GoldenEye: Rogue Agent
Now that it’s been awhile since Everything or Nothing was released, James Bond returns back to the first-person perspective……sort of. This time around, EA decided that instead of playing as Agent 007, you’ll play as an agent who was kicked out of MI6 for being to ruthless and joins the villain Goldfinger in his fight against Dr. No.  In theory, it sounds like the perfect plan. But how well does it fare in the actual game? I guess you’ll just have to keep reading to find out.

Graphics:

The graphics in Rogue Agent definitely are not something to marvel at. While the cutscenes and the likenesses of the actual movie villains look great, the in-game graphics aren’t up to the highest potential. I’m assuming that they wanted to make it feel more like the original GoldenEye by offering lower quality, but it just doesn’t feel right. The game actually takes place on two discs, which just goes to show how great the graphics during the cutscenes really are. The levels are laid out pretty well, and overall the art direction was nicely done. Your character, GoldenEye, actually looks like a true Bond villain and I definitely liked how cool his overall look was. The multiplayer levels look great too, especially the ones that are taken from the Bond films. My favorite would definitely have to be the Fun House from The Man with the Golden Gun. They did a great job in recreating these areas, which leaves the in-game graphics as the only thing that leaves me wanting more.

Sound and Music:

The music in Rogue Agent was done by world famous DJ Paul Oakenfold. However, the odd thing is that most of the music isn’t really memorable. While the menu screen music is really stylish and awesome, the rest of the music gets overshadowed by the sounds of bullets flying, grenades blowing up, and bad guys yelling directions to each other. I’m sure the music itself is pretty good, but the fact that I can’t tend to hear it doesn’t help me judge whether or not it is. As for the sounds, everything is at least up to par here. It’s pretty hard to get the wrong sound effects for bullets and explosions, so I don’t see how they could go wrong here. Voice acting is done really nicely as well. James Bond, Goldfinger, Dr. No, Pussy Galore, and Blofeld all sound really good despite their film counterparts doing the actual voices for them. As for M, Scaramanga, and Xenia Onatopp, the voices for them are done by the actors/actresses who played them in the movies.

Storyline:

If taken seriously, the storyline of Rogue Agent could really screw up at least four or five different Bond films. The game starts off with M telling of how a former MI6 agent was fired from MI6 for using ruthless tactics that should not be used by people in the organization. After being fired, your character soon remembers that Goldfinger offered him a job. Once contacting Goldfinger, you are given an eye to replace the one that was lost on an MI6 mission against Dr. No. This eye was created by Scaramanga and is gold, hence your villain name “GoldenEye.” It is now your job to help Goldfinger rage war on his nemesis Dr. No. Through your various missions, you’ll continually fight Dr. No’s henchmen as you get closer and closer to the evil mastermind himself. The reason the two of them are at war is a device Goldfinger created called “The Omen.” It’s basically a device that, with the push of a button, turns every living life form near it into a pile of steamy dust. The last level is a bit different than the others, but for the sake of not spoiling anything, let’s just says that Goldfinger doesn’t really want to share his glory with you. A worthy mention is that I noticed every single villain in the game, with the exception of Dr. No and Blofeld, are from a Bond movie with “gold” in the title. Goldfinger, Oddjob, and Pussy Galore are from Goldfinger, Scaramanga is from The Man with the Golden Gun, and Xenia Onatopp is from GoldenEye. Despite the fact that the story is far fetched, I actually loved the idea of seeing all these famous Bond villains interacting with each other.

Gameplay:

The gameplay in Rogue Agent was designed to play like the original GoldenEye, with a little bit of Halo mixed in. The Halo part would be that you can wield two weapons at the same time and that if you sit still your health will slowly regenerate. For the most part, Rogue Agent is a lot faster paced than previous titles in the series. In fact, if you don’t mind getting low accuracy, you can move pretty quickly and take down guys pretty fast when wielding two machine guns. Duel wielding is really awesome, and I love the sense of power you get when you have to strong weapons in both hands. Another thing added into the game is “GoldenEye Powers.” Not only did your character get a fancy eye, but his eye can also see through walls, hack computers, generate a shield, and create a magnetic field to throw bad guys around. While I never really found seeing through walls or hacking useful, the ability to create a shield for a certain period of time definitely helps. The game’s story is told through 8 different levels, each one of them excruciatingly long. This wouldn’t be a problem if the checkpoints weren’t spaced so far apart. Also included in the levels are deathtraps. The deathtraps are certain areas in levels where you can press the “A” button and something happens to the bad guys shooting at you. An example would be to open the panels on a bridge as guys are moving across it, sending them to their doom below. While the difficulty level of the game may seem high, it’s due in part to the level length and the fact that sometimes bad guys appear out of nowhere and kill you. Despite this, the single player is still very enjoyable. However, the multiplayer mode is a lot more praiseworthy than the single player. Even though EA decided not to include bots, you’ll enjoy the multiplayer as long as you have friends. The multiplayer maps range from really sweet to really lame. The majority of the really good levels are taken from movies, such as the Fun House and the Cradle from GoldenEye. Other maps, such as Atlantis, are small and lack any interesting areas. The deathtraps and “GoldenEye Powers” from the single player also show up in the multiplayer, which adds a bit more depth to it. Multiplayer skins are limited, and the only good ones are that of the actual Bond characters such as Oddjob and Dr. No. Overall, Rogue Agent offers the fast paced action that previous Bond titles didn’t.

Controls:

Overall, Rogue Agent controls pretty well. You get to choose what kind of control setup you want in the first level, and even though I have the classic setup in both Agent Under Fire and NightFire, I had to go with the TimeSplitters 2 control setup in order to more accurately control my character. Not to mention I’d been playing TS2 so much I couldn’t handle another type of control setup. Shooting, as usual, is controlled by the “R” button. For your left hand weapon, the “L” button was the obvious choice. However, GoldenEye did present something new. This time around, you can only hold two weapons at a time. This means that you will no longer have to cycle through a list of weapons. While it may seem weird, the ability to pick up enemy weapons is actually great and makes the game move faster once you get used to it. GoldenEye Powers are chosen by pushing a certain direction on the D-Pad; with “X” activating whatever power you chose. As stated above, the controls work really well with the game.

Replayability:

After you beat the single player mode, the only real thing Rogue Agent offers other than unlockables is the multiplayer. Going through the game normally will only unlock you the simple art galleries and multiplayer maps. If you want to unlock the multiplayer character skins, you’ll have to make sure your accuracy is good, your ability to be bad by taking hostages and using deathtraps is good, and that you play it on hard mode. After unlocking everything, all that’s left is multiplayer. This isn’t a bad thing though, because I thoroughly enjoy it every time I play multiplayer.

Despite what many other reviews may say, I truly think Rogue Agent is a really solid game. It may not be as good as Halo, Halo 2, or the original GoldenEye, but who really cares? A lot of games aren’t as good as what their gameplay elements were taken from, but the fact that I enjoyed my experience playing the game is what matters…..isn’t it? Maybe its better that I’ve never played Halo or Halo 2, at least that way I can enjoy a game I paid $50.00 for instead of complaining about how much it let me down.
Graphics: 7.5/10
Sound and Music: 8.0/10
Storyline: 8.0/10
Gameplay: 7.5/10
Controls: 9.5/10
Replayability: 8.5/10
7.5
Out of 10
7.5