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Game Corner [Sci-Fanuary]: Mega Man (Xbox Series X)

06/01/202510/06/2025Dr. K15 Comments

January celebrates two notable dates in science-fiction history, “National Science Fiction Day” on January 2 and Arthur C. Clarke’s HAL 9000’s birthday on January 12. Accordingly, I’m dedicating January to celebrating sci-fi with an event I call “Sci-Fanuary”.

Released: 24 August 2015
Originally Released: 17 December 1987
Developer: Digital Eclipse
Original Developer: Capcom
Also Available For: GameCube, Mobile, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo Wii U, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox, Xbox One, Xbox Series S

The Background:
Prior to 1987, Capcom was primarily known for their arcade titles and Mega Man (or “Rockman” as it was known in Japan) was specifically conceived to be their first venture into the home console market, which was seeing a resurgence thanks to Nintendo’s efforts. Inspired by Astro Boy (Tezuka, 1952 to 1968), artist Keiji Inafune designed Mega Man’s iconic, chibi-style look that was absolutely butchered when Mega Man released in the United States. Mega Man was developed by a team of only six people and incorporated a “rock, paper, scissors” methodology to its bosses, which would be vulnerable to specific weapons. Despite its reputation as one of the hardest videogames of its era, Mega Man received critical acclaim. It’s widely regarded as one of the all-time NES classics, largely because of the challenge involved, and spawned a popular and sprawling series of videogames, comic books, and cartoons over the following decades. Over the years, Mega Man has been re-released several times: it was completely remade for the SEGA Mega Drive in 1994, rebuilt into a 2.5D PlayStation Portable-exclusive title in 2006, and finally came to modern consoles alongside its first five sequels with this Legacy Collection release, which included quality of life features and additional bonuses to celebrate the long-running series.

The Plot:
In the year 20XX, the kindly Doctor Thomas Light’s robots are turned into malevolent “Robot Masters” by Dr. Light’s rival, Doctor Albert Wily. In response to this threat, Dr. Light’s assistant, Rock, volunteers to become the fighting robot Mega Man, defeat the Robot Masters, and confront Dr. Wily in his dangerous robot factory.

Gameplay and Power-Ups:
Mega Man is a 2D, sidescrolling run-and-gun action platformer in which players assume the role of the chibi fighting robot Mega Man (despite what the atrocious American box art would have you believe) and blast your way through six levels to track down and defeat the six Robot Masters. You can freely select the order you want to play these levels, but you’ll have a much easier time if you consult an online guide (or the handy cheat sheet that comes with this Legacy Collection version of the game) and tackle the stages in a specific order as Robot Masters are extremely vulnerable to certain weapons so it makes the game a lot easier if you plan out which order you’re going to tackle its levels. The Legacy Collection release lets you pick between the Mega Man and Rockman versions, speed up the gameplay, and freely configure the button layout, but the basic setup is perfectly fine for gameplay. By default, A jumps, X fires your currently equipped weapon, Y enables an autofire function that’s more like a rapid-fire mode, and B does nothing. The Right Bumper brings up the in-game pause menu where you can select different “Special Weapons” to equip to Mega Man’s Mega Buster arm cannon, the Left Bumper allows you to rewind the game if you make a mistake, and you can manually save at any time from the main pause menu. Mega Man is a little limited in his abilities here; you can run, shoot, and jump and shoot and that’s about it. There’s no slide, dash, or wall jumping here, just the basics, but that’s enough to get through most levels if you’re skilled and patient enough.

*Blast and platform through stages using versatile Special Weapons.*

However, Mega Man’s abilities increase as you clear stages and defeat the Robot Master. Each victory adds the Robot Master’s signature ability to your Special Weapon list, providing additional means to traverse stages, defeat enemies, and easily dispatch subsequent Robot Masters. Unlike the Mega Buster, the Special Weapons have finite ammo; each has a bar that depletes upon use and you’ll need to pick up blue Weapon Energy capsules to partially or fully refill the meter. Since each Special Weapon has its own ammo, you’ll need to switch between them to fill each up, though smaller Weapon Energy capsules are often dropped by enemies easily defeated with the Mega Buster. Enemies also drop Life Energy cells to refill your health, and you’ll find larger variants of both and the odd extra life hidden in each level, usually near a death trap. Still, six Robot Masters means six Special Weapons: Cut Man’s Rolling Cutter sees you toss out a pair of boomerang-like scissor blades, Elec Man’s Thunder Beam fires electrical bolts above and ahead and is great for clearing large blocks out of your way, and Ice Man’s Ice Slasher fires arrow-shape ice projectiles that can freeze enemies and flame bursts to create temporary platforms. Fire Man’s Fire Storm blasts out a fireball and temporarily protects you with a flaming shield, Bomb Man’s Hyper Bomb sees you throw a large bomb that’s slow and takes a while to explode but deals heavy damage, and Guts Man’s Super Arm allows you to pick up and throw certain blocks. There’s also an additional power-up hidden in Elec Man’s stage; once you have the Thunder Beam or Super Arm, you can clear away the blocks to snag this item, which creates temporary energy platforms. Luckily, you can replay any level at any time to challenge the bosses again or acquire this item if you missed it the first time, and you’ll absolutely need it to clear Dr. Wily’s stages.

*The game is notorious for its punishing difficulty and testing your platforming skills.*

Mega Man is not a game to be taken lightly; every stage is full of bottomless pits, tricky jumps, annoying enemies with erratic attack patterns that respawn the moment you edge off the screen, and other hazards designed to sap your health or whittle away your lives. Every enemy you defeat awards you points, though these appear to be completely useless. If you exhaust all your lives, you can choose to continue as often as you like or return to the stage select screen with all your progress saved, which is helpful, though I’m sure it was exhausting back in the day having to replay the tougher stages right from the start. The Legacy Collection’s rewind feature circumvents that but Mega Man is still tough. You’ll be climbing up and down ladders, hopping to blocks that vanish almost immediately, dropping down shafts and avoiding instant death spikes, and taking out flying enemies to buy yourself enough time to make a jump before the next one pops up. Wall and ceiling turrets, slippery ice in Ice Man’s stage, flame bursts in Fire Man’s stage, electrical currents in Elec Man’s stage, flying platforms that also shoot projectiles, and riding broken tracks on platforms that drop under you in Guts Man’s stage can all be difficult challenges to overcome. Pretty much all these gimmicks are then recycled in Dr. Wily’s gauntlet at the end of the game. Here, you’ll have to plough through four additional stages, each with an abundance of instant death pits and hazards and rematches against the Robot Masters (and battles against other bosses) in even more restricted arenas, which all put your skills to the test. Truthfully, I was always intimidated by Mega Man because of its notorious difficulty, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought, though I wholeheartedly put this down to me making liberal use of the rewind feature.

Presentation:
Obviously, you’re going to need to temper your expectations for Mega Man; it’s an 8-bit title that originally released on the NES, a console not exactly known for its processing power. Still, everything is bright and colourful here; backgrounds aren’t always the most detailed and Mega Man is a pretty simplistic character sprite, but simple often works best in these types of games. Mega Man has a great deal of personality with his exaggerated head and arm cannon, blinking when left idle, wearing a look of agony when hit, and dramatically exploding into a shower of pixelated circles when killed. Every time you equip a Special Weapon, Mega Man’s sprite changes colour so you know what you have equipped (red for Fire Storm, yellow for Thunder Beam, etc) and he hops around with just the right level of control and dexterity, only really being unwieldy when skidding about in Ice Man’s stage. His hit box is quite large, though, as are those of his enemies, so there’s very little margin for error when battling enemies up close. Additionally, the game struggles a bit when there are a lot of sprites on screen. Screen tearing, sprite flickering, and collectibles quickly disappearing are commonplace and the action will slow down if too many sprites appear at once even with the Legacy Collection’s performance boosters.

Mega Man *sports a colourful, if garish,* anime-inspired aesthetic.

While each level is aesthetically very similar, primarily being composed of a series of mechanical platforms and surfaces, they do have unique elements and colour palettes to separate them. Elec Man’s stage focused more on vertical progression, for example, with different ladder-based routes offering different enemies and hazards to bypass, while Guts Man’s stage takes place in a mine, with mine tracks and a rocky aesthetic punctuating this. Ice Man’s stage is fittingly covered in slippery snow and ice and even features water-based sections where your movement speed is dramatically hampered, and Bomb Man’s stage features large gold spherical buildings in the background. Dr. Wily’s stages are probably the most impressive, with lots of blinking lights and mechanical trappings emphasising the danger of his lair, while boss battles take place in enclosed arenas fitting for their inhabitants. Mega Man’s story is only related in the ending, which shows Mega Man returning home to Dr. Light and shedding his armour, though it includes some of the catchiest bit-tunes of its era, so it’s nice that the Legacy Collection includes the complete soundtrack on the disc.

Enemies and Bosses:
A whole host of robotic minions will dog your progress in Mega Man, many of which spit projectiles either right at you, in a spread, or in an explosive burst, and some of which even shield against your attacks or can only be destroyed with specific Special Weapons. Enemies like the Bunby Helis, Kamadomas, Mambus, penguin-like Pepes, and Bullet Bill-like Killer Bombs will fly, float, and rocket across the screen to screw up your jumps, turrets sit on walls and ceilings, and the Adhering Suzies make traversing narrow corridors a massive pain as they wander back and forth and up and down. Mega Man so debuts some of the franchise’s most recognisable enemies, the Metall, a little robot who hides under a construction helmet and peeks out to spit projectiles at you, and Sniper Joe, a pistol-firing marksbot who hides behind a shield and requires the use of the Hyper Bomb to defeat. The Hammer Bros.-like Pickelman also carries a shield but tosses an endless supply of pickaxes at you, often hopping between platforms to up their annoyance factor, while spherical Watchers slowly float up and down, shooting projectiles and knocking you from ladders on Elec Man’s stage. Ice Man’s stage is also home to the wacky Crazy Razy, a robot who can detach its head from its body! Many stages also include a sort of mini boss, the Big Eye, a large robot that jumps about trying to crush you. Multiple versions of this enemy are found in Dr. Wily’s stage and they can take a lot of hits to defeat for very little reward, so it’s easier to simply run underneath them when they do a big hop and avoid them entirely.

*Each Robot Master has a specific weakness and yields a powerful Special Weapon.*

Each stage culminates in a battle against one of the six Robot Master’s. Before battling them, you usually have to bypass a Big Eye and a corridor full of enemies, hazards, and a few power-ups before you’re locked into an arena, the awesome boss them kicks in, and the bosses health meter appears onscreen. The difficulty of the Robot Masters is entirely based on what Special Weapons you have on hand. f you don’t have the weapon they’re weak to, they can be quite tough but, with the right weapon equipped, they become a joke. With this in mind, the first Robot Master I fought was Cut Man, who runs and jumps about tossing his boomerang-like scissor blades at you. You can easily avoid this and defeat him with the standard Mega Buster, and then use the Rolling Cutter to decimate Elec Man, whose three-way Thunder Beam is as nothing to this weapon. Similarly, while Ice Man fires three freezing arrow-like projectiles, the Thunder Beam will do him in in no time. His Ice Slasher makes quick work of Fire Man (though he’s still quite tricky thanks to his erratic movements and flaming shield), and the Fire Storm is the best way to take out Bomb Man, who jumps across the arena tossing large bombs. Bomb Man’s Hyper Bomb is the key to taking out Guts Man, who’s probably the most difficult of the six Robot Masters. He causes the screen to shake when he stomps, leaving you stunned, and tosses massive boulders at you, and the Hyper Bomb takes so long to go off that it’s easy to miss your target. All six Robot Masters are fought again in Dr. Wily’s stage, in new arenas with less room to manoeuvre, though you can simply use the same tactics to defeat them.

*Dr. Wily stacks his greatest creations against you in the tough-as-nails finale.*

Alongside facing off with the six Robot Masters in Dr. Wily’s stage, you’ll also battle three other boss robots before confronting the mad scientist himself. The first of these is the now iconic Yellow Devil, a massive blob-like monstrosity that can dismantle itself to appear on either side of the arena. These blocks can be difficult to avoid, even with the rewind feature, and you only get a split second to attack its one, small weak spot (the eye, which also fires shots at you) before it dismantles itself again. Thankfully, there’s a brilliant exploit where you equip the Thunder Beam, fire it at the Yellow Devil’s eye, and rapidly pause and unpause the game as the shot hits its target, which will obliterate this boss in record time. Next, you must face an exact duplicate of Mega Man, who copies whatever weapon you have equipped and has all the same abilities as you. I found the best method was to equip the Fire Storm, hop over his attacks, and blast away, whittling down the doppelgänger’s health with the weapon’s shield ability. Finally, you’ll battle a series of CWU-01P robots underwater; these appear from one of three parts of the arena, rotate in a clockwise pattern, and are shielded by a bubble. You’ll need to jump over them and blast at their central cores to destroy them, though they get faster and faster the more you destroy. Once you’ve triumphed, you’ll face off with Dr. Wily, who attaches his flying saucer to a gigantic machine that slowly lumbers side to side firing projectiles in an arc that can be as hard to avoid as the machine’s hit box. Equip Fire Storm again and attack the giant gun arm on the front to expose Dr. Wily and begin the second phase, where the machine fires balls of energy in a spiral pattern. The weak spot is now on the top of the craft, so equip the Thunder Beam and blast away, doing your best to not get boxed into a corner, and you’ll soon have Dr. Wily begging for mercy.

Additional Features:
There are twenty-four Achievements available in Mega Man Legacy Collection, with one awarded specifically for beating this game. In addition to different display options (including borders and filters), the Legacy Collection allows you to view a character database and production art and take on a series of tough, time-based challenges for additional Achievements. “Challenge Mode” gives you six minutes and thirty seconds to conquer remixed stages from this game, five minutes and thirty seconds to defeat the Yellow Devil, and battle all six Robot Masters in a boss rush without the use of Special Weapons. The more challenges you complete, the more you’ll unlock, including additional remixes of Mega Man’s stages and even gauntlets where you play through multiple Mega Man titles and against the game’s bosses against stricter time limits. Otherwise, there’s not much else to return to in the base game. There’s no high score table so it’s a bit pointless to try and outdo your higher score, though it’s a fun enough game to play through again so you can always come back for that (and for the nostalgia factor).

The Summary:
I’ve always had a soft spot for the Mega Man series, despite never really playing any of the games. Until I got the Legacy Collection games, I’d only finished one Mega Man title and I’d always wanted to play more but was put off by the difficulty factor. Thankfully, the Legacy Collection includes a rewind and save state feature, making Mega Man much more accessible to someone like me, who grew up playing SEGA’s consoles and largely avoided some of Nintendo’s more infamously difficult titles. I’m happy to say that I really enjoyed Mega Man; I can see how it would be frustrating and tricky to play through without modern quality of life features, though the infinite continues and various hidden checkpoints throughout the stages is a benefit. While the levels are mainly defined by a few gimmicks and their steadily increasing difficulty, I liked the freedom of choice on offer. You can make the game much harder or easier depending on which order to take on the Robot Masters and nothing ever felt spitefully unfair, with hazards and enemies being a question of trial and error more than aggravation. Mega Man is a visually appealing character and I enjoyed utilising his Special Weapons, especially to cut through the Robot Masters, who also exhibit a lot of personality in their little introductory cutscenes. Dr. Wily’s final barrage of stages and bosses is a definite uphill battle but exploits and memorisation definitely swing things in your favour, and I was really enjoying the jaunty tunes that peppered the game’s stages. There’s some additional challenge and replay value added in the Legacy Collection version with the time trials and boss gauntlets, which will test seasoned players, so I’d absolutely recommend picking up this collection to experience the most accessible version of this original game.

My Rating:

Pretty Good

Was Mega Man a staple of your NES library back in the day or did you first play it on a different console? Which order did you tackle the game’s stages in and did you also have to replay Elec Man’s stage for the Magnet Beam as I did? Which of the Robot Masters and Mega Man’s Special Weapons was your favourite? What did you think to the difficulty of the game and the quality of life features included in this version? Which Mega Man game is your favourite and would you like to see more titles released in the franchise? How are you celebrating all things science-fiction this month? Whatever your thoughts and memories of Mega Man, feel free to leave them below and be sure to check out my other Mega Man reviews across the site!

Game Corner [Sci-Fanuary]: Star Fox 64 / Lylat Wars (Nintendo Switch)

05/01/202503/01/2025Dr. K3 Comments

Released: 25 October 2021
Originally Released: 27 April 1997
Developer: Nintendo EAD
Also Available For: iQue Player, Nintendo 64, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo Wii U (Original); Nintendo 3DS (Remake)

The Background:
In their effort to break into the 16-bit market, Nintendo forged a close relationship with Argonaut Software, leading to the ground-breaking creation of the “Super FX” chip and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System’s (SNES) ability to process 3D graphics. Nintendo and Argonaut drew inspiration from the original Star Wars trilogy (Various, 1977 to 1983) to showcase the chip with arcade shooter Star Fox (1993). However, despite becoming the fastest-selling videogame in North America and garnering rave reviews, a sequel was unceremoniously cancelled so Nintendo could focus on the more powerful Nintendo 64. Although gamers had to wait over twenty years for Star Fox 2 to be released, lead producer and series creator Shigeru Miyamoto spearheaded a Nintendo 64 entry that began as a port of the original game as the developers struggled to adapt to the Nintendo 64’s hardware. After six months of testing, Nintendo higher-ups were apparently unenthusiastic, though it took only a ten second demonstration at Shoshinkai 1995 for the project to be approved. Artist Takaya Imamura was heavily involved in many aspects of the game, from the art direction to gameplay mechanics, while Miyamoto sought to both build upon the existing mechanics and recycle some of the work that had gone into the cancelled Star Fox 2, specifically the multiplayer mode and branching paths. The developers created new craft for the Star Fox team to utilise (though on-foot sections were scrapped due to time constraints), and the game was the first in the Nintendo 64 library to use the Rumble Pak peripheral. Retitled to Lylat Wars in Europe, Star Fox 64 released to critical acclaim. The multiplayer and gameplay were highly praised, and it even initially outsold Super Mario 64 (Nintendo EAD, 1996). Despite this, it would be another five years before there was another game in the franchise, though it did receive an equally successful 3DS remake in 2011 alongside numerous ports, and it’s highly regarded as one of the best in the series.

The Plot:
Five years after being exiled for biological warfare, the mad scientist Andross attacks the Lylat system, causing General Pepper to hire the Star Fox team – Fox McCloud, Falco Lombardi, Slippy Toad, and Peppy Hare – to defend the worlds within.

Gameplay and Power-Ups:
Star Fox 64 is an arcade-style, space-based shooter that largely takes place on-rails and with you back in control of an Arwing space craft. In many respects, the game is a remake of the original Star Fox, taking few elements from the cancelled Star Fox 2. You’re back controlling Fox alone with three AI-controlled wingmen helping you out, and there are no real-time strategy elements to think about (though the path you take and the missions you tackle will change depending on how you play). If you’re new to the game, you can get to grips with the controls in the “Training” mode, or jump right into the main story and take on seven stages (or “Missions”) to confront Andross’s forces. Players begin with two lives and a basic shield meter, which depletes as you take damage and can be refilled with silver rings, extended with gold rings, and replenished by passing through checkpoints. You blast enemy ships with A, holding the button to charge a homing shot that targets the nearest enemy, or destroy all onscreen enemies with one of your limited supply of Nova bombs with B. Y boosts you ahead, which is great for rushing past hazards, chasing down enemies, or outrunning ships on your tail. X brakes, which is also great for avoiding hazards and having pursuing craft fly past you, though this and the boost are tied to a small, replenishing meter to keep you from abusing their functionality. ZL and R allow you to bank, aiding in strafing and quickly sweeping enemy swarms. Double tapping either performs a “barrel roll” to evade and deflect incoming fire, and the left and right sicks execute a U-turn (though I struggled with this nine times out of ten).

