Reader Reviews

GoldenEye (N64)

by Rhythm

"What, you think it's better than Halo?"

"It's not that good, you know. I played it recently and it looks crap."

"The framerates are all fecked up."

These comments have all been levelled at me recently when I disclosed that my favourite console FPS is still Goldeneye. It came as a shock to me to discover that what is close to being my favourite game ever is secretly despised by many apparently normal fellow gamers. And so it was with trepidation that I dusted off the old N64 and inserted that precious cartridge for the first time in over 18 months. Were my rose tinted glasses about to fade into a nasty shade of brown?

As always, the reassuring (on the N64 at least) Rare logo sprang into view and the Monty Norman theme blared out of the speakers and I knew I was on "safe" ground. Navigating the ultra simple menus, I was in the game, playing the old "Dam" level. I wasn't disappointed in the least.

For me, Goldeneye was a pinnacle in the world of FPSs. Sure, I'd played Doom to death on mates' PCs, but being much less affluent meant that whilst they were getting all hot and bothered over Quake (released a year earlier), the first time I had the chance to lay my hands on a "proper" 3D FPS was with Goldeneye. The reasons for Goldeneye being better than the competition were clear: 3D baddies that responded to hit locations, vast outdoor locations (remember the top of the dam gradually hazing out?), excellent weapons from the silenced PP7 to the rocket launcher via the RPC90 and THAT sniper rifle, gadgets galore were at your disposal and you even got the watch with a frickin' laser beam in it. Above all this, you were immersed into a world that was taken directly from Bond's own and for once, it felt right.

Some PC aficionados didn't quite get the appeal; "control an FPS with a joypad – HAH!", but it was sour grapes without a doubt, as Goldeneye had one of the best and most intuitive control methods to ever grace a console game. Strafing, aiming, leaning, walking (even slowly) were as simple as you could ever wish them to be and the analogue stick on the N64's controller could've been made just for this game. Autoaim was implemented to a small degree for when your character was in motion but to aim properly required the player to stand still or crouch; a method which has only made it into the most realistic FPSs since, but one that makes serious sense to me.

So, playing through the Dam, I was reminded of the game in its full glory. The graphics are still top notch and the framerate is low but constant. The lack of blood was typically Nintendo, but the death animations were excellent (and in the case of the "shot through the throat" one, extremely painful looking), the weapons were cool, stealth made its first major appearance and events that made sense were persistent in the game world. A gate's locked? Shoot the padlock off. A guard's running for the alarms? Blast the alarm panel into smithereens.

My reminiscence over the game won't even go into the glorious multiplayer mode (in which you could handicap the best player by forcing him to take on the guise of Robbie Coltrane), suffice to say it was absolutely excellent fun with three or more mates round.