hen Nintendo released the original Goldeneye title for the N64 years ago, it was immediately embraced by gamers and praised for its innovative gameplay and extremely addictive multiplayer action. But, after the immense success of the game, the world of Bond became overrun with some questionable titles and ever more questionable gameplay. Lately, however, it seems that EA is determined to bring the Bond franchise back into the limelight that it once possessed. This process began with the recent release of James Bond 007: Everything Or Nothing, a game praised for its high production values and solid third person action. But, even with that game proving to be a success, EA wasn’t satisfied. When they recently announced Goldeneye: Rogue Agent, the world was literally stunned. Well, today I finally got a chance to sit down with the game for some serious hands-on time. While the special demo of the game that EA was showing off behind closed doors. And, to make the deal even better, they were giving away free T-shirts to those skilled press members who could manage to make their way through the entire demo.

For those of you unfamiliar with the story of Goldeneye: Rogue Agent, it follows the exploits of an ex-MI6 British agent, expelled from the ranks of the prestigious special forces for being a bit too brutish. Actually, he’s been a down right bastard and has broken nearly every single rule in the book. Fed up with his shenanigans, MI6 sends him packing. So, what’s an ex-special agent to do now that’s he’s grown too difficult to control? Well, if you’re the hero of the game you sell your skills to the highest bidder, regardless of who’s paying your bills. In the case of the main character, that benefactor comes in the form of legendary bad guy Aurich Goldfinger. It seems that Mr. Goldfinger has been embroiled in a war with the equally as nefarious Dr. Julius No for ultimate terrorist and general bad guy supremacy over the world. Oh, did we also mention that your character has a personal vendetta against Dr. No? Awhile back, it seems that he fell into the clutches of the evil mastermind, and in the process, lost an eye. To make up for his lack of ocular fortitude, he’s been outfitted with a special cybernetic eye, which just happens to be made out of gold (hence the title). This snazzy new eye is more than just simple bling, as it’s outfitted with special technological powers, such as being able to aid in targeting enemies and gaining a better and more detailed view of whatever environment you may be in. Unfortunately, our demo in the game didn’t show off any of the cool cyber-eye functionality. But, what it did feature was action and plenty of it. Oh, and we can’t forget that it also had perhaps the most wicked and clever enemy AI I’ve ever seen in a video game.

The demo build of Goldeneye: Rogue Agent opens with your character crashing a helicopter into a mysterious facility. As it usually goes, the facility is crawling with all sorts of enemies, hell-bent on filling you full of lead. As far as storyline goes, we didn’t get to see any of the game’s plotline. But, we did manage to get the hint that the game is all about action. Immediately after crashing the party at the facility, you’re thrust into some extremely intense firefights. Thankfully, the game’s controls make for some pretty good gameplay and I found getting around and fighting with enemies to be extremely responsive and easy to use. Keeping in stride with standard FPS controls, movement and aiming are mapped to the right and left analog sticks, respectively. The L1 trigger is used to fire weapons that you may be holding in your left hand, while the R1 button will fire weapons held in your right hand. That’s right, you can duel wield weapons. In fact, you can pretty much dual wield any combination of weapons that you come across lying about or those that are dropped by enemies, unless they are two handed weapons like the assault rifle. When you first start the game, you’re outfitted with a simple pistol and a handful of grenades (which prove to be the most valuable of all the weapons, at least in the demo). As you defeat enemies, they’ll drop their armaments, which ranged from things like machine guns and powerful assault rifles. The dual weapon wielding definitely gives the game a “bad ass” kind of feeling and running into a room chock full of enemies, guns blazing, was an exhilarating feeling.

But, considering the fact that you can literally arm yourself to the teeth with some of the world’s most imposing weapons, you’ll also need to realize that those weapons are useless unless you can actually put them to good use. This little fact becomes crystal clear the moment you take part in your first fight. Enemy AI is extremely clever and intelligent. I know that you’ve probably heard that before from a wide number of games out there, but Goldeneye: Rogue Agent takes that idea to an entirely new level. Enemy AI rears its cunning head in two ways; character behavior and character movement. Essentially, enemies think and act like real people. When they bust into a room and catch sight of you, they’re not going to simply stand where they stopped and pump round after round in your general direction, hoping to score a lucky hit. They’ll carefully assess their situation and environment and use that knowledge in an attempt to outmaneuver you. For example, say you’re spotted by a squad of enemies camped out by some large stone pillars in a grand ballroom-like area. Once you’ve been spotted, the soldiers will take immediate cover behind anything that they can, whether it be some flaming rubble they’re standing by, some store crates sitting nearby, or the large stone pillars that they were originally standing around. Once they’ve taken cover, they’ll then begin to try and maneuver closer to your position, providing covering fire the entire way.