*Fox has more versatility, vehicles, and options than ever in this fun arcade shooter.*

The right stick also switches to a cockpit view, if that’s your preference, though I was very impressed with how the game handled from the standard third-person viewpoint, especially compared to the last two games. The onscreen aiming reticule helps, for sure, as do the tighter, far more responsive controls that makes flying a breeze. Things get a little trickier when you enter “All-Range Mode”, where you’re confined to a set arena, generally to battle a boss or attack a central target. I found it a bit difficult to get my bearings in these situations, generally crashing into objects and being forced back into the fight by an invisible border, which my wingmen were quick to comment on. Yor wingmen offer advice encouragement, criticism, and require your help constantly. Generally, they’re pretty useful and will attack targets, but you can’t command them and they (Slippy, usually) are always getting into trouble or flying into your laser fire. It pays to keep them healthy, however; if they take too much damage and leave, you’ll lose out on Slippy’s analysis of bosses and the accompanying health meter, Peppy’s gameplay advice, and Falco’s alternative paths. Depending on which route you take, you’ll also be aided by Bill Grey or Katt Monroe, and ROB 64 will occasionally provide helpful pick-ups, as indicated by an onscreen notification to flick the right stick, or provide cover fire in the Great Fox. Players also take to the ground in the Landmaster tank and the sea in the Blue Marine, which have all the same capabilities as the Arwing except the Landmaster can’t fly (it can briefly hover, though I could never remember which shoulder buttons to press to do this) and the Blue Marine fires homing torpedoes. While there’s only one underwater mission, Landmaster missions are a nice change of pace but aiming can be a little trickier, something made even more troublesome by your Arwing-based wingmen still needing your help despite having the high ground. If you take too many hits, your ship will sustain heavy damage to its wings, which can be repaired with the Spare Wing pick-up. Your lasers can also be powered-up, and you’ll gain 1-Ups either by finding them or finishing a mission with a high kill count.

*Missions, objectives, and the game’s difficulty all change based on how you play.*

Your performance is graded at the end of every mission; your remaining wingmen and your health is tallied against your kill count, which increases your chances for a 1-Up. It’s advisable to avoid being too trigger happy as you’ll rob yourself of your backup while they go in for repairs, and General Pepper is billed for property damage at the game’s end. Generally, missions simply involve flying through a set course, defeating enemies, dodging hazards, and taking out a boss. However, even linear missions can hide secret paths; downing a set number of enemies, flying through certain alcoves, defeating rival team Star Wolf, and shooting switches can lead to alternate paths both in the mission and on the main map. The path you take dictates the game’s difficulty (with the top path being the hardest), though you can opt to change your path if you wish. Some missions task you with completing an objective in a time limit; others have you destroying shield generators, rushing through narrow corridors, or blasting through asteroid belts. When on Solar, your shield constantly drains from the intense heat; on Titania, you’ll bomb across the sand avoiding collapsing ruins in search of Slippy. Katina sees you defending a pyramid base from a swarm of enemy fighters alongside Bill, and Macbeth has you chase after a train, blasting boulders and defensive towers. Warp gates appear sporadically, allowing you to skip ahead, and you’ll face battleships, space stations, and swarming forces as you approach Venom, Andross’s home base. Walls, girders, fire plumes, space debris, and turrets will test your reaction times, and you’ll occasionally have to pick different paths and make tight turns as you race towards (and away from) Andross.

Presentation:
I’ve always said one of the main things holding back Star Fox was the awful polygonal graphics. They might’ve been impressive at the time, but I never liked them and they really ruined my experience in a lot of ways. Thankfully, that’s not an issue here with the superior power of the Nintendo 64. The entire game is brought to life through polygons (with the exception of some background elements and such, I’m sure), with the correct textures and rendering making for a smooth and far more pleasant experience. The game’s story and character interaction are all fully voiced (a rarity even at the end of the Nintendo 64’s lifecycle let alone the start), and the cast all have distinctive personalities: Peppy is wise and seasoned, Slippy a pain in the ass, and Falco a stubborn jerk. Although most cutscenes relegate the crew to amusing flapping heads, each mission gets an intro and outro, generally showing the team checking in or setting the stage for the current conflict. The game’s sound effects and music are also top-notch, with stirring military themes, adventurous tunes, and ominous overtures adding to the increased stakes as stages get progressively difficult. Some interesting touches are included here and there, such as planets looming into view when you’re blasting through space, enemy tanks toppling columns, and the very architecture itself coming to life around you. As you’d expect from the Nintendo 64, there’s some pop-up and fog effects here, but it’s generally masked or incorporated into a level’s structure, or the action ramps up to compensate.

*The technology has finally caught up with the concept to present a charming action romp.*

There’s quite a bit of variety to the mission locations in Star Fox 64; you view your current path and its branches from a rotatable space map, encouraging experimentation to visit new worlds, with their objectives tweaked depending on your path. Things start off familiarly enough with the distinctly Earth-like Corneria, with its river-filled mountains and futuristic main city. Weather effects and seasons taint the remaining planets in the Lylat system: Fortuna is the icy home to one of Andross’s outer bases, Solar is quite literally a raging star, Titania is a desert world filled with ruins and beset by a raging sandstorm, and Aquas takes place in the ocean depths. When partaking in space missions, you’ll blast towards stars, constellations, and planets taking on vaguely Star Wars-like battleships, debris, asteroids, lumbering craft, and surprise attacks from swarming, Space Invaders-esque (Taito, 1978) ships. Even confined areas like Bolse can have a lot going on with their intricate mechanical textures, endless enemy swarms, and unique objectives. Sure, it’s all a bit quaint these days, with blocky polygons and out-dated graphics, but Star Fox 64 has aged far better than the first game. The on-rails action keeps you moving, lasers and explosions and interesting obstacles are as constant as cries for help and warning notifications, and there’s always something to see, collect, shoot at, or avoid as you blast along. Although I found the stage aggravating and full of hazards, Macbeth was a great example of this as enemy ships fly overhead, the train trundles along firing concussive blasts and dropping boulders, and you’re constantly swerving to avoid obstacles and target everything in sight.

Enemies and Bosses:
If there’s a downside to Star Fox 64, it’s mostly the enemies. Indistinct polygonal crafts of various sizes pop up, fly in, or swarm around each area, blasting at you or charging into you or chasing Slippy and forcing you to rescue her for the hundredth time. They’re easily shot down with your primary weapon but it’s recommended you charge a shot to take out multiple foes at once (and net yourself a power-up and a hit combo in the process). Turrets, mines (both land, sea, and space), towers, and bigger swarms become more frequent as you progress. Snake-like Moras weave throughout the Meteo asteroid field, whole swarms fill the screen with grid-like laser patterns, bee-like fighters dance about firing coloured rings, and winged craft rise from Solar’s burning depths. Some of the more interesting enemies are land-based, such as the Garudas (construction robots who topple buildings and toss girders at you) and the giant, crab-like walkers of Titania. Anime-like Shogun Troopers attack the Corerian fleet in Sector Y, disc-like defence station platforms and large battle cruisers act as both hazards and targets in Area 6, and you’ll be hard-pressed to destroy each section of the seemingly unstoppable train on Macbeth, especially while blasting tanks, towers, and through gates. As versatile as Andross’s forces are, often splitting apart and flying at you as horizontal and vertical hazards, his home world of Venom is rife with buzzing swarms, tight turns, explosive booby traps, and walls that sprout hazards at the command of the stone golem, Golemech.

*The game’s not short on gigantic bosses to challenge your skills.*

Each mission culminates in a boss battle, though some missions have more than one depending on how well you play or will add additional phases and challenges (such as a time limit) to bosses. It’s recommended that you keep Slippy alive as that’s the only way you’ll properly gauge your progress against the boss as she brings up their health bar, though pieces of them will break off as you attack. Many are also accompanied by or spawn smaller enemy craft or fire destructible projectiles, which are worth targeting if your shield or bombs are low. Finally, the general strategy against these bosses is to simply avoid their attacks and target their weak spot (often a glowing yellow target), though you will have to adapt to All-Range Mode and partake in some tricky dogfights in some missions. On Corneria, you’ll battle either an Attack Carrier or Granga’s Mech, with the latter being the harder option. The Attack Carrier’s weak spots are small but it’s dead simple to avoid its shots and blast its wings off, while Graga stomps about firing homing missiles and making his mech a hard target to track. When facing the Meteo Crusher, fire when the central metal plate rotates to expose the weak spot but watch for the big Death Star-like laser it fires and its second phase where it flips around to shoot from the front. The giant clam Bacoon awaits on Aquas, the heavily armoured Sarumarine on Zoness, and the crab-like Vulcain on Solar, with this latter swiping its pincers, crating lava tidal waves, spewing fie plumes, and spitting flaming boulders. There’s even a fun Independence Day (Emmerich, 1996) homage when you team up with Bill to attack a gigantic, saucer-like alien mothership on Katina. As mentioned, Macbeth really aggravated me the first time through as the Forever Train was a difficult battle. A winged mech detaches from it and rains spears onto the track, but it’ll also crash into you if you don’t take it out fast enough at the end. However, if you target eight switches dotted alongside the main train track, you can one-shot the boss with a cutscene!

*After besting Star Wolf and all his forces, you’ll take on the monstrous ape-thing Andross!*

After taking out the security facility on Boise, you’ll infiltrate Andross’s pyramid-like base and chase down Golemech, blasting away his sandstone hide to attack his mechanical innards. You’ll battle the Spyborg in Sector X, which launches its fists at you and fires projectiles from its head. Take too long battling it and it’ll swipe Slippy to Titania, forcing you to rescue her from Goras, which has Slippy hostage in one pincer and fires lasers with the other. Target the limbs first, then switch to the chest and heart to bring it down. To finish Sector Y, you’ll chase down and destroy some super-fast Shogun Troopers and the larger, chrome-plated Shogun who eventually (and conveniently) settles atop an attack carrier and makes itself an easy target. The Gorgon super laser in Area 6 proved quite a challenge; you need to destroy its extendable tentacles and attack craft, then the three energy spheres inside it, all to finally expose its inner core multiple times over to succeed, By far your most persistent foes will be rival team Star Wolf, who you’ll face numerous times. Sometimes you can ignore them in favour of other objectives, but if you engage then you’re in for a tough dog fight. Star Wolf and his team love to come at you from behind and chase down your wingmen, and their ships have the same capabilities as yours, making them formidable foes. I found the battle against them on Venom particularly frustrating due to the enclosed space, them sporting shields to negate your charge shot and bombs, and Andrew Oikonny being a douche and not getting off my ass! No matter which path you take, you’ll end up facing Andross alone with Fox, though this giant disembodied ape head only shows his true form (a giant brain!) on the hardest path. Andross attacks by swiping his hands, firing an electrical blast from his fingertip, and sucking you in to eat you. Target his eyes to briefly stun him, destroy each hand in turn, and drop a bomb in his mouth and you’ll soon encounter his second form, a mechanical devil head that chomps at you. Destroying this is enough for the easy and medium paths, but the final form sees you desperately flying around blasting first Andross’s eyes and then the grey matter on the back of his brain as he teleports about, then desperately following Fox’s father as he leads you to safety.

Additional Features:
As mentioned, there are three paths to choose in Star Fox 64, though you really need to be paying attention in missions to figure out how to tackle the different levels and challenges. Rescuing Falco or ignoring Star Wolf or prioritising kills will put you on different paths and, while you can change to a lower path, you can’t change up to a higher one. You’ll get slightly different endings for each, with Andross only being properly destroyed on the hardest path, though this encourages replaying the game as much as the high score table. As if that wasn’t enough, if you accumulate enough kills and keep your allies alive, you’ll be awarded a medal. Get a medal on every mission to unlock the harder “Expert” mode and really challenge yourself. There’s also a Versus mode where you compete against friends for points, either working towards a set number of kills or against a time limit, which also allows you to play outside of a vehicle. Beyond that, you can mess about with the title screen, search for warp points, unlock artwork by beating Expert mode, and use the Nintendo Switch Online functionality to create save states.

The Summary:
I’ve played Star Fox 64 before; I never had it on the Nintendo 64, but I downloaded it for the Nintendo Wii and I was even tempted to get the 3DS version. What put me off was my dislike of the original Star Fox, a clunky and ugly game that hasn’t aged well at all. This isn’t true of Star Fox 64, which retains the same charm and appeal as it had all those years ago. The technology has finally caught up with the concept here, providing slick, tight, action-orientated space battles that really bring the idea to life. I loved the presentation of the story, the way the vehicles controlled (Landmaster aiming notwithstanding), and the challenge on offer. It’s a bit cheap to not make it more explicit what you have to do to pick each path but the signs are there, guides exist, and it’s fun replaying and experimenting, especially as missions are altered each time. This means some missions that are quite easy can become much more difficult, your approach to Venom and reaching Andross changes, and you get slightly different endings for your troubles. Yes, constantly rescuing Slippy and the others is annoying but the on-rails action is really fun. There’s also a lot happening and everything runs really smoothly. All-Range Mode was a bit tricky for me, and some missions and boss battles (particularly against the powered-up Star Wolf) had me tearing my hair out at times, but this stress was mitigated by the Switch’s save state feature. I would’ve liked to see a free play mode, the ability to play as the other characters, a co-op mode, and a boss rush implemented but that’s all stuff I’d expect to see in a sequel or remake. As is, Star Fox 64 is the first entry in the franchise I really enjoyed playing. It wasn’t a chore to control or look at, the soundtrack is excellent, blowing up enemies was satisfying, the bosses were huge and engaging, and the game finally brought the characters and the action to life in a way I could enjoy.

My Rating:

Great Stuff

Are you a fan of Star Fox 64? Do you consider it the best of the classic Star Fox titles? Which vehicle and boss was your favourite? Did you ever best every mission and complete every path? What did you think to All-Range Mode and the branching path system? Do you have any memories of playing this with friends back in the day? Which Star Fox game is your favourite? Whatever your thoughts on Star Fox 64, please share them below and check out my other sci-fi content across the site!

Game Corner [Sci-Fanuary]: Star Fox (Nintendo Switch)

01/01/202515/10/2025Dr. K2 Comments

January celebrates two notable dates in science-fiction history, “National Science Fiction Day” on January 2 and Arthur C. Clarke’s HAL 9000’s birthday on January 12. Accordingly, I’m dedicating all of January to celebrating sci-fi in an event I call “Sci-Fanuary”.

Released: 6 September 2019
Originally Released: 21 February 1993
Developer: Nintendo EAD / Argonaut Software
Also Available For: Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and the SNES Classic Edition

The Background:
In the early days of their successful foray into 16-bit gaming, Nintendo worked closely with Argonaut Software. This collaboration gave birth to the “Super FX” chip, a ground-breaking component that allowed the SNES to process 3D graphics and unique visuals. To best showcase the Super FX chip, the two developed the basic concept of Star Fox. Inspired by the original Star Wars trilogy (Various, 1977 to 1983), the game would be an arcade-style space shooter and its main characters were designed by Shigeru Miyamoto, Katsuya Eguchi, and Takaya Imamura, who were influenced by Japanese folklore. Argonaut’s developers were kept separated from Nintendo’s main office due to being outsourced developers. However, Miyamoto frequently checked on the game and helped tweak aspects of its design, though Star Fox was mainly seen as an experiment to see if a 3D game could sell. Still, Nintendo went to a lot of effort to market the game, allegedly sinking $15 million into advertising and even signing off on competitive showcases where players compete for merchandise and cash prizes. The result was a critical and commercial hit; Star Fox topped Japanese sales charts and became the fastest-selling videogame in North America, eventually selling over four million copies by 1998. Reviews gushed about the arcade-style gameplay and pioneering 3D graphics, and the game is fondly remembered as a 16-bit classic despite some notable flaws. While Star Fox may have been a hit and inspired a Nintendo Power comic strip, it didn’t see a port or re-release for nearly twenty-five years and the sequel was famously cancelled. Even the critical acclaim of Star Fox 64/Lylat Wars (Nintendo EAD, 1997) and the franchise’s prominent inclusion in the Super Smash Bros. series (Various, 1999 to 2018) couldn’t stop the series from suffering a decline over the years due to some odd decisions on Nintendo’s part.

The Plot:
Fox McCloud and his fellow anthropomorphic mercenaries (known as “Star Fox”) are called in by General Pepper of the planet Corneria to pilot the experimental “Arwing” craft against the invading forces of the mad scientist Andross.

Gameplay and Power-Ups:
Star Fox is a pseudo-3D rail shooter in which players assume the role of Fox McCloud and engage with the armies of Andross, which have invaded the Lylat System and can only be stopped by the firepower of your Arwing and with the assistance of your teammates. The game offers four control styles and you can test these out both in the control selection screen and in the game’s “Training” mode. Personally, I went with control style B as it maps the Arwing’s blaster to the B button but pick whatever you prefer! This setup sees you tapping B to fire; sadly, there’s no rapid fire option and you can’t hold the button to continuously fire or charge up a bigger attack). A fires one of your limited supply of Nova Bombs, using Y to brake and X to boost ahead for as long as your meter lasts, and holding the L or R triggers to fly sideways. You can also tap these, in conjunction with the control stick or directional pad, to “do a barrel roll” and avoid incoming fire. This is a necessity in the game’s later stages and against certain bosses, where incoming fire comes in a barrage and walls and hazards pop out of nowhere. You can also press – to switch between a third-person view and a first-person view from Fox’s cockpit. This latter option is automatically assumed in some of the space-based stages, but I found it too disorientating so I preferred to stick with the default out-of-cockpit camera position.

*Blast across numerous Stages and three different Courses, helping your wingmen as you go.*

Although Fox isn’t alone in his campaign against Andross, you’re not allowed to play as anyone but the titular Star Fox, which is a bit of a shame and means the game does not different stats for the different characters, such as stronger defence for Falco Lombardi and a faster speed for Slippy Toad. However, your teammates provide encouragement and backup as you fly through the game’s stages. Often, each will inevitably require your help when they pick up a bogey, requiring you to rescue them in exchange for their gratitude (or admonishment in Falco’s case) and assistance with some firepower. On the flip side, it’s very easy to accidentally tag them with your blasts so check your fire as your final percentage grade will be affected by how healthy your team’s shields are. Also, if you lose a wingman at any point, they’ll be gone for the rest of the game, severely hampering your ability to get 100% completion. Additionally, Star Fox doesn’t use a traditional difficulty system; you pick from three paths (or “Courses”) containing seven Stages each. Some are shared across each path but with minor differences, such as containing different visual effects and bosses, and some lead to hidden areas, but the difficulty of the game depends on which Course you choose, with the top Course being the easiest and the bottom Course being the hardest. “Hard”, however, is somewhat relative. You may be attacked by more enemies, have to deal with more hazards, and encounter different bosses, but you’ll still find extra Nova Bombs, the odd extra life, and various sparkling circles to replenish your shield or alter your blaster fire.

*Things get more hectic and cluttered as you progress, but variety is at a minimum.*

Fox’s Arwing is pretty tough and manoeuvrable, but it can only take so much damage. Fortunately, you can use silver and/or gold silver rings to replenish some or all of your shield. There’s also a power-up that temporarily renders you an invincible wireframe model, and upgrades that increase the strength and rate of your firepower. These are worth picking up, but are often placed near closing doors, pistons, columns, buildings, and other hazards, meaning you need to calculate the risk of acquiring them. The Arwing can also be a bit clunky at times; it’s got quite a large hit box and slips about when you roll, meaning it’s easy to crash into things and lose parts of the ship, and you’re not always given enough time to react to incoming hazards. Additionally, there are no other game modes available here and no other mechanics to challenge you. You simply fly along a set path, blast enemies, and defeat a boss, rinse, and repeat. Sometimes you’ll need to boost or avoid pistons, doors, and other crushing hazards; sometimes you’ll automatically fly through a tunnel or navigate tight hallways; and sometimes you’ll have to blast meteors, semi-sentiment columns, and destroy buildings. Ultimately, though, you’re simply flying along and destroying enemies until you reach the find of the stage.

