In the grand scheme of things, context takes on many forms; one child’s energetic playtime may be an adult’s calming respite.


There even existed a store, way back in the 20th century that even allowed consumers to rent such “context”

Powering on through our replay of GoldenEye 64, and now that we have safely escaped the nightmareish hellscape that is Severnaya, we may leave most of the Timeline flippancies aside, as the movie and game start to become more congruent moving forward, though we will have no such luck in leaving behind the worst of the migraines where difficulty concerns us. We do get a breather for a moment, as the pacing immediately following the Bunker Pt.2 is mindfully crafted to feel a bit more methodically tense and atmospherically refined. Many creatives in the field, at least where film and gaming are concerned, observe the classic three act structure as being a vital part of good storytelling, and I’ve even made mention before (somewhere) on ATE, that it’s not just the big three part movement of the entire story, as in, from opening to close, we move from the opening act to another and then the finale, but one can segment the pacing in such a trinary, by going a step further and microsizing such a compartmentalization for an even greater effect, as if Russian nesting dolls, trinaries within trinaries…trinaries all the way down.

I think that’s why mission 1 in GoldenEye tends to be such a strong opener to this game (Dam, Facility, Runway), as it is only one of two “missions” divided into a three parter in the game, and both of them work the best in terms of flow. They also both are, in a moment of well focused efforts, both the opener and closer of the game, as the second three parter is Control, Caverns, and Cradle, the only problem with this trilogy involves the spike in difficulty in having to close out the game, with Control being an absolute bastard in terms of challenge (if one does not know some of the tricks to get around the worst of it.), and due to development crunch, in terms of both cost and time, most studios have to cut corners somewhere, which is why I say leave the most fat in the middle if you must, but make lean the opener and grand finale, as it not only sets a strong first impression, but you’ll also leave the player with the last thing they experience as a polished and memorably satisfying end.

Digressing a bit, in reference to where mission structuring is concerned…I know all of this seems “arbitrary”, as one can play any grouping of levels back to back to back and make it feel like a connecting bridge of narrative gameplay (in one sense), but the idea behind cohesion does go a long way in building more of a world, crafting a more compelling atmosphere to the entire experience. I think there is often a mistake on some gamers parts, to use the term “immersion” in a more literal sense instead of a metaphysical one, in that a great game doesn’t actually feel like an out of body experience, like you are literally now inhabiting the character you are playing as, totally convinced you’re apart of another world, but more so in that this ebb and flow kicks in, sometimes descending into a wu wei kind of mentality, which totally absorbs you, and makes you forget about everything else except what is right in front of you. That’s when immersion is truly at it’s peak, and one of the reasons I think GoldenEye has endeared for so many years, as it makes short work of pulling you into its own little corner of the universe, and you effortlessly forget about everything else for awhile.

There is also an element of pathos involved in what helps to make a great atmosphere to any piece of media, storytelling, or just flat out communication. One of the most notable philosophers in the western world, Aristotle, a student of Plato’s, wrote about it more than 2000 years ago, in reference to rhetoric, and how to capture an audience. He also talks about logos and ethos, which is a separate article I’ve been meaning to write about for sometime, which I could relevantly slot into speaking about GoldenEye, but I think pathos is the most relevant, as, per my point about golden standards for good adaptations, it is about capturing the metaphysical essence of the property that matters more than accuracy to canon or pitch perfect replication of events on screen; it is about taming the fictional spirit that embodies the concept, and translating it through the new mediums communication of choice…this is the most vital aspect of the adaptation, knowing how to take the old language, and translate it through the new tongue of transference in the process.

Fairly dramatic ramp up to mission 6, Pt.1 “Statue”, which is a slow and mindfully crafted level that has you creep along what feels like an ideological graveyard haunted by the phantom pains of fallen empires, which suits the whole pathos of GoldenEye perfectly, as the entire narrative is filled to the brim with self-awareness and acknowledgements that the Cold War is already over, and we are just watching the last dying throes and horrendous death rattle as it draws its final breath. Kind of a signaling to the audience that, after the Berlin Wall fell, and the metaphoric precedence it set in representing the end of a 50 year ideological conflict, the world is now entering a new phase, and with it, the boundaries and standards of what the new world order will look like. Even in something as “small” as a story about a secret agent with a penchant for martinis, we will notice a change, so in this way, GoldenEye almost feels like some kind of bizarre encore before the geopolitical curtain is drawn, and we must accept the state of change that befalls us.

I suppose part of the irony of my espousements on the matter are totally lost on the audience that this game was intended for; I don’t think little 10 year old Jane or Jimmy are thinking about the after effects and wide sweeping generational trauma that comes with the terrifying echoes that Stalinism brought with it, and how it molded and disfigured so many for the next half century, as those little rascal kids are probably just giggling they shot some dude in the ass and he was programmed to move funny as a result, but the backdrop is there, and like a lot of transcendent media, there are plenty of messages, values, political underpinnings, and ethical standards imbued in any good piece of storytelling, whether it be interactive or not. The quality of the work stands on its own, and acts as a reflection of the time and place that it attempts to become a simulacrum of. In the most starling of examples, you get an ideal distillation of the time and place of not only where you were when you first experienced it, but with enough empathy and imagination, you also experience the cultural zeitgeist at the time, and with it, all of the joys and sorrows of an entire culture that either endured through the ages, or was tragically wiped away by the relentlessly apathetic march the cruelty of time brings with it.

…oh yeah, I was suppose to talk about the level structure of “Statue”…uh, you piss about for a bit, find out 006 is a traitorous dickhole, save Natalya from being in several places at once due to a god damn explosion, then eat shit as you get captured by some Russian fucks.

The end.
~Pashford