“Friday Old Games” is a series of articles in which we review a game from the older generations of consoles, share why we picked it, and whether or not it holds up with time.

Due to overwhelming demand, a federal court order, and a purple nurple, I have been forced to go back and examine one of the crown jewels of gaming’s yesteryear, Goldeneye.

Before frat boys were learning the intricacies of system linking their Xboxes and Pierce Brosnan was the hot new Bond, Goldeneye for the Nintendo 64 set the world on fire (in a good way). Millions of gamers discovered the joy of shooting their friends in the face.

For many years, this was the gold standard for console first person shooters. To this day whenever people talk about it, they do so in hushed reverent tones. For many people, this was their first experience with a real FPS. I spent many a night trying to beat all the time challenges in single player, and many more nights were spent shooting my friends in multiplayer. I can still remember which character all my friends played with as my Boris rained death upon them.

There were a host of weapons that were unique and fun to play with. Ask an old school Goldeneyer about the RCP-90 and they will either smile nostalgically (thinking of all the times they shot their buddies with it) or punch the nearest wall (thinking of all the times their buddies shot them with it). Weapons like the Golden Gun and proximity mines are still indelibly etched into my subconscious. You can even place the proximity mine on the toilet for maximum comedic effect when you spawn in the vent.

The single player campaign had a host of challenges to complete as well as the ultra tough 00 agent difficulty. The gameplay was revolutionary. This was a shooter where shooting people wasn’t always the best course of action. Guards could be alerted to your presence and would sound alarms. Doesn’t sound like a big deal now, but at the time this was crazy. Most other FPS games consisted of “shoot everything, find blue keycard”.

The problem when you try to go back and play Goldeneye now is that modern games have moved on from Goldeneye’s particular brand of deathmatchery. A typical Goldeneye match would be a contest to get the body armor and the RCP-90 or some horrifically mean combination of the 2. Things like balanced weapon sets were unheard of back then. A halfway decent player with an RCP-90 will smoke a good player with a regular weapon.

Why did I pick this game?

In high school, Goldeneye was the game all of my friends, enemies, and acquaintances played. My entire basketball team would come over to my house for pizza, cookies, and shots to the face. I probably logged more hours into Goldeneye than any other game. I averaged at least a couple hours a day for at least a year and a half. No other game was able to get its hooks into me the way Goldeneye did.

Does it hold up with time?

Unfortunately, the game doesn’t really stand the test of time. While shooting your friends will always have some inherent allure, the genre has moved on. The crazy aim assist feels jarring, and the N64 controller really could have used a second analog stick. The N64 textures have always appeared as though you are looking at them through a thick Vaseline fog. These faults could be forgiven, but the core multiplayer strategy of racing from the overpowered weapon to the body armor seems completely ridiculous now.

The single player campaign that used to feel so revolutionary feels almost comical now. Part of the reason for this is what I call the rail glitch. Enemies cannot shoot you if there is a rail in the way. You can walk right up to a guard and if there is an inch of rail in between you he can’t shoot you. Now when I play, I realize I just spend my time running from rail to rail laughing at my invincibility.

Goldeneye held a magical place in my heart and it is tough for me to admit, but the FPS genre has moved on.

Tags: First Person Shooter, Friday Old Games, Goldeneye, licensed games, N64

This entry was posted on Friday, December 11th, 2009 at 5:00 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.