Goldeneye: Reloaded
Written by Sean Cahill on 10/12/2011 for
360
PS3
More On:
Goldeneye: Reloaded
On Monday night in San Francisco, I had the opportunity to attend Activision's hands-on event for the upcoming title Goldeneye Reloaded. The game is being developed by Eurocom and will be released for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 in November. Throughout the four hour event, I was able to enjoy just about every possible mode that the game had to offer with other attendees.
SINGLE PLAYER – STORY MODE
There are two single player modes in Goldeneye Reloaded. This is the mode that will be most recognizable to the older gamers who remember this game from the N64 days. The game definitely has the look and feel of Goldeneye, starting you off with the opening mission that has the iconic dive off the dam by 007.
It is important to note right off the bat that, like the Wii remake, Daniel Craig is the model for James Bond and not Pierce Brosnan. Even though Brosnan was the Bond actor for the GoldenEye movie, the current Bond is who got the nod to be the model. You will also notices a couple of other changes, such as Alec Trevelyan, otherwise known as 006, is not played by Sean Bean. While this might be a disappointment for fans of the very first game, it's understandable after over ten years to use different actors, especially the most up to date Bond actor.
I found the control scheme for both the 360 and the PS3 to be quite easy to adjust to. Movements were very smooth no matter which platform I demoed the game on, though I will say that my personal preference is for the 360 controller, but that is just based on my own comfort between the controllers.
One thing that I noticed while playing the single player is the drastic difference in each level of look sensitivity. Going into the options, I found that I was on the second lowest sensitivity setting and it still seemed like I was panning quite quickly. Stepping down to the lowest level was a drastic jump and made looking around very sluggish. I'm hoping to see some tweaking done to this since this was not a final build.
A final little tidbit for the single player story. There are four difficulties to choose from, but the one I was most interested in was labeled as 007 Classic. While in the other three modes your health regenerates, the 007 Classic difficulty takes you bad to the old HUD that had health on one side and body armor on the other. If you don't have a nostalgia trip seeing that, nothing will do the job for you.
SINGLE PLAYER – MI6 OPS MODE
Added into this version is an objective-based mode called MI6 OPS. Simply put, you have 12 missions that have objectives that need to be knocked out in order to achieve various levels, which is based on a four star system. While it seemed that it wasn't finalized, there are obviously certain achievements in every mission that allow you to increase your score and rank up on that particular mission. Four stars is the best rating.
In this mode, you won't be doing the same thing over and over again. Every mission has a specific objective and style that you will be partaking in. For example, in one mission you might be doing an elimination style where you are basically killing anything that moves. In another mission, you will have to deal with an escort-style. I'm certain that anyone that reads that sentence will go back in time and think about having to protect Natalya while she disables the satellite in the original game and just groan in disgust. Still, that's what we're looking for out of this game: Taking us back in time but improving upon the overall product.
MULTIPLAYER – ONLINE
There are two different styles of multiplayer to choose from in Goldeneye Reloaded. The primary one that everyone will look forward to, of course, is the online over Xbox Live and PSN. Before getting into my personal thoughts on the game, here are some major points to hit.
You will definitely see some old favorites in the weapons cache, such as the Golden Gun and the throwing knives. Missing from the weapons that I actively used were the magnum, RCP-90, and the Klobb, though I don't believe anyone will miss the Klobb if it is left out of the game.
The HUD that is used in the online multiplayer is very simple. On the top there is a status bar that shows your score and the leader of the current match's score. Lower left will give you kill updates as well as backup weapons. Lower right on the HUD will give you the map of the immediate area. I will say that you won't be looking at the map too much, especially in a full 16-man match. You generally have only a few seconds before you find yourself back in a firefight.
MULTIPLAYER – SPLIT SCREEN
I didn't get much of a chance to play the split-screen mode, but I did observe quite a bit of game time involving the old four man matches. There isn't much of a difference between what you get with the online mode versus same screen battles, but it certainly made me happy to see that this game goes back to its roots and keeps the split screen mode.
PS3 MOVE COMPATIBILITY
Since this game was released in a similar form on the Wii last year, it is no surprise that the development team has made this compatible with the Playstation Move. I used the gun attachment for my demonstration with the Move controls that did give it a pretty unique feel. The attachment itself is in the mold of what looks to be an MP5 or an AK-47. The main Move controller goes by the nozzle of the gun attachment while the nunchuk goes below it in the front handle. Doing so will activate the trigger and a couple of quick access buttons hear the back handle. It works very well, but it is very sensitive and will need some tweaking to try and lessen the steep learning curve that it has.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
The important thing to note with this game is that it is a tribute to the original version as well as being updated with HD graphics and a completely new engine. The soul of the original game is certainly in there and you feel as though you are reliving old gaming days. The graphics are very clean and certainly run at 60 frames per second. Both the single and multi player modes are filled with fun and give you plenty of replay value right out of the gate. I am very eager to get my hands on the final copy in roughly a month as it seems that Eurocam has done a very good job with this title. I will wait for the retail version to give a full out review of the game, but so far, I would say that it's on pace to be a solid title.
