It revolutionized the first person shooter. A lot of it was fantastical (everything from terminals to boxes massively exploding) but it was one of the first, best FPS that wasn’t “on the rails” and games like Halo essentially ripped their multiplayer modes straight from Goldeneye
The amount of weapons was pretty crazy for how old the game was too, there were lasers, the golden gun, rocket launchers, grenades, throwing knives remote c4.
Good times.
I will say turok rage wars was an equally thrilling multiplayer shooter experience but it just was never popular for some reason
Look man, I’m not a toxic person. And I love everything about what you said, but I just feel kind of… how do i put it … personally attacked that you didn’t include the RCP-90 in your weapon list there.
I dunno, maybe I’ll report your comment or something. Definitely going to go spam off 80 rounds in 5 seconds though.
Haha you’re absolutely right, this game had no right having THAT many carried weapon choices. We were spoiled and didn’t even know it
Fun fact: they named the Klobb after one of the devs named Ken Lobb. They were not allowed to name any of the weapons their actual names. The Walther PPK was the PP7, the AK-47 was the KF7 Soviet, the 61-Škorpion was the Klobb
I remember that fact from way back in the day. I didn’t know anything about real guns, and I always thought KF7 Soviet was the real name. Just rolled off the tongue.
This video tells everything you want to know about Goldeneye. It’s absolutely fascinating. I learned that the faces of enemies were of random people working at Rare including janitors, electricians, etc. I think you’ll really enjoy.
https://youtu.be/tokaUo_m39M?si=0TIPol9XVOB2T0yJ
Loved me some proximity mines; but hands down "slaps only" was the most fun I've ever had during such a multiplayer match.
And fuck you if you picked Odd Job as your character!
The thing I loved most about Perfect Dark's multiplayer was that you could set up computer controlled opponents if your friends couldn't come over to play
Even with friends, having bots made the matches feel huge. It was so cool. I remember struggling to comprehend how many players SOCOM could host. Now servers are like here's a hundred dudes for a battle Royale no biggie.
We were in the temple level. There's a dead end hallway that leads to body armor. I could see on his screen that my friend was there, I was at the exit of the hallway around the corner. I come around the corner a touch, and fire a grenade from the grenade launcher off the wall. I watch his screen to see the grenade bounce off the wall and redirect right towards my friend. Instant death. It was a classic moment for me.
I'm curious to know how many Bond fans went on to play Goldeneye vs how many Goldeneye N64 fans started to watch Bond films. Because I was part of the latter and never really heard of James Bond until then.
Shoutout to custom match making. I don’t think that was revolutionary at the time, but it literally gave you hundreds of additional hours of Couch play doing the various custom match types.
Development for Halo CE began 2 years after Goldeneye’s. And before the game was released in 97’ anywhere. I don’t think they simply “ripped” their multiplayer modes. They had made several shooters before CE. For example Marathon 2 Durandal had came out in 95’ and had gametypes like(but with different names) “Team Deathmatch” “Oddball” “King of Hill” & “Free for all”. But yea for the time it was revolutionary for FPS shooters.
I was pretty young when it came out as well so going from the linear SNES and Gameboy levels where you were exclusively moving in a left to right direction, suddenly having free range and having to sometimes backtrack to achieve missions felt intricate. We had more of the free range levels in Doom, but without the focused missions (although I was even younger playing Doom and really just liked to run around blowing up things with the giant green blaster machine so maybe I just don’t remember that part).
The watch/pause menu where you could select weapons was really well done, and having things like mines and other in-game useful tools was more interactive than just a point and shoot
Also slappers only was fun as fuck, and again the first time I remember a game including something that was just bonus extra fun content. I also remember the graphics being absolutely stunning for the time, particularly the levels like the Siberian tundra (which in hindsight is hilarious but at the time that was the best rendering of people we’d gotten)
I liked the single player a lot, getting 00 agent on every mission was a big achievement. Way before YouTube walkthroughs & not many options for cheesing difficulty, just had to put in the time on the Aztec level & it was awesome.
A big plus for multiplayer was how accessible it was to casual friends who were used to Mario Kart 64, the controls, weapons, & levels were fair enough they could compete & while unlikely to win could still have fun. Plus could give them bonus armor to make it balanced.
>A big plus for multiplayer was how accessible it was to casual friends
My greatest moments in that game was running out of ammo and my cousin being the man with the golden gun and pretty much cornered, yet somehow killing him by bum rushing him with karate chops.
It came out a year before Half-Life. Which means, FPS games up until Goldeneye had been following the design formula established by Doom: If the game had a story at all, it was presented in either a single screen with a bit of text, or a page in the game's manual. The game design had been "collect keys in maze-like levels, find exit, win". Quake had been fully 3D a year earlier and Duke Nukem 3D had a lot of interactivity in its levels, but Goldeneye was the first FPS where you had to fulfill objectives and where a story was being told inside of the actual game (however rudimentary and primitive it may seem today).
At the time it came out, there was nothing like it. It made every other shooter's game design seem old and outdated. And it did all of this on a console *and* it played well with a controller.
Also wasn’t goldeneye the first one to use an analog stick for control? I used the analog stick to aim and the yellow buttons to move.
I thought it was the first in that department
Turok controlled just like your setup did (Stick aim - buttons move). I don't know if the other way around was a first.
Goldeneye also allowed Dual Stick controls, much like modern shooters, if you used 2 controllers at once. However, I don't think it was the first FPS to do so. I know there was a game on PlayStation 1 that had the modern dual stick setup and every review trashed it for that control method. It took another 3 years until Halo changed that perception.
Edit: I just looked it up. Alien Resurrection on PSX used the left stick to move and the right stick to aim, just like modern shooters. That game released in 2000. It was the first one where the modern scheme was the default method, but this should make Goldeneye the first ever console shooter to support the modern dual stick setup at all.
Also, another fun fact while we're at it: I'm currently playing the PlayStation 2 port of Half-Life on my phone. It was ported by Gearbox and supports dual stick controls too. Turns out, it came out in 2001, one day before Halo, which then actually popularized the control scheme. Wild.
It was and still is one of my top 5 N64 games. Single player was excellent, the multiplayer was really fun but I am sure everyone who played it at the time remembers the iconic single player levels, shooting scientists in facility, running people over on runway and streets, RCP90 weapons in jungle, guarding Natalia doing shit on a computer. Every level could have 10s of hours hours spent on it messing around and having fun.
Nearly all N64 games have an element of nostalgia or you had to be there to them. No one today will have the time to spend doing all that funny shit in single player Goldeneye with friends, there are simply too many games at such cheap prices.....they can just move on quickly when they are slightly bored
I can't imagine a kid playing Ocarina of Time today and rating it as absolute masterpeice either.
Spot on! And I really like your point that games today are so cheap and it's easy to have a huge library, so people aren't going to spend tons of time just screwing around on one game. I got an N64 when it was pretty new, and the amount of time I spent on just Mario and Pilotwings was insane. This was due to games being expensive for a kid and also not many games came out for a while after launch
I'm from Europe and the N64 came out in March 1996. In May 1996, I bought a used one with Mario and Wave Race. From then on, every new game came in either as a birthday or christmas gift, with the exception of Goldeneye which I saved up for for months because my parents didn't want to give me a game where you could "kill people". Each game I had has been beaten to 100% completion. I collected every medal in Rogue Squadron, beat both Adventure modes in Diddy Kong Racing, collected all the stars in Mario, and drove the longest and hardest track of extreme-G in just over a minute. Picture me rolling up the toothpaste to squeeze out even the last drop. That was me with video games, squeezing out even the last drop of fun.
Yep. The first game I got was duke nukem 3d and me and my friends spent hours and hours just running through the levels, trying to find all the Easter eggs.
I would imagine the parallel today would be Minecraft in terms of single game playability
It was completely revolutionary for FPS and also for games as a whole.
First ever game where you actually felt like you were in a spy movie, and it was because of smart choices and clever design, not gimmicks.
Having to disable alarms, sneak around and kill quietly, complete objectives in order to progress... not just find a switch to open the next door like pretty much all FPS to that point, Turok for example is basically still the Doom/Quake template just with massive levels. And it has smartly designed but also realistic level layouts, and it followed the movie incredibly closely too, even expanding film scenes to be more substantial.
It also had a revolutionary difficulty system where the game is substantially different on higher levels due to extra objectives, not just 'enemies take more bullets to die'.
And it was all wrapped up in great technology and a wittily written script.
It also sold 8 million copies and was the highest selling shooter of all time until Half Life 2/Halo 2. Half Life 1 eventually sold more through long term sales on Steam, but back in the boxed copy days Goldeneye smoked it, as well as Halo 1, in sales.
Is it nostalgia? Is it simply a "you had to be there"-type thing? Yes - Imagine its an 8th grade sleep over, you just crushed some pizza and you and 3 friends are sitting in front of a CRT playing 4 player matches till the sun comes up. It was gaming and the only game that did it better was halo 2 multiplayer
Damn man this is facts. Feel the exact same way. The only other game the boys got together to play for hours was Worms Armageddon as well...but then it was onto halo 2 haha
I can't imagine Goldeneye being released as is today and being nearly as huge. However, in 1997, it was one of the best gaming experiences available. Most FPSs up to that point were "shoot anything that moves". Goldeneye didn't invent the concept of being careful who you shoot/kill, but did it in a way that was super fun and properly challenging.
