In world of Mi6, the most famous identity known to all is that of James Bond, agent 007. Most recently portrayed by Daniel Craig, he is a beast of a man with a license to kill and charm to thrill.

The GoldenEye 007 game series is based on the now fourteen-year-old Nintendo 64 game – simply titled GoldenEye – which followed the story of a James Bond that was portrayed by one Pierce Brosnan.

GoldenEye Reloaded 007 however, takes that portrayal and throws it out the window, opting for a more contemporary, more in-your-face style of story-telling by using Daniel Craig’s voice and likeness as well as an entirely new story. The game is a re-mastered version of last year’s GoldenEye 007, which released for the Wii. Reloaded features a new game engine with better visuals and AI.

But does it rise to the occasion? The short answer is a resounding no, but to get to the reason for that we first need to get a few other things out of the way.

Running through the checklist

First off, it must be said that this is an Activision title, and to that extent it does seem as though the company’s “Call of Duty checklist” was utilised during the creation of this game. It has the engine, the cinematic singleplayer, the separate objective-based co-op mode and the multiplayer mode which inevitably saves it from an untimely demise.

Another point that must be made is that this game released right in the middle of titles like Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3 – so either the developers knew full-well that this title wasn’t going to sell well, or they were marketing it to a very specific niche.

The latter will no doubt be pleased then to hear that as a spy-flick type of game, GoldenEye Reloaded excels. The rest will probably be wishing they had bought Modern Warfare 3 instead.

The game’s singleplayer is about as gripping and entertaining as your typical Bond movie would get, beautiful women included. It has stealth sections which are entirely optional, though embracing and playing the game like its developers had intended does do a lot to add to the experience. The story – changed from the original GoldenEye story to better suit Daniel Craig’s style – is your usual predictable fare, but nobody was expecting any different here, so that’s forgivable.

The game features your Call-of-Duty-esque set of four difficulties – going from really easy to “tear holes into your HDTV” frustrating; although, it must be said that the game is best experienced at the highest difficulty, called 007 Classic, which turns it into a retro experience that paints the old GoldenEye HUD onto the updated visuals of the game while taking away your ever-regenerating health.

Looking at things

Despite being entirely re-designed, the engine still fails to portray anything of the kind of beautiful visuals that other titles released his season have been showing. In fact, the visuals are so dated you could be excused for thinking this title is a few years old. And the AI is even worse, often running straight into your firing weapon. At least the sound is good, with the soundtrack always setting the scene during each mission and in the menus as well.

To create the illusion of difficulty, the game throws hordes of soldiers at you, making it seem as though you are a bullet sponge like no other; a one man army who overcomes all; a “double-oh” perhaps? The problem with this is that the AI enemies, as mentioned, are idiots – so you end up just camping in one spot and taking pot-shots ’til everything dies.

The Mi6 mode can best be compared to Modern Warfare’s Spec-ops mode, because that’s pretty much what it is. Except, it’s not as fun and some of the objective-based missions are just plain silly, especially with aforementioned idiotic AI. I didn’t enjoy this at all, and I don’t see how anyone can, even if they’re especially forgiving of bad AI.

Spy vs. Spy

The game’s multiplayer is where it shines. There are various extremely – and surprisingly – fun game modes, including one which swaps out actual weapons for paintball guns. Yes, much like its predecessor from the N64, multiplayer is where it’s at for this game, and there are tonnes of fun to be had with friends or strangers online.

The Golden Gun mode makes its return as well, offering some one-hit-kill mayhem to anyone who feels like testing their skills and their nostalgia. Also on offer is the Escalation mode that we’re all familiar with now, that asks players to achieve kills with each and every weapon.

Drawing conclusions

While GoldenEye Reloaded does take a lot of its cues from the old N64 title it is based on – with the odd noteworthy nod here and there, and the inclusion of the Classic mode that swaps out regenerating health for body armour – the game is actually based far more on a Call of Duty title than anything else.

It’s that “Call of Duty checklist” that is most apparent here. The first, and most obvious, sign of this is the insurmountable amount of enemies that are thrown at you all throughout the game’s action sequences, while there are also collectibles hidden throughout each map.

While this may be counter-productive to the game’s success – when you consider that the game released a week before Modern Warfare 3, essentially making it a lesser clone of something else – the Call of Duty influences actually work in GoldenEye Reloaded’s favour, for those who actually preferred to pick this up, over Modern Warfare 3. Now you might think it’s unfair to compare the two, but remember, it was Activision’s choice to release the game when it did.

GoldenEye Reloaded 007 is not a bad game. It actually pulls off what it tries to do – and that’s to create a proper spy-game based on something gamers loved many years ago.

Just, don’t expect much else from it.