It was just a week ago that my little brother came home with a copy of Goldeneye: Rogue Agent for Nintendo DS but it certainly took less than a week to finish it, in fact, it took me about five hours. Now, I am well aware that this game did come out last month but I deem that there are several considerable lessons that can be acquired from it.

The game has a fantastic premise: after a bullet in the head from Dr.No, a former 00-agent undergoes surgery in order to receive a mechanical eyeball, hence Goldeneye. Having been dismissed from British Intelligence for reckless behavior Goldfinger becomes the new employer ? how convenient as he is racing to build an empire against the mutual enemy, Dr.No. Progress is made through six levels, which are 007-ish locations such as casinos and volcanoes, and at the same time unlock virtual campaigns that allow upgrade of your Goldeneye with utilities such as the MRI for example, which allows you to see through walls.

My first impression of the game was that the resolution was a tad choppy, I was actually reminded of Wolfenstein 3D, the very first first-person shooter. This first impression was only reinforced thanks to the enemies being absurdly brainless and unrealistic. Nine times out of ten, a foe will stand there with his gun aimed straight forward and will nail you the split-second you turn a corner – thus at times there is no strategy at all, you can?t strafe left or right and avoid at least a couple of bullets. Instead it all comes down to standing directly in front of an enemy and responding with a barrage of bullets to the head.

Overall, I have never fancied the use of the stylus on the Nintendo DS but surprisingly I must admit that this game is an exception. Thanks to the stylus the game grants the same precision when it comes to aiming ? a crucial factor in this genre ? as a mouse. The massive setback in turn is the fact that your entire hand is dedicated to the stylus and the other hand has the directional pad for moving and one button to fire your weapon; as a result you are left with no other buttons to work with except the ones on the touch screen. This really makes things difficult when running out of bullets in a melee attack, are in desperate need of picking up a new weapon, which is the case in this game because oddly enough you can?t carry an inventory of weapons, and have to glance at the lower screen to see where to tap in order to pick one up. I also think that it?s sad that although you hold two guns at a time and can mix and match, with a few exceptions such as the sniper rifle that acts as one, it?s difficult to use them alternately.

In essence then, game play is fun but not because the game was properly designed but ironically enough due to the fact that the uncomfortable controls are in perfect unison with the enemy?s lagging A.I. In theory, the game would be too easy if the controls were more accessible, or too hard if the enemies fought with superior tactically.

Rewards for beating the game in various difficulties include character skins, arenas and weapons for the multiplayer mode. I was unfortunately unable to try the multiplayer mode but having played computer-controlled bots in the arenas I might be able to believe that this game could be a good investment. The best part of a first-person shooter is oftentimes dependant upon a well-developed multiplayer mode with lots of weapons, maps, skins and scenarios, such as in this game. It is actually possible to have a game with eight players but in this case every system needs the cartridge, this of course being an unlikely circumstance.

To close, what I hope this blather has proved is that you can never EVER trust a game by it?s title because with this one it is so blatantly misleading; Goldeneye 007 for Nintendo 64, which was developed by Rare, was strictly based on the movie and the greatest first person shooter in its time. Goldeneye: Rogue Agent, which was developed by EA Los Angeles, isn?t based on any movie and is overall a sub-par game.






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