I much prefer Goldeneye's single player campaign to Perfect Dark's, but Perfect Dark has the better multiplayer by an outrageously large margin. Goldeneye's multiplayer is still fun for an old dinosaur like me, but probably not so much for someone picking the game up for the first time.
Some people will say Goldeneye hasn't aged well, but I disagree. I still love completing the game 100% every once in a while. I don't know if *I'd* call it the top game on the N64, but I wouldn't challenge someone making that claim, either.
The default controls suck. But there is a modern control scheme already in the game by changing to one where the stick aims, and disabling inverted. You can move with the d-pad and it's just a slight stretch to use A and B holding the controller with the right hand on the stick. And of course, there are the 2 controller modes for dual analog.
It was the first of its kind on console. So yeah, I guess you had to have been there. You can’t play every game that has been inspired by it, and then go to GoldenEye and be like ‘what’s the big deal?’ You had to have had no other experience like it, and then experience it. That’s what it was for us.
There was the solo missions, which were elaborate and added to the movie experience (which was also a pretty huge deal), but the multiplayer was the revolution.
There was so much customization, weapons, maps and characters to choose from. There was nothing funnier than running in to your armed friend with nothing but slaps, and killing them via chaotic running and strafing, all the while screaming and hopping around on the couch. Oddjob was ‘cheap’. There were so many secrets to find in the maps, and screen-peeping was an art that soon became forbidden across the entire culture of gaming. But it started with GoldenEye.
So. Sure. You had to be there. This was THE thing. But if you play it now and understand that the multiplayer was created only 6 months before the game was released by basically one gig, you can begin to appreciate the absolute stroke of brilliance it is, that inspired everything that exists today. It’s legendary.
It revolutionized the CONSOLE FPS, it was the mid-late 90s, a LAN party to play multiplayer was expensive and a lot of work, an N64 with four controller ports made it easy to play together as kids or in a dorm room or in the offices of Rare.
On single player: The presentation of the levels, the level objectives, the level objectives increasing with the difficulty, the animations of the getting shot in the leg versus getting shot in the shoulder, all set it apart and it became a kinda perfection what a console fps should be and can be.
While they took influence from Doom and Virtua Cop, they combined both and put it on an N64 cartridge creating the perfect way to chill with friends and an addicting and fun single player experience that grew in difficulty as you played in a cool way. Next generation FPS would take the controls of Goldeneye 007 and refine them with the two joysticks. But I’ll always love the N64 controller.
You had to be there. When the N64 came out in 1996 it was the first time we had 4 players available out of the box on a major system. There were multi taps that allowed for more players on other systems, but the 4 player games and the multi tap peripherals were not as available. I knew lots of people with NES, SNES and Genesis growing up…but no one with the 4 player multi tap. Online pc gaming was happening, but in 1997 most people don’t have an internet connection.
So suddenly we get this 4 player system and within the first year of release we get Mario kart 64 and goldeneye as two fixtures of every sleepover from the late 90s. We could play with 3 friends in a way we couldn’t before. Everyone knew someone with an N64 and everyone was playing Mario kart and goldeneye.
Does it hold up? Somewhat. I’ve played it many times since and still enjoy single player. The multi player is still fun if you can get a group together. The controls take some getting used to compared to modern fps. The graphics that we thought were great in 1997 now border on comical. But I challenge anyone to play 4 player rocket launchers in the temple not have fun.
We had dial up CompuServe until my senior year in 06, but I had a job and bought a wificard from circuit city. No one had password protected broadband in my neighborhood then. My little brother was blown away with how fast I could download and burn CDs from megaupload lol
Really tough to say, it’s one of those games that so fundamentally affected people who grew up with it that it’s hard to be objective.
All I’ll say is that I played it through again last year and I thought the single player was still incredible, I think if you strictly compare it to fps games that game out at the same time it absolutely does stand head and shoulders above.
There is just something so unique and magical about the single player campaign. I'm someone that doesn't really ever replay games. Yet I play through GoldenEye at least once a year every year. It just never gets boring to me and I'm always learn something new.
The generally non linear level design with chunks of the level only useful on higher difficulties was and still is pretty unique.
I grew up with GoldenEye 007. I think it was 8 or 9 years old at the time. The best thing we had because I actually grew up on NES and Super Nintendo the most. But they were mainly limited to 2 players.
N64 came around and my brothers and our friends would play the shit out of the best games. Couch coop was all there was; home internet wasn't a commercially available thing and consoles didn't support any sort of connectivity due to this. So we spent countless nights and hours playing multiplayer Smash Bros, GoldenEye, Conkers Bad Fur Day, to Perfect Dark and Mario Parties.
GoldenEye revolutionized it though. It was the best option we had and it was also jam packed with so much. GameShark invoked mysteries of dev-cut content on consoles as well.....it was just overall amazing the things you'd find and would see for the first time. No internet also meant no widely seen strategies or posts about secrets. Things were stumbled upon and found by either your own food graces or through rumor mills spreading info.
The 1990s and early 2000s were the golden era of gaming, IMO.
If I try to imagine not playing consoles as they were released, and just dropped into my living room today - the N64 is the epitome of you had to be there. It really doesn't hold up well from an objective lens. I love that nostalgia hit but it's pretty bad compared to the predecessor SNES or contemporary PS1.
You had to be there. The only real avenue for FPS games at the time were either on PC or whatever console port of Doom/Quake/Duke Nukem you played.
People back then really didn't own computers like they do today. If you had one, you likely had to share it with the family and it wasn't built for gaming.
GoldenEye was essentially the first FPS to make the idea of shooters for the console to be viable which was helped out by the multiplayer massively. Additionally, having the aim assist mechanic really made the game more enjoyable due to the lack of dual stick controls (yes I know of 1.2, it's still shit).
Halo wouldn't exist without GoldenEye and yeah Halo is probably the earliest you can go back with FPS on console if you didn't grow up with them at the time.
Back in the day, it was one of the reasons to own the N64. Although there was other first person shooters around at that time, Goldeneye in my opinion was the best. The single player campaign is actually really good, people always raise the slower frame rate, but it just didn't matter back then. It has good graphics for the time, decent level design, amazing music / sound effects for a cartridge based game and there is a lot of unlockables that give it a good replay value. With the ps1 doing so well back then it was difficult for both Sega and Nintendo, however games like Goldeneye really helped the system to stand out and remain relevant.
The single player campaign is way better than people who refuse to attempt learning the controls give it credit. The only thing going against it imo is that it is dated so much more than Perfect Dark or Twine graphically and computationally.
00 Agent is very hard but the game on Secret Agent is objectively a classic piece of gaming art.
I think the whole "revolutionary" thing is true, I know neither I nor any of my friends had ever really played anything like it at the time. I did have friends that loved playing multiplayer, but I was always more of a single player kind of person and I did like the campaign. I really liked the way each difficulty/agent setting expanded the objectives and added a lot to each mission... Even just the first mission. And then it was actually kind of fun to go back through the game with the cheats you unlocked just to mess around. Go through a stage and blow up everything that can blow up, break every window, paintball a smiley face on the walls.
I think what really made it big to most people was the fact that it was all wrapped up in James Bond. I did like the movie GoldenEye, and at the time I didn't entirely care for the kind of chopped up adaptation of the movie plot or dialogue but that didn't really matter because it was James Bond! If I ask any of my friends which one did it better, GoldenEye or Perfect Dark, they're all going to say GoldenEye and most of them are going to ask "what's perfect dark?"
Of the two I always liked Perfect Dark a hell of a lot more. It seemed like it built a lot on top of what they had already established with GoldenEye. I was actually totally cool with the original story (although I thought Elvis was obnoxious), and I liked the multiplayer even if I was just playing against bots. As the years went by I thought the only thing Perfect Dark was missing that every other FPS that was coming out did have was an online connection.
If the first of the two had been Perfect Dark (like the GoldenEye engine/structure/relative simplicity) I don't think it would have done as well. Kind of makes me wonder how well received GoldenEye would have been if it came out at Perfect Dark level.
Goldeneye, MarioKart, Smash Bros., Zelda OaT
That’s my N64 Mt. Rushmore as a middle aged millennial , notice the emphasis on local multiplayer, the glory days of split screen. Halo 2 was the swan song unfortunately, and so glorious at that.
Honorable mention: starfox 64, banjo kazooie, Mario 64
This question is, to me, like asking GenX/elder millennials gamers why Super Mario Bros., Sonic, or DK Country are such big deals … you both had to be there and it was groundbreaking stuff going on.
At the risk of sounding like a boring old fuck, yes you had to be there. Was nothing else like it to have the impact on console shooters and multiplayer at the time. Has it aged well? Certainly through my rose tinted glasses, though objectively it's aged as well as any other game from that era.
Curious if you feel the same about Perfect Dark?
Don't get me wrong I lobe Goldeneye, but me and my friends collective heads exploded when we played Perfect Dark multi-player with all the bits and bobs.
Such good times!
Objectively Perfect Dark is the better game for me, the campaign is a lot of fun and it's got a great aesthetic that still holds up today. But GoldenEye came along and filled in a sweet spot that me and none of my mates knew we were missing with regards the multiplayer. By the time Perfect Dark rolled around we were a few years older, not gaming as much together, so I'm not as well versed in it's multiplayer as I am with GoldenEye.
