GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (PS2)

The choice of name is all the more puzzling because the game has nothing to do with the film or, save the first person perspective, Rare's magnum opus. In fact the rather unlikely reasoning behind everything is that you are an evil ex-MI6 agent who after a fight with Dr No is given an, err… golden eye by Auric Goldfinger.

The game's premise is such that all of Bond's greatest bad guys are still alive and caught up in a sort of underworld civil war, in which your character seeks to be the real beneficiary. Ignoring such nonsense though, and looking purely at the game, the AI seems quite good and the replacement of Everything or Nothing's "Bond Moments" with scripted "Death Trap" sequences is fairly amusing. Unfortunately though the developers seem to have forgotten that the original game was as much lauded (at least a year before Thief or Metal Gear Solid) for its stealth gameplay as much for its shooting and this element seems total absent from Rogue Agent.

The multiplayer is also unconvincing with no radar and rather sprawling level design. It might turn out all right when it's finished but at the end of the day this is no GoldenEye. -- David Jenkins

The single player mode is sweet, but very short, with minimal plot to engage you. When the plot does finally arrive it's totally out of keeping with the usual Bond stuff, which could be interesting, but it's been written really poorly and bulked up with attractive graphics.

The two player mode is awful on the PS2. They might as well have not bothered. It's a grim state of affairs considering so many developments must have taken place since the original Goldeneye.

EA Games have proved once again that they are the king of the mediochre and are really just desparate to get your cash. The 'EA Games: challenge everything' moto is as under and unrepresented in 'Goldeneye: Rogue Agent', as it is in most of their range.

On the upside, there'll probably a million cheap, unwanted, second-hand copies on the high street very soon.


This is a great game although.....   February 14, 2005
3 out of 7 found this review helpful

This game is really tough It's hard to get through the levels they are so long. But otherwise it rules you can have grenades, rocket launchers, pistols, machine guns you can even have 2 guns at the same time.