For EA’s latest Bond game it seems the premise is simple; take the name from one of James Bond’s movies (Goldeneye), then create an all new villainous character with the same name and bingo you have the makings of an all new Bond themed game. One that comes from a long line of games that have appeared on consoles and one that comes from a mixed bag of Bond games published by EA. Last years Everything Or Nothing was actually pretty decent, even though it was a departure from the usual first person shooter that we have all come to expect from bond games. Well, Goldeneye returns to the game’s roots and opts for a complete First Person gun fest. Not related to the movie of the same name or the classic Nintendo 64 game, Goldeneye: Rogue Agent tells the tale of rogue agent Goldeneye defecting from MI6 and taking up residence with Auric Goldfinger the mastermind criminal lifted straight from the Movie Goldfinger.

Gameplay:

As mentioned earlier Goldeneye: Rogue Agent is a pure first person shooter whereby its mainly your character verses a wide number of enemies all intent on stopping you in your tracks. Your missions involve simply getting from one location to the next whilst fulfilling some simple objectives en route. Its pretty much no nonsense stuff here as the maps are pretty linear and you are given a waypoint marker on your weapons crosshairs to always show you where to go next. Controlling your character seems sluggish at first and I suggest perhaps tweaking the control sensitivity to suit your play style. During the game players will get to encounter all manner of Bond characters such as Dr No, Oddjob, Pussy Galore and Xenia Onatopp which is obviously artistic licence gone wild but a neat inclusion to the game especially for fans.

As with all games of this type there are a wide variety of weapons which can be used such as sawn off shotguns, pistols, sniper rifles, assault rifles, rocket launchers and such. However there are a few things the player has to get to grips with as a new feature has been implemented where players can dual wield single handed weapons at the expense of throwing grenades or take a two handed weapon, also at the expense of throwing grenades. Whilst this might sound similar to Halo 2 it works well here and adds a certain level of tactics to gun battles. If all else fails or you are able to get close or behind an opponent then the player is able to perform a melee attack and ultimately a grab move whereby the player can take opponents hostage and use them as a human shield. Goldeneye also has a rechargeable energy bar again similar to Halo’s and in my opinion a strange inclusion for a Bond game; this encourages a similar charge then recover type game play, which works here as well especially on the hard setting.

The enemies themselves display a certain level of intelligence where they will duck behind cover then peek out and take pot shots at you. The enemies will also strafe from left to right which although looks very unrealistic makes them reasonably hard to hit and challenging. Goldeneye himself is also pretty handy when it comes to taking these guys out and with his synthetic eye can perform some nifty tricks to aid him in battle such as enhanced vision for seeing through objects, an energy shield, hacking ability which renders equipment (including enemy weapons) useless temporarily and more. These obviously make up for the lack of any Bond style gadgets and work quite well in any given situation.

During game play players are awarded bonus points for performing certain “rogue” moves such as headshots, explosive kill , melee kills and much more. There are also plenty of machines and stationary objects to use to take out foes often resulting in dramatic deaths. These “rogue” kills are related to points earned after each mission is complete and are key to unlocking bonus content in the game, including multiplayer maps.

Graphics:

Graphics in Goldeneye: Rogue Agent are pretty similar to the other EA Bond games where everything looks sharp but not up to Xbox standard as no effects like normal mapping or dynamic lighting are used. The levels themselves have a very industrial feel to them and often lack variety, (although I did enjoy the look of the Hong Kong level). Animation is fluid although what is really poor is the way in which dead enemies will vanish immediately after being shot. Overall not the best on Xbox but good enough to convey the environments featured.

Sound:

The sound surprised me here as the music used is very Techno based, more so than any previous EA Bond games. I am pretty certain that a number of players will hate the music featured although those that enjoy fast paced sounds will love them here especially when the action heats up.

The sound effects are reasonable as are the voice acting during cut scenes where even Dame Judi Dench resumes her role as M. The voices for the enemies are a little lacklustre, sounding like strangled cats as they shout at each other. However the enemy speech is fairly diverse as they describe your actions on the fly such as when you are reloading or taking cover.

Longevity:

Goldeneye: Rogue Agent features lengthy levels which are great but there simply are not enough of them. The campaign will take most players no time to finish, however there is a Hard difficulty to beat first if you are to unlock the mode which loses the shield. To make up for this it seems a lot of effort has been placed in the games multiplayer where players can go head to head via split screen or Xbox Live over quite a number of Bond themed maps. This will no doubt please fans who moaned at the lack of Live play from previous titles. However on the single player side of things the developers have taken a step back and not included any bots this time which is rather criminal in my book.

Overall:

When I first heard of Goldeneye I thought what a complete rip off using the same game title as Rares N64 classic. However once more info was released about the game it became clear that Rogue Agent would feature a new twist of its own on the Bond theme. After playing the game I can see that this approached has worked to some degree. However anyone expecting a game similar to the N64 version will be greatly disappointed because at the end of the day Rogue Agent is simply a mindless run and gun fest against reasonably smart AI. To say that this is a bad thing is not the case because Rogue Agent does deliver an action gun fest that is actually quite good. The only real innovation in the game is playing the bad guy against the bad guys which is a cool twist all the same. Is Goldeneye: Rogue Agent worthy of your cash? Well for fans looking for something different, then perhaps. For anyone one else then I would recommend a rental especially if you do not have Xbox Live. Overall Goldeneye: Rogue Agent is a solid game lacking any truly inspirational moments.