Pros:
- Without a doubt an important historical stepping stone in gaming.
- Level design still feels exciting and memorable.
- Multiplayer still offers plenty of that old-school fun.
- The music still goes hard.
- Playing with twin-stick controls thanks to the re-release is such a blessing.
- Though not without its warts, the frame rate feels at least a bit more stable here than before.
Cons:
- The passage of time has not been kind to this game; a lot of elements can feel a bit dated (between graphics AND gameplay).
- Objective requirements can feel obtuse, especially since every mission requires you to do every objective in one go.
- Overly large maps can make it a bit harder to understand what objectives you're supposed to complete.
- Without historical knowledge of the gaming landscape of 1997, it might be hard to see what all the fuss was about back then.
- The porting job is a little sloppy, which feels like worse news considering there's a better version of the game we won't (officially) get to play.
Consensus: Yeah, sorry, but if you were expecting me to bring back your childhood memories with this one...you'll have to look elsewhere. Look, I've talked at length about how dated "GoldenEye 007" feels to me today, even after numerous attempts to try to beat it before this re-release. If I was reviewing this game back in 1997, maybe I'd give it a much more glowing recommendation. Sadly, we're not in 1997 anymore, and because we don't have time machines to travel back that far, I don't feel as inclined to be nice. "GoldenEye" was without question a major, important stepping stone for gaming, allowing the first-person shooter to push past the "every game is a 'DOOM' clone" thing while making the genre feel fun on a console for what seemed like the first time. All of this is great, but looking at it through a modern lens, it's clearly very primitive today. Many gameplay frustrations are still present, making this feel like little more than a relic unless you're someone who has been playing it for years. What doesn't help is that this re-release feels a bit lazy, being a straight port that doesn't make improvements outside of the new control scheme. This hurts even more to think about given that there IS a better version of the game (the canned XBLA remaster) that we'll never get to officially play, and they could've easily pushed that out to make things even better. Sadly, we got an iffy port of an antiquated classic, and as a result, this only comes recommended to hardcore fans and those with an interest in gaming history. Otherwise, maybe it might be best to leave this party in 1997 and find other, better shooters to take its place. I can appreciate the history of the game, but it's just not as enjoyable to go back to today.
Final rating: 6 out of 10 "Decent"