THE GOOD:Great weapon variety, a fantastic setting, impressive AI features, beautiful cinema sequences, challenging difficulty, varied character design, original eye powers, and a cool codename ("GoldenEye")
THE BAD:
AI could use improvement, headshots are too easy, the way the story progresses doesn't make sense in some parts, repetitive gameplay
SUMMARY:
While not the ground-breaking game that the original GoldenEye 007 was, GoldenEye: Rogue Agent offers some solid FPS action with a unique twist. I have a soft spot in my heart for this game for reasons that I can't fully understand and feel to this day that it is underrated. But since it seems to be more noted for it's faults than it's good points, I'll begin there: with it's faults.
First off, the gameplay is repetitive to the point of being tedious. Virtually every stage of a mission simply has you entering a room, killing every enemy in the room, then entering the next room and repeating. There are only a few types of enemies, and there is almost always only one way to go, so this can get old very fast. The AI will rarely actively hunt you down, and as your health regenerates fully, you can just hide behind a crate and snipe at your enemies until they're dead. Next, the way the game's plot progresses simply doesn't make sense in certain parts. While I won't reveal any particular details, in one instance a character who was working with you just up and attacks you without any explanation whatsoever. In another instance you are in a gunfight with a character and as soon as you shoot her enough times a cinema sequence depicting her falling off a cliff takes place. As a whole, the game's plot is sub par even when it does make sense. You never get a true sense of being evil, as you are only ever fighting other evildoers.
But the game's flaws aside, the game does get it right in several places. One such area is in the character design. Though you only fight a few types of enemies in terms of their abilities, there are many different styles of character design that leave you feeling almost like you're fighting entirely new enemies just because of their unique designs. Another is the game's weapon variety, which ranges from stun guns, to weapons that fire remotely detonated mines. In combat, you'll also hear enemy's frequently shout things like "he's got an assault rifle" or "flush him out" which make your AI foes seem very much like living, breathing people. Some of the more powerful enemies actually have names that are displayed on screen, which also helps them come to life. A bit of originality is also added to the game in the form of your eye powers, which vary from a shield to the ability to fling enemies at one another. It's also worth noting that the game's cinema sequences look and sound spectacular, though the game's graphics as a whole are merely adequate. Finally, the game's multiplayer mode as a whole is good overall, though the levels could have been a little larger and you have to play through single player mode multiple times to unlock all of its content.
Personally, I think this game was rushed, but while I know it could have been much better, I feel that people are too hard on it. If you're looking for the latest in first-person shooter innovation, this game will not appeal to you, but if you're in the market for a solid, old-school style FPS with a slight twist then look no further than GoldenEye: Rogue Agent.
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