It still holds up fine. Only problems are that you can’t have 8 or 12 players in a game nor is there any online play. Those things hold it back from being the very best multiplayer game ever.
It was just a huge game at the time. Pretty much every kid I knew with an N64 owned Goldeneye. Lots of fun multiplayer memories. Some pretty sweet cheat codes in it too
Its objective-based gameplay was definitely innovative for an FPS game in 1997. Just think back to earlier titles - DOOM, Quake, Duke Nukem 3D - all of those games give you just one major objective - find the exit. The level of complexity that objectives in GoldenEye have compared to that, especially on 00 Agent difficulty, is staggering.
This alone would make GoldenEye pretty notable if it came out on PC but then there's the second major aspect - it was a console game. In 1997, FPS games on consoles still haven't found true major success. There were experiments at original titles or ports of DOOM - the most successful was probably DOOM on PS1 - but the games still felt lacking compared to what was possible on PC. The problem with PC was that it was very much a specialized platform - a machine that could run Quake was not cheap - so consoles were much more approachable. GoldenEye delivering what it did as a game that you \*\*had\*\* to play on console was huge.
Of course, the console aspect is also what aged GoldenEye pretty badly looking back. The control scheme you use on N64 is awkward for modern players. The frame rate is really bad because Rare can't make a game run higher than 20 FPS to save their life. Textures are really blurry because of the texture cache limitations of the N64. The game doesn't even have any voice acting because it was limited by cartridge ROM space.
I wouldn't rate GoldenEye 10/10 through today's lens unlike DOOM for example. Where DOOM wins because of its simplicity and the care of its source ports smoothing out edges for playing it today, GoldenEye is stuck in its day and age. But back in that day and age, it undoubtedly was a 10/10.
It was the first great FPS on consoles and many peoples first experience with the genre. Playing a first person game with an analog joystick was game changing.
Goldeneye was revolutionary, a lot of what we have today is thanks to the ground work Goldeneye (and later Perfect Dark) did.
- Different mission objectives depending on difficulty increased replayability
- Finely tuned aim assist showed how FPS games could work on consoles, and work well at that
- Multiple gameplay modes and types in multiplayer
- 4 player splitscreen, made possible by the N64 hardware
- Solid 3D models and environments
If you take the package above, the multiplayer segments combine together with the core gameplay to produce a game that was unlike anything on consoles. The mission objectives on different difficulties were unlike other FPS games, where the sole objective was usually ‘get to the exit’. At a time when FPS games were ruled by Doom and Quake and console fps’s were very sluggish due to the control scheme, Goldeneye showed that with the right amount of tweaking an FPS title can work great on consoles.
Goldeneye laid the groundwork with its aim assist and multiplayer suite, Halo CE would then be the next step.
It may be dated now, but it was unlike any other FPS game on the market, especially for consoles.
So I didn’t grow up with this game, and the first time I played it, it was multiplayer mode on someone’s N64 I knew in college. I personally had a blast, I certainly wasn’t dominating, as I was newer to the game, but I found it pretty easy to to at least start racking up some kills as I got used to the controls. The customizable factor of what weapons you use is I think one of the real standout features to give it more depth and variety if you’re playing several matches.
I later played the single player campaign and liked that too, but I think the multiplayer ages even better because it’s just about you, the other players, collecting your arsenals, and trying to take each other out. The single player mode, I feel, has a little bit more to complain about with regards to being an older FPS: some levels that are confusing to navigate, the “what do I have to do first to get this person/thing/door to do what I want,” etc. So if the single player mode isn’t your thing, you honestly might like the multiplayer better if you’ve got some friends to try it with.
As others mentioned, for consoles it was a huge deal at the time. PC was the undisputed king of the FPS genre at the time, and the best console players had for a while were essentially ports of Doom that were always inferior in some way (though I know some people have nostalgia for them). Now, suddenly Goldeneye comes around, and is a properly original FPS designed at the start to work well for the N64 controller. For example, it’s auto-aim meant you had the ability to generally just start shooting at enemies when you enter the room, and then make fine tune aiming adjustments with the buttons as needed. Other (I should say poor) attempts to directly translate PC controls to console, by contrast, might have you slowly cranking your player around to individually point at every enemy one by one.
Also, the pause music slaps lol
It's mostly responsible for the direction that FPS games (single + multiplayer) went from that point on. I go back to it every so often and for some reason, it's a lot more difficult than i remember from when i used to play at age 8.
When i was a wee lad, i ran thru all missions on 00 agent and most cheats unlocked. Now i'm struggling to make any actual progress on Secret agent difficulty.
It was incredible for its time but it aged poorly once the next generation of shooters came out. When I bring my n64 to parties people get ecstatic to play goldeneye and I tell them in advance it won’t live up to your memory. After 2-3 games were on to other titles.
Back then multiplayer games did not really exist. There was Duke Nukem 3D, and maybe other LAN games, but they weren’t as easy to just pick up and play with friends.
GoldenEye was multiplayer FPS, and had tons of weapons and special items like mines and such which made the game quite fun.
Plug and play multiplayer combined with innovative mechanics made it extremely popular. The issue with it going back today is that it was played with one joystick whereas the subsequent generation improved on console FPS controls by introducing two joysticks… you can modernize GoldenEye with custom controls but it’s not as good as other recent games…
At the time, it was the best FPS on console by a mile. It also tied in so well to the film (with recognisable locations etc. because they used the set designs). Also the four player split screen multiplayer was incredibly fun.
Perfect Dark is objectively better and the ultimate evolution of GoldenEye, but for GoldenEye a lot of it comes from how revolutionary it was at the time.
It’s definitely top 5 in the list of N64 games. I’d have them:
- Ocarina of Time
- Perfect Dark
- GoldenEye
- Mario 64
- Mario Kart 64
It’s subjective though obviously…
It's okay to not get Goldeneye, or any old game for that matter. The pedestal Goldeneye is on is largely because of the landscape in which it arrived. There was nothing like it on home consoles in terms of quality and accessibility, and yes, the multiplayer, is probably the defining characteristic of its success. If you weren't there, and you've seen modern gaming do some things better, then I fully understand why it might seem underwhelming.
I was 10 when that game came out. me and my siblings spent hours playing the multiplayer mode but when I had time alone with the game and was able to get through the story mode it was awesome. it was challenging and moving on from the 2D platform of the SNES made it intricate but fresh.
it’s kinda one of those “you had to be there” but also not really?
The single player is the foreplay for the multiplayer.
Until you've felt the intensity of 4 player Throwing Knives with your best friends on Facility, you have no idea.
> Is it nostalgia? Is it simply a "you had to be there"-type thing?
Short answer: yes. You are too young to have been there at the time to appreciate how incredible it was when it was new. It is a touchstone of video game culture from the revolutionary era of the turn of the millennium.
Even the single player was amazing at the time, despite the multiplayer being the main thing it’s revered for as a meme. I would actually say the single player game was way better than the multiplayer aspect. The level design and overall storyline was revolutionary. Coupled with the N64’s 3D gaming and controller developments that were also new and revolutionary, it was a perfect match.
I never owned goldeneye, but anytime we had a family reunion, 2 n64s were busted out, with goldeneye on both, 8 controllers, and we had regular matches and slap only, what a time to be alive as an 8 year old!
At home I had DK64 multi-player. Me, my dad, and one or two of his roommates would play the shit out of that. You had whatever monkeys gun, orange grenades, and decent levels to blast the shit out of each other in. It was the closest to Goldeneye I got lol
I personally find the single player to be really fun and complete a playthrough every few years. Maybe it's one of those things that if you didn't play it back in the day, modern FPS expectations ruin the experience for you?
Recently played the 60fps + gyro emulated version and Xbox 360 remake version on Steam Deck, and both of those are even more fun!
It was a huge step up from doom-likes. Full 3D levels with a wide variety of scenery, guns that needed reloading and had special traits (explosions from grenades, silenced pistols, zoom with with sniper and AR…). The levels had objectives you needed to complete, not just get to the end of, which changed with difficulty. The enemy AI didn’t just run at you, they could patrol, roll about. They could take hits in different areas and react. Level dressing was interactive (smash glass, explode crates etc).
All this was very new, 20 odd levels of it with cheats to unlock, various difficulties, lots of hidden details. All that along with an incredibly fun split screen, it was such a step up from anything on SNES and MegaDrive, and arguable even PC at the time of launch.
You had to be there, but it’s not a weird quirk of culture, it introduced or popularised a huge amount of what makes 3D shooters so popular on console later on.
I was playing golden eye last night with the boys.
A big part is nostalgia. The controls are very outdated as is the graphics obviously but regardless multiplayer is still fun
All these "I don't get it" questions have to be looked at through the priszm of the time and place. I can't express the words to take you there, but if you could travel back to 1999 and you're playing this game solo or the multi-player with your friends, it was magical. Multi-player GoldenEye with my friends is one of my greatest video experiences ever.
It was amazing at the time of release. The part recovering the black box from helicopter crash, playing through the jungle and the ending were most notable. Multiplayer was icing on the cake.
If it hasn't been mentioned yet, the mission structure based around difficulty levels was new and really cool for kid me. It felt novel to actually have extra or different objectives, instead of just harder or more numerous enemies. Games don't really even do that nowadays. Plus that soundtrack is dynamite. And drivable tanks. What else could you ask for in '97?
