by:	January 02, 2005

GoldenEye: Rogue Agent is like something out of the Twilight Zone. If you would have told me seven years ago that a game sucked with the words “GoldenEye” tacked on to it would have punched you in your nose. I will save you the trouble of reading this review by saying since the 1997 hit, 007 Goldeneye, that no James Bond game will match it and this title totally proves that point. The thing is, the game has the exact same gameplay of the original with newly tacked on mechanics, something that would have been cutting edge six years ago maybe.

GoldenEye: Rogue Agent isn’t bad-- it is an abomination. The story behind the game is sort of convulted. As a renegade MI6, you lose your eye, and in it’s place you get a “Goldeneye with many different abilities that enhance your senses with the help of Goldfinger. The person who has it is Dr. No, but if your new eye were so powerful, why would you want to go after your old one? What ensues is, you must be a bad guy against another bad guy, and you would think it would be cool. Especially since you’re in the world of Bond. I was imagining something along the lines of trying to take over a city and building insane weapons. Instead you are treated to getting inconsequential rewards for grabbing an enemy and throwing them, headshots, and getting an enemy to fall from a balcony. Oh how “evil”! Last I checked those were all the most basic of things that the good guys could do in most action stealth titles. Point is, playing the bad guy is a gimmick that doesn’t work.

The main single player game isn’t exactly spectacular, it is for the most part run and gun, and follow the linear path. Occasionally you may come across something cool, like a button that ignites a flame out of a Dragon statue that in result destroys a hovering, gunning, robot. You will usually become inexplicitly bored though. The enemy AI isn’t particularly clever as they will shoot in random areas or will not move even if you crouched next to them. There are the Goldeneye powers which can do such things as see through walls, hack machines, and create a shield in some cases, but it works at minimal doses and the game is so easy you don’t really need to use them. In the event you do die, it usually isn’t your fault, rather the game’s shoddy controls. The speed of the game makes you feel like your character is wadding in a pool of raw sewage. You move around with both analogs like in most Xbox shooters, but even with the sensitivity turned way up, it is still slow and inaccurate. Aiming can be chore if you are used to aiming with ease, as no matter what sensitivity it is on you find yourself shooting just to hope you hit something. You can put the game on the traditional shooting were it pretty much aims for you, but even that can be sort of confusing.

Despite all this, I made it through the game fairly easy, usually not knowing if I was killing people right or not. The game also tacks on some other new thingsm borrowing from Halo 2, that don’t work quit well, like melee attacking, holding a person hostage, and duel wielding. While the duel wielding is probably the most thrill you could get, it feels like your hold uncontrollable bullet hoses that run out far to quick. Even more annoying about the game is the pace isn’t slow enough, but if you pick up a big gun like a revolving machine gun, or a harpoon launcher, you are at a crawl. It won’t really effect if you die quicker or not, because these guns are easy kills, but it is an annoyance to travel so slowly.

The last thing that could save this game was it’s multiplayer. 007 Goldeneye was of course known for it’s fantastic multiplayer, but Rouge Agent doesn’t quite have the same effect. You have the option of playing 1-4 people on one Xbox, 2-8 through system link, or taking the game on Xbox Live. When playing either of the modes you still get about the same experience, and like the main game, is very slow. Luckily in the levels there are tons of power-ups that will make you speedier, but it still doesn’t solve the sluggish problem. Playing online most people seemed to not have a clue of what they were doing, or what any of the modes were about. The customization options are fairly limited, as are the number of player types you can have. There are quite a few maps, and most of the maps are actually pretty cool to look at, but they are also not very inspired and small. It can get interesting and fun, but for the most part you won’t find many people playing Rouge Agent online.

Visually there is nothing spectacular about the game, it is just represented enough to get by. The cut scenes are usually pretty good, and the environments are usually very crisp and clean. Nothing evil lurks in the environments, and because this is a multiplatform title, you’re not going to get any sort of impressive effects that the Xbox is capable of. The character models move slowm clucky, and shoot out purple sparks instead of blood when you kill them. Also the thugs you encounter don’t really vary past about ten kinds. The audio in the title has the right elements to be good. The game not only has Dolby Pro Logic II support, but also is THX certified. It makes the audio burst out more than say, Halo 2 but isn’t half as good. The soundtrack for the game is pretty standard techno music (along with a remixed version of the Bond theme) and it seems to have become a staple for all Bond games. The sound effects while aren’t innovative in clarity or oomph, still deliver well, and are the best aspect of the game’s audio. The voice acting isn’t bad, but it is totally forgettable and does not improve your experience with this title. All of the voices in the game are from old Bond movies that probably won’t spice much up for anyone. With no Pierce Brosnan or John Cleese there isn’t any zest to it.

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Dripping with mediocrity, Goldeneye: Rouge Agent is nothing but a painful reminder why Halo 2 is king of the Xbox shooters and that EA should learn that if a movie isn’t out for the property they are making the game for, they shouldn’t make one of their own. Perhaps if the team making the game had more than a year to prove that the James Bond franchise of games wasn’t 100% dead, it could of actually be worth at least an hour of time away from Halo 2 every day. Sadly this games unsurprising graphics and disappointing premise denies the developing team at EA that right. Don’t rent, don’t buy, instead save your extra cash for the next downloadable content for Halo 2.

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