There are few first-person shooters as beloved as GoldenEye 007, a title for the Nintendo 64 that was a tie-in to a James Bond movie of the same name. Although this could have easily been a forgettable licensed product, developer Rare went above and beyond to turn GoldenEye 007 into a memorable experience from top to bottom. From an excellent single-player campaign to revolutionary multiplayer, this 1997 title would become a blueprint that many other FPS projects would follow.
Despite the lack of a remaster for GoldenEye 007 due to its cancellation almost 10 years after the original game came out, players still can play the game on modern ports. The N64 classic is playable on the Nintendo Switch and Xbox consoles, such as the recent Xbox Series X|S that players might have. There is currently no news of the game getting another port for Nintendo’s newer Switch 2 as of this time of writing, but this hasn’t prevented the game from having a lasting legacy.
GoldenEye 007 Redefinited First-Person Shooters When It Came Out In August 1997
What makes GoldenEye 007 so special is not necessarily because it had stellar gameplay, but because its presentation and systems were far beyond what any home console games were capable of producing at the time. The 3D graphics of the game created a cinematic feel much like the James Bond experience the title was based on, essentially creating the idea of an movie-inspired campaign. The set pieces from the movie were integrated into the game itself, allowing players to pursue objectives in different ways much like James Bond would.
This illusion of non-linear level structure added significant replayability to GoldenEye 007, with incredible polish and satisfying gunplay capturing players’ hearts. At the time of its release, FPS games like Quake 2 and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six were only available on PC, so having an accessible, cinematic, ad exciting shooter for home consoles made GoldenEye 007 something players coveted. The excellent James Bond-inspired soundtrack also made the game extremely memorable, even when you were desperately trying to beat missions on higher difficulties.
The high fidelity of the visuals for GoldenEye 007 were paired with incredible secrets to discover by beating levels within a certain time frame. Cheat codes for single and multiplayer modes were sought after by players, changing gameplay to reflect their efforts. This game pioneered a number of other gameplay systems at its core too, including the ability to headshot targets and have AI-controlled enemies react to being hit in certain places. Level design was also clever too, with objectives changing based on your difficulty to challenge you in many different ways.
Local Split-Screen Multiplayer Was Partially Defined by GoldenEye’s Simplistic Structure
Even with everything surrounding GoldenEye 007‘s single-player campaign being excellent, the crown jewel of the N64 game was the split-screen multiplayer. This was one of the first FPS games were four players could join in local matches simultaneously, competing between each other in chaotic matches. The balance of this mode was all over the place (who remembers how broken Oddjob was), but it was perfect for four friends on a couch together. The simple style of this multiplayer made room for its shared nature, which was ideal for home consoles.
In many ways, GoldenEye 007 set the expectations for what FPS multiplayer could look like, from discovering weapons on the battlefield to having characters with different abilities and weapons players could choose from. Call of Duty‘s loadout system is a direct evolution of the characters in GoldenEye 007, while early Halo‘s four player split-screen is mostly a copy of Rare’s game design. The multiplayer of GoldenEye 007 was also far more accessible than something like Quake was on PC, simply due to how home consoles were less expensive than PC builds.
Other FPS Games Would Be Inspired By GoldenEye’s Approach To Casual Competition Within The Genre
Without GoldenEye 007, games like Call of Duty, Halo, or other iconic FPS titles wouldn’t exist, especially with their multiplayer structures. The mass appeal of GoldenEye 007‘s multiplayer made its features a standard of future titles in the genre, whether it was the ability to find a new weapon by exploring a map or using cheat codes to unlock new multiplayer content. The existence of headshots as a form of skill expression in multiplayer would also translate to almost every FPS in existence, becoming a staple of player competition in even hyper-competitive games like CS: GO.
The casual nature of the four player split-screen model would go on to forge childhoods, turning household gaming through home consoles into a standard. While GoldenEye 007 certainly wasn’t the only game responsible for this trend, its approach to multiplayer definitely helped, leading eventually to standards we assume are in modern titles today.
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