GoldenEye 007: Reloaded
Die another day.
The campaign was always like this, of course, but now the game's other modes are getting in on the act. Eurocom's dreamt up a Bond-esque refit of Modern Warfare 2's brilliant Special Ops content, for example, in the form of a suite of levels called MI6 Ops - really, that name didn't have long in the oven, did it? - which splits its challenges across four mission types. There's Elimination, in which you race the clock to take out enemies, Stealth, in which you race the clock to take out enemies quietly, Wave Defence, in which you race the clock taking out enemies while capturing control points on the map, and a fourth offering that is so incredibly secret we haven't yet been told what it is. "Racing against the clock" and "taking out enemies" seem to be something of a theme, though, so fingers crossed for now.
As with Spec Ops, it looks like entertaining stuff - particularly Wave Defence, which spawns a new round of baddies every minute, meaning you'll have to really mop up carefully each time or risk getting swamped. Seeing the game played on a map built around a Russian war memorial suggests it's smart and slick, with simple levels filled with hills and trenches, and various data points to try and hack and defend while the baddies rush in. There are leaderboards for every mode, and you can fiddle with dozens of variables, including everything from enemy HP to how often they'll lob grenades, and even share your custom settings online if you discover a brilliant combination.
Beyond that, multiplayer returns in both local - it is GoldenEye, after all - and online forms, with the player cap raised to 16, and we're promised new weapons, new characters, new ways to customise yourself, and even new modes. These will offer a break from the standard death match, apparently, and will play to the fact that you're a globetrotting super-spy. Motorboats? STDs? Probably both, I reckon.
Reloaded, rebuilt, resupplied: that's GoldenEye in 2011. Next year brings that new movie and possibly another Bond game to go with it. Until then, this should be a decent, if familiar, stop-gap.