Cover via Wikipedia
In case you didn’t already know, this is the second time I’m writing this review. I previously completed this review a while ago on my school laptop, which then decided to die on me (most likely due to the pure awesomeness of the review).
Goldeneye Wii would easily be the game I’ve spent the most time playing on Wii for a long time. It was kind of an impulse buy by me, due to my lack of FPS experience and generally avoiding the genre (due to pure ignorance I’d say), but the game came with a golden classic controller pro, so I got it. I haven’t played the original on the N64 (due to me not having an N64 at all), and my only experience of it being on a PC emulator, and it was impossible to aim using the mouse keys, so I pretty much cheated my way through that (due to being impossible to aim, don’t judge me -.-).
Single Player
Quite obviously this game is based off the N64 game which is, in turn, based off the movie. However, this isn’t a remake, like Ocarnia of Time on the 3DS, it’s a re-imagining of the movie. Same basic plot, but the characters have new looks and voice actors (Pierce Brosnan has been booted out for Daniel Craig). On the Daniel Criag note, the game feels a lot more like his style. The melee moves have kick and it’s less gadget-intensive than other Bond games/movies. Your only piece of technology is a smartphone which is used to hack doors, mounted guns and take pictures of things. General spy things like that.
The game starts off (after the tutorial) in the ever-familiar Dam level, with the also ever-familiar flyover of the Guard tower and the bridge. You start off with Trevelyan and fight along his side for most of the first two levels. This level first introduces you to sniping in the game, which is a breeze. The scope doesn’t sway. Ever. However, throughout the campaign you’ll rarely find a sniper rifle with a decent amount of ammo.
The game offers you two different ways to play. The first is to run around spraying ammo everywhere, with no clue about stealth. The game fights back by sending more enemy reinforcements if you fire an unsuppressed weapon or be seen (or do something stupid, like blowing something up). Sometimes there’s nothing else you can do throughout the level (like the Barcelona level) as there’s no space for stealth. The other option is to be stealthy, crawling your way through the area snapping necks and picking off the weak (like a guard trying to get a drink out of a broken drink machine). This method is my personal favourite, but I you get caught while doing it you’ll just have to fire from the hip to survive. The tank level is back, and better than ever. It’s never looked so good rampaging along the streets of St. Petersburg.
The story takes you to all new locations, like Spain and Africa in order to stop your “friend” from hitting London with an EMP fired from a satellite . You’ll face Onatopp and Trevelyan in in-game cinematics, having to use on-screen prompts to fight and defend. It really involves you in the fights.
The game also has the rare but still brilliant throwbacks to the original (like the guard tower and the bridge, and the poor Russian taking a dump).
Overall, the campaign is decent. It doesn’t live up to the brilliance of what the original was. The original was, in fact original. The Wii-make doesn’t feel original. Besides the stealth, the game plays a lot like Call of Duty. From the crosshairs that tighten or loosen depending on your movement to the slow-motion breaches to even that little cross that comes up when you injure someone in Multiplayer.
Graphics wise, the game is uninspiring. Looking out a window in Archives reveals bland buildings. While some levels do look great, like Outpost and parts of Jungle, it won’t impress all of the time. The music is great- the typical James-Bond type music. When you’re found by an enemy, the music freezes. If they aren’t killed in a set amount of type (depends on the difficulty), the music changes to more upbeat music and reinforcements are sent in.
However, it’s still the best FPS game on the Wii (depends on how Conduit 2 is).
Multiplayer
Probably the biggest triumph of this game would be it’s multiplayer. Split screen multiplayer on Goldeneye on N64 was great, and it is too on this game. There’s a set of preset loadouts (primary weapon, pistol and 3 gadgets), and you get to choose your character (Oddjob would be my favourite due to being able to throw his hat instead of grenades). The game modes and modifiers are as crazy as ever (Headshots only, melee only, midget characters, paintball and DK mode), just like the original.
The online multiplayer of this game is its crowning glory. With 56 levels and hours of gameplay, it really is immense.
I’ll go into detail about all of the guns, game modes and maps later on, for now the review.
