Spy-Time to the Spy-est Level.
Being the ultimate spy apparently puts you into the role of an ultimate detective. While sneaking around in the game's numerous story-mode missions, it is your overall job to unravel a conspiracy threatening the global economy. Or you can take it easy and shoot with people, online, in the arcade-style multiplayer mode (suspiciously resembling some iteration of Call of Duty). As you can see, GoldenEye 007 has openings for problem-solving agents and gun-slinging operatives in its immersive story mode and multiplayer.
Story mode is broken up into numerous missions resembling "episodes" of the overall story. Moreover, you are usually responsible for infiltrating a terrorist's headquarters and performing a task "for England". For example, in the first mission, you break into a Russian dam in order destroy stolen weaponry. As the ultimate James Bond, it is always your choice to run through the hallways with guns blazing or sneak past the stupid henchmen. While the first choice is the most straightforward, gamers will find that it won't usually work because they will be overwhelmed by the limitless numbers of armed henchmen. Instead, GoldenEye 007 encourages gamers to wisely sneak past the guards, and quietly kill them from behind if necessary, since more guards aren't summoned if you choose to do this. Moreover, the game does a good job of providing many opportunities for you to practice your stealth; it places guards facing computers, vending machines, windows, and TVs so that you'll have many chances to sneak up behind them. Of course, if you choose to shoot your way through, the game grants that choice. There are many walls, ventilation shafts, and crates to hide behind for cover – just be sure not to hide behind anything flammable.
Shooting combat is Call of Duty-style: you shoot at enemies using one of your three guns on hand and, if shot, regenerate your health while ducking behind cover. However, unlike Call of Duty, pistols are buffed up and seem to be the best weapons in the game. Bond's signature P99 Pistol is always with you, along with two other guns you've picked up throughout each mission. You can pick up assault rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles, and other pistols BUT your P99 pistol always remains as your primary weapon and it's the only weapon you're allowed to use in certain cinematic cut scenes: such as shooting a major bad guy and finishing him off. Being limited to your P99 pistol, during the cut scenes, can actually be a consistent problem. More specifically, if you forget to reload your pistol before the (unexpected) cut scene, or your pistol runs out of ammo prior, you'll automatically be killed when the cut scene starts because Bond will be reloading, instead of firing at the enemy, so the enemy can fire at you and cause a game over. In certain missions, if you die during a cut scene, you'll restart in the cut scene so you'll be stuck in a cycle of reloading, getting killed, then reloading again: forcing you to restart the entire mission. This, unfortunately, is just one of the many problems during the story mode. Moreover, although the story mode is amazingly immersive, it has problems.
The first main problem, with the story mode, is that each mission takes a very long time to complete. Although the duration of each mission varies between missions, each usually takes about one to two hours to complete and unlock all of the "hidden content". And by "hidden content", I mean "parts of the story that the game developers threw in to create some type of lame depth". Here's what I mean about "lame depth".
In certain missions, you, the classy James Bond, are forced to casually walk through a weapons convention as one of the sight see-ers – during one of the missions. While the movie James Bond may have wanted to peruse the exhibits and strike up a charming conversation, YOU, the gamer, will most likely hold back yawns as you walk James through the exhibit for five minutes. In another mission, you are again limited to walking: this time, secretly looking for a terrorist in a nightclub. In that mission, you use your in-game smartphone to locate the person you're looking for. This smartphone gimmick hardly does a good job of providing any enjoyable depth to the story.
Bond's smartphone appears in front of you, in place of your gun, with a push of a button on your controller. The usage of the smartphone is limited; you are only allowed to use it to target pre-determined objects or people. More specifically, with your smartphone out, you'll look through it and find glowing objects and people that you'll need to "take a picture of". Of course, since you can't choose what or whom you want to use the smartphone on, the gimmick isn't enjoyable and feels like a chore throughout the missions where you are required to use it.
Overall, it seems as though the game does such an authentic job of immersing you, into the life of an ultimate spy, that it also immerses you into the tedious and boring aspects of a spy's life: walking slowly, waiting, and taking pictures of things you are told to take pictures of.
However, GoldenEye 007's online multiplayer is plain ol' First Person Shooting fun: arcade-like, fast paced, and free of the tedious works and responsibilities of the story mode. GoldenEye 007's online multiplayer is also Call of Duty-style. You play as a random agent, make customized weapon load outs, and earn points while playing with gamers in online shooting matches. The guns fire accurately, shots hit where you aim, and you respawn back into the game very quickly after being shot down. Therefore, in many aspects, GoldenEye 007's online multiplayer confidently beats Call of Duty's buggy, laggy, and sometimes-frustrating online multiplayer.
With that being said, the game's online multiplayer has one, major problem: it takes excessively long to increase (level up) your character's level. Specifically, it took me a week of playing every day in order to go up one or two levels. Consequently, that meant that I couldn't unlock and try out new weapons very often – making the multiplayer feel boring. I actually gave up playing GoldenEye 007's online multiplayer completely before I reached level 40. To compare, in Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, I could level up twenty to thirty levels in one week while using the same amount of time invested in GoldenEye 007. You probably will get bored of GoldenEye 007's online multiplayer before most of the weapons are unlocked. Despite my criticism (and failure to stick with the game's multiplayer), I still think that GoldenEye 007's online multiplayer is solid and good (because of the reasons mentioned prior to my criticism).
In conclusion, GoldenEye 007 is a game with a few notable flaws. However, it is also, in my opinion, the most authentic and immersive spy game you can ever experience and I openly recommend this title to all Nintendo Wii owners. This game takes Spy-Time to the Spy-est level.