GoldenEye: Rogue Agent Updated Hands-On

TOKYO--One of the rooms that make up Electronic Arts' booth at this year's Tokyo Game Show is devoted to GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (known as GoldenEye: Dark Agent in Japan) and it boasts a number of consoles running the latest Japanese PlayStation 2 version of the game. The single-player level on show is the same one that we've played through at a number of previous events (the third level from the game), but this is the first time that we've been able to employ the MRI vision and EM hack abilities. Also new in this version on show is a multiplayer map (possibly entitled Funhouse) based on the training area used by Scaramanga in The Man with the Golden Gun.

Like the other special abilities available to the GoldenEye character in Rogue Agent, the MRI vision and EM hack draw energy from a pool of 100 points that recharges quite slowly after each use. It's just as well that it does, because in most first-person shooters the MRI vision would be considered a cheat. When you use MRI vision, you're able to see enemies that are hiding behind objects or walls and, if you have a railgun in your arsenal, you can even shoot them from the same position (appropriately known in-game as a cheap shot). Having access to this ability on the level we played through seemed to make things a little too easy to be honest, so we're hoping that the ability will either be unavailable until later in the game or that the developers have come up with some ingenious ways to utilize it in other levels. The level would've been even easier to beat, actually, except that we noticed a couple of strange things as we played it on this occasion: the first was when we were unable to shoot an enemy through a hole in the wall that was big enough to fire a human cannonball through, never mind a bullet; the second, toward the end of the level, was when we could see some enemies standing motionless one level below us, but we were unable to pick them off with our sniper rifle despite lining up a perfect headshot--it was as if they were invulnerable because we hadn't crossed some invisible trigger line that would make them active.

The second of the abilities, the EM hack, proved to be less effective than the MRI vision since it hadn't actually been fully implemented. The only thing that we could actually use it for was to remotely flick switches, but in the final game you'll also be able to take control of weapons being used by nearby enemies. When we had the EM hack ability selected we could see that enemy weapons were highlighted as we neared them, but we weren't actually able to do anything out of the ordinary.

The highlight of our demonstration was undoubtedly a two-player deathmatch in the aforementioned Funhouse level. If you've never seen the movie The Man with the Golden Gun then this paragraph might not make much sense to you, but rest assured that this is something special for Bond fans. Scaramanga's Funhouse features a number of themed areas including the Wild West, '20s Chicago, a darkened maze with glowing doors and dummy doors, and a room filled with large triangular structures that contains both the James Bond mannequin and the golden gun's plinth from the movie. When Bond and Scaramanga do battle in the funhouse in the movie, Scaramanga's manservant Nick Nack is forever trying to disorientate them both by triggering traps and suchlike. In the game, you'll find switches that perform the same function, so you'll be able to have Al Capone and his flunkies open fire with their tommy guns, have one of the cowboys fan his six-shooter, or even have spikes shoot up through the floor in the golden gun room if one of your opponents is looking to get their hands on it. The Funhouse wasn't very big but, as you've no doubt guessed, we had a lot of fun with it.

GoldenEye: Rogue Agent is currently scheduled for release in North America on all current-generation consoles on November 17. For more updates, be sure to check GameSpot's coverage of the Tokyo Game Show 2004.