We'd like to thank Activision for providing airfare and hotel accommodations for this trip.
SINGLE PLAYER – STORY MODE
There are two single player modes in Goldeneye Reloaded. This is the mode that will be most recognizable to the older gamers who remember this game from the N64 days. The game definitely has the look and feel of Goldeneye, starting you off with the opening mission that has the iconic dive off the dam by 007.
It is important to note right off the bat that, like the Wii remake, Daniel Craig is the model for James Bond and not Pierce Brosnan. Even though Brosnan was the Bond actor for the GoldenEye movie, the current Bond is who got the nod to be the model. You will also notices a couple of other changes, such as Alec Trevelyan, otherwise known as 006, is not played by Sean Bean. While this might be a disappointment for fans of the very first game, it's understandable after over ten years to use different actors, especially the most up to date Bond actor.
I found the control scheme for both the 360 and the PS3 to be quite easy to adjust to. Movements were very smooth no matter which platform I demoed the game on, though I will say that my personal preference is for the 360 controller, but that is just based on my own comfort between the controllers.
A final little tidbit for the single player story. There are four difficulties to choose from, but the one I was most interested in was labeled as 007 Classic. While in the other three modes your health regenerates, the 007 Classic difficulty takes you bad to the old HUD that had health on one side and body armor on the other. If you don't have a nostalgia trip seeing that, nothing will do the job for you.
SINGLE PLAYER – MI6 OPS MODE
Added into this version is an objective-based mode called MI6 OPS. Simply put, you have 12 missions that have objectives that need to be knocked out in order to achieve various levels, which is based on a four star system. While it seemed that it wasn't finalized, there are obviously certain achievements in every mission that allow you to increase your score and rank up on that particular mission. Four stars is the best rating.
In this mode, you won't be doing the same thing over and over again. Every mission has a specific objective and style that you will be partaking in. For example, in one mission you might be doing an elimination style where you are basically killing anything that moves. In another mission, you will have to deal with an escort-style. I'm certain that anyone that reads that sentence will go back in time and think about having to protect Natalya while she disables the satellite in the original game and just groan in disgust. Still, that's what we're looking for out of this game: Taking us back in time but improving upon the overall product.
MULTIPLAYER – ONLINE
There are two different styles of multiplayer to choose from in Goldeneye Reloaded. The primary one that everyone will look forward to, of course, is the online over Xbox Live and PSN. Before getting into my personal thoughts on the game, here are some major points to hit.
- 44 playable characters overall
- 14 classic characters, such as Oddjob, Blofeld, Tee Hee, Auric Goldfinger, Baron Samedi, and so on.
- Return of classic maps such as the Archives, Outpost, Facility, and the inclusion of new maps as well.
You will definitely see some old favorites in the weapons cache, such as the Golden Gun and the throwing knives. Missing from the weapons that I actively used were the magnum, RCP-90, and the Klobb, though I don't believe anyone will miss the Klobb if it is left out of the game.
The HUD that is used in the online multiplayer is very simple. On the top there is a status bar that shows your score and the leader of the current match's score. Lower left will give you kill updates as well as backup weapons. Lower right on the HUD will give you the map of the immediate area. I will say that you won't be looking at the map too much, especially in a full 16-man match. You generally have only a few seconds before you find yourself back in a firefight.
MULTIPLAYER – SPLIT SCREEN
I didn't get much of a chance to play the split-screen mode, but I did observe quite a bit of game time involving the old four man matches. There isn't much of a difference between what you get with the online mode versus same screen battles, but it certainly made me happy to see that this game goes back to its roots and keeps the split screen mode.
PS3 MOVE COMPATIBILITY
Since this game was released in a similar form on the Wii last year, it is no surprise that the development team has made this compatible with the Playstation Move. I used the gun attachment for my demonstration with the Move controls that did give it a pretty unique feel. The attachment itself is in the mold of what looks to be an MP5 or an AK-47. The main Move controller goes by the nozzle of the gun attachment while the nunchuk goes below it in the front handle. Doing so will activate the trigger and a couple of quick access buttons hear the back handle. It works very well, but it is very sensitive and will need some tweaking to try and lessen the steep learning curve that it has.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
The important thing to note with this game is that it is a tribute to the original version as well as being updated with HD graphics and a completely new engine. The soul of the original game is certainly in there and you feel as though you are reliving old gaming days. The graphics are very clean and certainly run at 60 frames per second. Both the single and multi player modes are filled with fun and give you plenty of replay value right out of the gate. I am very eager to get my hands on the final copy in roughly a month as it seems that Eurocam has done a very good job with this title. I will wait for the retail version to give a full out review of the game, but so far, I would say that it's on pace to be a solid title.
We'd like to thank Activision for providing airfare and hotel accommodations for this trip.
About Author
Sean is a 15 year veteran of gaming and technology writing with an unhealthy obsession for Final Fantasy, soccer, and chocolate.
View Profile