Presentation:
If there’s one thing Star Fox has going for it, it’s the music and sound design. Hajime Hirasawa brings the energy with some memorable, militaristic, and foreboding tunes that do a fantastic job of engaging you as you blast through Stages. Fox and his allies chatter in an amusing gibberish, but the game does feature English sound bites here and there, which is always impressive on 16-bit hardware. Yet, one of the reasons I’ve never really played Star Fox (beyond being a SEGA kid growing up) was because of the polygonal graphics employed to bring the ships and much of the environments to life. Even as a kid, I remember being unimpressed with these supposedly “ground-breaking” effects and they really haven’t aged very well today. Ships and buildings appear blocky, angular, and amateurish, featuring next to no textures or details, and really clashing against the more traditional sprite work on offer. The game tries to impress with its cinematic opening and shameless borrowings from the original Star Wars trilogy, but the models just don’t hold up and I can’t help but wonder if it would’ve been better to limit the polygonal effects to the bosses. As it is, I found it incredibly difficult to see what was happening when I was playing. As beautiful and varied as many of the environments are, the clash of styles makes it difficult to spot and target enemies (and the lack of an aiming reticule in third-person mode doesn’t help). Many of the hazards (from enemies to incoming missiles and even towers and cuboid blocks) tend to pop in out of nowhere because the SNES hardware is struggling to render the 3D graphics.

*The game’s polygonal graphics and atrocious pop-in effects age and ruin the gameplay.*

It’s a shame as the sprite work is really good. The team pop up in animated dialogue boxes to offer hints, encouragement, and admonishment as you play, enemies will sometimes fly at the screen after their crafts are defeated, and the Mode 7 techniques for scaling and rushing across water and grass gives the game an epic scope and makes it fun to swoop around blasting at those awful polygonal ships. Environments are quite varied; you’ll fly through gates and past blocky skyscrapers on Planet Corneria, dodge pixelated asteroids and polygonal missiles in the various asteroid fields, desperately avoid rotating beams and space debris against a backdrop of stars and flaming nebula, and even blast through ice-, lava-, and storm-themed worlds full of mountains, flaming hazards, and rumbling storm clouds. Many times, you’ll automatically enter battleships, facilities, or the core of Andross’s homeward, Venom, where you’ll navigate tight corridors, blast doors, avoid pistons, and destroy power cores to succeed, often with the environment crumbling and exploding around you. However, I did notice a few graphical hiccups here and there. The pop-in is outrageous, one environment didn’t load properly, and the game’s bosses are a mess of crude polygons that can be difficult to battle since their weak points aren’t always immediately clear due to the awful 3D models.

Enemies and Bosses:
As if Andross having an entire army at his disposal wasn’t bad enough, you’ll also have to watch out for various onscreen hazards. Asteroids, buildings, and cubes will dog your progress, as will spinning obstacles, rectangular plates, collapsing columns, and various debris all rotating or positioned to chip away at your shield. Andross’s forces are an eclectic bunch piloting various ships, from simple cannon fodder, tanks, and blaster turrets to larger walkers, spider-like robots, and co-ordinated attack craft that appear in formations. You’ll shoot down butterfly-like spacecraft, small frog-like ground troops, spheres that wait behind asteroids, blast missiles fired from enemy crafts or the surface of planets, mash L or R to shake off blob-like amoebas that stick to you, slowing your ship and draining your shield in Sector Y, and even encounter strange, mechanical animals such as a manta ray and a bird, the latter of which will warp you to the bizarre “Out of This Dimension” stage where you’ll encounter hostile paper plates! Larger ships can be found in some space Stages. These Star Destroyer-like craft can only be subdued by blasting the hexagonal panels on their sides or disabling their turrets, and you’ll then venture inside to take them out for good and even tackle one head-on in the form of the Great Commander boss. The path you choose at the start of the game determines which bosses you’ll face. Each (with one exception) has a helpful health bar and sports at least one glowing weak spot, and some are shared across the different paths but with altered strategies. Still, your best bet for almost all of them is to conserve your Nova Bombs to make short work of them since your teammates will conveniently abandon you before each battle.

*Each Course has its own bosses, but some are repeated, more aggressive, or plain bonkers.*

At the end of Corneria, you’ll battle the Attack Carrier twice and the Destructor once. The Attack Carrier flies overheard to start, so keep low to the ground, opening hatches to unleash enemy fighters or missiles. On Course 2, the enemy fighters also fire missiles instead of lasers, but your strategy remains the same: destroy the hatches to then target the main body, avoiding plasma blasts as you go. The Destructor, fought in Course 3, is far more formidable. It’s a tank-like machine whose top pods split off to reveal bolt-firing turrets that will regenerate until the pods are destroyed. The more of the Destructor you destroy, the more aggressive it becomes, ramming you and firing more missiles from its underside. Finishing the Asteroid Belt will see you battle that Rock Crusher on the top two paths and the Blade Barrier on the lower path. While the Rock Crusher is relatively simple (destroy the hexagonal panels when they open up, avoiding its lasers and body parts as you attack), the Blade Barrier is not only invulnerable to your blasters but they actually bounce off it and can hurt you! It spins around, firing missiles and a web-like tractor beam that you’ll need to shake off with L and R, and can only be damaged after its fins are blown off and even then you have to watch for it smashing into you. Things really deviate on the third Stage; on the easiest Course, you’ll encounter the Atomic Base, which also appears in Sector Z on the lower Course. This is a rotating power core that’s protected by an impenetrable outer casing. You need to destroy the electric power nodes as they rotate around the core to expose its innards, but this is easier said than done due to the odd angle and some dodgy hit detection.

*Once you learn his limitations, final boss Andross offers less challenge than same prior bosses.*

The Dancing Insector and Metal Smasher can cause issues, the former due to you being forced to target its legs and its surprisingly powerful flame burst when reduced to a saucer, and the latter since it sucks you in to crush you between its two halves. In comparison, I barely even registered Professor Hanger, a robotic drone that attacks from an overhead path and is easily destroyed, despite summoning fish-like enemies to pop up from the sea below. Star Fox also offers a taste of the surreal: you’ll encounter a giant slot machine that can only be bested by scoring a lucky seven, the unimpressive Spinning Core that spits iron balls at you, and a two-headed dragon/bird hybrid that hops about laying giant explosive eggs and forcing you to blast its head and butt! Yet, the Plasma Hydra is one of the toughest bosses, spinning and flailing tentacles, with its weak spot being at the end of these and it flying at you in a kamikaze run when near death. The Phantron was also a troublesome boss due to its incredible speed and duplication ability forcing you to hit the right double in order to deal damage, but later reappearing and transforming into a larger form with large, triangular “arms” for you to blast at. No matter which path you choose, you’ll end up battling Andross, an unsightly polygonal head with no health bar and whose only attack is to spit a salvo of tiles at you and try to devour you. You need to destroy each of his eyes to reveal his true form, an erratic cube that must be attacked to win the game but, while Andross can become a malicious devil-like face that also fires plasma balls, he’s a joke once you learn to barrel roll through his attacks and target his weak points.

Additional Features:
With no multiplayer, no other playable characters, and no native save features, Star Fox is a little light on replay value. Your main reason for replaying the game will be to try a different Course and discover the two secret areas, one of which includes the ridiculous slot machine boss and some unsettling clock faces and the other is a bizarre black hole filled with space debris. Otherwise, your main aim is to hit 100% for every Stage and Course, which requires you and your teammates to survive with as much health as possible. However, the appeal of this is somewhat diminished as there’s no high score system and this data isn’t recorded anywhere. Otherwise, this version of the game has all the quality of life features you’d expect, including save states and rewinds to help you get past the trickier sections, but these are also somewhat weakened by the lack of any unlockable features, like a stage select or boss rush.

The Summary:
I’ve been hesitant about playing Star Fox for years. Not only was I basically unable to as I never had a SNES, been its Nintendo 64 follow-up largely passed me by despite sitting in the virtual library of my Nintendo Wii. It’s a little odd in some ways as I quite like the concept, which is essentially Star Wars with anthropomorphs. The game is packed full of fun, engaging, action-packed dogfights and big bosses with a fair degree of variety to them, and the environments. However, the biggest selling point of Star Fox are its visuals, which I’m sure impressed many at the time, but which have always appeared dated and cumbersome to me. In practise, the game struggles with its polygonal models, running at a slow pace and offering little gameplay variety. The visual clash between traditional sprites and 3D polygons also makes the game very messy at times. The music, characters, and the world are appealing, but not enough to make me consider this an under-appreciated 16-bit gem. Ultimately, while it’s good for a quick playthrough, Star Fox quickly becomes repetitive even with the multiple paths and the visuals just didn’t impress me enough to want to pick it up once I’d seen everything it had (which basically happens in one playthrough). A SNES classic, maybe, but one that hasn’t stood the test of time for me and was surpassed by its sequels.

My Rating:

Could Be Better

Have I ruined your childhood with my opinions on Star Fox? Were you impressed with the game at the time, and how do you think it holds up today? Which Course was your favourite to playthrough? Were you disappointed that you couldn’t play as the other characters, and did it annoy you having to save them all the time? What did you think to the bosses and the polygonal models? Which game in the Star Fox franchise is your favourite and would you like to see a new one? Whatever your thoughts on Star Fox, feel free to leave them below and check out my other sci-fi content across the site!

Game Corner [00-Heaven]: GoldenEye 007: Reloaded (Xbox 360)

26/10/202426/01/2026Dr. K1 Comment

To celebrate the release of Dr. No (Young, 1962), the first of the James Bond movies (Various, 1962 to present), October 5^th is known as “Global James Bond Day”. This year, I’ve been spending every Saturday commemorating cinema’s longest-running franchise, and one up of the most recognised and popular movie icons.

Released: 1 November 2011
Originally Released: 2 November 2010
Developer: Eurocom
Also Available For: Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii (Original Release); PlayStation 3 (Reloaded)

The Background:
Like many gamers back in the day, much of my social gaming was spent playing GoldenEye 007 (Rare, 1997), a best-selling title for the Nintendo 64 that began development as a simple rail-shooter before bucking the trend of videogame tie-ins by being universally praised as one of the greatest first-person shooters (FPS) and multiplayer experiences. Unfortunately, Rare lost the James Bond license and fans had to make do with spiritual successors like Perfect Dark (Rare, 2000), and other Bond titles, and blatant attempts to cash-in on GoldenEye 007’s popularity, like the shameless and mediocre GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (EA Los Angeles, 2004). In 2006 and 2008, both Nintendo and Microsoft expressed interest in releasing a port of the game on the Virtual Console and Xbox Live Arcade platforms but rights issues led to Activision charging Eurocom with developing a reimagining of the classic shooter for the Nintendo Wii. Built around the same gameplay and mechanics as 007: Quantum of Solace (Treyarch/Various, 2008), this new GoldenEye 007 saw Daniel Craig reprise his Bond role and many reviewers comparing it to the Call of Duty franchise (Infinity Ward/Various, 2003 to present). Despite some positive reviews GoldenEye 007 was mostly met with a mixed response that painted it as a lacklustre title. This didn’t stop Activision from releasing this high-definition port of the game to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 a year later, though critics remained as unimpressed as before. Thankfully, after numerous leaks, the original GoldenEye 007 was finally released on the Nintendo Switch and Xbox One so that a new generation of players could experience it and this middling reimagining was left mostly forgotten.

The Plot:
Renowned super spy James Bond/007 in drawn into a globe-trotting adventure as he races to stop a rogue 00 agent Alec Trevelyan (now a terrorist known as “Janus”) from causing a global financial meltdown with a satellite weapon known as “GoldenEye”.

Gameplay:
GoldenEye 007: Reloaded is a first-person shooter in which players assume the role of James Bond, now sporting Daniel Craig’s likeness and voice rather than Pierce Brosnan’s, and journey through reimagined maps and locations that are loosely based on the original videogame and movie. There’s a reason why GoldenEye 007: Reloaded has been referred to as “Bond of Duty”; if you’ve played any of the Call of Duty games, the controls, mechanics, and overall “feel” of the game will be very familiar to you, for better or worse. The game is therefore very much a modern reimagining of the classic Nintendo 64 FPS rather than a true, high-definition remake of the original game. This is first reflected in the game’s control scheme, which a helpful MI6 tutorial walks you through. Bond can climb and vault over downed objects (desks, trees, rocks, and the like), crouch with B to sneak up on enemies undetected for a stealth take down with the right analogue stick, manually reload his current weapon by pressing X and activate certain consoles or pick up new weapons by holding X, and switch weapons with Y. Holding the Left Trigger lets you aim down the sights of Bond’s gun and tapping it enables a helpful auto lock-on to the nearest target, if enabled. The Right Trigger is used to fire, and Bond can throw primary and secondary grenades and similar explosives with the Right and Left Bumpers, respectively. Finally, you can briefly sprint by holding down the left analogue stick, melee attack enemies up close by pressing in the right analogue stick, and apply a number of gadgets (such as a silencer or night vision goggles) with the directional pad (D-pad).

*Use stealth, Bond’s phone, or go all-out in a tank in this mediocre shooter.*

Your main gadget throughout the game isn’t a fancy watch or bizarre invention of Q and is, instead, disappointingly, your phone. Gameplay is invariably interrupted by phone calls from M and Bill Tanner that update your objectives or add some nuance to this re-told story, and you’ll be using your phone to scan partygoers to find your contact, investigate the environment to find and photograph objects of interest (like weapons caches and such), make recordings, activate remote explosives, and hack into terminals and drone guns. It’s a bit of a shame that so many of the game’s objectives require the use of the phone as it’s not that interesting to use and completely halts the action, though it’s relatively versatile and it can be fun to hack drone guns and gun down large groups of goons. Bond can also crawl through vents as a shortcut and to get behind groups of enemies, shoot fire extinguishers, explosive panels and barrels, and other parts of the environment to take down groups, and utilise his stealth and subdue skills to keep enemies from calling in reinforcements. Sometimes, you’ll be asked to press the right stick rather than hold X to open doors. This causes a “breach” that slows down time so you can dispatch armed foes and rescue hostages, like those on the frigate and Bond’s ally, Natalya Simonova. You’ll also be taking out security cameras to keep reinforcements at bay, activating surface-to-air missile launchers to take out choppers, acquiring and planting explosive charges, and even ploughing through the streets of Russia in a heavily armed tank! This chase mission is far more involved this time around, with Bond firing a chain gun, the main cannon, and even a homing shot, though the controls can be a bit clunky, and you can’t dawdle too long or you’ll lose General Arkady Grigorovich Ourumov. Another prominent feature in the game are quick-time event (QTE) sections. These pop up when Bond needs to pull apart doors by mashing LT and RT together, in first-person cutscenes where you need to activate explosives, and during bosses battles against turncoat Trevelyan and his right-hand assassin, Xenia Onatopp.

*The locations are large but the objectives and requirements are sadly lacking.*

QTEs rear their ugly heads at the worst possible moments, such as when Bond is racing after a plane down an airstrip. You need to fend off the pursuing troops and then leap to the plane with LT and RT, with failure returning you to the last checkpoint. Speaking of which, checkpoints are relatively generous here, allowing you to reload if you get spotted or are caught in a crossfire. GoldenEye 007: Reloaded has four difficulty settings (“Operative”, “Agent”, “007”, and “007 Classic”), with the enemy AI and objectives increasing for each setting. If you’re playing on “007 Classic”, you’ll be relying on body armour to replenish your health similar to the original game; otherwise, Bond will automatically regenerate health while taking cover, just like in the Call of Duty games. You’ll need to do this quite often, or at least be stealthy and smart about how you play, as Bond is surprisingly weak here. Enemy fire (and, especially, explosives) will end your mission in a split second and you always need to be aware of snipers and even sheer drops off cliffs! Thankfully, an onscreen radar highlights nearby enemies, allowing you to better anticipate their movements. This also points you in the direction of your main objective, with a phone icon altering you to any additional objectives in the nearby area. Unfortunately, Bond is far more limited here than in the original game. You can only hold two additional weapons alongside your standard issue pistol for three in total, though you can retrieve dropped weapons if you wish and the game is pretty good about providing you with helpful or necessary weapons (like sniper rifles or rocket launchers) in key areas. While the game is far more linear than the original version, you have a few options available to you (taking vents, lifts, and vaulting through windows, for example) to explore. You’ll need to pull apart rocks to progress, race through burning environments, fend of guards as they rappel through windows, and yes even defend Natalia as she sabotages the GoldenEye satellite. I actually found this a lot easier this time around (on “Agent” difficulty, at least). It didn’t seem like Natalia could be killed and it was much easier to target enemies, despite having to rush about between different consoles.

Graphics and Sound:
Technically speaking, GoldenEye 007: Reloaded looks and plays perfectly fine. Many of the environments recreate and update the familiar stages of the original game, including the same sweeping camera cuts and décor choices. These are most prominent in the “Dam”, “Facility”, and “Archives” stages, which take the original map, apply updated textures and mechanics to them, and greatly expand upon them. “Dam” now takes place at night and in the pouring rain, for example. Bond and 006 commandeer an enemy truck to progress further towards their objective, there’s a helicopter pad, and the entire area is transformed from a relatively short and simple experience into a more nuanced opening stage. However, many of the returning stages are so different that they’re basically unrecognisable. It’s as though the developers were told the general concept of GoldenEye 007 and given free rein to imagine that however they like. “Frigate”, for example, is now comprised of a lengthy section where Bond must fight his way on to the ship. There are barely any hostages to rescue this time and you’re mainly disabling the ship’s systems to plant a tracker on the EMP-hardened helicopter as it takes off. Similarly, the “Surface” and “Bunker” levels are now far more detailed and basically entirely new stages. Bond must take cover within the wreckage of wooden huts and make his way through the burning wreckage of the Severnaya facility, and the “Depot” and “Train” stages are entirely reimagined, with the “Train” section being just a short run through a few wrecked carriages and a lacklustre escape where you need to shoot open a panel rather than use Bond’s watch.

*Mostly, the game looks dark, bleak, and terrible and doesn’t do much with the Bond license.*

Technically, I don’t really mind this. It makes sense that stages are expanded and changed using the new engine and mechanics, but any nostalgia you might feel creeping through the vents of “Facility” or stealthily taking out Janus goons in “Statue” is completely lost when you realise just how different and unrecognisable these environments are. “Statue” is a great example as the stage now takes place in a memorial park and museum. The confusing, maze-like layout is replaced with a dark and dreary covert mission past giant statues and stone trappings, using the sewers and silent takedowns to dispatch Janus’s men. The game also omits entire stages, like “Silo” and “Control”, replacing them with a nightclub stage full of raving partygoers where Bond meets a heavily altered version of Valentin Zukovsky. In fact, every character has had their likenesses completely remodelled with the exception of M, who’s still played by Judi Dench. Obviously Bond is Daniel Craig and that’s fine but the guy they got for Trevelyan is no Sean Bean and doesn’t even sport any facial scars to go with his Janus moniker! It’s almost a blessing, then, that much of the game’s story is conveyed through voice over and cheap MI6 briefings where all we see is digital information rather than character models. However, I think I preferred the text dossiers from the original game as at least that wasn’t doing the Nintendo 64’s graphical abilities a disservice like here. This translates to certain aspects of the gameplay, too. I noticed a few instances of graphical pop-ups and texture warping in the “Jungle” and “Surface” stages, enemies and gunfire often clipped through solid walls, and the game can get so dark and chaotic that it’s easy to get confused and frustratingly picked off before you even have a chance to react. One aspect I did like was that “Dam” transitioned into an all-new title sequence, with Nicole Scherzinger performing an okay cover version of “GoldenEye” to give the game a cinematic flair that’s sadly missing in its otherwise muted, clinical, and bleak presentation. This is reflected in Craig’s delivery, which is decidedly lackadaisical, and juxtaposed by the vibrant “Jungle” stage and the high-tech “Cradle” finale, where blasts of blinding light cause gantries to collapse under your feet and goons to riddle you with bullets in the confusion.

