The amount of heavy lifting Goldeneye 64 did for the Bond name is a Rare feat

The gameplay trailer showcased for 007 First Light at Sony’s State of Play revealed a confident showing from IO Interactive, the developers behind the Hitman series, who are letting the gaming world know loud and clear that much like the titular agent starring in their latest game, they have a license to kill.

In this instance, absolutely killing it in slaying any doubts they are going to fumble their hands with the Bond license

While there is plenty to discuss in terms of what the game has on offer thus far, I just wanted to take a brief moment to point out the irony that, even now, almost twenty years after the release of Rare’s Goldeneye 007 on the N64, and James Bond video games are still living in the enormous shadow cast by the monumental 1997 title, for better and worse.

Pictured: The worse

Better and worse within the notion that Goldeneye rocked so hard back in the day, developers and publishers have both been living in the shadow of Rare’s magjum opus for decades now, and the upshot to this is the sheer notion of the games success was so massive, the idea remains that what Goldeneye did was replicatable. Maybe not a perfect recreation of something so staggering in its quality or an an ideal 1:1 copy of the lightning in a bottle that represented why Goldeneye turned out the way it did, but the take away of the happening left an indelible mark on the gaming landscape, and one that would remain for years to come.

Occasional glimmers of hope reminds us that not all is lost in the effort to recapture the magic that was and can be again

The bad news from all of this is that on the regular, gamers hopes and dreams are held ransom everytime a new announcement is made in tandem with the Bond name attached to a video game that it could possible live up to the calibre Goldeneye 64 possessed all those years ago, only to have their expectations inevitably dashed when they get their hands on the newest 007 title, and find out they have what ends up being a decent enough shooter, but a far cry from being the same kind of quality Goldeneye represented.

pic
The Far Cry games themselves representing quite a decent kind of quality within the fps realm, mind you, just not of the Bond related persuasion, of course

However, with the level of polish IO Interactive has already boasted with their latest trailer for 007 Firsg Light, and their extensive and impressive pedigree they’ve showcased with the Hitman series over the years, I’m getting a great intuition they may finally be the ones to dissipate the long shadow cast by Goldeneye 64 after all these years. There’s plenty more to say on the matter, and I look forward to revisiting both the history involving Goldeneye supremacy and what 007 Firat Light brings to the table in the future, in the meantime, check out the trailer for the new Bond game and see for yourself if you think it shares the same kind of promise.

-Pashford