It doesn't go above and beyond, but Goldeneye 007 still offers a good single player campaign and addictive multiplayer.
(-) slight control niggles / some predictable shooter cliche's / random frame rate issues can disrupt the flow / not compatible with the Head Banger Headset
The first person shooter genre has been made into what it currently is by not only the likes of the hair raising Duke Nukem Forever, or the overnight success of Call of Duty which has been banking on its success since it first began. Goldeneye also has a thing or two to do with just how the popular method of gaming has gotten where it is today, most notably a Nintendo 64 game of the same name known by many as one of the best games to grace the system. This new release on the Nintendo Wii doesn't copy paste everything from its comparatively ancient predecessor, nor does it push the envelope and make itself a defining moment for the genre. It does however offer a quality shooting experience in its own right, rather than slacking off due to the lack of compelling competition in the Nintendo Wii market.
Say what you will about the whole James Bond theme, but it's nice to play a shooting game that isn't all about shoving collective masses of action down your throat in an all out war where nothing makes sense anymore. Instead, you're playing in the role of James Bond himself (let the gasps ensue) in a plot of supremacy and destruction fit for its own high budget film. At no point will the plot grip you into actually caring about any of the characters, but neither does it over stay its welcome with long, rambling cut-scenes.
Its no surprise to anyone that you'll be doing a lot of shooting in this game, there's always another stubborn thug shooting at you from a blind spot for you to take down. However, its not always about just some dumb fun. As a Bond themed title, you'll also be doing quite a bit of stealth sneaking. Sometimes there's just too many enemies around for you to handle all of them on your own, and its best to observe and wait for some of them to go and leave. Its suspenseful fun discreetly plotting a quick lethal strike on someone when they're turned the other way. Sometimes its a little too easy to do though. Enemies seem to be conveniently turned the other direction waiting for their doom, though there's plenty of other moments where you'll be ambushed and it'll break up the party. You'll also need to take out cameras that may spot you if you're not careful.
With an even mix of stealth sequences and action packed battles, the game never forces chaotic moments to the player where they might go numb, meaning you'll be motivated just enough to finish the five hour campaign. Unfortunately it isn't much longer than the average shooter, but there's still a handful of moments you'll remember once you complete everything. You'll remember the simple joy of using Bond's fancy cell-phone to hack into computers (could you imagine taking that thing to school?), you'll remember some strong set-pieces and quick time events during climactic moments when your life flashes right in front of your eyes. The course of the campaign also takes you to a wide variety of places all the way across the globe without losing track of anything in the process.
Goldeneye 007's single player mode can get difficult, but never to the point where it frustrates. Sneaking through the front lawn of a courthouse with some 40 or 50 different soldiers looking for you with cameras isn't an easy task, nor is deactivating five computers while dealing with ever increasing waves of creeps with shot guns and even turrets. The game unfortunately throws in some tired cliche's however, like placing explosive barrels right next to other soldiers standing by it waiting to be disintegrated. Some other people may also complain about how your health bar will regenerate after waiting under cover after taking heavy damage, but purists are given the option to disable this in the difficulty settings menu if they'd rather, so its no real issue.
When it comes to control options, no other shooter on Wii has as many alternatives as Goldeneye 007, and they all work reasonably well. There's no doubt many people will embrace the natural grasp and precision given through the Wii Remote and Nun-chuck combination, like you'd expect these controls are highly configurable but they don't feel quite as refined as The Conduit or even Call of Duty Black Ops. They do work reasonably well however. You can also use a traditional controller option in the form of the Classic Controller (whooooa. The golden one's pretty sweet, though it comes at a price) and the Gamecube controller. This'll be great because not only are there many varied options, it'll also be more accessible to take advantage of Goldeneye 007's local multiplayer mode, which sadly lacks AI bots, but the feature hasn't been used in very many Wii games to date and its a welcome addition because of that. No matter which control scheme you pick however, there are some slight niggles with the controls. When you go up stairs, the camera will involuntarily shift upward, then back down once you go up. Even worse, sometimes when you step on debris on the map, it'll trick your player into thinking your going up stairs and that'll shoot your camera up for no apparent reason, this could happen in multiplayer and be the difference between getting killed andr avoiding a shot. The game really needs to give the player more control of their view, because it can make you feel slightly disjointed from the action.
And of course the people out there who aren't worried about seeing the credits roll in the campaign will still have plenty to like about Goldeneye. The online component is among the best of shooters on the Wii, having up to 8 players raise hell against each other on a solid 10 well-designed maps, many of them unique and distinctive from one another (my favorite has to be the party bar). Many of the available game modes are just typical shooter modes, but there's plenty enough to keep you busy, and even to this day the player-base still seems pretty strong. It borrows elements that have worked in other shooters, like an experience points system, and it adds up to a deep and addictive experience. Unfortunately, that leaves little in the way of originality. It seems a bit odd that avatars are screaming "changing mags" and "reloading!" when no body here is really a soldier at war. Call of Duty's crazy influence on this game, and the video game industry as a whole, rears its dirty face here, and the fact that this game was published by the same company could not be a coincidence.
If you have friends you want to play with you'll still need to exchange a friend code, and what's also disappointing is it'll be next to impossible to easily meet friends other than ones you already know. At this point voice chat has been all but essential in multiplayer shooting games, and with the release of the Head Banger Headset about the same time as this game, it's perplexing why that wasn't thrown in. At the very least, Wii Speak support should have been included. Having silent fire fights was fine for a few years, but as technology evolves in-game chat is becoming more and more essential, and players know it.
Throughout your time spent with this game the game will take you to some pretty large environments, and great use of lighting effects and overall atmosphere. It never gets as slick as something you'll see on the HD consoles, but the game still does a pretty respectable job making use of the hardware at hand. It comes at a cost though. The frame rate runs smoothly most of the time, but it has a tendency to freeze for a second. This could happen at a moment of particular vigorous action or even when you're just walking alone, it's completely random and it disrupts the overall flow of the game. It's a shame too, because without this slight blemish the game would have otherwise been very polished.
Whether you're a first person shooter fan looking to take a break from the same rehashed alternatives and long to try something new, or just a Wii player getting increasingly weary of your lack of quality options for a shooting game, Goldeneye 007 is a very good all-around package and has enough single player and multiplayer content to be a worthy contender in the Wii's library. It borrows a little more than a bit from elsewhere, but it's just different enough from its peers to iterate the success of the genre without losing its identity in the process.