One fluster and a clip emptied into thin air could effectively mean the end at the hand of one enemy. The advantage of this however was that by the time you had put in the hours on a level, knew where people were, how to lure them out, where to hide and other indispensable items of spy know-how, a successful run left you feeling like a GOD!
It was not all a slow paced repetition of early parts of the level however, there were moments were sheer skill was needed. In Carrington Institute: Defense, you had to storm into hostage situations and take out guards with well placed headshots before they twitched their keenly trained trigger fingers. Dexterity was as essential as preparation, and only heightened the sense of achievement after a level was finally nailed.
Such feats of immaculate espionage were made a lot easier by the armada of guns and gadgets you’d expect from a freerange Bond-derivative. The fact each gun had a secondary function for one of the first times in FPS history made the possibilities endless. X-ray guns that could shoot through wall, fly-by-wire rockets, matrix-esque combat boosts, cloaking devices… The list goes on. Less extravagant, yet equally ingenious ideas added a new level of tactics to the gameplay. Coming up to a room too crowded for you to enter? Just change your rifle to a sentry gun and let it do the work for you. Need your arse covered? Just activate the proximity mine function in another and watch as hapless guards get blown 20 feet away from you. VERY satisfying.
But what of the multiplayer? This game certainly had higher expectations that most in this department, seeing as it was the follow up to possibly the greatest deathmatch of all time but Rare, again, more than matched them. The weapons transferred seamlessly across from the single player, and the addition of sims added a whole new dimension to the game play.
Admittedly, before bot technology had been refined, your artificial nemeses often found themselves stuck in corners or glitching into walls. Back in those days though we had to be a bit more forgiving though. Meat sims were incredible fun, totally inept gun wielding bozos who could make even the greenest player look like a gunslinging genius and providing them with the best virtual stress relief in a pre-GTA3 world. All the way through up to Dark sims, the difficulty level was well gauged, making each step up a new challenge.
The maps weren’t as good as they might have been, some of the defaults barely got a look in, but when (I’m gonna just come out and say it…) you had one of the best deathmatch maps ever in Complex brought over from Goldeneye, who cares?! A set of preset challenges held the players hand through the different levels and game modes whilst making the deathmatch a single player experience in itself: Beating Turok Rage Wars at it’s own game, and all as an add on!
So if you ever get the chance to slam this beautiful cartridge into your elderly N64, literally jump at it, it’s got everything Goldeneye did, and so much more. I still hold it as one of the best FPSs ever to grace our wonderful passtime.
