Alright, so developer n-Space released two FPSs for the DS recently. The mighty and incredibly beast Black Ops and then a remake of the game that started it all, Goldeneye. I really built up hype and anticipation for Black Ops, and having an idea of what to expect and the massive number of improvements made over the previous installment of the series on the DS I was more than satisfied with it. In fact, I've now played almost twice as much online in the space of a few months than I did over an entire year with the previous game Mobilized. I think that says something. As for Goldeneye, I was aware of it's release and I had every intent on getting it, but my attention was focused solely on Blacks Ops. Christmas has come, and I now own a copy. Having played through the single player and played a couple matches online I'm having pretty mixed feelings. The question here as I go through and review the game is...has Black Ops tainted the experience for me?
With the exception of occasional hiccups when it comes to hit-detection, the single-player campaign of Goldeneye is absolutely fantastic. It's incredibly action packed and filled with variety. You can be sneaking through an enemy compound or launching an all-out assault, in fact one mission has you piloting a tank through the streets of Saint Petersburg. It doesn't get any more satisfying than rolling over cars, trading fire with other tanks and taking out helicopters. This mission brings to mind the tank mission found in last years Modern Warfare: Mobilized. They're both comparable, but in terms of satisfaction I've got to hand it to Goldeneye. The stealth missions other you plenty of variety in terms of how you want to dispatch your enemies. You can sneak up behind them and silently grab them from behind and suffocate them, you can utilize elements within the environments (like steam valves and fire extinguishers) to take them out, or you could throw caution to the wind and rush them (though thats far from suggested). Also worthy mentioning are the occasional interactive minigames sprinkled here and there through the game, ranging from swiping a key card and quickly entering a code to shooting the lock off of a door. While critics have stated that these are completely pointless (I'm looking at you IGN), I strongly disagree. These provide the player a means to further interact with the game, and thus makes the overall experience all that much more satisfying.
In terms of multiplayer, Goldeneye, despite a few glaring issues, does several things right. To get the problems out of the way, one real issue comes at how user-friendly the online is. In Black Ops, you get online once and you have access to friends and global matches, as well as your friend roster to see if your friends are online and if so what they are doing. Sadly, Goldeneye is incredibly archaic in comparison. Much like the previous Call of Duties you have to get online separately for global and friend matches. A little cumbersome if you ask me. Then there is the issue of exiting matches. It plops right back at the main menu. The frustration there doesn't need explanation. Finally, there is the distinct lack of any sort of stats tracking in the game. I shouldn't have to keep track of my multiplayer record myself, and with the lack of these records comes a feeling of "whats the point?" when playing online. Beyond those major issues, there are only small things that I've been nit-picking at. As stated earlier, much of Goldeneye's multiplayer is done right. Selection of your secondary, though more often that not your primary, gun and spawn points is spot on and essentially mirror that of Black Ops. Goldeneye does allow players to join in an already established game, but painfully and frustratingly only when it is in lobby. There are several modes and game modifiers to choose from, making for a lot of variety and potential for a lot of fun. That fun factor when playing global matches really depends upon who you play against and how many players you can get in a match. So far, I've only been able to play with more than one other player once, and have only found true enjoyment and excitement out of only a few matches. The quality of players is the true concern, though. It seems that about half the players out there are either giant noobs or douchebags (or even perhaps both), relying on the explosive power of the rocket launcher or of the lethal shotgun blast to get on the board. Thankfully there is a no explosives mod, but when that is employed they simply turn to the shotguns. To find true enjoyment out of the multiplayer, you may want to stick to playing with people you know.
Overall, while there may be occasional hiccups and issues, Goldeneye overall is a fantastic game. It took me a couple days to shake off those negative impressions due to senseless comparison to Black Ops (as evidenced in the intro), but I finally have and now I am truly enjoying the game for what it is. In fact, I have really touched Black Ops at all for the past couple days. Consider me pleasantly surprised.
Overall Score: 9/10
Nice review
ReplyDelete