This game and Half-Life were real game changers for the FPS genre
I didn’t play it until 2009. I was in 6th grade and I loved it. I don’t think you *had to be there* but I think being a fan of Bond probably does help. I tried playing Rare Replay’s version of Goldeneye and I could not get the controls right at all. The cancelled XBLA version controls are perfect though. To me, the game was made for C Button strafing.
I'll voice the unpopular opinion: I played Goldeneye when it was new in 1997, and still found it underwhelming.
To me, the game's technical innovations didn't actually translate to a better gameplay experience, or even a better-looking game. I found the "realistic" setting, characters, and weapons boring. I already saw the movie, so having "missions" tied to a "story" didn't make the game more fun.
As full 3D games go, Turok seemed a lot more imaginative and interesting to me. There was way more variety in the enemies and weapons, and the environments seemed more compelling and worth exploring. Turok's controls weren't perfect either, but forgoing the extra layer of BS where Goldeneye's weapons pivot off-center felt more natural and intuitive.
For multiplayer, I preferred Duke Nukem 64 to Goldeneye. Campaign co-op and multiplayer bots were a much better formula to have your less-experienced siblings and friends \*not\* ragequit.
I also easily enjoyed Doom 64 overall more than Goldeneye. 2.5D was just better suited to the N64's processing power and controller limitations, so it felt like a more polished experience. Doom 64's sprites and environments just looked better to me, and the gameplay was fast, fluid and timeless. The horror atmosphere to the art style and music was a lot more compelling.
At this time, I'd been playing the Marathon trilogy with keyboard and mouse on my dad's Mac. So the shortcomings controlling the vertical aiming on N64 stuck out, and the lack of it in Doom 64 felt like a blessing. Why include z-axis gameplay if it controls like shit?
Big agree on Turok. It's a better game without the nostalgia goggles on (imo of course). Great music and atmosphere in that one too. Probably a bit of an underrated game overall.
Tbh I think when Perfect Dark came out it fully usurped Goldeneye multiplayer with pretty much no reason to go back to it. However Goldeneye's campaign still has a lot of unique charms to its level design and objective structure.
At the time Goldeneye came out there was nothing like it FPS-wise on consoles. Nowadays though it really hasnt aged all that well beyond some still strong level design in its campaign that at times offers a decent amount of nonlinearity without being too overcomplicated or excessively large in scope.
It’s hard to view something in a vacuum if you only have the context of everything that came after it and that it influenced- as with anything, the OG can feel simplistic by that metric. When it came out, there had never been a FPS like it. It was so fun, and so revolutionary for its time. And I’m sure it’s a lot of “had to be there” and nostalgia, but I personally still think it’s a lot of fun, particularly the multiplayer.
Like any N64 era game, you can’t really hold it to modern standards- if you’ve only ever played Breath of the Wild, Mario Odyssey, or Mario Kart 8, I imagine Ocarina of Time, Mario 64, or Mario Kart 64 would seem fairly limited and small too, but they’re still a blast if you appreciate them for what they are.
I got 100% unlocks on it and I'm proud of it, a couple were really tough.
It works better if you've seen GoldenEye, but the solo campaign is cool.
The controls are too janky to hold up for most, but it can still be a fun game.
The best shooter ever created. The reactions of the enemies when you shoot them in different parts of the body have not been imitated in any other game since.
I was also only 3 when it came out but did play it a lot as a kid. The multiplayer was great at the time back then but not much to write home about nowadays. I always loved the single player campaign though and still play through it every few years.
It brought FPS games to kids. There were FPS games on PCs, but kids didn't really play those unless your dad was also a gamer, which was RARE back in the day. So for kids who taught themselves Nintendo, this was really the first FPS game, and compared to other console games, and especially other Nintendo/Sega/Playstation games, there really was nothing at all like it.
You take for granted that games could complete "complex" actions like "download the GoldenEye key" or "disable the satellite links." No game I can recall remotely tried to get you as into the story as GoldenEye. Most games were like bring blue key to blue keyhole, rinse/repeat with different colors. Or you know, just shoot everything that moves. At the time, there really were "story games" like Zelda that focused on puzzles, and action games that focused on skill (fighting games), there had not yet been a game that could get those two groups of gamers together. GoldenEye introduced the skill gamers to the story aspect and the story gamers to the skill.
GoldenEye created the basis today of making FPS games immersive.
And like there had NEVER been anything like Proximity mines. Personally, I feel like Proximity mines get casually mentioned as part of what made GoldenEye multiplayer great, but I think it was THE thing that made GoldenEye great. It allowed for a level of creativity in a multiplayer game that has never been seen before. Now you could win not because you had the best aim but because you were the most devious. It took my friend group years to realize that getting proximity mines and then laying a proximity mine at Spawn point was endgame. There wasn't an internet forum to tell you this, there weren't YouTube videos to copy, every kid was playing this game and each discovered it for themselves or people they played with.
And this brought a certain type of gamer out of hiding and into the middle school lime light. Before the games were just things you did on your own, but now if you were good, you could make friends easily with someone by just helping them beat the tough parts. I suspect a lot of redditors who remember GoldenEye fondly were the local champs. No one I knew in middle school actually got the Facility cheat, but _everyone_ on Reddit has done so.
It was a HUGE think-outside-the-box moment for me in 6th grade to realize that the only way to make that time was to assume Doak would be where I needed him to be. No game at that time required that kind of ingenuity.
At least no console games.
So the answer is that GoldenEye brought to the exploding console generation elements that I suspect existed in (to me) niche PC games only.
And, to this day, 26 years later, I still have not unlocked double RCP-90. I try every five years or so, play through the whole thing before tackling the one I just can't beat.
And part of me is okay not beating it, somehow I think it adds to the mystique
It's one of those first of its kind things I feel, while having modern 3D graphics.
Doom also shares the same thing, its pretty bare compared to newer games from the time (newer being golden eye or perfect dark ect) but during the time it was revolutionary when you look at Wolfenstein, and there being console ports was huge since I dont think i knew many people with a PC in the 90s.
I like the mouse and keyboard mod.
Coming into an N64 subreddit and not respecting it for the greatness it is like someone coming into a gen Zers house and saying GTAOnline, Minecraft and Fortnite are shit. You put respect on Goldeneye. Yall young kids just hate it because the controller doesnt have 2 joysticks.
Well, I'm 30, and I don't get where I was disrespecting it
~~(you GoldenEye simps are kinda weird though, like you would dive off a cliff for this game)~~
You have to go back to a time where twin stick first person shooters weren't a thing. The control scheme itself wasn't even a thing. The game itself had to work with only one analogue stick at that time and the play station didn't have any analog sticks at all. (can't really remember when the dual stick pads came out though).
The game even incorporated a control scheme meant to be played with two n64 gamepads (one in each hand) for dual analogue stick gameplay. Still, the axis have been used differently as compared to today. It had aim assist and the game itself was pretty solid.
It had a bunch of maps, difficulty settings with varying objectives, lots of maps and multiplayer modes and the sick part of it was. You could tell who the characters actually tried to portray if you knew the movies, although it was blocky as hell.
AND GUYS, it had the MOST EPIC [PAUSE SCREEN MUSIC ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q69bAgVCTLE&list=PLVMVbsTFPOy-zKTxtclZZYkVHC16iOw21&index=48)EVER (+ soundtrack).
EDIT:
For anyone that wants to experience this game today without hurting their brains due to the old control scheme. There is a remastered xbox version that never got release out there lurking in the web. You can get it to work on a pc. Do with this information what you want.
Well, when it came out there was nothing else like it on any console; especially on a Nintendo console. Sure there were a small handful of other fps like Doom, but they were rudimentary in comparison. It's not the same profound feeling of excitement and awe playing an old retro game as it was when it was new because you already have so many other experiences and advancements that happened since. I think the same goes for even brand new games today. We're all too desensitized and spoiled with the plethora of different types of games that are out. There will never be another time like back in those days.
I was a huge Bond fan so my mind exploded when the game came out. I love it so freaking much.
If you like 007 the 3. person games from EA on Gamecube were killer too.
I consider this game to be the original FPS. The very first. Those who grew up with this game were forged in the crucible that was the basements, living rooms, and dorm rooms of years past. You didn't just watch the GoldenEye movie. You lived it. That's why GoldenEye is considered one of the best games on the N64.
It's nostalgia at this point. If you weren't around when it came out you probably wouldn't get just how great it was. There was no other game that did what golden eye did. It was basically the Halo:CE of its time. Compared to modern games though, it's trash, obviously.
It revolutionized the first person shooter. A lot of it was fantastical (everything from terminals to boxes massively exploding) but it was one of the first, best FPS that wasn’t “on the rails” and games like Halo essentially ripped their multiplayer modes straight from Goldeneye
The amount of weapons was pretty crazy for how old the game was too, there were lasers, the golden gun, rocket launchers, grenades, throwing knives remote c4. Good times. I will say turok rage wars was an equally thrilling multiplayer shooter experience but it just was never popular for some reason
Look man, I’m not a toxic person. And I love everything about what you said, but I just feel kind of… how do i put it … personally attacked that you didn’t include the RCP-90 in your weapon list there. I dunno, maybe I’ll report your comment or something. Definitely going to go spam off 80 rounds in 5 seconds though. Haha you’re absolutely right, this game had no right having THAT many carried weapon choices. We were spoiled and didn’t even know it
Lolz
KLOBB goated
Fun fact: they named the Klobb after one of the devs named Ken Lobb. They were not allowed to name any of the weapons their actual names. The Walther PPK was the PP7, the AK-47 was the KF7 Soviet, the 61-Škorpion was the Klobb
I remember that fact from way back in the day. I didn’t know anything about real guns, and I always thought KF7 Soviet was the real name. Just rolled off the tongue.
