So I never played the Wii game, but I was under the impression it was a modern (at the time) remake. Also, yes, I didn't read the article, but after clicking, I know this is just a re-release of the actual n64 title on modern systems upscaled.
I've heard it was an important game historically (like doom) but I've never seen it much in retro gaming.
Can someone who played it when it was new explain why it was important to them?
I've read the side article about the book https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/07/book-excerpt-anti-gam... but don't understand:
> "But messy things like the island add to GoldenEye’s mythology—they add life to the world and give players something to theorize about and are some of the best examples of the handcrafted quality of the game"
> Because the game ran playably throughout development, the team could playtest, riff, and iterate all throughout the level setup period—a process Doak attributes to the game’s success
Iterations increasing quality, that I understand
But the article talk about the importance of multiple objectives and doesn't extends much on that. I just don't understand the difference between that and collecting keys, in the historical context.
It probably is important historically for console gamers who didn't really play quake or counterstrike online at the time(me), but played with their friends and family, the best part about goldeneye was multiplayer with friends with cheats enabled, so you could have your friends running around with huge heads. It had a very different style to halo which would come later I understand (I never played halo as I didn't have an xbox). It also looked amazing, for the time, had missions, which would eventually become a mainstay of first person shooters, although it does seem like half-life likely was in the planning stage at that point. It did feel clunky at times, even then.
I used to think it was the greatest fps ever, until I played quake-like games in my college years (well after it was a thing, when arena fpses were dying and before the advent of overwatch and eventually fortnite), and I realized how intense fpses could be while not being a point and click adventure (sorry cod fans, that sort of thing is not my speed).
As a teen boy in the 90s, console gaming with friends was way more common than playing PC games online.
GoldenEye was THE multiplayer game that every boy with an N64 had to have. There was just nothing else like it at the time.
The conspicuous lack of blood and gore in the game made it much more acceptable for parents to buy in a time period when violence in video games was still a hot button culture war issue.
This same cohort of gamers moved on to Perfect Dark, then Halo when those games came out. This wave eventually dissipated into all the mass market console FPS shooters we have today.
> Can someone who played it when it was new explain why it was important to them?
- A fully 3d, polygonal fps with a consistent aesthetic
- First time playing mutiplayer FPS
- Realistic environments & objectives (for the time).
- James Bond tie-in was a fairly big deal
> But the article talk about the importance of multiple objectives and doesn't extends much on that. I just don't understand the difference between that and collecting keys, in the historical context.
Objectives were varied. Sometimes you had to kill a specific character or destroy an item, sometimes you had to photograph or collect an object. They could (sometimes) be done out-of-order, were different on each level and each difficulty setting. this is quite different to Doom-style key collecting.
> Objectives were varied. Sometimes you had to kill a specific character or destroy an item, sometimes you had to photograph or collect an object. They could (sometimes) be done out-of-order, were different on each level and each difficulty setting. this is quite different to Doom-style key collecting.
So for you it's the diversity (unlike collecting stars in Mario64) and the ordering sequence (sometimes out of order, sometimes in order)?
Then I just don't see how it's different from room and keys: keys can be made in a way that a given key will be needed to open a given room that has the next key. But the rooms could also be be played out of order if this dependency isn't built in.
It actually started to look like real missions ala halo and cod, you had to go activate a computer, place a bomb on fuel tank, kill a specific person. A few missions can probably be topologically morphed into some doom level, but the difference is the missions looked more like an actual "spy mission," like you are actually James Bond, going on missions.
Today, yes it doesn't look like that because it's blocky 3d meshes compared to literally any game today that isn't "retro"-styled, but for the time it was amazing. I don't know if playing it today will be as amazing for you as it would be playing cod or half-life, but for the time it was amazing and influenced a lot that would follow. Also, it's still pretty damn hard even today if you're not a speedrunner[0].
[0] I tried a run through the 00-agent missions a few months ago and gave up, I sort of realized why 9 year old me never actually finished them and only finished it on the agent mode (easy).
I can’t provide concrete citations, but I was a child when GoldenEye 007 was in its heyday. At the time it was a very accessible way of playing a multiplayer first-person shooter. Instead of a bunch of networked PCs, you could play a 3D deathmatch with a $200 console, the game, and controllers. The game had its own quirks and nuances, like any game, so it had its own culture. Just today, Brianna Wu commented some nostalgia of the multiplayer. [1]
I think the next biggest step for the accessibility of multiplayer first-person shooters was Xbox Live, but I haven’t really researched or proven it.
