E3 2010: GoldenEye (Impressions and Hands On)

by: Chuck - posted: 6/17/2010 9:53:00 AM

I know Sean’s super excited about Activision re-releasing GoldenEye but I’m interested to see his reaction to the game when it’s finally release. Sure the title is the same and you’ve got the really nice four player co-op but there are some significant changes afoot in the game.

The first is that Pierce Brosnon has been replaced in the game with current James Bond Daniel Craig. That wouldn’t be a bad thing except that this has given carte blanche to Activision to re-write the game in the style of the new James Bond who’s more much physical and gruff. Also replaced is Sean Bean who played the traitorous Alec Trevelyan. Dame Judy Dench is back so you do have some link to the original game and the series.

We got to see the first mission of the game and it was completely different than the original game. The iconic swan dive off the dam has been replaced with a much more tactical approach. Activision did bring in the original writer of the movie to do the plot so it’s not all bad but this makes this game the Never Say Never Again of the James Bond video game world.

That said the game itself is exactly what you would expect and more. They’ve added multiple routes through the game so you can either go the stealth route or go in guns firing and the Wii controls do make getting around a bit easier although they did break out the new Wii Pro Controller for the multiplayer part of the game.

Of course what really made GoldenEye special was the multiplayer and that experience is back and intact. I had some concerns that it wouldn’t hold up with modern shooters but after playing through two multiplayer levels I have to say I had a little bit of fun. The multiplayer will have 40 characters in all including Jaws and Odd Job. I did like that Odd Job could use his hat for a one hit kill at the expense of grenades which was a nice touch.

Multiplayer will support up to four people locally and up to eight across the internet which should make things very interesting. Also back are the 200 map modifications to allow you to create your own house rules for playing against your friends.
Graphically it’s a Wii game so set your expectations accordingly. The music was phenomenal though as they brought in the original composers into the game.

I left the presentation conflicted as this was certainly not the GoldenEye game I was expecting but instead something else that actually is actually fairly interesting and unique. I do wonder why Activision didn’t create a new game or even GoldenEye II (well I know but I’m trying not to be jaded) but I do think that fans of the original will find something interesting and fun here.