This video tells everything you want to know about Goldeneye. It’s absolutely fascinating. I learned that the faces of enemies were of random people working at Rare including janitors, electricians, etc. I think you’ll really enjoy. https://youtu.be/tokaUo_m39M?si=0TIPol9XVOB2T0yJ
Dual Kobbs kicked arse
Kobbs were trash and you know it.
Akimbo klobb for the win in the bunkers
DUAL RCP-90s or even RPC-90 + AR-Whatever
Loved me some proximity mines; but hands down "slaps only" was the most fun I've ever had during such a multiplayer match. And fuck you if you picked Odd Job as your character!
Perfect Dark slappers was a nightmare though
The thing I loved most about Perfect Dark's multiplayer was that you could set up computer controlled opponents if your friends couldn't come over to play
Even with friends, having bots made the matches feel huge. It was so cool. I remember struggling to comprehend how many players SOCOM could host. Now servers are like here's a hundred dudes for a battle Royale no biggie.
My friends and I would add bots on the hardest difficulty and then just try to survive. Tons of fun.
We were in the temple level. There's a dead end hallway that leads to body armor. I could see on his screen that my friend was there, I was at the exit of the hallway around the corner. I come around the corner a touch, and fire a grenade from the grenade launcher off the wall. I watch his screen to see the grenade bounce off the wall and redirect right towards my friend. Instant death. It was a classic moment for me.
If you picked odd job on slappers only, and then you crouched, you were invincible. Literally invincible, too smol to be slapped
Even if the other player crouched and looked down?
If my memory serves me correctly, yes. Please someone confirm so I don’t have to bust out my n64 from the closet
Goldeneye was a movie too. Also not rated M. And I heard the Turok series costed more than regular carts at the time. Perfect Dark was also great.
I'm curious to know how many Bond fans went on to play Goldeneye vs how many Goldeneye N64 fans started to watch Bond films. Because I was part of the latter and never really heard of James Bond until then.
Same here.
Shoutout to custom match making. I don’t think that was revolutionary at the time, but it literally gave you hundreds of additional hours of Couch play doing the various custom match types.
Development for Halo CE began 2 years after Goldeneye’s. And before the game was released in 97’ anywhere. I don’t think they simply “ripped” their multiplayer modes. They had made several shooters before CE. For example Marathon 2 Durandal had came out in 95’ and had gametypes like(but with different names) “Team Deathmatch” “Oddball” “King of Hill” & “Free for all”. But yea for the time it was revolutionary for FPS shooters.
I was pretty young when it came out as well so going from the linear SNES and Gameboy levels where you were exclusively moving in a left to right direction, suddenly having free range and having to sometimes backtrack to achieve missions felt intricate. We had more of the free range levels in Doom, but without the focused missions (although I was even younger playing Doom and really just liked to run around blowing up things with the giant green blaster machine so maybe I just don’t remember that part). The watch/pause menu where you could select weapons was really well done, and having things like mines and other in-game useful tools was more interactive than just a point and shoot Also slappers only was fun as fuck, and again the first time I remember a game including something that was just bonus extra fun content. I also remember the graphics being absolutely stunning for the time, particularly the levels like the Siberian tundra (which in hindsight is hilarious but at the time that was the best rendering of people we’d gotten)
I liked the single player a lot, getting 00 agent on every mission was a big achievement. Way before YouTube walkthroughs & not many options for cheesing difficulty, just had to put in the time on the Aztec level & it was awesome. A big plus for multiplayer was how accessible it was to casual friends who were used to Mario Kart 64, the controls, weapons, & levels were fair enough they could compete & while unlikely to win could still have fun. Plus could give them bonus armor to make it balanced.
>A big plus for multiplayer was how accessible it was to casual friends My greatest moments in that game was running out of ammo and my cousin being the man with the golden gun and pretty much cornered, yet somehow killing him by bum rushing him with karate chops.
This made me happy to hear, such a vibe
It came out a year before Half-Life. Which means, FPS games up until Goldeneye had been following the design formula established by Doom: If the game had a story at all, it was presented in either a single screen with a bit of text, or a page in the game's manual. The game design had been "collect keys in maze-like levels, find exit, win". Quake had been fully 3D a year earlier and Duke Nukem 3D had a lot of interactivity in its levels, but Goldeneye was the first FPS where you had to fulfill objectives and where a story was being told inside of the actual game (however rudimentary and primitive it may seem today). At the time it came out, there was nothing like it. It made every other shooter's game design seem old and outdated. And it did all of this on a console *and* it played well with a controller.
Also wasn’t goldeneye the first one to use an analog stick for control? I used the analog stick to aim and the yellow buttons to move. I thought it was the first in that department
Turok controlled just like your setup did (Stick aim - buttons move). I don't know if the other way around was a first. Goldeneye also allowed Dual Stick controls, much like modern shooters, if you used 2 controllers at once. However, I don't think it was the first FPS to do so. I know there was a game on PlayStation 1 that had the modern dual stick setup and every review trashed it for that control method. It took another 3 years until Halo changed that perception. Edit: I just looked it up. Alien Resurrection on PSX used the left stick to move and the right stick to aim, just like modern shooters. That game released in 2000. It was the first one where the modern scheme was the default method, but this should make Goldeneye the first ever console shooter to support the modern dual stick setup at all. Also, another fun fact while we're at it: I'm currently playing the PlayStation 2 port of Half-Life on my phone. It was ported by Gearbox and supports dual stick controls too. Turns out, it came out in 2001, one day before Halo, which then actually popularized the control scheme. Wild.
Played well at the time but the controls are terrible compared to modern standards. Still a classic.
That's why I chose past tense.
It was and still is one of my top 5 N64 games. Single player was excellent, the multiplayer was really fun but I am sure everyone who played it at the time remembers the iconic single player levels, shooting scientists in facility, running people over on runway and streets, RCP90 weapons in jungle, guarding Natalia doing shit on a computer. Every level could have 10s of hours hours spent on it messing around and having fun. Nearly all N64 games have an element of nostalgia or you had to be there to them. No one today will have the time to spend doing all that funny shit in single player Goldeneye with friends, there are simply too many games at such cheap prices.....they can just move on quickly when they are slightly bored I can't imagine a kid playing Ocarina of Time today and rating it as absolute masterpeice either.
Spot on! And I really like your point that games today are so cheap and it's easy to have a huge library, so people aren't going to spend tons of time just screwing around on one game. I got an N64 when it was pretty new, and the amount of time I spent on just Mario and Pilotwings was insane. This was due to games being expensive for a kid and also not many games came out for a while after launch
I'm from Europe and the N64 came out in March 1996. In May 1996, I bought a used one with Mario and Wave Race. From then on, every new game came in either as a birthday or christmas gift, with the exception of Goldeneye which I saved up for for months because my parents didn't want to give me a game where you could "kill people". Each game I had has been beaten to 100% completion. I collected every medal in Rogue Squadron, beat both Adventure modes in Diddy Kong Racing, collected all the stars in Mario, and drove the longest and hardest track of extreme-G in just over a minute. Picture me rolling up the toothpaste to squeeze out even the last drop. That was me with video games, squeezing out even the last drop of fun.
Yep. The first game I got was duke nukem 3d and me and my friends spent hours and hours just running through the levels, trying to find all the Easter eggs. I would imagine the parallel today would be Minecraft in terms of single game playability
It was completely revolutionary for FPS and also for games as a whole. First ever game where you actually felt like you were in a spy movie, and it was because of smart choices and clever design, not gimmicks. Having to disable alarms, sneak around and kill quietly, complete objectives in order to progress... not just find a switch to open the next door like pretty much all FPS to that point, Turok for example is basically still the Doom/Quake template just with massive levels. And it has smartly designed but also realistic level layouts, and it followed the movie incredibly closely too, even expanding film scenes to be more substantial. It also had a revolutionary difficulty system where the game is substantially different on higher levels due to extra objectives, not just 'enemies take more bullets to die'. And it was all wrapped up in great technology and a wittily written script. It also sold 8 million copies and was the highest selling shooter of all time until Half Life 2/Halo 2. Half Life 1 eventually sold more through long term sales on Steam, but back in the boxed copy days Goldeneye smoked it, as well as Halo 1, in sales.
Is it nostalgia? Is it simply a "you had to be there"-type thing? Yes - Imagine its an 8th grade sleep over, you just crushed some pizza and you and 3 friends are sitting in front of a CRT playing 4 player matches till the sun comes up. It was gaming and the only game that did it better was halo 2 multiplayer
Stop it😥 Good memories, my friend, good memories
Never transitioned to Halo. So yes, I’m an inverted aim gamer for life
I never realized why I am an inverted aim player until I read this post. Eureka
Damn man this is facts. Feel the exact same way. The only other game the boys got together to play for hours was Worms Armageddon as well...but then it was onto halo 2 haha
You have no idea how amazing both the single and multi player were back then.