Thinking about it a little more, I can imagine the brand of James Bond was more well-suited to a mass-market first person shooter in the English-speaking world as well.
If you’re a baby boomer in the 90s, the avant-grade, heavy-metal, DOOM is kind of foreign and part of the larger discussion on violent video games. 007 (published by the Mario company!) might be a little more nostalgic for you, and you might be more engaged with your millennial child’s interest in it.
AFAIK it's mostly remembered for being a 4-player FPS at a time when those were rare for consoles. It was an above average movie tie-in game, but famously doesn't hold up to the sleepover-tinted nostalgia. E.g. the 4-player mode runs at single digit frames per second and the controls are far from ideal for players used to modern dual analog stick controllers
The single player holds up, especially on max difficulty. It's like an arcade puzzle game. And the shooting mechanics (body/headshots + an explicit "aim mode") are really fun and feel great.
Surely. There's really a lot of missions - 20 of them. And they aren't quick either. Combined with the fact that you will lose a lot along the way in 00 Agent.
I should really pick it up again. I got stuck on Surface II. The never-ending barrage of soldiers coming at me combined with the giant map really ground me down.
I can try. I was obsessed with this game when it was new, but I was young (12 to 14 years old) and not nearly as analytical and experienced in software as I am now, so going back a lot with memory.
The world the game created felt so much more real than any other FPS at the time. The 3D graphics (true 3D was new at the time) were absolutely stunning. The N64 controls were also very novel and incredible, which added significantly to the feel. The trigger button, the rumble pack, the joystickj, etc were very new.
The different weapons available were varied by capabilities and limitations, and led to some fun and interesting scenarios and strategies. They had a perfect selection of weapons from pistols to assault rifles (I think that was the name), and the single player used the weapons perfectly in line with the scenarios, while the multiplayers sprinkled them in interesting combinations around the level for you to find.
The objectives were complex enough that they weren't a given and required some thought and strategy, particularly on 00 agent mode (the hardest mode). The whole game told a cohesive (and interesting) story, much like an interactive movie. The objectives also varied based on difficulty setting. Some were as simple as "walk into room X" and others were more complex like "Place a C4 charge on each terminal in the entire level."
The difficulty changes also extended gameplay and replayability by miles. A novice could easily beat some of the early levels on the easiest setting, so the game wasn't too hard to scare away new players, but the difficulty/complexity scaled up so that even expert players had a hard time beating the upper levels on hard setting.
Lastly the multiplayer was incredible and fairly novel. The N64 allowed 4 players and the levels were interesteing. Complex enough that it allowed for the development of solid strategy, but simple enough that you could pick it up fairly new and be able to get the hang of it.
Actually lastly, the game was one of the first FPS that was mainstream, so nearly everbyody knew somebody else who had the game or wanted to play. We would have Goldeneye Parties where we'd take turns on missions, or do multiplayer, etc. It was an absolute blast.
P.S. Now in my late 30s, my brother (who still has an N64) often brings Goldeneye to family reunions and we play and reminisce about the good old days. Definitely a very impactful game for us.
>The different weapons available were varied by capabilities and limitations, and led to some fun and interesting scenarios and strategies.
Right. Quake and unreal had different weapons which at least in multiplayer had different uses already (rail, lg, rox, etc) but the different types of weapons in goldeneye were "real" and not fantasy, and their abilities affected the actual missions, namely, automatics were powerful but loud and blew your cover, the silenced pp7 was good for quiet kills, but missing meant you only had 6 other shots to make with firing speed of a pistol. It wasn't quake dm where you just jumped in and killed people (or monsters for 1 player), you had objectives and needed strategy to beat a level.
It would presage the plethora of what you'd consider fpses in the 2000s and 2010s, and even today.
It was for many people the first good FPS shooter they ever played. It was the first major console FPS shooter, and I never played PC games at the time. It was fantastic for playing in groups so people have many fond memories of playing with friends, and it was all together in one room which made it even more engaging and memorable.
EDIT: Here[0]
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GoldenEye_007_(2010_video_game...