EDGE: How close is the original is the new game in terms of design?
Julian Widdows, Exec Producer: Level design could not be any more different. level designs have to be built around the core mechanics - the way you move, the way you use your gun and the Wii remote; all those things actually have quite a profound influence on how levels are designed and how gameplay feels. i don;t think you could do a full remake -- people have different expectations now. This is no slight on the original, because it would still be in my top five games of all time, but we now have very different expectations. There are a few secrets for people who look hard enough - levels have nostalgic touch points. People who have played the original will go, "ahh a recognize that".
Are you intimidated by the legacy of the GoldenEye brand?
Julian Widdows: Yes, actually. It is an enormous repsonsibility. You are touching something that's so precious to so many people; every decision is weighed against that... Every decision is influenced and shaped by those forces that are pushing around the project. So yeah, enormously scary, but also really, really exciting. It's a once in a career opportunity.
How did you set the level of faithfulness for the remake?
JW: We went back to the original game and asked ourselves what made the property so special. We distilled it down to three things. Firstly, it was that sense of being a secret agent, of being James Bond, which was riddled throughout the game. Then I think it was player choice; it gave players a sense of freedom and having choice that I think was really RARE in the shooter space at the time. And the multiplayer was an enormous part of it - all of us kept coming back to it for the multiplayer... Then it was a case of saying, "OK, what can't come forwards? What doesn't stand the test of time? The narrative doesn't really stand the test of time in it's purest form; it does feel very 90's. Craig's Bond is more relevant and contemporary, so we had to bring it up to date.
How do you think GoldenEye 007 plays nowadays?
I think it's like any game if you go back 13 years -- all games are of thir time. let's put it this way: I wouldn't go back and play it. I don't tend to go back to games that are thirteen years old. It's an evolutionary medium and we keep building on the success of previous games. It's still a great game and I think structurally it still has things that contemporary games tend not to have. I don;t want to tranish my memories of GoldenEye; I have such amazingly fond memories of it.
People have fond memories of the multiplayer maps - will they be appearing?
JW: No. The truth is, you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. I think the reality is that people say they want original maps, but I really don't think they do [...] If you put those maps in the game, they would be bitterly dissapointed; it wouldn't give the same experience, for the reasons we spoke about. The core experience is contemporary; the way the game controls and feels, the way you move through space - none of that is designed for those maps. That interplay between mechanics and spatial design is crucial, particularly in shooters and action games. They just wouldn't work, they really wouldn't.
Welche Erfahrungen hat die EDGE nach einiger Spielzeit gemacht? Eine paar Einblicke:
Untertitel: Raus mit den alten Macheniken, Karten und Charakteren, rein mit den neuen!
There has always been a spiritual link between GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark, so let's begin with the latter's HD remake released earlier this year. Despite our initial excitement, and respect for the care that went into it's production, the 360 edition ended up barely untouched. Perfect Dark is still a great game in itself, just not quite as great in the context of today's FPS world. A version of GoldenEye 007 in HD exists, of course, consignd forever to the Rare vaults by legal brouhaha and Nintendo's grumblings: that game will never see release. But Eurocom's GE007, a game you can't really call a remake, will be out on the Wii in November. Talk about plot twists.
Remakes are always rose-tinted. Eurocom's GE is very different from Rare's GE 007, tiptoeing betwen homage and the reality of today's shooter scene where COD reigns supreme. It;s a slick production: all the cinematics play out in firstperson, there's all the voice talent you'd expect, and plenty of graphical flourish in its COD-inspired breifings. The modern FPS genre is always going to struggle a little on Nintendo's hardwarte, and only a fool would call GE ugly, but it's tectures and environmental detail still contrast with the best on the PS3/ 360.
It will surprise no one that the basic shooting and combat are lifted straight from COD by way of Treyarch's Quantum of Solace - but it adds something interesting from the source. We see a level set in the jungle. which doesn't bear any relation to its Natalya-escorting inspiration, and play a good bit of multiplayer.
Jungle first, and what Eurocom retains. You can still sneak around, silently headshotting guards with the silenced PP7, or just waltz through with an AK-47 and damn the inconvenience. The simplicitiy of the choice belies the situations it creates, where your approach can turn a fairly standard patrol into long minutes of creeping and silent gunshots, or into a deleted scene from Rambo as enemies run for you in heaving packs.
Setting off the alert results in enemies pouring in, dropped off via helicopter. Here, the COD comparision rears its head again, Bond perishing rapidly under any kind of sustained fire. The alternative is sneaking, with a little spice added by hackable auto-turrets - though whether they provide durable fun or prove something of a hassle we'll have to wait and see. The mooted [sic] destuctible scenery is absent from this demo, though present and correct are stealth takedowns.
Multiplayer is customizable online with up to 8 players. For us it;s the old splitscreen slassic with four players as various Bond villians - and our first big surpirse. The maps are all new. The action that unfolds across them isn't quite as unpredictable, but it messes with certain preconceptions all the same.
It's not subtle stuff: we're Oddjob, on a roll of double kills thanks to a throwable razor-rimmed hat, circle-strafing with Baron Samedi next to a packing crate. Goldeneye plays like COD online - but certain characters weild gadgts made famous by their cinematic appearances, and close up it can feel a little Benny Hill [slapstick] for short periods. Then a a spoilsport pulls out the Uzi. The visuals obviosuly scale with four players, but this is fast and smooth deathmatch action that certainly feels among the best on the Wii.
Replicating the impact of the N64 GE is mission impossible... This game keeps the name and remains faithful to the original's outlines and ideas, but beyond that it's unasahamedly influenced by contemporary examples of the genre. Wii GE may well come in for a lot of stick because of that, but perhaps those critics should keep Perfect Dark HD in mind, and think about the last time they loaded it up.