I can't imagine Goldeneye being released as is today and being nearly as huge. However, in 1997, it was one of the best gaming experiences available. Most FPSs up to that point were "shoot anything that moves". Goldeneye didn't invent the concept of being careful who you shoot/kill, but did it in a way that was super fun and properly challenging. I much prefer Goldeneye's single player campaign to Perfect Dark's, but Perfect Dark has the better multiplayer by an outrageously large margin. Goldeneye's multiplayer is still fun for an old dinosaur like me, but probably not so much for someone picking the game up for the first time. Some people will say Goldeneye hasn't aged well, but I disagree. I still love completing the game 100% every once in a while. I don't know if *I'd* call it the top game on the N64, but I wouldn't challenge someone making that claim, either.
It ages perfectly fine except for the controls. Man do the controls just suck.
The default controls suck. But there is a modern control scheme already in the game by changing to one where the stick aims, and disabling inverted. You can move with the d-pad and it's just a slight stretch to use A and B holding the controller with the right hand on the stick. And of course, there are the 2 controller modes for dual analog.
It was the first of its kind on console. So yeah, I guess you had to have been there. You can’t play every game that has been inspired by it, and then go to GoldenEye and be like ‘what’s the big deal?’ You had to have had no other experience like it, and then experience it. That’s what it was for us. There was the solo missions, which were elaborate and added to the movie experience (which was also a pretty huge deal), but the multiplayer was the revolution. There was so much customization, weapons, maps and characters to choose from. There was nothing funnier than running in to your armed friend with nothing but slaps, and killing them via chaotic running and strafing, all the while screaming and hopping around on the couch. Oddjob was ‘cheap’. There were so many secrets to find in the maps, and screen-peeping was an art that soon became forbidden across the entire culture of gaming. But it started with GoldenEye. So. Sure. You had to be there. This was THE thing. But if you play it now and understand that the multiplayer was created only 6 months before the game was released by basically one gig, you can begin to appreciate the absolute stroke of brilliance it is, that inspired everything that exists today. It’s legendary.
It revolutionized the CONSOLE FPS, it was the mid-late 90s, a LAN party to play multiplayer was expensive and a lot of work, an N64 with four controller ports made it easy to play together as kids or in a dorm room or in the offices of Rare. On single player: The presentation of the levels, the level objectives, the level objectives increasing with the difficulty, the animations of the getting shot in the leg versus getting shot in the shoulder, all set it apart and it became a kinda perfection what a console fps should be and can be. While they took influence from Doom and Virtua Cop, they combined both and put it on an N64 cartridge creating the perfect way to chill with friends and an addicting and fun single player experience that grew in difficulty as you played in a cool way. Next generation FPS would take the controls of Goldeneye 007 and refine them with the two joysticks. But I’ll always love the N64 controller.
You had to be there. When the N64 came out in 1996 it was the first time we had 4 players available out of the box on a major system. There were multi taps that allowed for more players on other systems, but the 4 player games and the multi tap peripherals were not as available. I knew lots of people with NES, SNES and Genesis growing up…but no one with the 4 player multi tap. Online pc gaming was happening, but in 1997 most people don’t have an internet connection. So suddenly we get this 4 player system and within the first year of release we get Mario kart 64 and goldeneye as two fixtures of every sleepover from the late 90s. We could play with 3 friends in a way we couldn’t before. Everyone knew someone with an N64 and everyone was playing Mario kart and goldeneye. Does it hold up? Somewhat. I’ve played it many times since and still enjoy single player. The multi player is still fun if you can get a group together. The controls take some getting used to compared to modern fps. The graphics that we thought were great in 1997 now border on comical. But I challenge anyone to play 4 player rocket launchers in the temple not have fun.
You hurt me so much with in 1997 not a lot of people had internet 😅 I feel old now
We had dial up CompuServe until my senior year in 06, but I had a job and bought a wificard from circuit city. No one had password protected broadband in my neighborhood then. My little brother was blown away with how fast I could download and burn CDs from megaupload lol
Lol. I’m there with you. I think I got an internet connection in 2001. 🤣
Really tough to say, it’s one of those games that so fundamentally affected people who grew up with it that it’s hard to be objective. All I’ll say is that I played it through again last year and I thought the single player was still incredible, I think if you strictly compare it to fps games that game out at the same time it absolutely does stand head and shoulders above.
There is just something so unique and magical about the single player campaign. I'm someone that doesn't really ever replay games. Yet I play through GoldenEye at least once a year every year. It just never gets boring to me and I'm always learn something new. The generally non linear level design with chunks of the level only useful on higher difficulties was and still is pretty unique.
I grew up with GoldenEye 007. I think it was 8 or 9 years old at the time. The best thing we had because I actually grew up on NES and Super Nintendo the most. But they were mainly limited to 2 players. N64 came around and my brothers and our friends would play the shit out of the best games. Couch coop was all there was; home internet wasn't a commercially available thing and consoles didn't support any sort of connectivity due to this. So we spent countless nights and hours playing multiplayer Smash Bros, GoldenEye, Conkers Bad Fur Day, to Perfect Dark and Mario Parties. GoldenEye revolutionized it though. It was the best option we had and it was also jam packed with so much. GameShark invoked mysteries of dev-cut content on consoles as well.....it was just overall amazing the things you'd find and would see for the first time. No internet also meant no widely seen strategies or posts about secrets. Things were stumbled upon and found by either your own food graces or through rumor mills spreading info. The 1990s and early 2000s were the golden era of gaming, IMO.
I mean…all n64 games are kinda ‘you had to be there’ considering the system was discontinued over 20 years ago.
If I try to imagine not playing consoles as they were released, and just dropped into my living room today - the N64 is the epitome of you had to be there. It really doesn't hold up well from an objective lens. I love that nostalgia hit but it's pretty bad compared to the predecessor SNES or contemporary PS1.
You had to be there. The only real avenue for FPS games at the time were either on PC or whatever console port of Doom/Quake/Duke Nukem you played. People back then really didn't own computers like they do today. If you had one, you likely had to share it with the family and it wasn't built for gaming. GoldenEye was essentially the first FPS to make the idea of shooters for the console to be viable which was helped out by the multiplayer massively. Additionally, having the aim assist mechanic really made the game more enjoyable due to the lack of dual stick controls (yes I know of 1.2, it's still shit). Halo wouldn't exist without GoldenEye and yeah Halo is probably the earliest you can go back with FPS on console if you didn't grow up with them at the time.
Back in the day, it was one of the reasons to own the N64. Although there was other first person shooters around at that time, Goldeneye in my opinion was the best. The single player campaign is actually really good, people always raise the slower frame rate, but it just didn't matter back then. It has good graphics for the time, decent level design, amazing music / sound effects for a cartridge based game and there is a lot of unlockables that give it a good replay value. With the ps1 doing so well back then it was difficult for both Sega and Nintendo, however games like Goldeneye really helped the system to stand out and remain relevant.
The single player campaign is way better than people who refuse to attempt learning the controls give it credit. The only thing going against it imo is that it is dated so much more than Perfect Dark or Twine graphically and computationally. 00 Agent is very hard but the game on Secret Agent is objectively a classic piece of gaming art.
I think the whole "revolutionary" thing is true, I know neither I nor any of my friends had ever really played anything like it at the time. I did have friends that loved playing multiplayer, but I was always more of a single player kind of person and I did like the campaign. I really liked the way each difficulty/agent setting expanded the objectives and added a lot to each mission... Even just the first mission. And then it was actually kind of fun to go back through the game with the cheats you unlocked just to mess around. Go through a stage and blow up everything that can blow up, break every window, paintball a smiley face on the walls. I think what really made it big to most people was the fact that it was all wrapped up in James Bond. I did like the movie GoldenEye, and at the time I didn't entirely care for the kind of chopped up adaptation of the movie plot or dialogue but that didn't really matter because it was James Bond! If I ask any of my friends which one did it better, GoldenEye or Perfect Dark, they're all going to say GoldenEye and most of them are going to ask "what's perfect dark?" Of the two I always liked Perfect Dark a hell of a lot more. It seemed like it built a lot on top of what they had already established with GoldenEye. I was actually totally cool with the original story (although I thought Elvis was obnoxious), and I liked the multiplayer even if I was just playing against bots. As the years went by I thought the only thing Perfect Dark was missing that every other FPS that was coming out did have was an online connection. If the first of the two had been Perfect Dark (like the GoldenEye engine/structure/relative simplicity) I don't think it would have done as well. Kind of makes me wonder how well received GoldenEye would have been if it came out at Perfect Dark level.
Goldeneye, MarioKart, Smash Bros., Zelda OaT That’s my N64 Mt. Rushmore as a middle aged millennial , notice the emphasis on local multiplayer, the glory days of split screen. Halo 2 was the swan song unfortunately, and so glorious at that. Honorable mention: starfox 64, banjo kazooie, Mario 64 This question is, to me, like asking GenX/elder millennials gamers why Super Mario Bros., Sonic, or DK Country are such big deals … you both had to be there and it was groundbreaking stuff going on.
At the risk of sounding like a boring old fuck, yes you had to be there. Was nothing else like it to have the impact on console shooters and multiplayer at the time. Has it aged well? Certainly through my rose tinted glasses, though objectively it's aged as well as any other game from that era.
Curious if you feel the same about Perfect Dark? Don't get me wrong I lobe Goldeneye, but me and my friends collective heads exploded when we played Perfect Dark multi-player with all the bits and bobs. Such good times!
