the major flaw in this game, and is
more frustrating than even the super-human guards who go from hearing the slightest
noise from fifty metres away to shooting you at point blank range within a
second. And I hate to say it, but playing a Brosnan-era plot with Craig-era
characters feels off, and I'm not even a huge Bond fan. People who play games
and are Bond fans - who are the core demographic for this game - are likely to
be more annoyed about it than me.
For a game that likes to pepper you with onscreen hints to
the point of distraction, having guard provide you with audio and visual cues
that you are in danger of being spotted seems a nice, organic way of throwing
hints at the player. I would also dearly love to see a more refined control
system when it comes to cursor lock-on; I've mentioned it a fair few times
here, but it causes such a big impact when playing and could be so easily
fixed. I also think it would have made more sense to use a Craig-era film plot,
or just the 007/Bond name with an original story.
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| See, I like these hints. These ones don't automatically pause the game and make you read them every time you have to pass them when restarting a section. (Source: gamespy.com) |
Overall, this is a fun stealth-based shoot ‘em up which uses
the franchise licencing to enhance the game rather than overshadow it. Now, if
only they could sort out those lock-on controls…
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