Episode 81: Golden Eye 007

The release of Goldeneye in 1995 was one of the most successful reboots in cinematic history. Pierce Brosnan’s take on Bond was suave and sophisticated, with just a touch of melancholy, which was the perfect fit for a more grounded and serious Bond film. It had its fair share of silly moments, but there was something special about Goldeneye that made it memorable.

So it was no surprise to anyone when just two years later, we got a game based off the movie - Goldeneye 007, released for the Nintendo 64. The big FPS games at this time were still a long way off mimicking reality, whether it was the brown eldritch hallways of Quake or the satirical and colourful streets of Duke 3D. Goldeneye 007 strove to hit those realistic notes, being one of the early adopters of headshots, AI behaviour and objective based gameplay instead of just murdering everyone on sight. And every mission has at least a referential link to an event in the movie, truly putting you in the role of James Bond.

But does this all add up to an enjoyable experience today? While Goldeneye may have been a forerunner of the console FPS, does that necessarily mean it does everything right? What was once revolutionary back in 1997 might just be quaint and outdated today - and was its approach genuinely better than its PC contemporaries?

On this episode, we discuss:

• How well does Goldeneye 007 tell its story? Do you remain emotionally invested in its characters and plot just like you were when watching the movie, or does it fall flat?
• How does the structure of objective based gameplay influence the overall pacing compared to just murdering enemies? Is the game better for having this structure, and does it execute it well?
• How enjoyable is the moment to moment gameplay of Goldeneye? Does running around at lightning speeds and hip firing at goons actually add up to anything substantial?

We answer these questions and many more on the 81st episode of the Retro Spectives Podcast!

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We played Goldeneye 007 on 1964, a custom built emulator specifically created for Goldeneye 007 and Perfect Dark. It's bloody amazing, and has support for a mouse and keyboard control scheme as well as a bunch of fantastic visual options including FOV and fps. Highly recommend getting this if you want to give the game a spin.

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Are the objectives in Goldeneye really that obtuse, or are we just being dense? Which console FPS should we try next - Perfect Dark or Timesplitters? Is Xena Onatopp the best Bond girl? Come let us know what you think on our community discord server!