Nobody Does it Better

I know, I know. Games have moved on. It’s been about 25 years since Goldeneye came out on the N64; that’s 25 years of progress, 25 years of modern standards and 25 years of accumulative wisdom on how best to make first person shooters for consoles.

But…

This might be just me, but nothing since Goldeneye (apart from Perfect Dark) has really come close to that feeling the game has. It’s a tightly constructed shooter, but it also has this open-ness and freedom to it; the extra objectives that flesh out the harder difficulties mean you really have to learn the levels like the back of your hand to finish them quick enough to unlock DK mode.

Aaaah, DK mode. Is there a better sight than a giant headed Sean Bean saying his famous line, “For England James?” before biting it at the tip of his giant satellite?

Goldeneye is a perfect example of how limitations and creativity can bottle lightning together.

Those endless couch multiplayer sessions you had with your pals? They almost never happened because the whole multiplayer mode was a last minute addition to the game. I can imagine the game was nigh-on unplayable until its auto-aim system was devised; a shooting game that does just enough work for you to make the game fun, but also relies on that special bit of N64 pad skill to come out on top.

I’ve still never enjoyed a first person shooter as much as Goldeneye (apart from Perfect Dark) and I doubt I will anytime soon. Maybe if whoever owns the rights nowadays finally pulls the finger out and does something Timespiltters related, but we could be waiting a while…