| Graphics:
5/5 |
|
| Goldeneye's
graphics are sharp, clear, and appear very high res. The environments shown are the
most detailed and realistic environments I have ever seen in a video game. That
earns Goldeneye's graphics a 5. In this case, however, a 5 doesn't mean that the
graphics are perfect. For example, it's not uncommon to see a guard's hand come
right through a closed door. There are other problems as well. The night areas,
such as the Graveyard, are too dark to see where you're going. Another problem
is that of polygon flickering. Throughout most levels, a polygon light or bullet
hole will flicker in and out of existence. These are minor problems, but
noteworthy ones. The biggest problem with the graphics has got to be the
framerate, which drops frequently, and even affects gameplay in levels such as
the Monte Carlo Frigate. Despite this, it's amazing to see these images (even
slightly choppy ones) churned out by the N64. |
| Music:
5/5 |
|
| Fidelity wise,
it's not as good as Tetrisphere, but the music is well suited to the game and
usually enhances play. The many remixes of the Bond Theme are nicely done, and
the Rare's original music is OK too. My only complaint is that I found a few
(i.e. 2 or 3) of the tunes pretty annoying, but not annoying enough to drop the
score to a 4. |
| Sound
FX: 4/5 |
|
| There's one
glaring fault in Goldeneye's sound effects: the effects of bullets are not
spatialized. This means a shot from the left sounds just like a shot from the
right. This makes it difficult to track down enemies by sound. Spatialization
aside, the sounds are clear and realistic, with each gun sounding unique from
any other gun. |
| Play
Control: 5/10 |
|
| One big disappointment: There's no jump feature. Other than that, Goldeneye controls OK. The default controls can be a little awkward, but they get the job done. There are many different control setups, including a two-controller setup that works pretty well. There's even an option to choose between airplane/non-airplane style controls for looking up and down. This means that you can choose to look up by pressing Top C instead of Bottom C (the default). Another nice feature gives the player two ways to change weapons. If you don't want to cycle through the weapons with the Weapon button, you can change weapons via the pause screen. Just be aware that in the second it takes for Bond to look down at his watch, you're vulnerable to enemy fire. |
| Frustration
Factor: 9/10 (10 being the worst) |
|
|
Here's the deal: Later in the game Goldeneye becomes almost as hard as Doom. If you stink at Doom, you'll stink at Goldeneye. As with most (if not all) first-person shooters, if you don't like having to repeat a stage over and over, you will find these games rather frustrating. Goldeneye is no different. |
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