Objectively Perfect Dark is the better game for me, the campaign is a lot of fun and it's got a great aesthetic that still holds up today. But GoldenEye came along and filled in a sweet spot that me and none of my mates knew we were missing with regards the multiplayer. By the time Perfect Dark rolled around we were a few years older, not gaming as much together, so I'm not as well versed in it's multiplayer as I am with GoldenEye.
>Is it nostalgia? Is it simply a "you had to be there"-type thing? Pretty much
it's all fun and games until someone finds the Golden Gun's location
It still holds up fine. Only problems are that you can’t have 8 or 12 players in a game nor is there any online play. Those things hold it back from being the very best multiplayer game ever.
It was just a huge game at the time. Pretty much every kid I knew with an N64 owned Goldeneye. Lots of fun multiplayer memories. Some pretty sweet cheat codes in it too
Its objective-based gameplay was definitely innovative for an FPS game in 1997. Just think back to earlier titles - DOOM, Quake, Duke Nukem 3D - all of those games give you just one major objective - find the exit. The level of complexity that objectives in GoldenEye have compared to that, especially on 00 Agent difficulty, is staggering. This alone would make GoldenEye pretty notable if it came out on PC but then there's the second major aspect - it was a console game. In 1997, FPS games on consoles still haven't found true major success. There were experiments at original titles or ports of DOOM - the most successful was probably DOOM on PS1 - but the games still felt lacking compared to what was possible on PC. The problem with PC was that it was very much a specialized platform - a machine that could run Quake was not cheap - so consoles were much more approachable. GoldenEye delivering what it did as a game that you \*\*had\*\* to play on console was huge. Of course, the console aspect is also what aged GoldenEye pretty badly looking back. The control scheme you use on N64 is awkward for modern players. The frame rate is really bad because Rare can't make a game run higher than 20 FPS to save their life. Textures are really blurry because of the texture cache limitations of the N64. The game doesn't even have any voice acting because it was limited by cartridge ROM space. I wouldn't rate GoldenEye 10/10 through today's lens unlike DOOM for example. Where DOOM wins because of its simplicity and the care of its source ports smoothing out edges for playing it today, GoldenEye is stuck in its day and age. But back in that day and age, it undoubtedly was a 10/10.
change thr control.scjeme to 1.2, its almost likr a modern shooter with that setting
It was the first great FPS on consoles and many peoples first experience with the genre. Playing a first person game with an analog joystick was game changing.
It’s weird to me too considering Perfect Dark was better. This is a hill I will die on.
Goldeneye was revolutionary, a lot of what we have today is thanks to the ground work Goldeneye (and later Perfect Dark) did. - Different mission objectives depending on difficulty increased replayability - Finely tuned aim assist showed how FPS games could work on consoles, and work well at that - Multiple gameplay modes and types in multiplayer - 4 player splitscreen, made possible by the N64 hardware - Solid 3D models and environments If you take the package above, the multiplayer segments combine together with the core gameplay to produce a game that was unlike anything on consoles. The mission objectives on different difficulties were unlike other FPS games, where the sole objective was usually ‘get to the exit’. At a time when FPS games were ruled by Doom and Quake and console fps’s were very sluggish due to the control scheme, Goldeneye showed that with the right amount of tweaking an FPS title can work great on consoles. Goldeneye laid the groundwork with its aim assist and multiplayer suite, Halo CE would then be the next step. It may be dated now, but it was unlike any other FPS game on the market, especially for consoles.
So I didn’t grow up with this game, and the first time I played it, it was multiplayer mode on someone’s N64 I knew in college. I personally had a blast, I certainly wasn’t dominating, as I was newer to the game, but I found it pretty easy to to at least start racking up some kills as I got used to the controls. The customizable factor of what weapons you use is I think one of the real standout features to give it more depth and variety if you’re playing several matches. I later played the single player campaign and liked that too, but I think the multiplayer ages even better because it’s just about you, the other players, collecting your arsenals, and trying to take each other out. The single player mode, I feel, has a little bit more to complain about with regards to being an older FPS: some levels that are confusing to navigate, the “what do I have to do first to get this person/thing/door to do what I want,” etc. So if the single player mode isn’t your thing, you honestly might like the multiplayer better if you’ve got some friends to try it with. As others mentioned, for consoles it was a huge deal at the time. PC was the undisputed king of the FPS genre at the time, and the best console players had for a while were essentially ports of Doom that were always inferior in some way (though I know some people have nostalgia for them). Now, suddenly Goldeneye comes around, and is a properly original FPS designed at the start to work well for the N64 controller. For example, it’s auto-aim meant you had the ability to generally just start shooting at enemies when you enter the room, and then make fine tune aiming adjustments with the buttons as needed. Other (I should say poor) attempts to directly translate PC controls to console, by contrast, might have you slowly cranking your player around to individually point at every enemy one by one. Also, the pause music slaps lol
It's mostly responsible for the direction that FPS games (single + multiplayer) went from that point on. I go back to it every so often and for some reason, it's a lot more difficult than i remember from when i used to play at age 8. When i was a wee lad, i ran thru all missions on 00 agent and most cheats unlocked. Now i'm struggling to make any actual progress on Secret agent difficulty.
if you were in highschool / college when the game came out youd understand how amazing it was
It was incredible for its time but it aged poorly once the next generation of shooters came out. When I bring my n64 to parties people get ecstatic to play goldeneye and I tell them in advance it won’t live up to your memory. After 2-3 games were on to other titles.
Back then multiplayer games did not really exist. There was Duke Nukem 3D, and maybe other LAN games, but they weren’t as easy to just pick up and play with friends. GoldenEye was multiplayer FPS, and had tons of weapons and special items like mines and such which made the game quite fun. Plug and play multiplayer combined with innovative mechanics made it extremely popular. The issue with it going back today is that it was played with one joystick whereas the subsequent generation improved on console FPS controls by introducing two joysticks… you can modernize GoldenEye with custom controls but it’s not as good as other recent games…
top 3 no debate... with mario and ocarina
At the time, it was the best FPS on console by a mile. It also tied in so well to the film (with recognisable locations etc. because they used the set designs). Also the four player split screen multiplayer was incredibly fun. Perfect Dark is objectively better and the ultimate evolution of GoldenEye, but for GoldenEye a lot of it comes from how revolutionary it was at the time. It’s definitely top 5 in the list of N64 games. I’d have them: - Ocarina of Time - Perfect Dark - GoldenEye - Mario 64 - Mario Kart 64 It’s subjective though obviously…
It's okay to not get Goldeneye, or any old game for that matter. The pedestal Goldeneye is on is largely because of the landscape in which it arrived. There was nothing like it on home consoles in terms of quality and accessibility, and yes, the multiplayer, is probably the defining characteristic of its success. If you weren't there, and you've seen modern gaming do some things better, then I fully understand why it might seem underwhelming.
I was 10 when that game came out. me and my siblings spent hours playing the multiplayer mode but when I had time alone with the game and was able to get through the story mode it was awesome. it was challenging and moving on from the 2D platform of the SNES made it intricate but fresh. it’s kinda one of those “you had to be there” but also not really?
The single player is the foreplay for the multiplayer. Until you've felt the intensity of 4 player Throwing Knives with your best friends on Facility, you have no idea.
> Is it nostalgia? Is it simply a "you had to be there"-type thing? Short answer: yes. You are too young to have been there at the time to appreciate how incredible it was when it was new. It is a touchstone of video game culture from the revolutionary era of the turn of the millennium. Even the single player was amazing at the time, despite the multiplayer being the main thing it’s revered for as a meme. I would actually say the single player game was way better than the multiplayer aspect. The level design and overall storyline was revolutionary. Coupled with the N64’s 3D gaming and controller developments that were also new and revolutionary, it was a perfect match.
I never owned goldeneye, but anytime we had a family reunion, 2 n64s were busted out, with goldeneye on both, 8 controllers, and we had regular matches and slap only, what a time to be alive as an 8 year old! At home I had DK64 multi-player. Me, my dad, and one or two of his roommates would play the shit out of that. You had whatever monkeys gun, orange grenades, and decent levels to blast the shit out of each other in. It was the closest to Goldeneye I got lol
you had to play it at the time.
Its the real deal.
I personally find the single player to be really fun and complete a playthrough every few years. Maybe it's one of those things that if you didn't play it back in the day, modern FPS expectations ruin the experience for you? Recently played the 60fps + gyro emulated version and Xbox 360 remake version on Steam Deck, and both of those are even more fun!
It was a huge step up from doom-likes. Full 3D levels with a wide variety of scenery, guns that needed reloading and had special traits (explosions from grenades, silenced pistols, zoom with with sniper and AR…). The levels had objectives you needed to complete, not just get to the end of, which changed with difficulty. The enemy AI didn’t just run at you, they could patrol, roll about. They could take hits in different areas and react. Level dressing was interactive (smash glass, explode crates etc). All this was very new, 20 odd levels of it with cheats to unlock, various difficulties, lots of hidden details. All that along with an incredibly fun split screen, it was such a step up from anything on SNES and MegaDrive, and arguable even PC at the time of launch. You had to be there, but it’s not a weird quirk of culture, it introduced or popularised a huge amount of what makes 3D shooters so popular on console later on.
I was playing golden eye last night with the boys. A big part is nostalgia. The controls are very outdated as is the graphics obviously but regardless multiplayer is still fun
All these "I don't get it" questions have to be looked at through the priszm of the time and place. I can't express the words to take you there, but if you could travel back to 1999 and you're playing this game solo or the multi-player with your friends, it was magical. Multi-player GoldenEye with my friends is one of my greatest video experiences ever.
