Wowie! It’s been a long time since the last, hasn’t it? I feel like I have to apologize for the absence, but I won’t, because it’s my blog. [Insert Evil laugh here]
So, it’s time to see if Goldeneye can hold up to the original that came out to the Nintendo 64.
Here’s a link to some music to get you into the mood.
First.. I felt excitement. Excited to see how much it resembles the Goldeneye to the N64. At first, it felt like the Goldeneye with more punch to it, but then… It jumps away from the norm, and gives you sneaking, fast paced firefights. The facility had a lot of nods to the old one, but when you come out farther, it totally changes. And the further you come in the game, the less it resembles the original. I know they wanted to update it, but why couldn’t they have asked help from Crytek UK? After all, that team was one of the masterminds behind the game mechanics, and they still knew how to do it. Just take a look at the TimeSplitters series. I will try to avoid spoilers, but for those who have already played the original, there are no spoilers, except how much they “modernized” it.
The story goes the way you’d expect from Goldeneye, if you’re in doubt, look at the movie, find a playthrough of Goldeneye and see for yourself. They did change a lot of HOW the story progresses, and treated some of the characters a lot differently.
Even with all the changes, I still think this is a fun game, but it does have a lot of things that annoy me as well.
What annoys me a little is the two guns thing that Halo has standardized into FPS games, in the original the arsenal was limited only by the number of different guns there are in the game. Of course, it makes sense if you think about it realistically, but there are moments in the game where you think “They’re all standing next to eachother, if I had a proper arsenal I could just...”.
And in the beginning it feels like the game is promising sneaking bits, but the further you get into the game, the more it seems like blasting your way out is the number one solution.
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| "Eat your heart out, James." |
And why aren’t there any subtitles in this game? Either my hearing is bad, or the settings on my TV are messed up. But sometimes, I couldn’t make out what Daniel Craig is saying.
And then there’s the casting. For those who have the game, and haven’t gotten around to play it yet, and want the cast to be a surprise, you can stop reading right now. But if you couldn’t give a hoot, then read on.
Number one, why haven’t they recast Sean Bean as Alec Trevelyan? I mean, it’s Mr. I-Can-Take-A-Shit-Load-Of-Arrows Sean Bean! He was stabbed in the arm and punched in the face outside a bar, but he just went back inside and ordered another drink! That's how badass he is! See for yourself!
Number two, who the hell is that guy they cast as Valentin? No Robbie Coltrane? That sucks! I can’t imagine anyone else being Valentin! Who cares if he Hagrid? I sure as hell don’t!
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| That's not even a real beard!! |
I know a lot of people complained that it was Daniel Craig and not Pierce Brosnan who was cast as Bond, but Bond has always been cast as the current actor, and right now, it’s Daniel Craig.
I guess I should talk about controls, so far I’ve tried the Wii Remote and Nunchuk, and yes it’s precise except for one thing… The quick aim.. Or stop aim or whatever the game called it. It has this weird sliding effect when moving in and out of it. In the end you will want to switch to a classic controller, just for simplicity’s sake. And even then, it feels like something is missing.
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| Not quite... |
And I was going to swear to the Wii Remote and Nunchuk, but at the multiplayer I had to resort to the Classic Controller. I was a little disappointed at this, since I this is a Wii game, and I feel that one MUST use the intended controller. But the multiplayer made it difficult to use the Remote and Nunchuk, since if you’re trying to move your cursor fast, you get the “Point your Wii Remote at the screen”-thingy, as you move the Wii Remote out of the sensor bar’s field of vision. *Sigh*-
I actually miss the original music. *sigh* Don’t get me wrong, the soundtrack is energetic and good, but it’s not a soundtrack made by Grant Kirkhope, Graeme Norgate and Robin Beanland. The 2010 soundtrack does not hold up to the 1997 soundtrack. Because in fact.. I can’t remember any track from the game, all I remember is, that it actually is a bit like the music from the new movies. But no soundtrack stands out in the game, nothing one will remember.
The local multiplayer was fun, but my thoughts kept going to the TimeSplitters series, which I feel has the best local multiplayer ever. It had bots, and all. I missed that. But yes. We were three, and it was fun, but the maps were so confusing at first that we didn’t find eachother. And we didn’t get to play so many maps, either. But again, the maps felt kinda cramped and looked a little similar. Here I thought of TimeSplitters 3, and the big maps of it. Plus the custom maps.
The online multiplayer was actually a lot of fun, but.. I don’t think it would’ve been half as fun as it was because of the settings I played in. Me and my cousin had two television sets next to each other, with two Wii’s connected to each TV. I gotta admit that I laughed really hard when my cousin first suggested it, something I probably shouldn’t have, because it was really enjoyable, especially the Golden Gun mode. I think playing online alone and not with someone, would’ve actually been a lot less entertaining than playing it with someone. We spent almost six hours straight playing it, it was easy to lose track of time. I was actually impressed by the multiplayer, since I was expecting to be disappointed by it. And it definitely is one of the best online multiplayer experiences to the Wii.
So. Do I recommend the game? Well.. If you really loved the first game, I think you can find enjoyment in this one, but have gripes about the re-imagining that has been done. And if you think that the ending was epic in the original, then you’d love the finale on this one. If you never played the original, this isn’t a good way to understand why people loved the game, it rather gives you a small taste of why, but never a full reason. If you don’t compare it to the original, then it’s a rather good game. But, as an old school player, who grew up finding glitches on the original, it doesn’t do it justice.
But hey! At least it got a better treatment than this one did.
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