With Goldeneye 64, Rare's innovative take is to create a stealth based, spy thriller, first person shooter. Like Star Wars: Dark Forces we see a popular movie franchise coming to the FPS genre. While Dark Forces heavily took the id pallet, Rare would not have that luxury as Bond couldn't Turok his way through as a stealthy spy on his way to sabotage the enemy. Goldeneye 64 drastically plays different than any other shooter on this list. I was blown away with how much different it felt and plays. Creating that spy experience in first person is so fun and exciting after countless games of a super charged action hero wading in blood. So many first that I just haven't seen in games in this blog until now. This incredible like sneaking up behind an enemy to chop them in the back of the neck with your hand and have them fall out. Or sniping an enemy a far with a silenced sniper rifle. Destroying alarms to stop enemy reinforcements or using a silenced pistol to not alert more enemy's is a completely new dynamic for the genre and would go on the inspire entire sub genres of the FPS perspective that we take for granted today. In 1997 and in the context of this blog I would have been floored at doing these things. I think experience would have startled me second only to Quake in terms of shock value and being something new.
Having the Star Wars property in Dark Forces is what I feel like helped make that game special. Seeing Rare try to catch the magic of James Bond in Goldeneye 64 is impressive. The games' drastic and unique design choices all lend themselves to the Bond illusion. This blows me away as no game has really made me feel like an actual big screen character. Duke being a parody doesn't have the authentic and smooth feel of being Bond. The game plays more like an arcade on rails linear shooter than it does a typical FPS game I've grown accustomed to on this list. Bond can walk freely in 3D space. These environments as mentioned earlier are beautifully rendered and immersive but because of the realistic approach don't always lend themselves to pleasant environmental navigation. Boxes and objects meant to be cover to duck under similar to on rails shooters cover system can often be ran into or backed into without the player meaning to. Its a farcry from the excellent movement and flow allowed by the level design in Quake or Blood. The games shooting is the most fun when your standing or ducking and free moving the aim of your weapon. Enemies fly back in super realistic motion captured animations, computers and objects explode with fragments flying everywhere. Its a jaw dropping action movie like experience. However when moving faster to cover or strafing around several enemies the auto aim is only serviceable and much the experience is flattened. This is how most of the game feels with those better parts just mentioned being drip fed through certain choke points and enemy encounter areas. This would really bum me out as its the weakest playing part of the game but what winds up happening is the stealth moments and kills become entertaining and fun to pull off. Sneaking up with a silence pistol or a melee attack is new and awesome for a game on this list. Sniping over large areas has a bad ass feel in it no game has made yet. Goldeneye reminds me of DOOM II where all these ideas are new and awesome but very rough around the edges as environmental movement and encounters rough around the edges. Bond's villains all lend themselves to their arcade inspirations providing cheap cannon fodder and little variation. This also means there's little weapon variation. Often your start weapon is different depending on the level. A silenced pistol, smg or sniper and the enemy weapon pick up is always the same AK. These weapons all animate but after just finishing Blood which came out right before Goldeneye I miss a tactical and varied arsenal. Goldeneyes stealth focused limited weaponry and enemy types feels simplified and dumbed down in comparison.
Keeping inline with its immersive James Bond experience Goldeneye has a much slower pace than any other shooter on this list. The walk speed and level design along with a regenerating health system similar to again arcade shooters lends itself to a slower more "cinematic" experience. This would have been really incredible in 1997 and the true accomplishment of what makes this game remarkable in my opinion. The slower pace ties in well to the linear gunplay sections that are meant for more spectacle than testing your battle dance skills. Using the super impressive graphics Bond encounters friendly non playable characters and even in some moments has them follow him in escape. Its these moments that show us just what else FPS games can be beyond the id Software DNA embedded in every game of the genre until now. As impressive as it is how much of a badass spy you feel shooting through Goldeneye that doesn't mean that these new ideas are better ideas. Its not in my top five playing games on this list despite its innovations and there range of successful implementation in gameplay. The shooting is very repetitive and outright boring compared to Quake or Blood. Even games like Redneck Rampage are better shooters because of the movement in levels and the shooting mechanics in my opinion are just way more interesting and rewarding. The hyper real levels look cool and are real immersive until you can't move in them like you'd want even if it would be less realistic. The game does a lot to lay the foundations of many elements in FPS games we enjoy today. The stealth focused shooter now exist in this point in the blog and its and interesting sub genre to see emerge despite being very immature in Goldeneye. The techno/band spy thriller soundtrack is a great way to make the game feel like a Bond game. One thing I do considering Goldeye better at than most games on this blog is the sound track. Easily one of my favorites.Rare's innovative immersive touches go onto the menu system Bond pulls up on his watch, the cool gadgets and tools to accomplish multiple objectives in a given level. Early on you get to take control of a tank and that linear design and mass destruction is a great way to change the pacing in level design. I love being able to know where these fans are coming from by playing this blog. Rare has a cult following and after playing Goldeneye 64 I can understand why. They pulled off an innovative and fresh FPS experience.that did better than any game before it at bringing a movie over to the new medium. The game is visual stunner with great art direction. I'm real glad it was on my list for this blog as it's been great and is great to take a break from some of the more tested and popular shooting conventions. However Goldeneye 64 failed to ever really let me fall in love with it. In the context of this blog and 1997 I think I would have been wow'ed and think its a good game as I do now. But It doesn't hold a candle to Blood or Quake in my opinion and I'd personally rather play Turok if we are talking N64 games. I think Goldeneye 64 is an important proof of concept for many good ideas while falling short of the better FPS experiences 1997 and years prior have to offer.