Enemies and Bosses:
An endless supply of goons, guards, and soldiers will be patrolling every location in the game. If you follow them while crouched, you’ll get to listen in on some fun banter and discussions between them that might have you feeling a little remorse when you execute them with a headshot and you can see enemies going through certain motions, like patrolling back and forth, resting against barriers and walls, attaching charges to walls, and ransacking the environment. This opens a few options to you, such as sneaking up to subdue them, silently nailing a headshot, or going in all guns blazing, though the latter action is not always recommended as it’ll alert all nearby guards and cause tougher goons to come swarming in until the enemies are dealt with. Enemies are generally armed with an array of machine guns, but some also pack rocket launchers, take the high ground with sniper rifles, and you’ll have a fair few grenades lobbed at your head if you camp out in one area. Enemies can take cover (overturning tables and dramatically sliding behind walls) to fire at you, and have their hats shot off. They also busy themselves at computer terminals, vending machines, and in toilets but their gunfire is just as likely to ignite fuel tanks to cause explosive damage as yours so be sure to mind your surroundings at all times. Bosses aren’t really a thing in GoldenEye 007: Reloaded. Most stages end when you’ve completed your objectives, entered a facility, and either evaded capture or been captured. Sometimes you’ll need to hold off against waves of enemies as you wait for a lift to arrive. Other times, you’ll be switching to night vision to take out goons in darkened tunnels

*Sadly, the game’s few boss encounters boil down to pressing the right buttons at the right time.*

You will also be tasked with finding efficient ways of dispatching rooms or areas full of guards without raising too much of an alarm, and others you’ll be contending with helicopter attacks. This is fine when you’re in your tank but, when on foot, you’ll need to dodge between cover and activate a surface-to-air missile to down the chopper, with the one in “Jungle” unloading a missile barrage that limits your options in this regard. When in the tank, you’ll come up against a fighter jet near the end of the stage that takes a few more hits from your cannon to down, alongside loads of RPG-wielding soldiers, choppers, and trucks in the road but this is closest you get to battling Ourumov as he’s simply executed in a cutscene by Xenia. Xenia is fought as a boss, but this time it’s purely a QTE. Simply tap the buttons as they appear onscreen and Bond will dodge and parry her wild kicks until the sequence ends with her death. As in the original game, GoldenEye 007: Reloaded culminates in a showdown with traitor Alec Trevelyan, revealed as the terrorist Janus, in his antenna control facility. After overcoming the aggravation of getting past the dangerous gantry area, you’ll have another QTE-ladened fight with Trevelyan where the hardest thing about it is realising you need to mash LT and RT together rather than one after to other to avoid having your face burned off. After this, you’ll face one of the game’s toughest and most annoying challenges: a shootout with Trevelyan where he’s protected by a bulletproof vest and calls in goons and even a chopper to help him out. After failing multiple times, I realised that the best option is to shoot him with your unsilenced pistol (which oddly does more damage) and then head outside to the far left. The chopper won’t move around the building to fire at you so you can simply fend off the goons and shoot at Trevelyan until he runs off. Then you simply need to win one final QTE sequence that culminates in a fatal shot to the treasonous agent, and you’ll have achieved a final, if unremarkably hollow, victory.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
Since you’ll only be picking up body armour on the “007 Classic” difficulty, the closest thing you’ll find to power-ups here are the various guns and gadgets you’ll find throughout your adventure. Bond can use a silencer to muffle his shots and remain undetected and can use night vision goggles in areas with low lighting to take out enemies (thought they don’t seem nearly as handicapped by the darkness), and of course use his trusty phone to hack drone guns. Otherwise, you’ll grab a fair amount of different guns, though barely any of them resemble their counterparts from the original game. You’ve got Bond’s regular pistol but there are other hand guns on offer, including one with a nifty aiming laser and one that fires in bursts. You can snipe from afar with sniper rifles (and some machine guns also make use of a scope or targeting attachment) or blow enemies away using a rocket launcher or a grenade launcher feature to one rifle, and blast goons in the face with powerful magnums and shotguns. My favourite weapon was the Masterson M557, a kind of high-powered, rapid rife shotgun! Classic Bond weapons like the one-hit kill Golden Gun and Moonraker laser also appear in the game’s multiplayer alongside grenades, though I never encountered either of these in the single player campaign. Honestly, I was a little disappointed by the weapon selection. You’ll come across locked crates and cabinets that can be smashed or shot open to grab new weapons, but they all seemed to be variations of machine guns and submachine guns, so I struggled a bit to tell them apart or favour one over the other, generally relying on whatever had the most ammo in the immediate area.

Additional Features:
There are fifty Achievements up for grabs in GoldenEye 007: Reloaded, four of which are awarded for completing every objective on every mission for each of the game’s difficulty levels (though these do stack up, so you can snag multiple in one playthrough). Many of the game’s stages contain the opportunity to earn an additional Achievement, such as getting forty kills with the Wolfe .44 magnum in “Nightclub” and twenty kills with hacked drone guns in “Jungle”, or require you to finish missions quickly or without reinforcements being called in. Five Janus emblems are hidden in every stage, and you’ll get Achievements for destroying one, twenty, and fifty of them, as well as for finishing any mission without taking damage of any “007 Classic” mission without any body armour. Outside of the main story, you can also take part in “MI6 Ops” missions for extra Achievements. These charge you with revisiting locations from the main game and eliminating enemies as quickly as possible, using stealth tactics, or defending three consoles and you’ll earn star rankings based on how well you perform. A good chunk of the game’s Achievements are also tied to the game’s multiplayer component. This can be played on- and offline and sees you again selecting from a roster of characters (including classic characters like Jaws and Oddjob) that you can now select different weapon and gadget loadouts. There are ten different maps to choose from and a variety of familiar game modifiers, such as melee only, team conflict, and a race for the Golden Gun. There are also some new modes here, too, such as “Escalation” (where killstreaks grant you better weapons), “Bomb Defuse” (like a “Capture the Flag” mode except you need to retrieve and defuse a bomb), and “Detonator Agent” (where you’re carrying a bomb and can either pass it to someone else or rack up a greater kill streak). While you don’t unlock fun cheat codes through gameplay like before, you can input some off websites to unlock some extra features for the multiplayer component, though not for the main campaign, which is limited to simply replaying missions on higher difficulties.

The Summary:
I played GoldenEye 007: Reloaded years ago on the PlayStation 3, around the same time as I played through the equally lacklustre Quantum of Solace game, and remember it being a largely uninspired FPS experience. Like many who bought the game, I was excited at the prospect and compelled by nostalgia to pick it up and it’s that same nostalgia that drove me to re-acquire it for my Xbox 360 library. Sadly, time and my experience with the Call of Duty franchise hasn’t made this game any better. While a lot of it visually resembles the original GoldenEye 007, so much has been changed and awkwardly shoe-horned into this samey, uninspired game engine that it may as well be an entirely different game. Indeed, I do wonder if it might’ve been better to tweak the concept a little to simply be a distant homage to GoldenEye 007 rather than an actual, explicit remake but that wouldn’t be anywhere near as interesting or profitable, would it? The gameplay is okay, but even on the “Agent” difficulty things can get very frustrating, boring, and repetitive very quickly. I found myself burning through weapons since they’re all so interchangeable, getting annoyed with how linear and obtuse the stages could be, and being unimpressed by the cutscenes, story, and voice acting. The QTEs were also annoying as they felt very out of place against the shooting gameplay. I disliked how much waiting and faffing around with the phone was involved, and the stealth mechanics were poorly implemented. When the game recalls and provides an updated twist on the original, it’s okay, but the rest of the time it’s just another painfully generic shooter where all you have to do is hide behind a wall until your health regenerates and then push a little further forward. It’s a shame as it could’ve been so much more, but GoldenEye 007: Reloaded was probably doomed from the moment it even thought about trying to cash-in on the original’s success and ends up offering nothing new for either Bond or FPS fans.

My Rating:

Could Be Better

Have you ever played GoldenEye 007: Reloaded? If so, did you like it? Do you think it lived up to the standards of the original game? How do you think it holds up compared to other Bond games of this era? What did you think to the recreations and changes featured in the game? Were you annoyed by the QTEs and overreliance on the phone gimmick too? How did you find the game’s multiplayer and additional modes? What’s your favourite James Bond game that isn’t GoldenEye 007? Whatever you think about GoldenEye 007, please share your thoughts in the comments and be sure to check out my other James Bond content across the site!

Game Corner: Dead Space 3 (Xbox 360)

25/10/202425/10/2024Dr. K1 Comment

Released: 5 February 2013
Developer: Visceral Games
Also Available For: PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X (Backwards Compatible)

The Plot:
Three years after narrowly surviving a Necromorph outbreak on Saturn’s moon, Titan, former engineer Isaac Clarke and his allies explore the frozen planet Tau Volantis to discover the origins of the Necromorphs and oppose the fanatical Unitologists, who wish to “cleanse” humanity through the Necromorphs.

The Background:
Taking its cue from seminal survivor/horror franchises like Silent Hill (Konami/Various, 1999 to 2012) and Resident Evil (Capcom/Various, 1996 to present), Glen Schofield and his small (but committed team) shook up the genre with Dead Space (EA Redwood Shores, 2008). Highly praised and selling over one million copies, a sequel was greenlit almost immediately. The team worked hard to improve and refine Isaac’s gameplay and character, which was reflected in Dead Space 2’s (Visceral Games, 2011) equally positive reviews. Unfortunately poor sales meant that development of Dead Space 3 was almost cancelled, so the team scrambled to up the focus on action to appeal to a more mainstream audience and increase sales. Halfway into production, the decision was made to incorporate a co-op mode, which required an adjustment of the mechanics and enemy AI to allow for simultaneously two player gameplay. Environments in Dead Space 3 were bigger than ever, resulting in larger locations, new ways to play, and the inclusion of a rappel system to take advantage of the bigger play area. In anticipation of Dead Space 3 being the final game, the developers sought to wrap up Isaac’s story, expanding on both his character and the lore behind the Markers, while also using the new, frozen setting to tweak and refine the Necromorph designs. Consistent with its predecessors, Dead Space 3 released to generally positive reviews; reviews praised the action-orientated gameplay, co-op mode, and use of horror. Although sales started strong and the game was bolstered by some downloadable content, Dead Space 3 failed to meet EA’s expectations and tentative ideas for a fourth game were scrapped. Largely considered the worst of the trilogy, Dead Space 3 was criticised for its length and repetitive gameplay, and it is generally regarded as a fall from grace for a once-promising franchise.

Gameplay:
Like its predecessors, Dead Space 3 is a third-person survival/horror game set in the vastness of the cosmos many hundreds of years into the future. You’re once again placed into the role of Isaac Clarke, a former engineer now turned disgraced nobody thanks to the traumatic events of the last two games. This time around, you have a few control options available: you can pick from three control schemes or, if you’re feeling very fancy (or very stupid), you can use the Kinect to play! Obviously, I didn’t do this and went with the default control scheme, which sees you aiming with the Left Trigger, firing or bludgeoning enemies with a melee attack with the Right Trigger, and reloading with X. You can press and hold the Left Bumper to run or tap it for a handy (if occasionally clunky) dodge roll, tap the Right Bumper to stomp on enemies or crates or use your weapon’s secondary fire mode when aiming, and drop a temporary waypoint marker towards your next objective or destination by pressing in the left stick. Pressing in the right stick sees you crouch, which is somewhat handy when you engage in firefights with Unitologist leader Jacob Danik’s forces, and you can quickly replenish your health or stasis meter by pressing B and Y, respectively (as long as you have the associated items in your inventory). A is your action button, used to pick up items, open doors and interact with panels, switches, and such. You also press the left stick to take off and land when in zero gravity environments, where you’ll speed about using the bumpers but must collect air cannisters to avoid suffocating. Eventually, you’ll reacquire the use of your telekinetic abilities: while aiming with LT, you press B to interact with certain doors or objects and move them about, blast them with RB (skewering enemies with their own limbs in the process), or press Y to temporarily freeze enemies or hazards (such as large cogs or crushing weights) so you can pass them or easily decimate them.

*Between the co-op and rappel sections, there are glimpses of a fun horror adventure here.*

So, overall, the gameplay and controls are as you’d expect from Dead Space. Where Dead Space 3 primarily differs, though, is in the inclusion of a two-player co-op mode. Playing with a friend will require to you switch discs at a certain point, but you can play alone and avoid this option and also won’t have the benefit (or handicap) of an AI-controlled partner to worry about (John Carver appears in cutscenes but not alongside you like in other co-op games). While the option to play online is probably disabled now, you can still play in couch co-op, but I’m not sure how much this impacts the gameplay. There’s a certain hacking puzzle where each player guides a circuit to a certain point and presses A but that’s it, and it’s easily bypassed in single player by using both analogue sticks. There are no other areas where two players need to press switches or activate doors so I barely even noticed it as a function, though a late game objective would benefit from two players as you’d be able to split up and cover more ground. The co-op mode may also explain the abundance of Necromorphs (Feeders are especially abundant and annoying in single-player mode) and resources to be found. Another new aspect is a rappel mechanic where you and your partner zip down (or up) walls, shafts, and inclines, hopping across chasms, avoiding debris and hazards, and picking off Necromorphs. It was an okay mechanic but wore out its welcome pretty quickly and became more aggravating by the third of fourth time I endured it. Zero gravity sections are few and far between this time around, replaced by more open-ended sections set in the vast bleakness of space. You’ll float and fly about retrieving key items and activating doors in these sections, but they’re not as prominent in the previous games. One cool section sees you guiding a shuttle towards a planet as it crashes. You need to stay in the pre-set guidelines, blast at space debris, and even repair the ship’s engines to stay on course, which was quite fun.

*Puzzles and space-faring sections are short breaks between all the gunplay and gore.*

While some familiar Dead Space puzzles return here, they’re also far less prominent than in the previous games. You’ll still be hacking open doors by rotating a cone of light and pressing A on the blue sections, moving batteries to power up lifts and doors, and freezing hazards so you can slip past, but the focus is much more on seemingly never-ending, bloody combat this time around. You’ll make more use of your telekinetic abilities to power up generators and open certain doors, and there are a few puzzles where you use it to move plates into the correct order or awkwardly bend and twist alien architecture to match hieroglyphics or turn large structures to activate power nodes. However, the trickiest parts about these sections are the waves of enemies that’ll burst in the spoil your concentration. Later in the game, you must pay attention to film reels, onscreen prompts, and blood smeared around to activate alien translator devices, and take shuttles to new and previous destinations to explore other areas or take on optional side missions for new loot. You will also frantically tap A or make movements with the analogue sticks to succeed at quick-time events (either during dramatic cutscenes or when enemies grapple with you), and occasionally be forced to explore without your handy compass. Opportunities to use stasis and kinesis in interesting ways are few and far between here; you won’t be freezing bridges or moving about the environment to create new paths all that often. Instead, you search for key items to cobble together at workbenches and insert into something else, diverting power from one system to another to power up lifts or allow you to burn away the Necromorph infestation with a volatile gas, and blasting about through high-speed teleportation tunnels. You can pick from four difficulty modes, each of which increases the aggression of the enemies, and you can use the resources you find from crates, lying about the environments, or pick up from bodies to upgrade your suit and weapons, but you can only carry two weapons at a time and this time you need to craft new ones. I found this to be very aggravating; I wasn’t always able to create new weapons as the resource cost is so high, so I ended up playing most of the game with an upgraded version of the default Plasma Cutter. Furthermore, while it’s fun seeing flares scattered about and revisiting different areas to find new enemies and challenges there, I quickly became frustrated by how often the game simply throws a barrage of enemies at you in place of more intimate encounters and meaningful puzzles.

Graphics and Sound:
Graphically, Dead Space 3 may be the most ambitious of the entire trilogy. While human character models suffer from the same issues that dogged most games of this generation (namely, appearing to be little more than action figures or oddly-rendered puppets pretending to be flesh and blood), the environments, scope, and lighting effects are better than ever. You see this right from the beginning where, in a first for the series, you’re stuck on a frozen ice world and bombarded by snow and limited visibility before running through a gritty, futuristic city that’s ripped right out of Blade Runner (Scott, 1982). Although environments remain cramped and claustrophobic, there’s a grander sense of scale on offer, especially in the zero gravity sections. Far from being confined to scuttled spaceships, you can now blast through the openness of space using your suit’s thrusters and rocket along at blinding speeds thanks to alien technology. The writing and character interactions are also far more dramatic this time around; Isaac is at his lowest, estranged from his love, Ellie Langford, and constantly butting heads with her new lover, Robert Norton. Twists and turns are abundant as the Unitologists infiltrate and brainwash people to their cause, adding greater stakes to the gameplay as you race to rescue or protect Ellie and the other disposable side characters are killed off for dramatic emphasis. I still don’t really like that Isaac is so chatty now, but he’s given a little more weight and characterisation here. He’s not only still struggling with the traumatic influence of the Markers and the previous games, he also has intense rivalries with Norton and Danik and builds a rapport with new character John Carver that makes their poignant decision to stay behind and give their lives to save Elli (and the world) all the more impactful.

*Drama, gore, and ominous alien architecture is at the forefront here.*

All of this is merely window dressing for what I consider to be the strength of this franchise, and that’s the unsettling, ominous environments you explore. Blood, bodies, and flickering lights all add to the tension, as do the randomly falling grates and corpses, crucified torsos, non-playable characters who commit suicide or are reanimated before your eyes, and the many ominous messages written in blood over the walls and floors. Enemies burst from vents, crawl up through snow, explode to shambling life when infested with parasites, and clamber around walls and over railings to get to you. If you can’t fight them off or get pummelled too much, you’ll be treated to a gory death scene, and body parts will be sent splattered around as you target the Necromorph’s limbs to dispatch them. As ever, Isaac’s meters and ammo are displayed on his suit and weapons rather than a traditional heads-up display, though you can still bring up a live inventory, map, and objective screen and Isaac receives regular incoming video and voice messages from enemies and allies to clog up the screen space. Environments are similar to before, but noticeably different in same areas. You’ve still got dark, confined corridors, barracks, and other areas on spaceships and space stations, but you’ll be in steampunk-like facilities, genetic labs, and Necromorph infested outposts, too. Much of the game is set on a frozen planet, where snow and ice are naturally abundant, and you’re buffeted by snowstorms and crossing crumbling ice caverns. Perhaps the most visually interesting location comes in the final stretch of the game where you’re exploring an alien city, caverns filled with Markers, and a degenerating moon home to a gigantic eldritch abomination that really ups the ante for the finale.

