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« on: April 29, 2014, 01:55:28 AM »
I had a great time jumping back into this game tonight, even if I was only able to spend about 30 minutes playing with the RFN community!
I really do adore this game. While I was waiting to begin playing tonight, I decided to check my stats. I thought I had put around 100 hours into the multiplayer, but it turns out that I've actually put 8 days and 9 hours into the online mode -- and that's probably not counting the times my Wii locked up and I had to do a hard reset. I've put 8 days of my life into Goldeneye 007's online mode on the Wii, and now they are shutting it down. All I can say is, "Time well spent!"
When I think about it, this was really my first online console experience. Sure, I dabbled in Battalion Wars II's online mode, but this was the first game that I really spent serious time online playing. It certainly isn't perfect, but it did the job insofar as connecting me with other human beings to play the game, and getting the drop on other people really was rather satisfying.
There are a couple of things in particular that I really enjoyed in Goldeneye's online multiplayer mode. The first is that the mechanics of the game are fairly simple and not overly complicated. You can carry two weapons, you can crouch, you can melee attack, and you have a grenade or explosive of some sort that you can deploy. Where things do get a little more complex is the unlocking and application of the various weapons and upgrades you acquire as you level up. These can be game changers, which can completely make the game unbalanced if playing with lower-level opponents. I remember when I first started playing the game and was getting killed left and right, but as I slowly got the hang of the controls and learned the layout of the levels (which is extremely beneficial), I started to rise through the ranks. Unlocking those upgrades was both satisfying and addictive because it felt like I had earned them, especially after playing the role of fresh meat for so many players who outranked me.
There are a lot of fun modes in the online component of the game, all of which are worth a try. Golden Gun mode is great fun, and hero mode is fairly interesting as well. I also have to say that I really enjoyed the majority of the maps -- a lot of them have plenty of nooks and crannies one can wedge oneself into and surprise another player. Even more interesting is that the levels change depending on the mode that you are playing. For example, Statue Park has several sections open up and many different tunnels appear if you are playing the mode in which you must destroy the other team's briefcase. I think the level designs in the game are terrific -- each is fairly unique and offers areas for close-quarters combat as well as open areas to attack from afar. The Jungle and Outpost are the two I enjoy the most, but I enjoyed playing on all of them.
One disappointing aspect of the online mode is not being able to create or customize your own avatar. You are always assigned a random character, and in some levels, certain players have a much greater advantage. A player that is dressed in all black will be much more difficult to spot in levels like the sewers, or in the dark corners of places like the jungle.
One of the most memorable things that happened to me while playing the online mode was dropping into a game where all of the XP rewards seemed to have gone haywire -- either that, or someone was playing with some sort of mod, which was the far more likely scenario. Anywho, whenever I would kill an opponent, I would get something upwards of 1000 XP each time. By the end of the round, I had something like 24000 XP! On this particular day, I remember level up several times in the course of just a few matches. Luckily, this was near the level cap -- likely around level 50 or so, which was a big help because higher levels require a ridiculous amount of XP to level up. Unfortunately, the host left before I could really max out my stats, but I remember it being one of the most bizarre and enjoyable set of matches I had played.
I am sad that the online mode of this game will soon be no more. It's quite unfortunate. I may have to make the transition to Black Ops II on the Wii U, which is a game I own but haven't yet had the opportunity to play.
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