Game:

Anyone who was a gaming adolescent in the 90s will likely have fond memories of Rare’s original game-changing N64 shooter, and many of them will likely also recall the first attempt to cash in on that legacy, EA’s fairly lamentable Goldeneye: Rogue Agent. You could therefore be forgiven for expecting that this latest game to bear the Goldeneye name would be another cynical attempt to shift units off the back of a fondly-remembered (though now rather decrepit) classic, thudding onto shop shelves to fatal sounds of broken dreams.

Thankfully, this one is really very good.

Eurocom have taken the eminently sensible approach of completely remaking Goldeneye 007 with a modern sensibility, attempting only to recreate the spirit of the 1997 game rather than hewing too closely to its specific details. As a result, the new title features a number of mechanics and locations that feel familiar and yet also fresh at the same time. The most immediately obvious deviation is in the gunplay, which takes a more Call Of Duty-inspired approach, with a small dash of Killzone’s cover-shooting mechanic thrown in for good measure.

As in those games, aiming down the sights is the most accurate and effective way of dropping enemies, and doing so while in cover will cause Bond to pop up over the top of it. The controls are robust and accurate, with the motion controls providing an especially pleasant sense of tactility. The game can be played with absolutely any controller available for the Wii, and there is an embarrassment of customisation options available, allowing you to adjust sensitivity, turning speed and auto-aim to suit your play style.

The replacement of Pierce Brosnan with Daniel Craig has had a ripple effect on the tone of the whole story.

The narrative has received a spit-and-polish to bring it more into line with the Bond universe of Daniel Craig and to remove the World War II-based motivation for the villain. This is generally quite successful – the script is tight and the narrative flows clearly and logically from one location to the next, with voice-acting of a generally high standard. There is, inevitably, something of a disconnect between the older style of Bond narrative, with its supervillains and giant satellites and mercenary armies with attack helicopters, and the more restrained, brutal world of the franchise since Casino Royale, but Goldeneye 007 generally does a better job of straddling that line than the next-gen James Bond title Bloodstone.

Aside from some vaguely familiar locations, the main elements that have survived the re-imagining from the N64 days are the adaptive stealth gameplay and the scaling of objectives relative to the difficulty level. Large chunks of every level can be completed stealthily by using only silenced weapons or the new brutal melee takedowns, and sneaking around the periphery of rooms headshotting guards or battering their faces in against the edge of a desk before darting back into cover soon becomes an obsession. Exploration of larger areas usually reveals a convenient crawl space or a concealed silenced sniper-rifle you can use to pick off stragglers while crouched on a rooftop somewhere, and this richness of level design combined with the scaling difficulty system provides considerable replayability.

The stealthy approach makes it possible to almost entirely avoid open conflict, with a reasonably generous window of opportunity for eliminating alerted enemies before they rumble you to the others

As the difficulty increases, so do the number and variety of mission objectives that must be completed. This often means that playing the game on its highest difficulty setting will yield up whole areas of the level that it is unnecessary to visit on the lowest, providing a genuine incentive to attempt the hardest setting and offering a more extensive experience than simply making the enemies tougher to kill.

Of course, perhaps the main reason that the original game is so fondly remembered today is its splitscreen multiplayer, which was a tense, riotously enjoyable experience that still has yet to be surpassed in many ways. Eurocom have made a game attempt to bottle some of that magic here, but it was always going to be an impossible mission. Commendable effort has gone into the level design and weapons sets, never simply aping the Rare game, and there are modes piled upon modes, as many customisation options as you could wish for. Played with a couple of friends, it is fast-paced and enjoyable. Online, it provides a sweet distraction for an hour or two. You’ll smile for a moment, but it’s never magic.

Review Round-Up

GRAPHICS – 3/5 – Not a beautiful game, as such, but an impressive achievement considering the hardware. Some striking use of colour and lighting effects helps to make up for any technical deficiencies. Characters’ faces are a little inert, but the movement animations are very good, particularly in differentiating a character who has been killed from one who is merely injured.

SOUND – 3/5 – The soundtrack is pretty much what you would expect from a Bond title, save for one extremely ethereal ballad played during a shootout in a Spanish nightclub. Nicole Scherzinger provides a convincing cover of the theme song. Daniel Craig stays true to videogame form and delivers a performance that suggests he was probably trying to read a newspaper during the recording.

GAMEPLAY – 4/5 – Intelligently modernised without losing the essential charm of the original, the game provides variety and flexibility, with a campaign that generally paces its objectives and battles extremely well. The last couple of levels run out of steam somewhat, but the only egregious irritation is an extremely poorly-judged boss battle very near to the end.

LONGEVITY – 4/5 – Robust and highly adjustable multiplayer modes provide a solid complement to a campaign which is deep and encouraging of experimentation. There’s plenty to see here, and more than one way to see it.

OVERALL – 4/5

Eurocom have achieved that rare thing: a remake which understands and respects the core of the original experience, but which never makes the mistake of simply trying to repeat it. Rare’s original N64 version has clearly been the subject of careful consideration here, and all the right lessons have been drawn from it to create a shooter which echoes many of the things that were well-loved about the older title while wisely modernising the elements that don’t stand up so well in the cold harsh light of today, 13 years after its release. Those fearing a callous exercise in corporate-driven graverobbing can breath a sigh of relief. This is a game made with love. Nothing more, nothing less. Only love.