Enemies and Bosses:
Many familiar Necromorphs return in Dead Space 3. As ever, no matter their appearance or attack pattern, your best bet is to target their limbs, severing their blade-like arms and their legs to slow them down and reduce their threat, though many are more than capable of attacking even without a head or reanimating if you don’t pick off the spider-like parasites infesting them so don’t forget to freeze them with Stasis when in a tight spot. “Slash” Necromorphs burst up from corpses, out of vents, and around corners without warning, leaping at you, slashing, and grabbing you to try and rip your face off, so be sure to keep your distance wherever possible. Only a handful of Necromorphs can fire projectiles, but these can be the trickiest to hit. Small variants scuttle about on walls and ceilings firing from their lashing tentacles, “Pukers” cough up acidic bile to slow you down, and the fatter variants spawn tiny parasites that’ll quickly consume you if you’re not careful. Spider-like parasites can infect corpses, making them zombies who shamble after you with wrenches and frantically blast you with assault rifles. The odd wall-mounted Necromorph also reappears, and you’ll again have the “joys” of encountering “Regenerator” variants who can only be slowed and fled from as there’s no dramatic way of putting them down this time. Mine-like cysts will blow you off your feet, large tentacles will block your path, and the aforementioned “Feeder” variants will swarm all around you from overhead vents. In addition, you’ll also get into firefights with Danik’s troops. These guys take cover, fire assault rifles and laser-guided rockets, and can even toss grenades at you that you can throw back using your Kinesis ability. Luckily, if Necromorphs are about, you can hang back and let the two groups battle it out, thinning their numbers to make your life a lot easier.

*Despite some horrific Necromorphs, the game suffers from a lack of boss battles.*

One aspect of Dead Space 3 I was quite disappointed by is the lack of bosses. Bosses have always been a bit of a weak spot in the franchise and Dead Space 3 noticeably suffers from a lack of tangible boss moments. Some Necromorph enemies can be analogous to bosses, such as the ever-annoying Velociraptor-like “Stalkers” who hide behind crates and rocks and charge at you from out of the blue and the large, skeletal Alien Necromorphs that gore you like a rhino. Easily the most persistent boss in the game is the crab-like “Snow Beast”, a gigantic crustacean you’ll battle in three separate locations, with the main strategy repeating each time but with less options for cover and resource replenishment. The Snow Beast lunges at you and tries to squish you with its spiked legs, only being vulnerable after you sever the whipping tentacles on its back and blast at its exposed mouth/underside. Stasis is useful for keeping it at bay but you’ll need to time your dodge roll well to avoid its lumbering attacks. Eventually, you drive it away but it pops back up again later, this time with crates in the way and no opportunities to recharge your meter, and a third time in the middle of a snowstorm where it’s joined by regular Necromorphs. This time, you use Kinesis to activate two generators and then lure it into the path of two harpoon guns that finally tear it apart. Far more visually interesting is the gigantic, Lovecraftian “Nexus” creature. This squid-like thing tries to crush you with its tentacles limbs, spits up Feeders, and tries to suck you into its maw. You must dodge and dispatch these annoyances and blast its tumour-like growths before targeting more globules inside its digestive tract! Finally, you battle the Tau Volantis Moon itself! The very surface crumbles and changes around you as an eldritch nightmare looms overhead, throwing rocks and depositing Necromorphs onto an unstable circular platform. Luckily, there’s a glowing circle here that will super charge your Kinesis and Stasis abilities, allowing you to slow and dismember enemies and launch large blue rocks into the thing’s eyes. Blast its tentacles when it tries to suck you in and repeat this three times, then succeed at a simple quick-time vent and you’ve won the day.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
It’s hard from me to talk about Dead Space 3’s weapons as I struggled with the system. This time, you start with the standard Plasma Cutter and can add attachments and circuits to increase its stats (damage, reload time, clip size and such), which is fine, but you also use these same resources (alongside blueprints found scattered throughout the game) to craft new weapons. While many can be pre-made from these blueprints(providing you have the resources), others are cobbled together to give a sense of customisation. Unfortunately, the cost to create and upgrade weapons is so high that I often found myself relying on the standard Plasma Cutter. I created a rapid-fire submachine gun and a shotgun variant, but they were so weak that I rarely used them. A flamethrower proved much more reliable but you can also craft weapons that shoot lightning or acid rounds, darts, and explosives. I was pretty disappointed that I didn’t get to experience much of this, however. One of the appeals to games like this is naturally acquiring new weapons, but I found it difficult to craft new ones and their benefits lacklustre compared to upgrading the Plasma Cutter. A big reason for this is that the same resources are used to upgrade your suit. While Isaac gains new suits as the story progresses, you can spend resources upgrading your maximum health and armour, extending the range and recharge time of your kinesis meter, and improving your oxygen supply. It seems to be much more stripped down and barebones this time around, but these benefits are useful as you have limited inventory space for things like health and ammo. When you reach a workbench, you can store items in a safe for later use, which is useful, and this is also where you scavenger bot will deposit more resources after you deploy it. It’s worth taking the time to smash enemy bodies, crates, and explore your surroundings for pick-ups as they’ll frequently drop ammo, health, and resources to upgrade and craft your equipment. Recharge points for your abilities are also common and you can occasionally make use of environmental hazards (drops, explosive barrels, and laser traps) to dispatch enemies.

Additional Features:
There are fifty Achievements to aim for in Dead Space 3, many of which you’ll get from a simple playthrough. You get Achievements for beating the various difficulty levels, for example, dispatching the Snow Beast, crafting a weapon, and retrieving resources from a scavenger bot, all things you’d do without even trying. Some are a bit more obscure, such as shooting a deer head in an office, using the gas to destroy five Cysts, and not taking damage in certain sections. Others are a little more grindy: there are audio and text logs and alien artifacts to be found, blueprints and weapons to collect, and limbs that need to be severed if you want to tick off all the game’s Achievements. You’ll also need to play in co-op mode, use different weapons and melee attacks, and complete all optional missions to get the full 1000G associated with the game. Finishing Dead Space 3 on any difficulty unlocks “New Game”, which allows you to restart with all the upgrades and weapons and such from your last playthrough, access a new suit, and acquire better upgrade parts. If you have a save file from Dead Space 2, you get access to the “Planet Cracker” Plasma Cutter. Finally, if you managed to download the game’s additional content, you can play an epilogue story that comes with eight additional Achievements and sees Isaac and Carver escaping Tau Volantis, battling Dik’s cultists, and learning of an impending Necromorph invasion of Earth!

The Summary:
I’d heard that Dead Space 3 was the weakest of the original trilogy. Nothing specific comes to mind regarding that statement, just a general consensus that it’s not as strong as the first two games. I went into it with this in mind but expecting more of the same and, in many ways, that’s true. Dead Space 3 doesn’t stray too far from the previous formula of exploration, puzzle solving, and Necromorph slicing, but it adds a few wrinkles and changes things around just enough to drag it down a little bit. The crafting system, for one, was a major headache for me. I really didn’t like that I couldn’t swap to different weapons to break up the action as I lacked the resources to craft and/or properly refine the other weapons. It also took a lot of the fun out of the exploration when all you’re rewarded with are parts to cobble together weapons rather than an actual gun. The puzzles were extremely stripped down, and nowhere near as prominent. Sure, sometimes you have less time to hack a console or need to craft something to open a door, but ultimately the game failed to utilise the Stasis and Kinesis abilities in interesting ways compared to the last two games. It’s the same for the zero gravity sections. Yeah, it’s fun flying through space but these are merely distractions from the main gameplay rather than being standout sequences since the game would rather waste your time on frustrating rappel sequences. The lack (and recycling) of bosses hurts the game, too. I like fighting big, monstrous creatures but these encounters were few and far between. It’s also weird to me that you don’t get an AI partner in single-player and the game didn’t lean more into the co-op aspect. I honestly forget John Carver was even there as he only appears in cutscenes and scripted sequences, making you wonder why they bothered with the co-op function at all. Ultimately, there was a lot to like here – the game is as horrific and nerve-shredding as ever – but I can’t help but feel as though something was lacking. The soul, perhaps? I can’t quite put my finger on it but it was definitely a far less enjoyable and much more aggravating experience compared to the first two, which is a shame considering the core gameplay and mechanics are just as appealing.

My Rating:

Pretty Good

Did you enjoy Dead Space 3? How do you think it compares to the previous two games? What did you think to the co-op mechanics and the new rappel gimmick? Were you also disappointed by the lack of boss battles and frustrated by the increased enemy swarms? Were you able to craft some decent weapons or did you also struggle with this system? Did you ever find all those artifacts? Which game in the franchise is your favourite? What horror-theme videogames are you playing this October in anticipation of Halloween? Whatever your thoughts on Dead Space 3, drop a comment below.

Game Corner [00-Heaven]: GoldenEye 007 (Xbox Series X)

19/10/202426/01/2026Dr. K8 Comments

Released: 27 January 2023
Originally Released: 23 August 1997
Developer: Rare
Also Available For: Nintendo 64, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X

The Background:
It was tough to get any better than a game of four-player GoldenEye 007 back in the day. The endlessly accessible and enjoyable first-person shooter (FPS) was a staple at many a sleepover in my youth and was directly responsible for making me the James Bond fan I am today. Popularised by Sean Connery’s immortal portrayal, Ian Fleming’s super spy was in a bit of a drought in the late-nineties thanks to legal issues and Timothy Dalton resigning from the role. The iconic British institution came back with a bang, however, with Pierce Brosnan’s critical and commercial debut, which was followed by a tie-in game for the Nintendo 64 some two years later. Developed by British studio Rare under the direction of Martin Hollis, the game was originally conceived of as a 2D platformer for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and as a rail-shooter before the developers got to grips with the Nintendo 64 hardware. After a year of development, David Doak joined the team and implemented stealth mechanics using a radius test. Successive gunfire would attract nearby enemies and players were encouraged to spy on enemy characters using the game’s two-way mirrors. Six months before the release date, programmer Steve Ellies added the now iconic multiplayer mode, though the likeness of former Bonds and the names of certain weapons were changed for legal reasons. The developers also toned down the violence to appease Nintendo’s concerns and included a number of unlockable cheats. In a world where videogame tie-ins are notorious for being rushed, bugged, and unfulfilling affairs, GoldenEye 007 proved the exception. Not only was it one of the best-selling Nintendo 64 games but the game was met with unanimous (and continuous) praise for its gameplay, mission-based mechanics, and multiplayer. Although Rare soon lost the James Bond license, GoldenEye 007’s legacy continued to be felt not just with its spiritual sequel, Perfect Dark (Rare, 2000), and in other FPS titles, but throughout subsequent James Bond tie-in games. There were rumours and clamouring for a re-release for decades, though rights issues always saw these stall. In 2010, Eurocom released a reimagining of the title to mixed reviews but hopes were raised when leaks of an Xbox One version appeared online. On the eve of the game’s 25^th anniversary, these rumours were officially announced to be true when it released exclusively on the Xbox One and Nintendo Switch series of consoles and featuring a number of enhancements. So beloved is the original game that this enhanced version of GoldenEye 007 was equally lauded, especially for its nostalgia factor, though some were disappointed that the Xbox version didn’t include online multiplayer.

Gameplay:
GoldenEye 007 is a first-person shooter in which players are placed into the shoes of world-renowned super spy James Bond and charged with completing various objectives across eighteen stages (referred to as “Missions”) taken from the movie of the same name, and two bonus Missions that loosely adapt elements and events from classic Bond films Live and Let Die (Hamilton, 1973), The Man with the Golden Gun (ibid, 1974), The Spy Who Loved Me (Gilbert, 1977), and Moonraker (ibid, 1979). Unlike FPS classis like Doom (id Software, 1993) and rail-shooters like Time Crisis (Namco, 1995), GoldenEye 007 offers a range of movement and control options, making Bond a far more versatile and capable FPS character compared to some of his counterparts. This new version of the game improves things even more thanks to modern controllers having two control sticks, but there are a range controls available and players can even customise them if they wish. The default controls see you firing Bond’s current weapon with the Right Trigger, activating consoles, opening doors, and disabling alarms and such with A, crouching to avoid incoming fire or enter vents with B, and aiming with the Left Trigger. You can also press Y and the Left and Right Bumpers to cycle through your available weapons, or manually select them by pausing the game, which brings up Bond’s fancy gadget watch. This also allows you to read up on your mission objectives, gives you the option of switching to different control schemes (each named after a different Bond Girl and with one even allowing an awkward two-player mode where only player moves while another one shoots), select gadgets like a key decoder or Bond’s laser watch, and quit the current Mission. On the original Nintendo 64 version, strafing was accomplished with the C-buttons and allowed you to rapidly dart across environments at higher speeds. Here, you can use the left analogue stick to accomplish this same task, and you’ll also find that your aim benefits from a slight auto-aim function.

*Take on the role of 007, gun down enemies, and complete various objectives.*

Unlike in modern FPS games, Bond is surprisingly vulnerable and will not regenerate health when taking cover from enemy fire. In fact, most things you take cover behind will explode in your face, so it’s better to keep moving and make use of the game’s controls to peek around corners or use silenced weapons or Bond’s handy karate chop to knock enemies unconscious without raising alarm. When taking damage, Bond will react accordingly, which can throw off your aim and see you being bounced about in a crossfire. Explosions are usually an instant death sentence as well so be sure to avoid grenades, rockets, and exploding crates whenever possible. While you can’t replenish Bond’s health, you can pick up body armour strewn across the environment to add an extra bit of protection, but there are no checkpoints in GoldenEye 007 so once you see that blood filling the screen or the “Mission Failed” notification, you’ll have to start over from the beginning. The game offers three difficulty settings (“Agent”, “Secret Agent”, and “00 Agent”), with a fourth being unlocked that allows you to customise various difficulty options, and the difficulty setting you play on directly impacts the behaviour of the game’s enemies, the bonuses you unlock, and the mission objectives you’re given. For example, when playing on “Agent”, you’re generally only given a couple of mission objectives. “Runway” on this mode simply asks you to acquire a key and escape in a plane, but higher difficulties have you destroying anti-aircraft guns first. Later Missions can become extremely complex and difficult because of this. Each Mission is preceded by a number of dossiers in which M, Q, and Miss Moneypenny will explain the specifics of each objective, often with pictures, so you have to be mindful about going in all-guns blazing as you don’t want to accidentally destroy a vital piece of machinery or gun down an ally. Because of this, many 00 Agent Missions require better use of stealth, such as attacking with short bursts of fire or while unarmed, enemies will be noticeably more formidable, and you’ll need to explore more of the environment and have less access to body armour, dramatically increasing the challenge.

*Each Mission and difficulty setting offers unique objectives and mechanics.*

Mission objectives are quite varied, but also shared across the game;. You’ll be deactivating alarms and consoles (sometimes by interacting with them, other times by blowing them up), acquiring keys, key cards, and documents, and meeting with allies like Doctor Doak, Valentin Zukovsky, and Dimitri Mishkin. Environments are often littered with cameras and alarm systems that will attract enemies to your location or even lock you out of rooms if you’re not quick to disable them, and enemies can sometimes be holding hostages who you’ll need to free without killing the innocent. This can be easier said than done, especially on missions that require you to protect, escort, or work alongside Natalya Simonova. All of the game’s non-playable characters (NPCs) tend to run in front of your bullets but Natalia is the worst, running around in a mad panic amidst a gunfight or leaving herself an open target while messing about with computers. Things quickly become quite obtuse and tricky as you’re tasked with destroying weapons caches, calling for back-up (without destroying the radio equipment), re-aligning an antenna cradle, and wandering around a statue park to meet with the mysterious Janus. Many mission objectives require the acquisition and use of Bond’s gadgets, such as using his laser watch to cut through grates, attracting keys with his magnet, planting tracking devices, and photographing objects, sometimes while racing against a time limit. Gameplay is somewhat broken up in the two instances where you can hop into an armoured tank, with it being mandatory to barrel through the streets of Saint Petersburg in said tank while trying not to run down too many innocent civilians. If you fail even one objective, the entire Mission is a bust, but you can continue playing if you want. This can be a good way to get an idea of the layout of the environment and find other mission objectives for your next playthrough to get a faster completion time, something that’s necessary to unlock all of the game’s cheat options. In addition to your time, your accuracy, shots fired, and kills are all tracked after a Mission is completed, meaning you can always try and improve your approach to a Mission.

Graphics and Sound:
Even back on the Nintendo 64, GoldenEye 007 did a pretty good job of recreating scenes and characters from the movie. Sure, the character models are blocky and their faces hideous and many environments are a little too bland, polygonal, and swamped with fog, but they managed to capture the essence of the film really well, expanding upon minor elements and areas, especially in the first few Missions, and making them fully-fledged locations. The only issue I had was that the developers included two versions of Surface and Bunker. I would have preferred to see a Casino and Paris stage used instead to add a bit more variety to the early game, but at least there are differences between the two stages to both differentiate them and showcase the passage of time. There are even entirely new environments that weren’t seen in the film, like Silo, Depot, Caverns, and stages based on small parts of the film (like Dam, Runway, Frigate, and Train) are expanded on with additional mission objectives and aesthetic quirks. Of course, the most memorable location remains Facility, which lovingly recreates and expands upon the opening scenes of the film and remains the quintessential map for multiplayer skirmishes. My least favourite stages were always Statue, Jungle, and Cradle as they’re quite difficult to navigate and full of dense fog and hazards, to say nothing of the tougher enemies dwelling within.

*While the graphics are dated, nostalgia means the game retains its visual appeal.*

Every Mission begins with a bit of an overview of the location before the camera pans around and into Bond’s head, literally placing you in the role of the world’s most famous spy. Cutscenes, in the traditional sense, are few and far between and limited to these opening camera pans and a little animation of Bond looking all cool as he exits the stage, with the majority of the game’s story being relayed through the mission dossiers and onscreen dialogue. There are occasions where you can continue on and this dialogue will still play out, but if you try and rush Janus in Statue or don’t heed his advice to holster your weapon then you’ll fail the Mission. There are some graphical limitations to GoldenEye 007 that definitely date it, as well. There’s no reloading animation (guns simply disappear and reappear with a reloading sound effect), enemies have repetitive animation cycles (though they do kneel down, roll, cross their arms when dual-wielding, and react when shot in the ass), and there can be a bit of slowdown when too many explosions fill the screen. Still, little details like bullet holes, splashes of blood on clothing, and screams of pain help to keep things very immersive. Additionally, the soundtrack is incredible; composed by Rare stalwarts Graeme Norgate, Grant Kirkhope, and Robin Beanland, the soundtrack is both recognisably Bondian and unique, harkening back to Éric Serra’s movie score and the Bond themes made so famous by John Barry.

Enemies and Bosses:
Bond’s mission is impeded by the finest polygonal soldiers and grunts money can buy. While there’s not much to differentiate them in terms of animation, the game’s enemies all don different attire depending on the Mission (sporting parkas in Surface, camo gear in Jungle, and tactical outfits in Caverns) and wield various weapons. Many carry the KF7 Soviet or Klobb, two notoriously inaccurate weapons; others bust out the DD44 Dostovei or dual-wield the ZMG (9mm). The challenge posed by the game’s enemies directly relates to the difficulty setting you’re playing on and the Mission you’re playing. Enemies are pretty clueless in Dam but wander around the Caverns carrying super-powerful US AR33 Assault Rifles and blast at you with Moonraker lasers in Aztec. Janus’s special forces, and some guards aroused by alarms, will also carry shotguns or toss grenades, and you’ll also have to keep an eye out for high-impact turret placements that can shred your life meter in seconds. Enemies are quite vulnerable, even on “Secret Agent”, dropping after a few good torso shots or a headshot, but sometimes their guns can block your bullets and the sheer number of enemy bodies can make it difficult to land decent shots, in which case it’s best to target explosive parts of the environment to send them flying.