Some points about the game compared to Call of Duty
- Only mild camping. Game modes like heroes really encourage it and some maps are horrible camping wise (yuck, docks). Even if people do camp (which is only lower levels mainly) their weapons are unsilenced and they’re easy to find and kill. The silencer is unlocked at level 20 so there are not many silenced campers around.
- Noob tubers. The grenade launcher as an add-on to Assault Rifles is unlocked at level 56 (or thereabouts), however there is a custom loadout with a noob tube attached, however the only way to get more ammo for it is to die or walk over someone else who is also using that same gun (or hack). So if there’s a whole bunch of people noob tubing in a match they egg each other on and give each other ammo, but if there’s only one or two people doing it in a match it isn’t too bad (but still mildly annoying). Unfortunately the grenades fired from a noob tube explode instantly, no matter the distance. So shooting the ground is just as effective as shooting from a distance (besides you suiciding on it), unlike Call of Duty where it has to travel a certain distance before exploding on impact.
- Hackers. I’ve only come across a few hackers in my time playing. You’ll have the people using infinite ammo for guns, noob tubes and proximity mines which take a while to notice that something’s up, which is only mildly annoying. Then you’ll have the blatant cheaters turning any gun into a machine gun (noob tube, pistols, sniper rifles etc). You’ll want to quit if they join your game and it will be really easy to spot. Then you have the host hackers in which everyone gets the effects of the hack. This can be pretty fun sometimes because hackers don’t have an advantage over you.
- Weapon balance. I’d ay this is the biggest problem in the game. While the default loadouts are actually really good, the top tier guns will whoop your arse. If you’ve played against a max level you would know they’re really annoying. The equivalent of the AA12 in Goldeneye (all the guns have different names in this game to their real names) has a massive damage and range increase, with the added expense of a horribly small amount of ammunition and lots of recoil, they’re still annoying as HELL. Another problem is proximity mines. Think claymores, but can be stuck to surfaces, harder to see and impossible to know whose mines belong to whichever side. The mines are an instant kill unless you combine Bio Booster and Reactive Armour (which is a stupid idea unless you’re sniping or sometimes rocking a shotgun). They also get 3 mines per life. And because the game puts you into teams depending on level and if you’re friends with other people, playing a game with 4 members of the [SD] clan (for example) and are all max level who are all rocking auto shotties and throwing proxy mines like those little girls at weddings throw flowers down the aisle, its really annoying and very rage-inducing (because the game decides to give you a bunch of level 10s on your team, you’re going to lose very badly.
- Lag. Many game developers have come to believe that the Wii cannot handle online play. They’re wrong. The multiplayer on Goldeneye runs very smoothly (depends on your connection). My connection now is extremely fast and I only get the slightest bit of lag. The lag does take a bit to get used to, and you’ll find many of your shots take a split second to register, which results in you dying whilst behind cover, for example, as the last few shots just register. Many times you’ll make an extremely close call, and sigh when you’ve made it out of their line of fire and get just through a door as the hit register and you end up dead. Many times you’ll find people running at each other, shooting and both dying due to the lag. You do get used to it eventually, and I find my results are always slightly better when hosting and there is zero lag.
There’s 56 levels in the multiplayer and after level 20 or so you’ll find it takes a lot more experience to level up. The game is pretty stingy handing out xp to you, with 5 xp for a kill and 10 xp for a headshot. You don’t get any for an assist (after you’ve finished the proficiency in tag team, which takes about 35 kills before it’s complete) and only minimal for streaks, blocking streaks and dominating people. The game has a series of proficiencies with a number of levels with xp awarded at the end of each level. You get the easy ones like killing people with grenades and melee attack, killing higher levels and headshots. There are harder ones like shooting a deployed mine to kill an enemy and killing an enemy while under the effects of a flashbang. There’s also proficiencies for weapons.
The general nature of the online multiplayer makes it very addicting. I haven’t bought another Wii game in months because of it.
My Rating
Music: 9.5
Gameplay: 10
Creativity: 8.5
Graphics: 8.5
Other: 10
Total: 46.5/50
Wait, What? 