James Bond has returned as GoldenEye 007 makes its HD debut with GoldenEye 007 Reloaded. The development team over at Eurocom have done a fantastic job with this title. It should be immediately noted that this version of Goldeneye 007 Reloaded is not a port of last year’s Wii title. This game was built on its own graphical engine and it really shows. As I was going through this title I was really surprised at just how nice everything looked. It’s GoldenEye like you have never seen it before and that is a very good thing. There is the brand new “MI6 Ops” mode which is similar to the Spec Ops mode found in another Activision franchise. There is also the online multiplayer which features a host of different modes such as Conflict, Escalation, Bomb Defuse and more. Overall it is a pretty complete package and the developers have done a great job of bringing it over to the high definition consoles.

Most of the people who pick up this game are probably already very familiar with the campaign. For those who aren’t I won’t post any spoilers, however, I think it is safe to say that you assume the role of James Bond and it is your job to save the world. To help bring GoldenEye into 2011 the development team did modernize it a bit. The character model bears the likeness of Daniel Craig and you have others such as Judi Dench reprising her role as “M”. There are also times where you have to scan an item or hack into a computer and you accomplish that by taking out your smart phone and pushing a button. GoldenEye 007 Reloaded is a game that you can play however you see fit. You can go into any scenario and immediately start shooting and engage in big firefights with the enemy. If you choose this approach you will make things harder on yourself, however, if you survive, you might get through areas a little quicker. You can also choose the stealth route where you silently eliminate an enemy combatant one at a time without alerting any of his comrades. If you are able to do this successfully then you will be able to get through levels without much of a problem although it will take you a bit longer than the other option. If you happen to get spotted then an alarm will sound and you will have to deal with a wave of enemies. The way that you experience the campaign is up to you and I played utilizing both styles. There were some times where I enjoyed clearing out a room quickly with a gun and there were other times where I enjoyed sneaking up behind someone and throwing them off a balcony. GoldenEye 007 Reloaded features a campaign that is longer than most of the shooters these days which should also be good news for those who think games are too short. I’m personally not of that opinion, however, I do know there are a number of people that think that way.

GoldenEye 007 Reloaded brings online multiplayer to the GoldenEye series with thirteen different modes for you to choose from. There are also forty four playable characters and fourteen classic characters such as Oddjob, Dr. No, Auric Goldfinger and more. Not every mode is available in the beginning, however, more modes will unlock as you level up your character. There is the conflict modes which is essentially the deathmatch modes for the game. There are other modes such as black box where MI6 must locate and destroy a crashed satellite black box recorder while the other team is trying to retrieve it and download the data. I actually really enjoyed this particular one and it made for some great gameplay as I was trying to fend off the other team while at the same time trying to complete the objective. Another fun mode is Escalation where you start out with a basic weapon and as you get a kill you will move to the next weapon in the sequence and the first person to go through all of the weapons will be the winner. Other games have had similar modes and they are always a lot of fun. Data Miner is also a really fun one where you have to be the first to download a data file in a single life while preventing the other team from doing the same. If you kill your enemies you will reset their progress and then you can take their smartphone to try and download your data quicker. In addition to the different modes there is also a bunch of different game modifiers that you can utilize such as the score limit, turning the radar on or off, how much damage your weapon will do, whether you play with classic health (health does not regenerate) and much more. It is a great way to change up multiplayer matches and adds another level of challenge depending on the modifiers you choose to utilize. GoldenEye 007 Reloaded also brings back the iconic four player split screen multiplayer if you have some friends over at your place and you want to relive the experience of playing the original on the Nintendo 64.

Making its debut with this version of GoldenEye is the “MI6 Ops” Mode. This is essentially like the Spec Ops Mode from another popular Activision franchise. MI6 Ops is a fun mode and it gives you some side missions to go through. There are four main mission types with Elimination, Defense, Stealth and Assault. Once you pick a mission you will be given a choice to change some modifiers around to make it either harder or easier for yourself. Not every modifier will be available for every mission however. There are eleven missions for you to go through and you will have to do well on the early missions to unlock the later ones. Set high scores on leaderboards and see how you rank against other players around the world. If you see a high score that you want to try and beat you can use the modifiers they used to try and beat their score. There is one big mistake the developers made with this mode though and that is the lack of online multiplayer. This mode is only playable through single player and that is a huge missed opportunity in my opinion. It would have added much more replayability if I could have gone through these modes with the same group of friends that I go through Spec Ops with. As it currently stands there isn’t any reason to return to this mode once you have gone through it unless you want to want to mess around with the modifiers and try out different techniques.

The original GoldenEye came out on the Nintendo 64 many years ago and GoldenEye 007 Reloaded is a worthy successor. The development team over at Eurocom did a fantastic job bringing the game into 2011 and the game is still fun to go through. Adding online multiplayer to the mix is a great touch and it should keep GoldenEye fans busy for quite a while. If you are one of those people who think that GoldenEye 007 Reloaded is simply a port of last year’s Wii title then I urge you to give this game a chance. It is definitely not a port of last year’s version and you can tell that the development team put in a lot of work to try and differentiate it. The game looks really nice graphically and I enjoyed how smoothly it played. James Bond and Goldeneye are back and better than ever.

Score: 9/10

Originally posted on Totally Gaming Network