GoldenEye 007is one of the most beloved classic games from the Nintendo 64 era. Not only was it an amazing experience in its own right, butGoldenEye 007was also integral in shaping the FPS genre into what fans see today. WhileGoldenEye 007drew its own inspiration from games likeWolfenstein 3Dand shares the credit of popularizing the FPS genre with its contemporaries likeQuake,GoldenEye 007introduced players to a slower-paced, tactical style of gameplay that lives on today in games likeHalo Infinite. When considering its legacy, it’s difficult to imagine whyGoldenEye 007was never successfully brought back for modern audiences.
Unsurprisingly,GoldenEye 007has actually had a handful of reboot attempts that never came to fruition. Whether it was the failed 2008 port that was quashed after talks between Microsoft and Nintendo fell through, or the fan-made remake—GoldenEye 25—that was hit with a cease-and-desist by MGM. The closest that fans ever got was 2010’sGoldenEye 007which was a total reimagining of the original game. While 2010’sGoldenEye 007was a mild success, diehard fans of the Rare’sGoldenEye 007were left unsatisfied and remained hopeful that a remake would come along that would scratch the itch left by the original game. A glimmer of hope appeared yesterday when evidence of aGoldenEye 007remake appeared onlinethat has the chance to fix the mistakes of all its failed predecessors.
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A GoldenEye 007 Remake Should Stay Faithful to the Original
The quickest way to ruin any remake is to get too clever. Sure,GoldenEye 007has aged wellin some regards and terribly in others, but developers of the remake have to tread lightly when deciding which features to update and which to leave alone. While it’s doubtful that fans would be fussed about simplified vehicle controls in the campaign or various glitches being eradicated, tinkering with fundamentals of the game like the relatively clunky aiming system, might be a step too far. It’s important for developers to remember that fans are not dying for new shooters—there’s certainly no scarcity of those—they’re dying to playGoldenEye 007.
This is the key aspect where the 2010 remake failed. It was a decent game, but it was an entirely different game. It was much moreCall of Dutythan it wasGoldenEye 007. For the latest remaster, developers should use the blueprint laid out byDiablo 2: Resurrected. If any changes are made, they should be minor, quality-of-life changes that would be unoffensive to even the most diehard fan of the original game. For major changes like graphical changes, gameplay changes, and the like, they should be able to be toggled on and off by fans.
A GoldenEye 007 Remaster Should Have Online Ranked Multiplayer
GoldenEye 007is one of the first multiplayer console shooters and still sits among thebest arena shootersfor good reason. Among other features, it helped popularize one major aspect that is still present in modern shooters: playlist modifiers like The Man with the Golden Gun—arguably a forerunner to gun game modes— or “The Living Daylights” which is essentially flag tag. It also boasts a handful of stages that are beautifully designed for competitive play like Basement, Facility, Library, and Temple. There’s very little work that needs to be done in order to create a fair, competitive ranked mode forGoldenEye 007.
A ranked mode in aGoldenEye 007remake serves a more practical purpose as well. It could help keep fans invested long after the initial release. While the 2010 version of GoldenEye 007 did, in fact, have an online multiplayer mode, its gameplay paled in comparison to contemporaries likeModern Warfare 2andBlack Opsand, as such, failed to generate any serious interest. For a remake of the originalGoldenEye 007, the audience is already there, and a ranked multiplayer mode would have no shortage of eager participants. There’s one caveat that is paramount for developers to remember when designing the ranked parameters:Oddjob is cheating.