*In addition to the movie’s baddies, you’ll encounter some classic Bond villains here,*

Although boss battles aren’t commonplace in GoldenEye 007, there are a few instances where you’re tasked with killing one of Janus’s henchpeople in a firefight. The first of these you’ll encounter is Colonel Arkady Grigorovich Ourumov, who cannot (easily) be killed in the first few encounters. Ourumov fires at you from a distance in Silo, you pursue him in Streets, and then you finally gun him down at the end of Train, just like in the movie. Shooting Xenia Onatopp in Train will buy you some much-needed extra time with the floor grate, but she puts up a far greater fight when you confront her in Jungle. She’s armed with both a super-powerful RC-P90 and a grenade launcher and can be difficult to hit thanks to the fog, the explosions from her grenades, and her armour-piercing shots. Your best bet is to hang back, firing from a distance, or get up nice and close and fill her face with AR33 fire. This method of staying back serves you well in the final Mission of the main game, Cradle, where you go head-to-head with rogue MI6 agent Alec Trevelyan/Janus. In this Mission, you must realign the antennae, fending off Janus’s elite guard and the sentry guns set up about the place, blasting at Trevelyan as he fires his AR33 and tosses grenades to cover his escape. Trevelyan can absorb a great deal of damage but, once you’ve hurt him enough, he’ll dash to a specific area of the map and drop down to a small platform, just like in the film’s finale, where you’re given precious seconds to reorientate yourself and deliver the final blow. When you unlock the bonus missions, Aztec and Egyptian, you’ll face off with classic Bond villains Jaws and Baron Samedi. The former carries two AR33s and is a veritable bullet sponge, though he’s a big target and shots to the face are recommended. The latter mysteriously resurrects and wields a different weapon each time as you search through the pyramid for Francisco Scaramanga’s fabled Golden Gun, which can kill any enemy, including the supernatural Samedi, in one hit.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
Naturally, there’s quite a bit you can find throughout each Mission to aid your progress. Body armour allows you to take a few more hits and effectively acts as a secondary health bar and you can pick up any weapons dropped by downed enemies. Green crates can often be found which contain new weapons or ammo, and you’ll also be able to swipe keys and key cards from guards and NPCs alike to acquire mission-specific items or additional toys. Bond can karate chop enemies without expending ammo, but this leaves him extremely vulnerable so it’s best to use this from behind. Similarly, the sniper rifle butt can be used to hit and defeat enemies when up close. He’s also afforded numerous weapons, including his iconic Walther PPK (known as the PP7), which also comes with a silenced variant, and his trusty watch, which cuts through grates and enemies alike with its laser. Bond can also dual-wield for additional damage (and ammo expenditure) and you can even have him hold two different weapons if you’re quick at cycling through them. A variety of machine guns are on offer, from the near-useless Klobb to the simplicity of the D5K Deutsche and the burst fire of the RCP-90. You can also grab high-explosive weapons, such as grenades, grenade and rocket launchers, and three types of mines (remote-activated, proximity triggered, and timed), but be sure to avoid the blast zone. Throwing and hunting knives can also be used for a more personal touch, but I like the power and accuracy offered by the two shotguns and the Couger Magnum. The game’s best weapon is the one-shot Golden Gun and the faster variants unlocked through cheats, but you can also make use of the tanks cannon to blast at soldiers and anti-aircraft guns and zap enemies with lasers when you acquire the Moonraker laser.

Additional Features:
There are fifty-five Achievements on offer in GoldenEye 007, with twenty being awarded simply for clearing each of the game’s Missions on any difficulty setting. You’ll get three separate Achievements for finishing the entire game on each of the three difficulty settings, and 10G each time you finish a Mission in a specific time frame on a specific difficulty and unlock a cheat option. Yes, blasting through Missions as quickly as possible on each of the difficulties will unlock a wide variety of cheats, from invincibility, invisibility, all guns, infinite ammo, and even options for a hilarious “big-head mode” and to speed up or slow down the in-game action. Achievements are also earned by playing the game’s multiplayer mode. Although the Xbox version doesn’t allow for online multiplayer, you and your friends can still get together in person to battle head-to-head, or in teams, across a variety of repurposed maps.

*The game’s replay value is bolstered by fun cheats, a banging multiplayer, and various unlockables.*

You can battle simply for points, set limits on how many lives and time you have to play, set weapons to be one-hit kill, battle for control over the mythical Golden Gun, and play a capture the flag scenario, with each option named after a classic Bond film. All of the game’s characters, major and minor, are available to pick from alongside two classic Bond villains, Oddjob and Mayday, with the former (and Jaws) offering different challenges based on their height. Completing the game on Secret Agent and 00 Agent will also unlock two bonus Missions: Aztec and Egyptian. In Aztec, you’re placed in a fantastic recreation of Hugo Drax’s missile command centre from Moonraker and must confront Jaws, escape a rocket’s test fire, and then sabotage the Drax shuttle before it takes off. In Egyptian, you’re tasked with navigating a maze-like pyramid in search of the Golden Gun and hounded by Baron Samedi, who returns three times to cause you trouble but the biggest challenge here is remembering the sequence to reach the aforementioned Golden Gun as you’ll be cut down by sentry guns if you step on the wrong tiles. Some additional weapons can also be used when utilising the All Guns cheat, which can make it fun to revisit previous Missions, and you can even tweak the enemy behaviour, strength, and awareness when you unlock 007 Mode to make the game even easier or harder depending on your preference.

The Summary:
Obviously, nostalgia is a huge part of GoldenEye 007’s appeal. Graphically, the game hasn’t aged very well, and it’s definitely been superseded by other Bond games and FPS titles in terms of presentation, gameplay mechanics, and content but there’s something very appealing to GoldenEye 007’s simplicity. It’s nice to be placed in a surprisingly large number of polygonal environments and simply head to a goal, with additional objectives adding relay value and challenge to the game, meaning GoldenEye 007 can be surprisingly complex that more you play on higher difficulties. The game is full of fun little Easter Eggs as well, from character animations and dialogue to oddities placed in each environment, and I enjoyed how NPCs on one difficulty suddenly become vital objectives in the next. There’s a lot to do here as the game challenges you to play on harder difficulties and find the fastest, most efficient way of beating its Missions to unlock everything. There’s also a nice variety of weapons that can all be held at once, meaning you can easily mix and match your gameplay style on the fly, and a fun assortment of objectives that often encourage stealthier gameplay but give you the tools to engage in a manic firefight. The multiplayer is as enjoyable as ever, too; I’m not fussed about the lack of online functionality as I don’t play online and it’s great to be able to jump in and mess about like in the old days. After decades of GoldenEye 007 being restricted to an old console, it’s simply astounding to see it made available once again. It’d be great if more licensed games got the same treatment but I’m happy to say that GoldenEye 007 is just as much of a blast to play through now as it was all those years ago.

My Rating:

Great Stuff

Was GoldenEye 007 a favourite of your youth? What did you think to this re-release and were you surprised when it was finally announced? How do you think the game holds up today? Did you ever finish it on 00 Agent and unlock everything? Which Mission, weapon, or location was your favourite? Do you have fond memories of playing the multiplayer? What’s your favourite James Bond videogame? I’d love to know your thoughts and memories of GoldenEye 007 so please leave them in the comments and go check out my other Bond reviews.

Game Corner: Resident Evil 4: Gold Edition (Xbox Series X)

18/10/202401/10/2024Dr. K1 Comment

Released: 8 March 2024
Originally Released: 24 March 2023; 11 January 2005
Developer: Capcom
Also Available For: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S

The Background:
Headed by Shinji Mikami, Resident Evil’s (Capcom, 1996) focus on atmospheric horror and limited resources popularised the “survival-horror” subgenre. Despite its blocky graphics, clunky controls, and cringe-worthy voice acting, Resident Evil was a critical and commercial success, kickstarting an entire franchise that continued to tweak the gameplay mechanics, expand the lore, and prove equally successful. During the sixth-generation of the gaming industry, Mikami (after a lengthy development process) spearheaded Resident Evil 4 (Capcom Production Studio 4, 2005). The game reinvented the series by shifting away from tank controls and restrictive angles to an over-the-shoulder perspective and a greater emphasis on player control and action. Resident Evil 4 became the second best-selling Resident Evil title and is universally regarded as one of the best (if not the best) entries in the franchise. Despite receiving a high-definition port in later years, the success and popularity of the game saw Capcom prioritise a modern remake over other Resident Evil titles, especially as they’d seen considerable success with remakes of previous entries. The project was not one that directors Kazunori Kadoi and Yasuhiro Anpo took lightly. Although they wished to capture the spirit of the original, the developers minimized the use of quick-time events (QTEs), expanded the narrative and capabilities of the notoriously annoying Ashley Graham, and placed greater emphasis on knife attacks and parrying. Like its predecessor, Resident Evil 4 was met with widespread critical acclaim. Reviews praised the updates to the graphics and mechanics, the expanded characterisations, and the brutal gore, though some criticised the retention of some of the original’s weaker moments. Regardless, Resident Evil 4 sold over five million units by July 2023 and was subsequently bolstered by some downloadable content (DLC). “The Mercenaries” mini game was made available for free from April 2023, microtransactions were added to speed up weapon upgrades, and a remake of the “Separate Ways” side story was released to high praise in September 2023. All this DLC was then re-released alongside the base game as this physical Gold Edition in early 2024.

The Plot:
After escaping Raccoon City, Leon S. Kennedy, now a government agent, is sent to rescue Ashley Graham, the daughter of the United States President, from a mysterious cult in a rural Spanish village. There, he encounters hostile villagers pledged to Los Iluminados and infected by a mind-controlling parasite known as Las Plagas.

Gameplay:
Resident Evil 4 is one of the all-time classics not just of the Resident Evil franchise, but in all of gaming. It changed the survival/horror formula into a more action-oriented genre and directly influenced later remakes of similarly classic Resident Evil titles. However, I was disappointed when I heard it was getting the remake treatment, especially as the previous HD version still holds up really well (despite you not being able to move and shoot). I would’ve much preferred to see Resident Evil – Code: Veronica (Capcom Production Studio 4, 2000) brought up to modern standards but I guess I understand the logic behind prioritising one of the most profitable and popular games. Resident Evil 4 offers six different control types and a wealth of modern options to choose from. You can toggle aim assist, the run and crouch functions, the size of the aiming reticle (which largely replaces the laser sight from the original game), various camera settings, and the intensity of the heads-up display and damage indicators. The default controls see you aiming with the Left Trigger, readying your knife with the Left Bumper, shooting or stabbing with the Right Trigger, and running with the Right Bumper or by pressing in the left stick. Y brings up your inventory (still nicely arranged in attaché briefcases), X reloads, A interacts with the environment to pick up weapons, ammo, treasure, and files, and you can crouch through small gaps with B. You can use the left stick in conjunction with RB to perform a quick turn, hold A to pull certain objects (bookcases, filing cabinets, etc) when prompted, and switch weapons using the directional pad. Two weapons can be assigned to each direction this time, which is great for mixing up your attack strategies and conserving ammo, though there’s no quick-heal option here.

*Alongside more emphasis on the knife, Leon’s allies have had their roles greatly expanded.*

Resident Evil 4’s newest gimmick is placing increased emphasis on the knife. Before, you could cheese the knife to a ridiculous extent, stunning enemies and opening them up for Leon’s over the top melee attacks. While that’s still true here, Leon’s knife also parries certain attacks from the likes of the Chainsaw Ganado and other weapon-wielding enemies with LB. This will wound or stun enemies so you can run in to press A to hit a suplex, but you can also sneak up behind them or finish them off with your knife with a press of RB. Leon’s knife now has a durability meter; eventually, it’ll break and he’ll need to spend his hard-earned pesetas upgrading it at the mysterious Merchant. Weaker, disposable knives are often found dotted around the environment, in addition to stronger ones, and it really makes you think twice about going all gung-ho with your knife like before and opens up interesting ways to battle the likes of Major Jack Krauser since all the previous QTEs have been replaced by these new parry mechanics. In what’s now a franchise tradition, there is also a part where you lose your gear and must stealthily take out enemies to retrieve your stuff. As before, Leon will partner with some allies; suave ladies’ man Luis Sera has an expanded role here, helping you at key points and providing both ammo and extra gunfire when besieged by enemies or battling the troll-like El Gigantes, but your main partner is still Ashley Graham. Now wearing more sensible attire and with her bratty persona toned way down, Ashley is far more capable and useful than before. You command her to wait, hide, and follow you by pressing in the right stick, hiding her in the odd cabinet or cupboard and having her climb over walls to unlock doors or lower ladders. While she can die (and you can accidentally shoot her), you no longer have to worry about wasting your healing items on her and she typically just gets “incapacitated”. You can revive her and get her back on her feet, though you’ll still have to cover her as she helps solve puzzles and shoot enemies that try to spirit her away or else you’ll get a game over.

*Purchase new items and upgrades, craft ammo, or just kill time at the shooting range.*

I actually felt like Ashley wasn’t even partnered with Leon as much as in the original game and, when she is, it’s so much easier to look after her. Her solo section has also been expanded somewhat, moving from a primarily stealth-based interlude to a more puzzle-based section where you stun Armaduras with her special lantern. Leon also has a few more combat options available to him: he can occasionally dodge bigger attacks with B, has more control over the boat he uses to cross the vast lake, and can again use giant cannons to splatter enemies and shatter doors. As is now the standard in Resident Evil titles, Leon can also craft ammo and health from the inventory screen. By picking up resources, gunpowder, herbs, and purchasing instructions from the Merchant, you can craft ammo and various coloured herbs that will partially, fully, or even extend your health. This has also been expanded to the treasures; you can increase the value of goblets and crowns and other large treasures by inserting coloured gemstones, which is great for earning extra cash. You once again save at typewriters with no fear of running out of ink (though the game has a generous autosave function), can use a limited Item Box when doing so, and can once again take a break from all the killing and horror at the many shooting ranges. Here, you test your marksmanship skills to earn letter grades and tokens to purchase charms for your briefcase that’ll give you certain buffs. The Blue Medallion system has also been expanded to include side missions set by the Merchant. These include shooting hidden Blue Medallions, disposing of rats, and confronting tougher enemies, all for greater treasures.

*Classic puzzles and former QTEs have been reworked to offer a new, if familiar, challenge.*

While much of Resident Evil 4 is familiar to anyone who’s played the original game, some of the puzzles and sections have been reworked. You’ll no longer run away from a giant stone version of Ramon Salazar or deal with that flame-filled room, for example, but these elements have been reworked into the tower section, meaning you not only have to avoid barrels coming down the spiral staircase but also take out Salazar’s giant stone visage to avoid being roasted alive. The light puzzle in the church is different, I’m pretty sure I don’t remember exploring a bunch of different caves to find shrines in the original, and I believe the dissection lab has a new power reroute puzzle that wasn’t there before. I do recognise some of the puzzles, though; you’ll still be traversing that damn hedge maze, still have to wait for the lift to come while fending off the Verdugo (now pulling levers to temporarily freeze it with liquid nitrogen and parrying it when it destroys these controls), and you’ll still have to watch your step when crossing rickety wooden bridges. You can still save a dog for an assist later on, still shoot lanterns to set enemies on fire, and still use explosive barrels to take out hordes of enemies. You and Ashley will sometimes have to turn wheels or levers or simultaneously pull switches or create new paths or open doors, or you’ll command her to do this while you explore further and protect her. You’ll be finding keys to unlock doors and drawers, taking the long way around to unbolt doors and create shortcuts, upgrading key cards, finding spheres that need to be rotated to form the Los Illuminados’ symbol, shooting gongs, sitting at the right tables as dictated by paintings, completing sword puzzles, and racing along on minecarts at breakneck speed, struggling to stay on the track, take out enemies, and avoid dead ends. If things get too tough for you (and it can get a bit hairy when you’re surrounded by enemies that only become stronger when you defeat them), you can lower the game’s difficulty. “Assisted” mode enables a health regeneration system and lowers the cost of items, but generally you can get by on “Standard” if you conserve ammo and make good use of the melee attacks, knife, and environmental aids dotted around the place.

Graphics and Sound:
While I was sceptical about remaking Resident Evil 4 since the previous version still holds up really well, it can’t be denied that the game has never looked better than here. The remake engine makes fantastic use of lighting and shadows to give everything a far creepier and more horrifying atmosphere. The level of detail at work throughout the game’s environments is astounding, with rain and water effects being a constant standout. Areas feel real and lived in, with blood trails and splatters, damage and debris, and little things like photographs, ticking clocks, and even enemies hiding in toilets and giant ovens all adding to the immersion. Leon, especially, benefits from the graphical upgrade; he can now move and shoot, dynamically reloads, and reacts to his environment, shielding himself from rain, resting against walls when low on health, and crashing through destructible objects with the same gusto as before. Character models, in general, are much improved here; Ashley has a more sensible wardrobe, Luis has never smoked a cigarette better, and even the diminutive Salazar looks far less comical here. Faces are still a bit unnerving at times, appearing a bit plasticky (especially when wet) but the level of detail is greater than ever before, so I can forgive it. This extends to the blood and gore, too; enemies can be blown to pieces, exploding in a splatter of guts and viscera, their bodies writhing on the floor, reanimating with renewed aggression, or their heads bursting open as horrific tentacles parasites writhe about. More of them appear than ever before, too, with their variants and mutations causing serious trouble when you’re low on health and ammo and must survive until the game decides to let you continue.

*The graphical upgrade is astounding, making everything darker, grittier, and gorier.*

All the key areas from the original game return here, including the main village, a sprawling castle, a network of dank caves and mines, and the fortified island the serves as the finale. You’ll visit graveyards, churches, houses (both abandoned and occupied), forgotten laboratories where bizarre genetic experiments lurk, medieval dungeons and hallways, and a veritable war zone in the end game as you navigate past barricades, narrow corridors, and ransacked areas where enemies lurk around every corner. Everything has a much higher level of detail; you can push obstacles out of the way as well as hop over or through them, files are scattered about to flesh out the local lore, and gameplay is frequently interrupted by exposition dumps from Ingrid Hunnigan or taunts from Saddler and his cohorts. Every cutscene and comms chat can be interrupted, which is great for subsequent playthroughs, and the sheer sense of foreboding atmosphere is unparalleled here as you’re never sure what’s lurking around even the most familiar corridors. Enemies can toss weapons at you, clamber up ladders, and will shout for help when they spot you. Later on, spider-like parasites will scuttle about and attach themselves to regular enemies, making them more formidable, and you’ll be constantly deactivating explosives, avoiding those ever-annoying bear traps, and redirecting gun turrets to clear your path. As ever, music plays a key role in alerting you to when there’s danger present; when it dies down or is more tranquil, you’re safe to explore and regroup. The dialogue and script has also been slightly tweaked; while Leon still has a lot of sass, some of the cheesier lines have been removed. There’s also an additional haunted quality to Leon as he struggles to reconcile the horrors he saw in Raccoon City and make amends for his mistakes with his newfound training.

Enemies and Bosses:
Like in the original game, there are no zombies here. Instead, you primarily fight the cult-like, parasite-infested minions of Los Illuminados. Ganados are far more intelligent than zombies, but no less durable; they can take multiple shots, even to the head, and keep going, utilising weapons like hatchets, pitchforks, and dynamite to cause you headaches. Thankfully, any nearby traps and hazards (and larger enemies) can hurt and kill them, but they are a real pain in the ass when they start wielding crossbows, hiding behind shields, and their heads burst to reveal disgusting tentacles and voracious parasites. The robed summoners will force this transformation and obscure your vision, so be sure to take them out quickly, while flash grenades are your best bet against the naked parasites or the armour-clad Armaduras. You’ll also battle Plagas-infested Novistadors, giant bugs that hover around, spawn from hives and can camouflage into the environment. Later, the Ganados better arm themselves and protect themselves with flak jackets helmets, and other military gear, making it even harder to score a good headshot.

