Goldeneye: Rogue Agent

PUBLISHER: Electronic Arts // DEVELOPER: Electronic Arts // PLAYERS: 1-8 // LIVE: Yes // MSRP: $49.99 // ESRB: T

If you come into this new GoldenEye shooter hoping for a gripping, cinematic experience along the lines of Electronic Arts�� last James Bond game, Everything or Nothing, you��re setting yourself up for a disappointment of Timothy Dalton proportions. GoldenEye: Rogue Agent��s story, following a feud between rival archvillains Dr. No and Goldfinger, is as lightweight as it is silly. But who cares? What you should expect is action��riding a zip line between high-rises in the neon-lit Hong Kong night, blasting agents as you ride an elevator down the middle of a glitzy Vegas hotel, taking out tanks with a rocket launcher on top of Hoover Dam��that��s what Agent delivers.

And thanks to the well-crafted enemy A.I. and unique powers you earn for your golden eye, even the less over-the-top single-player moments are enjoyable. Every room or hallway of bad guys holds plenty of possibilities: Want to charge at them with your shield engaged? Or take a hostage for use as a human shield instead? Maybe you could flip that switch with your psychic power and open the trapdoor beneath their feet? Or just shoot that explosive barrel behind them? (Predictable, sure, but still fun.) Bonuses awarded for killing in interesting ways further encourage you to vary your methods.

Whatever strategy you chose, enemies take cover, charge, and retreat well enough to keep you engaged. Plus, they constantly talk to each other (��Spread out.�� ��He��s got some kind of shield!�� ��He��s behind that ledge!��), letting you know they��re thinking.

Weapon choices help keep things exciting, adding a few interesting guns (a rail gun that shoots through walls, a remote-detonating mine launcher) to the standard arsenal.

The dual-wield ability works well, almost exactly as it does in Halo 2��each gun can be picked up and fired separately. As for the rest of the controls, once you change from the default setup (try Precision V2 instead), they feel solid. You��ll be tossing grenades, switching weapons, ducking, and sniping with ease.

Just don��t waste your time looking for the jump button��there isn��t one. Like the original Nintendo 64 GoldenEye, Agent keeps your feet planted firmly on the ground, most likely in an attempt to keep things simple for a wider audience. It��s strange at first, but outside of multiplayer (where it��s sorely missed), you barely notice it after a few levels.

Graphically, Agent neither impresses nor disappoints. The levels include a wide variety of exotic locales with very few instances of repeating objects or rooms, but nothing that showcases nearly the amount of detail the Xbox is capable of. You can tell this game was made with the Sony PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube in mind.

But the biggest splinter in this GoldenEye is exactly what everyone remembers so fondly about the Nintendo 64 original: multiplayer. You��d think the balance between the eye powers and the various traps built into the levels would make for a unique, thrilling online experience, and maybe it would, were everything else not so half-assed. You��re limited to just eight players; changing modes requires everyone quitting every time; and many of the environments, ripped directly from the single-player game, just don��t work well in multiplayer. Hell, you can��t even choose which side to be on in team games. On the PlayStation 2, this is disappointing, but on the Xbox��where most games figured this stuff out over a year ago��it��s inexcusable.

07 OUT OF TEN

TUG THIS!

In addition to your standard deathmatch, team deathmatch, and territories variations, GoldenEye: Rogue Agent includes a rather unique online multiplayer mode: tug of war. Two teams race back and forth to a series of switches, trying to move some object (a warhead, train car, etc.) all the way to one side or the other. It��s a great idea that��s begging to be stolen by some other game company and developed in another title, where Agent��s lame maps and other online problems won��t get in the way.

Copyright © 2005 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in Xbox Nation.