I’m sure you’ve seen this kind of enemy behavior in a game before; it’s nothing that’s really new and revolutionary. But, what is different is the evolution and degree to which that AI continues to operate under. For example, with the enemies bunkered down behind those stone pillars, I thought that maybe I could sneak around some obstacles and get the jump on them from behind. Slowly moving around the room, I try my best not to be seen or detected. But, the moment I get to the pillar that I’ve been heading towards, I suddenly realize that the enemies are no longer there. Since I stopped firing from my original position, the enemies have moved out from their hiding place and have picked up on the fact that I’ve been trying to outsmart them. Unfortunately, this realization usually comes too late, as they’ll usually pop up directly behind you, effectively turning your “smart” move into a very, very bad one.

So, with the enemy AI tuned as highly as it is, no fight or engagement is ever a cut and dry affair. Gamers out there looking for a run and gun title that allows you to quickly mow your way through hordes of mindless grunts are going to be running head-long into death, repeatedly. But, for those gamers out there looking for a game that not only test your trigger finger but also your brain, Goldeneye: Rogue Agent is going to be right up their alley.

Visually, the game is looking pretty good, considering the fact that the title is still pretty early in its developmental life-cycle. Environments are fairly detailed and feature some nice textures and some pretty high polygon counts. Enemies were a bit unimpressive and appeared a bit too generic. Throughout my time with the game I only ran across two enemy types: a regular soldier wielding a machine gun and a body armor-wearing soldier wielding an assault rifle. I was impressed by some nice detailing in the weapons and animations present in the game, especially the rag doll physics. Tossing a grenade at an enemy will send him flying around like a sack of potatoes, not just crumpling to the ground like a cardboard cutout.

The environments were made even more impressive thanks to some classic Bond themes and ideas. As anyone who’s seen a Bond movie can tell you, no evil mastermind’s lair is complete without some twisted and bizarre deathtraps. Well, the game is no different in that respect and scattered through the title’s many levels you run across such traps. The demo I played featured a situation where I was being pounded by bullets from a squad of enemies located on a lower level than I was on. Conveniently enough, they happened to be standing on a suspicious conveyor belt type pathway. Hanging precariously above them were some heavy and massive wooden crates. At this point in the game, I had two choices: either take my licks and try and shoot it out with the soldiers or locate the cleverly utilized switch that released the crates, crushing the unsuspecting enemies. Being the evil MI6 reject that I was, I opted to activate the deathtrap.

While the game did feature some nice Bond-esque music while I was playing, I honestly didn’t pay much attention to them given the fact the most of the sounds I heard were bullets ricocheting of nearby walls and cover objects. Weapons, though, features some nice and realistic bang to them, especially grenades, which explode with a realistic and earth shaking “pop,” not the typical movie standard explosion noise.

Overall, my time with Goldeneye: Rogue Agent was immensely enjoyable. I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical of the game before I had my chance to get my hands on it. Having previously only seen extremely short video trailers and rendered gameplay demos, I was seriously wondering if EA had what it took to take such a beloved game like Goldeneye and update it for modern home consoles. Well, if I walked away with anything from my hands-on time with the game, it was respect. My prediction is that Goldeneye: Rogue Agent becomes “the” Bond game that gamers associate with the James Bond universe of video games, not only because it features some of the best enemy AI ever seen in a video game, but also because it oozes that classic James Bond feeling. And, to make the things that much more sweet, I managed to beat the demo in my first attempt, which won me a Goldeneye: Rogue Agent T-shirt and the honor of being one of very few people who actually managed to make it through the demo. Reiner also managed to make it through as well, but I heard he cheated. Admittedly, however, the game doesn’t really seem like that old GoldenEye that I remember from the N64 days. But given the progress in FPS titles, the difference isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If anything, Rogue Agent helps to create a more expansive gaming experience, one that nicely compliments the memories of days past on the N64.