- Elliot Mears

Four years or so have gone by since the launch of the Wii and yet the console still doesn’t have even one good FPS. Sure, Nintendo have made attempts with the aforementioned Conduit, but nothing that’s ever been good enough. Sony’s PS3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 have their own flagship FPSs in form of their Halos and their Killzones, but what does Nintendo have?

Where is Nintendo's answer to Master Chief?

Needless to say, in terms of first person shooters, Nintendo have been left behind. But all of this could change. If there was any first person shooter that needed a sequel it would be XIII. Not only was the original brilliant, it also ended with a cliffhanger, leaving room for a sequel anyway. In an age where FPSs all look and play the same, the comic book stylings of XIII would set it apart from the crowd, a true alternative, one that was on the Wii for a change.

Alas, this will likely never happen. After all, Ubisoft owns the XIII license (or at least did) so if a sequel were to ever be made it would probably be available on all formats, just like the original was. For the moment at least, lets forget about such misery and instead allow me take you back in time and talk to you about the original XIII; a game that was made for a sequel it will never get.

The opening to XIII was, and is still, one of the best opening scenes to any game I’ve ever played. The president is dead and you are the number one suspect. Problem is… you can’t even clear your name as you are suffering from amnesia; you cannot remember a thing. You awake on a beach, badly injured; you don’t know who you are, where you are or why you’ve got a mysterious tattoo of the Roman numerals for the number 13 on your shoulder. Sounds like your average night out to me.

The plot to XIII is like your average Friday night out... minus the assassinations, shoot outs, spies and corrupt government organisations

Immediately you’re thrown straight into the deep end, which despite its age is still somewhat refreshing alongside contemporary FPSs. Modern entries into the genre take far too long to get going, making you sit through drab tutorial after drab tutorial. XIII kicks off the action right away with gang members out to get you from the off. It draws you straight into to an intense, exciting world full off espionage and betrayal, giving you the necessary tutorials as you progress, thus ensuring the controls are fresh in your mind and that you are properly equipped to take on any challenge at any time.

Speaking of controls, the GameCube controller itself is somewhat of a strange beast (I’ll assume you’re playing XIII with the GameCube controller on the GameCube itself or the Wii, like I did). It’s not really designed to play any game, let alone a first person shooter, with its odd shape and its many, many buttons. However, the way XIII uses such a strange controller is brilliant. Every button, every flick of the joystick, feels extremely intuitive and accessible.

The GameCube controller is somewhat of an alien entity in itself

What makes XIII really shine is its unique graphical style. I’ll admit, at the time the game looked stunning on the GameCube; I can’t think of any game that looked better, but after recently firing XIII back up in my Wii, I can safety say it hasn’t aged well graphically. This is something you will have to look past in order to get maximum enjoyment out of the game. But whilst time has not been kind, the uniqueness of XIII’s graphics is still unparalleled.

In today’s gaming environment, graphics are at the forefront of game design (Crysis anyone?). It’s a true testament to XIII that, whilst cell shaded, comic book style games have been done to death. The game’s edgy, gritty, comic book visuals continue to set it apart from games of a similar style, let alone your generic, copy and paste shooters we have to live with today. Everything from the beautiful looking cutscenes to the actual gameplay itself is highly stylized (taking huge influence from the comic book series XIII is originally from), and utterly unique.

XIII is such a multifaceted shooter, not only does it have a brilliant story, “pick up and play” controls and a unique graphical style, but it boasts a variety of gameplay elements that help set XII apart from other shooters. Whether it be a skill/cheat system you unlock throughout the game, brilliant cover and hostage systems or gruesome skill shots that display head shots and the like in gory detail with the clever use of some comic-book-esque panels.

The game rewards players for skillful shots with some brutal, comic book panel inspired effects

A standout moment from the game is the awesome (and my personal favourite) second level in which you must escape from a bank after being framed for yet another crime: this time, setting off a bomb in one of the vaults. Of course you are innocent, so you want to escape as quickly and as quietly as possible without seriously hurting anyone.

Rather than running around shooting the place up, the game forces you to think more carefully; by using chairs and other objects you can knock out the armed police and security guards (as opposed to killing them and/or taking them hostage) which will enable you to escape without injuring anyone. The way the game effortlessly shifts between a shooter and some sort of a stealth game gives you the sense that you are in the starring role of a James Bond film… or something.

This level of variety is something which runs through the game as a whole. Whether it be the 34 singleplayer levels, the 6 multiplayer modes, playable on 14 different multiplayer maps (including up to 4 player local, en or over the internet via Xbox Live 1.0 and PS2 Online, on the Xbox and PS2 versions), or simply the huge range of weaponry at your disposal ranging from melee weapons such as ash trays, and glass bottles to AK47′s, Sniper rifles and Magnums, each with their own comic book inspired “POW!”, “BOOM!” and “”BANG!” imagery. XIII is chock full of content and variety.

There's no better way than to kill an enemy with a rocket that goes.. BAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

And that’s not all! XIII also sports brilliant use of sound, coupling a cheesy, 80′s inspired soundtrack with an awesome voice cast including Adam West (insert Family Guy reference here), and David Duchovny aka Mulder from The X-Files.

Unfortunately, whilst XIII is a brilliant example of game that has all bases covered, it’s another game that time seems to have forgotten and a sequel is about as likely as pigs flying… with wings and all that. However, if you do find yourself getting bored with the same old, generic FPSs, why not give XIII a shot? (no pun intended). Once you look past its age, you get to experience its real beauty.

- Kieran Roycroft