GAME CLEAR No. 118 -- GoldenEye 007

GoldenEye 007 (1997, N64)

Original Developer: Rareware
Original Publisher: Nintendo
Port Developer: Code Mystics
Port Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
Clear Platform: Xbox Series X
Clear Date: 2/3/23

Licence to Kill

GoldenEye 007 sits up there with Final Fantasy VII among the late-nineties blockbuster games I missed in my childhood. I played it for maybe a few minutes ever at a friend’s house as a child, but I have no nostalgia for it. No sleepovers playing countless hours of multiplayer, no weeks spent trying to beat the higher difficulties as a small child.

But now I’ve finally played it thanks to the re-release I always assumed would eventually arrive. We didn’t get the one we should have, but we got something.

An interesting thing about approaching this game for effectively the first time in 2023 is that has long been among the games frequently cited as not having aged well. I consider myself very, very jank tolerant in that regard, though, to the extent that I almost can’t empathize with people finding old game clunkiness to be too much to bear. Would GoldenEye finally be the exception, or is it fine just like every other allegedly poorly-aged game is?

I’ll spare you the suspense: it’s not just fine, it rocks! Encouraged to do so by the game’s achievements list, I completed this game 100% and had a blast doing it. It’s a super classic FPS. No cover or ADS or anything like that, just running around shooting people and doing your best not to get shot. On 00 Agent (the highest) difficulty, you’ve really got to be on top of your shit not to die, and that tension is thrilling.

The one downside to that is that it means it’s really not the stealth game that you might expect a spy game to be. In fact, the one or two stages that really encourage stealth are made somewhat annoying by the fact that the game wasn’t really designed for it. But if you’re willing to accept that it’s just a shooter, you’ll have fun.

Now, I will concede that the Xbox version’s dual-analog controls, (slightly) improved performance, and my general enjoyment of the James Bond franchise certainly make it easier to overlook some of the game’s blemishes. But overall, I file this game among the many I’ve played that supposedly haven’t aged well that I liked just fine. I may never be able to experience the local multiplayer as so many did in the 90s when it was a console novelty, but I still had a pretty fun single-player experience.

Having said that, I’m still looking forward to IO Interactive’s Project 007. It’s been ages since Bond was really relevant in the video game space, and if anyone can do the franchise right, I imagine it’s them.