New improved GoldenEye 007

At Access PlayStation last week, KitGuru had an opportunity to play Golden Eye: Reloaded. My, did we feel nostalgic. Reloaded is a high-definition port of a Wii reimagining of a Nintendo 64 game. And it’s true to its roots.Original GoldenEye was a much celebrated, universally appealing, endearingly simple first-person shooter. It was based on what’s considered to be one of the best films of the franchise.  The amazing thing is, if you ever experienced any of the game’s reincarnations, you will instantly feel warm and fuzzy while playing Reloaded.Instead of Pierce Brosnan, who we have seen on our screens in 1997, Bond is portrayed by rugged, and sometimes downright scary Daniel Craig. Dame Judi Dench voices M, which I find admirable, since the lady is 76, and we are talking about computer games. Story-wise, the game takes place after the events of Quantum of Solace. With no new Bond films scheduled for release due to financial troubles of MGM Studios, this could be your only fix of 007 action for a while.The single-player campaign is visually underwhelming and  barely challenging. James cruises through exotic locations, blowing up laboratories and taking pictures of secret stuff. Once in a while, the proceedings are interrupted by epic cut scenes, when things explode even more than usual. The dialogue is composed out of film quotes and clichés, but Hollywood actor delivery carries it through well. David Arnold, composer of every Bond film score since Tomorrow Never Dies, has worked on the game with fantastic results. It sounds like a genuine Bond experience.There are some modern elements added to combat, such as vaulting over obstacles or silent takedowns. But in its basic form, GoldenEye is about getting an enemy in your weapon’s sights. No wonder the Play Station 3 version of the game will be compatible with Move controllers.The real beauty of GoldenEye on Nintendo 64 was in its relentless 4-player split-screen multiplayer. And this is where the remake doesn’t disappoint. The split-screen games are fast and fun. By today’s standards, the maps are incredibly small. That means you will never have trouble finding your opponent. It’s easy to pick up and play, and a lot of people turned off by the complexity of modern first-person shooters will find Reloaded appealing.In addition to all the content of the Wii version, Reloaded will feature Mi6 Ops – an additional pack of assignments, designed to test your ability as a secret agent. The mission objectives are a little bit more obscure here: defending from never-ending waves of enemies, or making it from point A to point B without dying are just some of the new modes introduced to the game.The alarming thing is, GoldenEye looks like it’s a long way from being finished. While playing the demo, we saw mangled pieces of Daniel Craig sticking out of the environment all over the place. Our mission screen was displaying “objective parse error” and several lines of code. The balance seemed to be too much in our favour, even for GoldenEye, and the opponents were downright retarded.  Can Eurocom fix all the bugs before the game is released on November 1 in the US and November 4 in Europe?GoldenEye will make fans of the original happy. Casual gamers should enjoy it too. But unless the developers manage to polish the game to perfection in the space of a month, the more serious player will not spend their money on Reloaded. Nostalgia shouldn’t be this expensive.