GoldenEye: Rogue Agent

"For FPS on the DS, stick to the Metroid Prime Hunters Demo for now"

Interesting fact about Goldeneye DS (more commonly called Goldeneye Rogue Agent now): it was listed as a 2004 release title early on in the DS's life, along side the various console ports under the Goldeneye banner (and same final name). For whatever reason, the game was delayed, and the console variants recieved mediocre reviews from the media.

Many speculated about the DS version's delay; could they be working to port the ol' N64 version, delaying so that EA could secure the rights to the game? Or were they tweaking it?

Whatever the real reason for the delay was, it would have been nice had they fixed several of the game's quirks.

First, let me make one thing quite clear: Goldeneye Rogue Agent DS is NOT remotely like the N64 game Goldeneye, related only by being associated with the Bond series and several characters. That's it.

Graphically, the game is impressive, notably smoother and more detailed than the still-amazing Metroid Prime Hunters Demo that came with the DS unit. The backgrounds are amazingly 3D, the framerate is smooth, the guns look like guns, and you can see the bullet shots on the wall as they rebound.

The highlights being revealed, let's talk bad news. For starters, if an enemy is more than seven feet away from you, the only way to shoot them is if you stand still and use a gun with sights, allowing any nearby foes to chop you to bits. Also, when you use the special item to see foes through walls, the foe will vanish randomly; this can be very nasty when you can die from one hit when you have only one life to complete the mission.

One annoying problem that does relate to the graphics is the nasty fact that your target cursor seems to NEVER target the foe unless you are at point-blank range; I could shoot my standard piece within three feet of my foe, aimed right at his HEAD, fire a whole clip, reload, THEN kill him only after I reload and nail him in the head. At first I thought he just had too much HP. Then the Bullzeye one-hit kill symbol appeared. I then grabbed a rocket launcher and killed myself trying to hit a foe when the rocket hit THE INVISIBLE WALL WHERE GLASS USED TO BE. NOT my day, it was not.

To be fair, the level designs are fairly nice, and would have been better if the controls were not so wierd. The touch screen controls were NOT my favorite in Metroid Prime Hunters Demo, and the same applies here. After a few minutes, I switched to the "dual analog" variant that suited me, and lo and behold, I found myself slowing down when running because I was right against the wall. Someone care to explain to me why I was suffering from that? Here's a theory: sloppy programming.

At least there are a variety of missions and levels, thanks to a "virtual training" mode in the campaign scenario, though some of the missions are so insane because of the timer, it is NOT funny. Never mind the cheapness of it.

Speaking of cheapness, the whole weapon system needs a SERIOUS revamp. While it is nice to scroll through weapons via tapping two sections of the touch screen to rotate weapons, what is NOT nice is the fact that you can only carry whatever grenades you have, the standard gun, and one big or two one-handed guns with you. This becomes VERY annoying after a few times, and I found myself wishing for the massive collection of weapons one could grab in older Bond games. On the up-side, you can fire both weapons simultaniously if you have two equipt at the same time.

Other uses for touch screen include a decoding system (basically a game of Simon; not really hard, and yet not really fun), controlling your character if you choose that option, and activating special items, such as the Goldeneye enhancment and a special shield item, among others.

Unfortunately, the game is quite a challenge due to its many faults even on Easy, never mind higher settings. Multiplayer options do allow for a single player to go up against foes, but unlike the marvelous space shooting games in Star Wars Eps. III DS, Goldeneye RA basically sports unlocked levels against foes that seem to be randomly strown out and seek cheap ways to cap you off.

I have not found another being with a DS to try other games, nevermind finding another human who has this game. And unless another version is released with Wi-Fi support, I doubt I'll even think about multiplayer with this game.

Final Word: It has too many flaws to keep it down; Wait for Metroid Prime Hunters in October for your FPS needs. EA needs to go back to school here.

Score: 5 of 10

* Best Feature: Great graphics, support for the "dual analog" control
* Worst Feature: Horrid AI, bad weapons system, annoying multiplayer for Single Player
* If You Liked: Metroid Prime Hunter Demo, Coded Arms (PSP), Doom (GBA)
* Guilty Pleasure: The sigh of relief when the game can be played as you did in the demo Metroid game for the DS. Thank the Elements for THAT blessing...

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 06/27/05, Updated 11/20/07

Game Release: GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (US, 06/13/05)