*Bosses have been reworked to accommodate the new mechanics and modern graphics.*

Larger, more monstrous enemies are also commonplace and act as mini bosses. The first you’ll encounter is the Chainsaw Ganada, a burlap-sack wearing madman who will lop your head clean off if you don’t make good use of the parry system. As if their sporadic appearances aren’t bad enough, you’re also forced to fight the Bella Sisters again, this time in an enclosed room (which actually makes it easier to track them), and the aggravating, claw-handed Garradors. Though brutish, heavily armoured, and extremely dangerous, Garradors are also slightly easier here as you’re not locked in a small cage and have more room to manoeuvre behind them to shoot the parasite on their back, stunning them for a more effective attack. Similarly, sledgehammer-carrying Brutes often show up, though their wild swings can just as easily wipe out nearby lesser enemies, as well as lumbering El Gigantes. This time, when you battle the two of them in the furnace, Luis is there to help; though he’s more of a distraction and hinderance as he needs to get clear before you can drop their asses into the molten steel. As ever, two of the more disturbing enemies-cum-mini bosses are the cackling, slug-like Regenerators and spiky Iron Maidens, two intimidating creatures that shrug off bullets and grenades, rapidly heal even when blasted in two, and pounce on you to try and eat your face and skewer you. The only way to effectively destroy them is by finding and equipping the Bioscope Sensor to your rifle so you can see and shoot the parasites lurking in their bodies, which can be easier said than done thanks to their erratic movements and extendable limbs. Another memorable boss encounter is, of course, the massive, mutated salamander Del Lago. You’ll need to use LB and RT to throw your unlimited supply of harpoons and the beast, avoiding the obstacles floating in the lake and chucking your spiked implements into its mouth when it leaps from the water. Thankfully, your encounters with the Verdugo are much more manageable this time; instead of running around a maze of shipping containers and fighting it in a cave, you must simply freeze it with liquid nitrogen and avoid or parry its lashing tail attacks when prompted.

*No matter how big or monstrous the boss, your knife, parry, and dodge abilities will be the deciding factors.*

Bitores Mendez once again hounds Leon throughout the story, though you are spared him lumbering after you like a Mr. X or Nemesis figure. He’s still fought in a burning barn, assuming a scorpion-like mutated form where he swipes with his tentacles, requiring you to either dodge or parry his limbs to blast at his big, ugly eye. In the second phase, the fires rage out of control and can really eat away at your health, as can the barrels he tosses at you, but the key is staying in the safest place you can find, parrying when prompted, and hitting RT when he’s stunned to deal big damage. Ramon Salazar’s mutated plant form is more agile than I remember it. He scuttles about on the walls and ceilings, belching corrosive bile and explosive pods, and can eat you in one bite if he gets too close. You need to constantly stay on the move and not miss the opportunity to fire when the pod opens and reveals him, which will eventually stun him to the ground so you can use your knife, but I found this a particularly gruelling boss battle. Krauser is fought twice this time; the first is a straight-up knife fight where you must parry or dodge his attacks, landing slashes and melee attacks until he flees. This repeats in the ruins, but Krauser also fires at you, tosses flash grenades, and mutates a giant arm blade for the finale. The fight isn’t timed this time, but Krauser is extremely agile, so you’ll need to keep him in view, taking shots and using any nearby knives to parry his slashes while also getting around his bio-organic shield. Finally, Osmund Saddler transforms into a rampaging, tumour-filled arachnid monster that stomps about an unstable mining platform. For such a big creature, it’s difficult getting a good shot at the eye-like growths on his limbs but doing so leaves his main weak spot open. Repeat this a few times, watching out for the limited ground, and Ada Wong will eventually toss you a rocket launcher to finish him off after he envelops the entire arena in a mess of putrid limbs.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
As you explore the game’s environments, you’ll find key items to progress and useful pick-ups to aid you. Small keys, cuboid blocks, medallions, and such access treasures, ammo, or healing items, or resources for crafting. Defeated enemies will invariably drop an assortment of supplies and you can smash open crates to acquire them, too (just watch out for snakes!) First-Aid sprays and herbs will restore your health, as ever, but you can also eat eggs and fish to do the same. You can combine green, red, and yellow herbs to recover more health and extend your health bar, which is always handy. Treasures come in many forms, from various jewels to ornate masks, clocks, and the like. The bigger ones house your smaller jewels to increase their value and you can also sell unwanted ammo, guns, and items to the Merchant for more cash. The Merchant’s stock is constantly changing, allowing access to new ingredients and weapons, so my advice is to wait for the more powerful weapons before you upgrade them to save your money and have stronger weapons later in the game. The Merchant also sells attaché case upgrades, allowing you to carry more and providing specific buffs, and degradable body armour to upgrade your durability. He also trades you special weapons, items, and add-ons for your arsenal if you complete his side missions. Leon uses many different weapons, from grenades and flash bombs to his trusty knife, pistols, and shotguns. You’ll eventually utilise heavier weaponry, like the assortment of submachine guns and assault rifles to single-use rocket launchers, as well as revolvers and magnums, sniper rifles, and a surprisingly handy bolt rifle. This is useful for destroying Blue Medallions, shooting rats, or finishing off enemies as you can recollect the bolts; you can also press the left stick to attach explosives, which is super handy in a tight pinch. These weapons can be upgraded to increase their power, ammo capacity, and reload time. Upgrade them fully (or acquire a special ticket) and you can unlock their special bonus ability, and you’ll also equip add-ons, such as stocks and scopes. Completing the shooting ranges earns you tokens to play for charms to attach to your briefcase; these increase how much ammo you craft, item drop rates, and provide other buffs, though you can only attach three at a time.

Additional Features:
There are thirty-nine Achievements on offer in Resident Evil 4 by default, with many unlocking simply by completing the story chapters, besting the monstrous bosses, and beating the various difficulty modes. While you won’t get an Achievement for aggravating Del Lago or looking up Ashley’s skirt, you will for rescuing her as she’s being carried away, for parrying incoming attacks, destroying all of a Regnerator’s parasites in a single shot, and selling an item for many times its usual value. Achievements also come from fully upgrading weapons, finding and destroying all of the Clockwork Castellan toys scattered throughout the game, escaping certain areas without taking damage, defeating certain bosses in specific ways, and finding every treasure (something greatly aided by purchasing the Merchant’s treasure maps). Not only are you graded on your time and performance at the end of the game, each chapter ends with a rundown of your accomplishments. These are tied to the Achievements and the in-game challenges that earn you Completion Points (CP) to spend in the “Extra Content” section. This is where you’ll unlock character models, concept art, and additional costumes and weapons. Beating the game on different difficulty modes unlocks various rewards, such as a dapper noir outfit for Leon, sunglasses and masks, the even harder “Professional” mode, and all your weapons, charms, and remaining treasures carry over to your next save file. Sadly, however, unlocking Ashley’s super useful suit of armour is much harder this time, requiring at least an A-rank completion of “Hardcore” mode. You’ll also need to destroy sixteen Clockwork Castellans to get an unbreakable knife, clear “Professional” mode for a bad-ass hand cannon, and shell out a whopping 2,000,000 pesetas for the infinite rocket launcher.

*Battle for points in “Mercenaries” mode and experience Ada’s story in this revamped nightmare.*

You can also play the “Mercenaries” mini game to dispatch as many enemies as possible against a time limit, building up your “Mayhem Meter” to unleash character-specific special moves and playing as either Leon, Luis, Krauser, or the returning HUNK, each with their own weapon loadouts and attributes. DLC packs also contain funky extra costumes, weapons, and even the original game’s soundtrack. Finally, there’s the Separate Ways side story that focuses on what Ada was up to during the main game and comes with seven additional Achievements. Separate Ways has been expanded upon in many ways. Not only does Ada have access to the same weapons, knives, items, crafting, treasure, and abilities as Leon (including the Merchant and her own melee attacks) but her grapnel gun now plays a significant part in her gameplay. You’ll often be prompted to grapple to (or find yourself traversing) the rooftops and upper levels in recycled locations, tapping RB to swing across gaps, launch to ledges, and even remove shields from enemies and fly in for a quick melee attack once upgraded. Separate Ways also expands upon Luis’s story, teaming him with Ada at various points, and she utilises her ocular I.R.I.S. implants to track footprints and reveal fingerprints for keycodes. Separate Ways also adds content back into the game, including the laser hallway sequence (a simple QTE where you tap B a few times and the RB at the end, finishing off a gigantic, toad-like boss at the same time) and U-3 boss fight. This returns as the final form of Ada’s clingy stalker, the gruesome Black Robe, which distorts the environment, teleports and creates duplicates, and is fought numerous times before it transforms into this scorpion-like form for a two-phase showdown in the caverns. Ada also battles Garradors, Regenerators and Iron Maidens (without the benefit of the infrared scope, that I could find), and boar-headed brutes with machine guns strapped to their arms. She also tackles an El Gigante (battling from atop destructible huts) and has a unique showdown with Saddler. This was the most frustrating part of Separate Ways for me. Saddler has a rush attack, bursts tentacles from the ground, fires bullets from his fingers, and can spam-lock you with tentacle combos. You must blast his face until the eyeball appears in his mouth and keep firing until you can melee attack him, but this took me quite a few tries. After that, you must grapple around the final stage as Saddler’s Lovecraftian mass attacks Leon, blasting the eye tumours in its tentacles to reach the rocket launcher and bring the side-game to a close. Separate Ways has the same difficulty settings as the main game and you can unlock additional costumes and accessories to wear in it, and the main game, as well as complete similar challenges when playing.

The Summary:
I love Resident Evil 4. It’s probably my second favourite in the franchise after the second (both/either version) and it was a blast playing through this top-notch modern reimagining of the title. Sure, I don’t think I’ll ever get over Capcom prioritising remaking this title, which has stood the test of time extremely well, over Code: Veronica, which is still stuck in the tank control days of the franchise, but they absolutely delivered with this game, to the point that it almost makes up for them dropping the ball on the remake of the third game. The new graphical overhaul makes the game darker, moodier, and gorier than ever. There’s just so much detail, so much happening in the environment and with lighting and shadows, and Leon and the others have never looked more detailed and human (or inhuman) than here. I think it’s a testament to how well-crafted the original game was that very little has been changed or discarded. A few boss battles and hazardous areas are omitted or heavily altered, sure, but everything from the original game is retained but with a more serious tone, a greater degree of movement, and far more options for you to upgrade your arsenal. I thought I’d hate the degradable knife and parry mechanics, but they were implemented really well, making me think twice whenever I used the knife since I wouldn’t want it to break at a pivotal moment. While I actually enjoyed the quick-time events of the original, I’m glad they were replaced by playable sections; it really added to the immersion of Leon’s bouts against Krauser. Expanding on Leon, Luis, and Ashley to make them more well-rounded characters while still retaining the edge, arrogance, and characteristics that previous defined them was a great idea, as was altering Ashley’s solo section into something more enjoyable and never-wracking. In the end, I’m forced to admit that remaking Resident Evil 4 was a fantastic idea as it resulted in this gorgeous, gore-soaked, super tense and exciting game. I really hope Capcom give the same treatment to Code: Veronica next but it does make me wonder if they can improve upon Resident Evil 4’s sequels just as well later down the line…

My Rating:

Fantasic

Were you pleased with the remake of Resident Evil 4? Do you think it deserved the remake treatment so soon? What did you think to the new knife-based mechanics and the alterations to certain bosses? Did you like that Luis and Ashley’s roles were expanded and more flesh out? Did you ever find all of those Clockwork Castellans? Which Resident Evil videogame, character, monster, or spin-off is your favourite, and which game would you like to see remade next? Whatever you think, feel free to leave your thoughts down below.

Game Corner: Resident Evil Village: Gold Edition (Xbox Series X)

11/10/202411/10/2024Dr. K1 Comment

Released: 28 October 2022
Originally Released: 7 May 2021
Developer: Capcom
Also Available For: Nintendo Switch, PC/Mac, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Stadia, Steam, Xbox One, Xbox Series S

The Background:
Helmed by Shinji Mikami, Resident Evil (Capcom, 1996) was a seminal title for the up-and-coming PlayStation, one whose focus on atmospheric horror and resource management popularised the “survival-horror” subgenre. A critical and commercial success, Resident Evil was quickly followed by a numerous sequels that continued to refine the gameplay, add to the lore, and be equally successful. After a troubled development, Mikami re-invented (and once again re-defined) the genre with the ridiculously successful Resident Evil 4 (Capcom Production Studio 4, 2005), though Capcom soon drew heavy criticism for over-relying on an increasingly action-orientated and over the top presentation. Thus, Capcom shook the franchise up again with Resident Evil VII: Biohazard (Capcom, 2017), which took the series in an all-new direction, featured an immersive first-person perspective, and introduced new mechanics and lore that would impact subsequent releases. Although Resident Evil VII was a critical and commercial success, development of an eighth instalment began about a year and a half before VII released. Inspired by Resident Evil 4, the developers purposely focused on a village as the central location and sought to create a balance between combat, exploration, and puzzle-solving. In addition to tying up the story of VII’s protagonist, Ethan Winters, the developers aimed to encourage exploration with an ever-shifting, more open-world environment and drew from gothic horror to design the game’s new werewolf-like enemies. Resident Evil VIII’s marketing heavily focused on Lady Alcina Dimitrescu, a towering, alluring, vampiric figure whose sex appeal helped boost interest in the game, which led to over three million copies being shipped within the first four days alone. The game’s new direction and ties to Resident Evil 4 were praised, as was the gameplay variety and emphasis on exploration, though the bosses and puzzles drew some criticism. Still, the game was a hit, more than justifying the release of additional downloadable content (DLC) within the following year. All of this DLC, which included additional gameplay modes and an epilogue story, was then made available on this Gold Edition release.

The Plot:
Three years after escaping the Baker family, Ethan Winters faces an all-new terror when his infant daughter, Rose, is kidnapped by Mother Miranda, the fanatical leader of a cult-like coven, after being seemingly betrayed by Chris Redfield.

Gameplay:
Like its predecessor, Resident Evil Village (stylised as Resident Evil VII.I.age) is a first-person survival/horror title in which players are again placed into the bland, faceless shoes of Ethan Winters, easily the franchise’s dullest character. Ethan has been fleshed out a little more this time around, though, to be fair. Between games, he and wife Mia have relocated, starting their lives anew with baby Rose; he has much more to say and far more agency this time around since he’s trying to rescue (and restore) his baby daughter; and he’s a little more competent after his experiences in the last game. If it’s been a while since you played Resident Evil VII, you can watch a helpful recap before setting up your subtitle, screen, and sound settings and, thanks to this Gold Edition of the game, you can play in third-person mode, which was my preference. Resident Evil Village offers four control setups, but the default is serviceable enough. You aim with the Left Trigger, guard against enemy attacks with the Left Bumper (with successful timing shoving enemies away), shoot with the Right Trigger, use a recovery item (such as First Aid Med) with the Right Bumper (a godsend in sticky situations), examine points of interest and pick things up with A, reload with X, and open your inventory with Y. By default, B does nothing except perform a quick turn in conjunction with the left stick, which can also be pressed in to break into a run. Pressing in the right stick allows you to crouch behind cover or through tunnels and small gaps, and you can switch weapons using the directional pad, with four different weapons able to be applied to this weapon “wheel”. There are also options to adjust aim assist, the intensity of the damage display, onscreen tutorials, and how much of the heads-up display is visible, allowing you to customise a more cinematic experience if you wish.

*Craft health and ammo and purchase new items and upgrades from the Duke.*

There are three difficulty settings to choose from at the start of the game, with a fourth, “Village of Shadows”, unlocked after beating the game on any difficulty. Naturally, the harder the difficulty, the tougher the enemies will be, with even basic foes tearing your throat out in a few hits on “Hardcore” difficulty. Unlike in the classic Resident Evil titles, there are no fourth dimensional Item Boxes here. You’ll need to combine and craft items to save inventory space, or spend the Lei dropped by enemies or found in destructible crates to expand your carry capacity. Yes, the crafting system is back; by finding items such as herbs and gunpowder, Ethan can craft recovery items, ammunition, and even explosives like pipe bombs and mines. New “recipes” can be purchased from the game’s rotund merchant, the mysterious Duke, who will happily purchase any treasure you’ve found, sell you ammo, weapons, and healing items, and also tunes up your existing weapons to make them more powerful. If you kill local wildlife, you can bring the meat to the Duke to cook food that increases your movement speed, maximum health, and reduces the damage you take while defending, though the Duke’s prices increase over time and he can even sell out of items, so it’s best to keep an eye out for craftable pickups. I’d also recommend caution with your weapon choices; eventually, better weapons will become available and you can only carry so much, so it’s easy to invest a lot of money tuning up your default handgun only to then have to sell it for the stronger upgrade. You can buy back any weapons you sell, but you can’t remove any charms or attachable tools (such as the scope for the sniper rifle or the extra magazines) from your weapons, so I definitely think it’s better to wait for the W870 TAC shotgun to become available and spend your money upgrading that as opposed to the first shotgun you find.

*Alongside some challenging combat, you’ll solve rudimentary puzzles and acquire elaborate keys.*

In addition to a decent weapon selection to choose from, Ethan can also use his environment to fight back against the lycan-like enemies that infest the titular village. Explosive barrels will blow enemies away and can hold A to barricade doors with furniture against enemies. You can shoot them off rooftops, sometimes you’ll need to rapidly tap A to escape an enemy’s grasp, and some larger enemies will even attack their smaller cousins. Even on the “Standard” difficulty, Resident Evil VIII is pretty tough. You often have just enough on hand to survive an enemy onslaught, after which you’ll be in dire need of resources to fend off the next enemy encounter, so it’s worth searching every drawer and cupboard, even if many of these are empty. Luckily, your map will indicate any missed items in the local area; it highlights treasures, locked doors, and missed items. You can then backtrack when you have the right keys or the environment has altered to grant you access, and you can still find helpful files that flesh out the game’s lore, Mother Miranda’s connection to the Mold and the Umbrella Corporation, and provide clues or solutions to the game’s puzzles. These may be as simple as finding bolt cutters to break chains, using a key to unlock a door, or finding and entering combination codes, but also become a wild goose chase as you search for masks, examine items for keys or add-ons for existing keys, insert glass eyes into holes, awkwardly swing flaming lanterns, and pull levers to open doors. As ever, you can save your progress at any time using a typewriter. You don’t need to worry about ink ribbons here, and the game also includes an autosave function so you’ll respawn from checkpoints when you die, but I’d recommend making a couple of save files so you can backtrack for missing items or optional side quests as you’ll eventually reach a point where you can’t return to the village that acts as a central hub, of sorts.

*While the game peaks early, there’s enough variety and intrigue to keep you hooked throughout.*

Resident Evil Village tasks Ethan with venturing to four distinct areas from the titular village, which alters (along with the title screen) as the game progresses, becoming infested with tougher enemies, set on fire, and ransacked by the Mold. Each of these areas presents a unique, but also familiar, challenge; Lady Alcina Dimitrescu’s castle, for example, is very reminiscent of the original game’s ornate mansion, and Lady Dimitrescu herself patrols the hallways, pursuing you throughout the estate like her predecessors, Mr. X and Nemesis. When trapped in House Beneviento, Ethan loses all his gear to the childlike Donna Beneviento and her malevolent puppet, Angie, who force you to complete a series of puzzles, including finding items to investigate a mannequin, rearranging film cells, and searching for fuses, to escape and reclaim your items. The toad-like Salvatore Moreau dwells in a mine, one infested with slime-like pustules, outside a massive lake strewn with wreckage that you must cross, lowering and raising temporary platforms, to power up the generators. Finally, the rebellious Lord Karl Heisenberg dwells in rundown factory populated by horrific cybernetic monstrosities. Here, you’ll use the smelting equipment to craft key items to progress, take a maintenance lift, and battle Heisenberg’s cyborg creations. After defeating Heisenberg, you’ll take control of the far more capable Chris for an all-action infiltration of the village and the catacombs beneath it. Chris has better weapons on hand, utilises ample supply drops, and calls in air strikes by holding down RT, making short work of Mother Miranda’s Mold defences and the hammer-wielding Uriaș who plagues Ethan so often in the main story.

