Backhand of Justice

Second look will be a new feature highlighting games that deserve (you guessed it) a second look. Whether they are underappreciated classics, landmarks in innovation or simply the most refined example of a genre or mechanic, these games have a strong influence on today’s industry landscape.

While many of the games are well known, with the rapid expansion of the gaming demographic, many groundbreaking games from the past are forgotten. Ideas explored by these games have been copied and perfected, but it’s useful to know whose shoulders we’re standing on.

When Peter Molyneux chose his top five most influential games,  he selected Halo for popularizing the FPS genre on consoles. I’m going to assume he misspoke, and meant Goldeneye 007. It doesn’t get the credit that DOOM or Half-Life do in evolving the genre, but arguably did more than either in shaping today’s FPS experience.

To the masses!

People claim DOOM was the first FPS to really break out into the mainstream, but there’s a difference between mainstream on the then-marginal PC platform, and mainstream in general. DOOM barely sold 2 million copies  and although that was Herculean at the time, Super Mario World had already sold 20 million copies on the comparatively dominant SNES.

Goldeneye 007 sold 8 million copies, a monstrous sum when compared to other FPS titles at the time, and although sales don’t necessarily indicate quality, it does indicate penetration. Much in the way Final Fantasy VII was most people’s introduction to JRPGs and therefore the game for which they have the most nostalgia, Goldeneye was for many their first FPS. The PC had DOOM, Mac had Marathon and the N64 had Goldeneye.

The idea that Halo led the FPS genre to consoles when Goldeneye had already seen a 25% penetration rate on the N64 years before is laughable. Now if you want to discuss who brought recharging health to consoles … (hint: Halo)

Stop fooling around Sergei, Bond could be here any minute. I believe you can do a back flip, alright? Oh GOD HERE HE IS!

Quietly, now

The sophistication of Goldeneye’s shooting mechanics was far beyond those of its peers. While in DOOM or Quake enemies saw you and used Sun Tsu’s ‘run straight towards your enemy flailing your arms wildly’ tactic, Goldeneye introduced intricate stealth aspects to the genre. Before Metal Gear Solid was even released, Goldeneye was encouraging you to destroy security cameras and shoot people in the face before they could trigger alarms (fun fact: face shooting remains the preferred method for preventing people from doing unwanted things to this day).

In addition, enemies would only become aware of your presence after being triggered. In the first level in Goldeneye you have the opportunity to snipe guards on towers from a distance. Even more impressive is the way guards react to sound. You can use a weaker silenced weapon to take out guards from behind, or else you can use a more powerful but louder weapon to shoot through doors and thin walls. There is a clear tradeoff involved, and it’s the kind of strategic decision that was years ahead of its time.

This sound tradeoff carried over to multiplayer as Goldeneye was the first game where sound was a valuable indicator of a player’s position (unless you look at your opponent’s portion of the screen, in which case you’re a douche and your opponent is allowed a free swing at your head with the Bond-themed cudgel included in the collector’s edition).

Being Bond is a lonely job. All dressed up with his PPK and nobody to kill

Location, location, location

Speaking of my favorite topic (shooting people in the face), Goldeneye was the first FPS to have location specific damage. The Unreal Tournament announcer wouldn’t have much to do without Goldeneye introducing the concept of a headshot. Add in the ability to aim at certain parts of the screen (a concept that didn’t really catch on), and twitch reflexes took on a whole new value.

It seems old hat now, but the first time you shot a guard’s hat off from behind while aiming for his head is staggering. The connection to reality when imagining the guard’s panic is far different from the experience when you come across an Imp or even one of the personality free sprites from Wolfenstein.

The more the merrier

While a vigorous game of Super Mario Kart can really get the blood pumping and the obscenities flowing freely, it is nothing compared to a four player Goldeneye match. Contrasted with the relatively removed experience of playing a PC deathmatch game pre-voice chat, competing with three friends in the same room was a blast.

The feverish and chaotic gameplay, especially given the vertical layout of some of the maps, was exhilarating, and it was only enhanced with the one-shot-kills ‘License to Kill’ mode. This atmosphere wouldn’t really be replicated until a decade later when voice chat on consoles really became standard and opponents were no longer nameless avatars.

Listen carefully Bond, your new rocket launcher is made from paper towel rolls. Oh no, don't use it! That would be terribly dangerous

It’s a movie game, and it’s good?

Crossover products between film and games haven’t exactly had a stunning track record, so not much was expected from Goldeneye other than a cheap throwaway cash grab. Considering most of the team at Rare had no prior game development experience, it was unrealistic to expect otherwise.

Not only is Goldeneye nothing of the sort, it was the first FPS game to really focus on the story. Although it had defined missions and therefore didn’t have the seamless immersion achieved in Half-Life, there was more depth to the mission objectives than ‘kill everything on the floor, find blue key, escape.’ (To be fair to DOOM, there were also red keys, and occasionally a yellow key)

When the history of FPS games is written, the timeline generally breaks down into DOOM –> Half-Life –> Halo –> Call of Duty. This leaves a glaring hole and suggests that even a game as beloved as Goldeneye can be easily overlooked. Many of its innovations are still in use today, and it would be a shame if it didn’t receive its due praise.

Maybe people just can’t get over the Klobb. Seriously, that thing was terrible. If anybody reading this works at Microsoft Game studios, give Ken Lobb a good slap for me. He’ll know what it was for.