GoldenEye: Rogue Agent

"You are Bond, James bon.... hey wait a second!"

Intro

GoldenEye: Rouge Agent, is in no way a sequel to one of the greatest FPS's of all time. You do not play as James Bond, you play as some lame guy that could not make it as an MI6 agent so he joins the bad guys. This is not your typical 007 game, it is not good VS. evil, it is bad VS. bad. You may think that sounds cool, being able to see how the other side works, but it's not near as cool as it sounds. The only reason the title has GoldenEye even in it is due to the fact that your eye is replaced with a golden eye with boring as hell powers. Yeah, your eye has powers, it can even throw enemies.

Story 4/10

Possibly the worst plot for a James Bond movie or game ever, it is a war between the two villains Dr. No and Auric Goldfinger. You will meet classic 007 characters like Odd Job(the man who throws his razor rimmed hat), but this will not add to game much if any. As the game begins you are stopping Goldfinger from a plot to destroy gold only to find out you are in a simulation at MI6, M kicks you out because you let Bond die. You proceed to help Goldfinger fight the war versus Dr. No.

Game Play 6/10

The game play would not be so bad if it were not for the clunky controls and the annoying feel that you are not even firing a gun. This game is basically a “rush in shoot'em up kind of game.” You can grab people and use them as human shields, which is one of the only ways to survive after you run out of armor. When kill an enemy it feels like you did not even shoot them, they stumble over from what looks like their allies got pissed off at being in the game and pushed them. And the guns themselves look like they were made just to look cool without the idea of actually firing them in mind, or even making them feel like you are firing them.

The rag doll physics in this game are pathetic, and again when they fall it looks like the bullets are made of Styrofoam and the enemies are made of wet cardboard. You can bash enemies to get the same effect on every single one, they stumble around in place looking as if they had to much to drink, you can grab them then use their un life like bodies to absorb a large amount of bullets. You can also press A to throw them at other enemies, this looks very stupid because they all fly forwards in the same way and “GoldenEye” must of quite a bit of strength to throw them with one hand like he does.

You can dual wield weapons but it is more effective to bash them and hold them hostage until they drop dead, grab another wash, rinse, repeat. The enemies are controlled by the new E.V.I.L. AI. It means that enemies will now duck and cover, hold their own hostages and pick up new weapons and such. This is no different from most of the new FPS games AI.

But now let's get to this so called “Goldeneye.” The powers this thing has are so ridiculous you want to cut your own eye out just to not see them. You can see thorough walls which is acceptable, but being able to throw people? Making a shield around you? Does that not sound a bit impossible for a eye, even a golden one, to do?

Controls 4/10

The controls in this game are very annoying and clunky, it's like trying to play Halo 2 with the sensitivity set to 1. It does have many control schemes so people that do not like the default one can always change, but this does not help the fact that you can hardly control your aim in the first place. You use the right trigger to fire your right weapon the left trigger for you left weapon, it seems cool at first but still does not help the awkward control at all.

Graphics 8/10

The graphics are pretty good, but I did notice one thing while playing this game. Blood. It is rated Teen so I'm sure the people that buy it or not going to mind some blood even if it does not puddle on the ground, you don't even see it when you shoot them. But when you do shoot them you see what looks like blue lights go flying off, when did we start fighting robots? They are not bad but nothing special.

Sound 6/10

The sound is not to bad, but all that you ever here is some jingle in the background and gun shots and an explosion now and then. But when you shoot the sound just sounds off, like you are not even shooting but your gun makes sound that surprisingly makes enemies fall over. Voices are ok, I think they could have done better though.

Multi player 5/10

James Bond games multiplayer has been going down hill since Goldeneye 64. You shoot, they shoot, you die. It's just nothing that will hook you. It does have Xbox live support but given the chance, you are most likely going to stick a better FPS in the drive and fire up live.

Overall 4/10

Someone needs to tell EA that pumping out Bond game after Bond game is not going to get them anywhere, I really wanted this game to be good, but EA let me down again.

Buy, Rent, or Stay away at all costs?

If you are a HUGE bond fan, loved all the other James Bond game that EA has made then pick it up at your own risk. But otherwise I recommend that for any reason you think of buying this game smack yourself and look at a few of the better FPS titles that came out in '04.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 02/01/05