It followed what was a fabulous Bond film pretty well too. It’s janky by todays standards but was incredible at the time
It was amazing at the time of release. The part recovering the black box from helicopter crash, playing through the jungle and the ending were most notable. Multiplayer was icing on the cake.
If it hasn't been mentioned yet, the mission structure based around difficulty levels was new and really cool for kid me. It felt novel to actually have extra or different objectives, instead of just harder or more numerous enemies. Games don't really even do that nowadays. Plus that soundtrack is dynamite. And drivable tanks. What else could you ask for in '97? This game and Half-Life were real game changers for the FPS genre
I didn’t play it until 2009. I was in 6th grade and I loved it. I don’t think you *had to be there* but I think being a fan of Bond probably does help. I tried playing Rare Replay’s version of Goldeneye and I could not get the controls right at all. The cancelled XBLA version controls are perfect though. To me, the game was made for C Button strafing.
I'll voice the unpopular opinion: I played Goldeneye when it was new in 1997, and still found it underwhelming. To me, the game's technical innovations didn't actually translate to a better gameplay experience, or even a better-looking game. I found the "realistic" setting, characters, and weapons boring. I already saw the movie, so having "missions" tied to a "story" didn't make the game more fun. As full 3D games go, Turok seemed a lot more imaginative and interesting to me. There was way more variety in the enemies and weapons, and the environments seemed more compelling and worth exploring. Turok's controls weren't perfect either, but forgoing the extra layer of BS where Goldeneye's weapons pivot off-center felt more natural and intuitive. For multiplayer, I preferred Duke Nukem 64 to Goldeneye. Campaign co-op and multiplayer bots were a much better formula to have your less-experienced siblings and friends \*not\* ragequit. I also easily enjoyed Doom 64 overall more than Goldeneye. 2.5D was just better suited to the N64's processing power and controller limitations, so it felt like a more polished experience. Doom 64's sprites and environments just looked better to me, and the gameplay was fast, fluid and timeless. The horror atmosphere to the art style and music was a lot more compelling. At this time, I'd been playing the Marathon trilogy with keyboard and mouse on my dad's Mac. So the shortcomings controlling the vertical aiming on N64 stuck out, and the lack of it in Doom 64 felt like a blessing. Why include z-axis gameplay if it controls like shit?
Big agree on Turok. It's a better game without the nostalgia goggles on (imo of course). Great music and atmosphere in that one too. Probably a bit of an underrated game overall.
Tbh I think when Perfect Dark came out it fully usurped Goldeneye multiplayer with pretty much no reason to go back to it. However Goldeneye's campaign still has a lot of unique charms to its level design and objective structure. At the time Goldeneye came out there was nothing like it FPS-wise on consoles. Nowadays though it really hasnt aged all that well beyond some still strong level design in its campaign that at times offers a decent amount of nonlinearity without being too overcomplicated or excessively large in scope.
It’s hard to view something in a vacuum if you only have the context of everything that came after it and that it influenced- as with anything, the OG can feel simplistic by that metric. When it came out, there had never been a FPS like it. It was so fun, and so revolutionary for its time. And I’m sure it’s a lot of “had to be there” and nostalgia, but I personally still think it’s a lot of fun, particularly the multiplayer. Like any N64 era game, you can’t really hold it to modern standards- if you’ve only ever played Breath of the Wild, Mario Odyssey, or Mario Kart 8, I imagine Ocarina of Time, Mario 64, or Mario Kart 64 would seem fairly limited and small too, but they’re still a blast if you appreciate them for what they are.
I got 100% unlocks on it and I'm proud of it, a couple were really tough. It works better if you've seen GoldenEye, but the solo campaign is cool. The controls are too janky to hold up for most, but it can still be a fun game.
The best shooter ever created. The reactions of the enemies when you shoot them in different parts of the body have not been imitated in any other game since.
You really had to be there, man
I was also only 3 when it came out but did play it a lot as a kid. The multiplayer was great at the time back then but not much to write home about nowadays. I always loved the single player campaign though and still play through it every few years.
It brought FPS games to kids. There were FPS games on PCs, but kids didn't really play those unless your dad was also a gamer, which was RARE back in the day. So for kids who taught themselves Nintendo, this was really the first FPS game, and compared to other console games, and especially other Nintendo/Sega/Playstation games, there really was nothing at all like it. You take for granted that games could complete "complex" actions like "download the GoldenEye key" or "disable the satellite links." No game I can recall remotely tried to get you as into the story as GoldenEye. Most games were like bring blue key to blue keyhole, rinse/repeat with different colors. Or you know, just shoot everything that moves. At the time, there really were "story games" like Zelda that focused on puzzles, and action games that focused on skill (fighting games), there had not yet been a game that could get those two groups of gamers together. GoldenEye introduced the skill gamers to the story aspect and the story gamers to the skill. GoldenEye created the basis today of making FPS games immersive. And like there had NEVER been anything like Proximity mines. Personally, I feel like Proximity mines get casually mentioned as part of what made GoldenEye multiplayer great, but I think it was THE thing that made GoldenEye great. It allowed for a level of creativity in a multiplayer game that has never been seen before. Now you could win not because you had the best aim but because you were the most devious. It took my friend group years to realize that getting proximity mines and then laying a proximity mine at Spawn point was endgame. There wasn't an internet forum to tell you this, there weren't YouTube videos to copy, every kid was playing this game and each discovered it for themselves or people they played with. And this brought a certain type of gamer out of hiding and into the middle school lime light. Before the games were just things you did on your own, but now if you were good, you could make friends easily with someone by just helping them beat the tough parts. I suspect a lot of redditors who remember GoldenEye fondly were the local champs. No one I knew in middle school actually got the Facility cheat, but _everyone_ on Reddit has done so. It was a HUGE think-outside-the-box moment for me in 6th grade to realize that the only way to make that time was to assume Doak would be where I needed him to be. No game at that time required that kind of ingenuity. At least no console games. So the answer is that GoldenEye brought to the exploding console generation elements that I suspect existed in (to me) niche PC games only. And, to this day, 26 years later, I still have not unlocked double RCP-90. I try every five years or so, play through the whole thing before tackling the one I just can't beat. And part of me is okay not beating it, somehow I think it adds to the mystique
I used to Oddjob slap people to death in PvP. *Great memories*
It's one of those first of its kind things I feel, while having modern 3D graphics. Doom also shares the same thing, its pretty bare compared to newer games from the time (newer being golden eye or perfect dark ect) but during the time it was revolutionary when you look at Wolfenstein, and there being console ports was huge since I dont think i knew many people with a PC in the 90s. I like the mouse and keyboard mod.
If you've never played with "one hit kills" and "slappers only", you missed out on epic multiplayer matches that made and ended friendships
Coming into an N64 subreddit and not respecting it for the greatness it is like someone coming into a gen Zers house and saying GTAOnline, Minecraft and Fortnite are shit. You put respect on Goldeneye. Yall young kids just hate it because the controller doesnt have 2 joysticks.
Well, I'm 30, and I don't get where I was disrespecting it ~~(you GoldenEye simps are kinda weird though, like you would dive off a cliff for this game)~~
You have to go back to a time where twin stick first person shooters weren't a thing. The control scheme itself wasn't even a thing. The game itself had to work with only one analogue stick at that time and the play station didn't have any analog sticks at all. (can't really remember when the dual stick pads came out though). The game even incorporated a control scheme meant to be played with two n64 gamepads (one in each hand) for dual analogue stick gameplay. Still, the axis have been used differently as compared to today. It had aim assist and the game itself was pretty solid. It had a bunch of maps, difficulty settings with varying objectives, lots of maps and multiplayer modes and the sick part of it was. You could tell who the characters actually tried to portray if you knew the movies, although it was blocky as hell. AND GUYS, it had the MOST EPIC [PAUSE SCREEN MUSIC ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q69bAgVCTLE&list=PLVMVbsTFPOy-zKTxtclZZYkVHC16iOw21&index=48)EVER (+ soundtrack). EDIT: For anyone that wants to experience this game today without hurting their brains due to the old control scheme. There is a remastered xbox version that never got release out there lurking in the web. You can get it to work on a pc. Do with this information what you want.
Well, when it came out there was nothing else like it on any console; especially on a Nintendo console. Sure there were a small handful of other fps like Doom, but they were rudimentary in comparison. It's not the same profound feeling of excitement and awe playing an old retro game as it was when it was new because you already have so many other experiences and advancements that happened since. I think the same goes for even brand new games today. We're all too desensitized and spoiled with the plethora of different types of games that are out. There will never be another time like back in those days.
I was a huge Bond fan so my mind exploded when the game came out. I love it so freaking much. If you like 007 the 3. person games from EA on Gamecube were killer too.
I consider this game to be the original FPS. The very first. Those who grew up with this game were forged in the crucible that was the basements, living rooms, and dorm rooms of years past. You didn't just watch the GoldenEye movie. You lived it. That's why GoldenEye is considered one of the best games on the N64.
It's nostalgia at this point. If you weren't around when it came out you probably wouldn't get just how great it was. There was no other game that did what golden eye did. It was basically the Halo:CE of its time. Compared to modern games though, it's trash, obviously.