Graphics and Sound:
It’s almost astounding how good Resident Evil VIII looks; the environments, especially, are moody, dank, and claustrophobic while also being genuinely creepy and unsettling, and the use of ambient noise, distant scratching and screaming, and sporadic music really adds to the tension. The level of detail is incredible at times, with Ethan panting and showing visible pain when low on health, blood splattering on his weapons, snow and frost ransacking the village, bullets and blood alike marking doors, windows, and the environment, and heads sporadically exploding in a shower of gore. Playing in third-person allows you to finally see Ethan’s character model, though he’s still just a guy, one whose face is oddly obscured no matter how much you wriggle the camera. Interestingly, many of the character models (basically anyone who isn’t Chris, who’s been redesigned once again) sport a shiny, uncanny look that makes them seem not quite real. This is fine for the monstrous enemies, but makes human characters a little unsettling to look at in the wrong lighting (though, admittedly, this may be due to the brightness settings I chose). Resident Evil VIII ventures towards the supernatural for many of its enemies, depicting werewolves, witches, and shambling wretches alongside cyborg brutes fitted with drill arms! If these get too close to you, you’re gonna be in for a bad time and treated to some gruesome death scenes, but it’s equally satisfying seeing them be blown to pieces by a well-timed grenade round.

*There are some creepy and visually impressive locations beyond the titular, ever-changing village.*

As you might’ve guessed from the game’s title, the village plays a prominent role here. It’s your central hub you’ll return to time and again and have to explore and defend throughout the story, housing a church, graveyard, ruins, rivers, and more. Largely barren due to the events taking place, there’s a constant dread hanging in the village that’s mirrored by its adjacent locations. While some areas (stately homes, mostly) are guilty of recycling assets such as ornaments and furniture, others are more visually unique and unsettling, such as the cyborg factory and the creepy doll’s house-like House Beneviento. Resident Evil VIII continues to move away from the futuristic laboratories of Umbrella and takes more cues from Resident Evil 4, bringing an Eastern European flavour back to the franchise. I’m actually surprised it didn’t try to harken back to the backwater locations of the last game. However, these are partially evoked in your encounter with Moreau and when the Mold starts bursting from the ground and overtaking the village, but it’s a tenuous link, at best. The game’s story is engaging enough and mostly related through in-game cutscenes that retain the first-person perspective. You’ll be falling or sent crashing through floors and walls, have your limbs and organs cut off or ripped out, and be constantly interrupted by surprise attacks or jump scares. Everything’s played very seriously here, with very few glib remarks from the increasingly tested Ethan, with the exception of Mother Miranda and her lieutenants, who are almost as over the top as the crazed Baker family from the last game. Sadly, much of their personality is lost when they transform into gigantic, boil-infested monstrosities as per Resident Evil tradition.

Enemies and Bosses:
In place of zombies, bio-organic weapons, parasite-infected villagers, and Mould creations, players battle werewolf-like lycans upon first entering the village. These snarling brutes are nimble and voracious, lunging for you and trying to tear your throat out and taking a fair few shots to be put down. A larger, armour-clad variant is also encountered, one that is better shielded from headshots, and bigger, more monstrous Vârcolacs pose a significant challenge if you’re caught unprepared. The spirit of the classic games is evoked through the shambling, sword-wielding Moroaicǎ, hooded, gaunt figures that rise from shallow water and attack in groups, while bat-like Samcas nest on the rooftops of Castle Dimitrescu. While the mindless Haulers are little more than cannon fodder in Heinsberg’s factory, his cyborg Soldats aren’t to be trifled with. Sporting up to two drill-like appendages and a variety of cybernetic armour, these lumbering walls of muscle can only be put down by blasting the exposed core on their chests, a task easier said than done when they attack in groups and are protected by quasi-mech suits. Most of the game’s more formidable enemies, like the Vârcolacs and Soldats, are introduced as mini bosses, giving you a chance to sample their abilities before they become commonplace and are joined by even stronger variants as the game progresses.

*Monstrous and grotesque abominations are the order of the day, however unfitting some of them are.*

The first boss you encounter is the aforementioned Uriaș; although it is technically possible to defeat him when he first appears, this isn’t necessary, you just need to survive until the plot progresses. Uriaș shows up as a proper boss twice during the main campaign; first, Ethan fights him in a confined space full of pillars to take cover behind. You’ll need to stay well clear of Uriaș’ giant hammer and leaping attack, and fend off the lycans for resources, preferably blasting him with your shotgun or grenade rounds to put him down. Uriaș also shows up when playing as Chris, but this fight is much easier as you simply need to target him for a few air strikes, surviving until he’s put down once more. As if frantically avoiding Lady Dimitrescu’s appearances isn’t bad enough, her three witch daughters – Bela, Daniela, and Cassandra – also haunt Castle Dimitrescu, appearing as a swarm of bugs that will whittle your health down and then taking physical form to dash at you with scythes. These three can only be made vulnerable by pulling switches or breaking windows to let in a blast of cold wind, with you constantly strafing to keep them in the cold, or pulling levers to keep the pressure on, while blasting at them until they turn to ash. Lady Dimitrescu herself cannot be harmed or killed when she’s pursuing you, but will transform into a massive, dragon-like bat-thing for a boss battle that sadly loses much of her visual appeal. The mutated Dimitrescu will stomp, charge, and try to eat you on the castle rooftop. Luckily, there are lots of resources on hand and her head is wide open for your shotgun blasts. When she flies into the distance, you can use the sniper rifle to shoot her down, repeating this process even as she forces you to take refuge higher up.

*There are some unique elements to the bosses, though the later ones lack the iconography of earlier foes.*

Donna Beneviento prefers to toy with you than take you on directly; her game of hide and seek will increasingly freak you out as the lights flicker and go out, the environment changes, and a massive, slug-like foetus thing lumbers down the narrow hallways of her doll’s house. To defeat her, you’ll need to track her doll, Angie, three times, ending her threat in a cutscene. This intense, genuinely creepy encounter is juxtaposed by the battle against the mutated Moreau, who transforms into a monstrous aquatic creature that lumbers around a drained lake, spitting and raining acid and thrashing its tail at you. Fortunately, there’s a lot of convenient cover to avoid damage and Moreau pops out to taunt you, allowing you to blast at him, though he’s certainly not an easy target despite his size. In Heinsberg’s factory, you’ll constantly run from Sturm, an armour-clad brute with a propeller mounted to his head! When you eventually battle him, it’s a tense affair as he crashes through walls and shoots flame bursts as you desperately try to hit the vent on his back. Heinsberg proves one of the more formidable of Mother Miranda’s lieutenants purely because of his mental control of metal, which allows him to constantly get the drop on you throughout the game. When Ethan finally reaches him, he’ll construct a massive, spider-like form for himself out of scrap metal, forcing Ethan to man a tank gifted to him by Chris. This made for a fun, action-packed battle where you fire a massive cannon and machine gun at Heinsberg’s glowing weak spots, until Heinsberg destroys your tank. Then, you frantically run around looking for ammo to blast him in the face until he whips you up in a tornado, which allows you to fire one last shot from the tank’s cannon and finish him off.

*Alongside also battling Mother Miranda, Rose has her own boss battles to contend with.*

With all of her lieutenants defeated, Mother Miranda attacks the village with tentacles and tree-like constructs of Mold, forcing you into a final confrontation that is easily the toughest of the game. Even with the Duke stationed nearby and some resources appearing in the enclosed arena, this is an uphill battle as Mother Miranda causes Mold to burst from the ground, quickly dashes about and swipes at you, traps you in pitch black and attacks in the blink of an eye, and spews lava and fireballs to whittle you down. Your best defense is a good offense; blast at her with everything you have, taking cover when you can and crafting as need be, until a scripted event is triggered, which requires you to hit RT to cut yourself free and finish her off. Well, not entirely, as you’ll fight her again at the conclusion of the “Shadow of Rose” DLC story. Although Mother Miranda has a similar attack pattern, your strategy for defeating her is very different as Rose must absorb her projectiles with LB and then press towards and B to unleash a Mold attack that stuns Mother Miranda long enough for you to blast her. She also goes into a full-blown rampage as a gigantic Mold beast, requiring you to make liberal use of the dodge and a final power boost from Ethan to dispel her for good. Before Rose fights her, though, she’ll have to contend with the troll-like Amalgam, a grotesque beast who relentlessly pursues you before you face it in an enclosed dungeon, where it freely teleports around, summons minions, and spawns weak spots on different parts of its body. Rose has her own terrifying adventure in Beneviento as well, first fleeing from unsettling animated mannequins, then avoiding killer dolls (while shrunk down), before finally facing the vengeful spirit of Eveline in a psychic battle that sees you avoiding being blasted and corrosive Mold, and blasting the embittered wraith when she’s exhausted from hrr enraged attack.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
As you explore high and low, you’ll find a bunch of treasures, ammo, items, and pick-ups scattered around. In Resident Evil Village, a herb is useless unless combined with chem fluid, so you’ll be relying on the crafting system to restore your health, unless you happen upon ready to use restoring items. Gunpowder is similarly used to craft ammo, though you’ll also find these in crates and drawers and such. You can also purchase these from the Duke, though his prices increase as the game progresses and he can even sell out of ammo and healing items. Generally, you’ll be gifted or will find your main weapons, such as the handgun and shotgun, as well as a few explosives, like throwable pipe bombs or proximity mines you can lay to take out groups of enemies. However, you can buy additional weapons from the Duke; the selection is nothing you haven’t seen in previous Resident Evil titles, including machine guns, a grenade launcher, and a magnum revolver, with upgrades available for most, and a knife for when all else fails. Ethan can utilise Chris’s weapons, and others, when you beat the game on other difficulty settings and accumulate points playing “The Mercenaries”, but things really take a twist when playing the “Shadow of Rose” story. Rose has some additional superhuman abilities that are unlocked as you play. When you find special flasks, Rose gains a meter that allows her to use RB to destroy Mold cores, opening new areas, and briefly freeze enemies, with this meter expanded by flasks and refilled with the new White Sage item. As a trade-off, Rose can’t use healing items with RB and has no need for Lei or the Duke’s services (he takes on a mysterious antagonistic role instead), but she can expend her meter with RB when grabbed to escape an enemy’s attack.

Additional Features:
There are forty-nine Achievements up for grabs in Resident Evil Village, with a further seven included in the “Winters’ Expansion” DLC that’s included with this Gold Edition, bringing the total to fifty-six. You’ll get Achievements for finishing the game, and “Shadow of Rose”, on each difficulty setting, defeating the game’s bosses and reaching story-specific sections, and for simple stuff like using a lockpick, entering Photo Mode, and killing a wild animal. Other Achievements pop when you defeat three enemies with one attack, take down Uriaș early on, equip add-ons and upgrade your weapons, and far more tedious tasks, such as breaking every window in Castle Dimitrescu and opening every outhouse in the village. As you explore, you may come across little wooden goats that should be destroyed for additional Achievements. You’ll also get another Achievement for having 777, 7,777, or 77,777 Lei, using only a knife, or finishing the game in under three hours and/or with four or less recovery items.

*Complete challenges, play Rose’s epilogue, or put your skills to the test in “The Mercenaries”.*

Some of the Achievements align with the list of in-game challenges you can work through to earn Completion Points (CP). CP is spent in the ‘Bonuses’ menu to purchase new weapons, infinite ammo, concept art, and character models in the form of figurines. You can also acquire CP by playing “The Mercenaries”, a Resident Evil staple that sees you playing as either Ethan or Chris (plus Lady Dimitrescu and Heinsberg once you unlock them), each with different attributes and weapons, and clearing out all enemies across various maps. You’re working against a time limit here, so you must be quick and accurate and use the hourglasses to extend your time. You can also buff yourself and your weapons with power-up stations found on each map, which offer additional health or greater accuracy with specific weapons. It’s a fun little side-game, though you’ll need to have your wits about you as you’ll only unlock new maps and gain the best awards with an A-rank or more. Finally, you can play tilting ball games, hunt down rare treasure and wild beasts, and find the game’s files to go for 100% completion, which requires additional playthroughs and possibly multiple save files in case you miss stuff you can’t go back for, in addition to the “Shadow of Rose” epilogue. This sees you returning to some of the game’s key areas, now warped and nightmarish, as Rose follows a mysterious disembodied voice to rid herself of her strange powers. It’s a fun extra few hours of gameplay that’s spiced up just enough with her extra abilities, a few new and rearranged areas (including the super creepy mannequin section), and some new bosses and twists on existing enemies.

The Summary:
I put off Resident Evil Village for some time, specifically because I was waiting for this Gold Edition of the game so I could experience the entire thing in one go. Although I didn’t mind the jump to first-person horror, I immediately switched the game to third-person as that’s my preference and I feel this suits the game and its action much more. The immersion felt by first-person is outweighed by the frustration of never being able to see all around you, so the third-person option was a godsend for me. Gameplay-wise, there’s not much you haven’t seen from Resident Evil before here; everything is suitably creepy, tense, and incredibly well put together, with a fantastic level of grimy and gruesome detail given to the game’s environments. I was surprised by how much I came to enjoy revisiting the village; it’s not the most engaging hub world and I sometimes felt the narrative was a little too mission-based at times, but it changed enough to hold my attention and I liked how each area offered different gameplay challenges. It’s true, however, that the game peaks quite early; Castle Dimitrescu and House Beneviento were the most engaging areas of the game for me, and neither Moreau or Heisenberg had the same visual appeal or creep factor as Lady Dimitrescu and Angie, which was a shame. It was equally disappointing how often the antagonists degenerated into monstrous abominations; I know it’s a “thing” in Resident Evil, but I don’t think Lady Dimitrescu or Heisenberg needed transformations to be interesting or scary. Still, there’s a lot to enjoy here; Ethan, while still bland, is far more interesting this time around with his heartfelt desire to rescue his baby girl, and the franchise continues to evolve its story, even if the direction it’s going down is becoming increasingly bizarre. Best of all, there are plenty of reasons to come back to this one for additional playthroughs. The addition of playable antagonists to “The Mercenaries” is a goal to reach for, and the game itself a fun distraction from the main story, which was as gruesome and disgusting as we’ve come to expect from this long-running franchise.

My Rating:

Great Stuff

What did you think to Resident Evil Village? Did you buy the game upon release, or did you wait for this Gold Edition, like me? Are you a fan of Ethan Winters and, if so, what did you think to his character progression? Which of the game’s areas and bosses was your favourite and what did you think to the new enemies on offer? Did you ever beat the “Village of Shadows” difficulty and find all those goats? Which Resident Evil game is your favourite and where would you like to see the franchise go next? Whatever your thoughts on Resident Evil, drop a comment below and be sure to check out my other Resident Evil content across the site.

Game Corner: Doom 3 (Xbox Series X)

02/10/202401/10/2025Dr. K2 Comments

Released: 4 August 2020
Originally Released: 3 August 2004
Developer: id Software
Also Available For: Nintendo Switch, Nvidia Shield, PC/Mac, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One

The Background:
Although the first-person shooter (FPS) genre existed before Doom (ibid, 1993), it was definitely popularised by the online “Deathmatches” featured in this heavily ported and much celebrated title. Despite its controversial violence and Satanic imagery, Doom was so popular that it was banned from workplaces, met with widespread critical acclaim. and followed by a sequel just ten months later. Bigger and faster than the original, Doom II (ibid, 1994) was equally successful despite being a glorified expansion and was followed by numerous expansion packs, but it would take ten years for gamers to get their hands on a third entry. This was partially due to concerns within id Software that the company was too reliant upon their existing franchises. However, the success of Return to Castle Wolfenstein (Various, 2001) saw development of Doom 3 begin in earnest. Pitched as a reboot of the franchise, Doom 3 was always planned to be a more story-focused title, one that took advantage of then-modern technology to bring the concept to life. This included utilising dynamic lighting to create ambiance and realistic shadows in the game’s environments and increasing the focus on interacting with said environments, This contributed to Doom 3’s critical success; the game became id Software’s best-selling title at the time and proved a big hit for its claustrophobic atmosphere and gore-infested combat, despite some repetitive gameplay loops. Eight months after its release, it was followed by the Resurrection of Evil expansion pack that added twelve new missions alongside new weapons and enemies and with positively received, with the additional Lost Mission campaign added when it was re-released in the BFG Edition (id Software, 2012). All of this additional content was also included alongside the game, its predecessors, and the 2016 reboot in the Slayers Collection, a nifty compilation release that I played for this review.

The Plot:
In the year 2145, the Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC) conducts groundbreaking teleportation research on their Mars facility under the direction of Doctor Malcolm Betruger. However, when their experiments open a portal to Hell and unleash a horde of demons throughout the facility, it’s up to one lone Marine to fend off the demonic forces and seal the Hellmouth.

Gameplay:
Like its predecessors, Doom 3 is a third-person shooter in which you take control of an unnamed space marine and blast seven kinds of shit out of the hordes of Hell on a futuristic Mars facility. However, given the huge gap between Doom II and Doom 3, many things have changed, primarily the fact that you can now utilise two control sticks for a greater range of movement, bringing the Doom franchise more in-line with what we now consider to be a modern FPS. One holdover I am grateful for is that the Marine can hold multiple weapons at once. You can fire these with the Right Trigger, cycle through them with the Left and Right Bumper (or use the inventory menu, though this won’t pause the game so you’ll still be vulnerable), manually reload them with X (yes, weapons now need to be reloaded), and select certain weapons (your bare fists, grenades, and others) using the directional pad. The Marine can also duck if you press in the right stick, temporarily run by pressing in the left stick (there’s a stamina meter on the heads-up display (HUD) that automatically refills), jump with A, and interact with the environment and non-playable characters (NPCs) with Y. There are also options to switch to a “Southpaw” playstyle, swap the jump and interact functions, toggle aim assist (though I recommend having it on), and toggle whether you automatically switch to newly acquired weapons or not.

*Unlike the previous games,* Doom 3 has a strong survival/horror element to it.

Doom 3’s biggest change to the series is its course correction towards survival/horror. 90% of the game’s environments are dark, moody, claustrophobic, and full of poor or malfunctioning lighting, meaning you’re heavily reliant upon your torch (or “flashlight”). In the original release of the game, you had to pick between using the flashlight or using a weapon, a bizarre and ridiculous system that’s thankfully corrected here, though the flashlight can’t be used indefinitely as it’s tied to a cool-down meter. You can whip it out with the Left Trigger to light up areas, which is essential to finding your way around Doom 3’s many horrific, wrecked, and samey environments, and you’ll need to keep an eye on the meter so you’re not left being attacked in the dark. Another new mechanic is the Marine’s occasional jaunts out onto the Mars surface. In these brief sections, you’ll run and hop around, blasting enemies and collecting air cannisters to keep from suffocating before you reach the next airlock. These sections help to break up the monotony of the game and connect the many large military complexes of the UAC facility, but they’re sadly not utilised as often as I’d like or in massively interesting ways. You’ll need to turn to the Dead Space franchise (Various, 2008 to present) for more in-depth space and zero gravity gameplay. Although Doom 3 eschews the classic Doom mechanics of searching for coloured keys or artifacts to open doors, you’ll still be searching for key cards and access codes to download to your Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) to access new areas. You can bring up the PDA using the ‘View’ button; from here, you can switch weapons and read e-mails and listen to audio logs that help flesh out the game’s lore, provide hints, or give you codes open storage lockers for ammo and resources.

*Hazardous and demonic elements are as commonplace as health and resources.*

Unlike in previous Doom games, there’s no map system in Doom 3. This isn’t a massive issue as the game is fairly linear, but it can be difficult to find your way around as a lot of the areas look the same and it can get quite dark so it can be tricky to spot doors, vents, and stairways. There’s also no compass system, so you better pay attention when the story objectives pop-up onscreen and NPCs tell you where to go (especially as there’s no way to remind yourself of either of these). Luckily, one easy way to know that you’re going in the eight direction is if enemies appear before you. These either shamble or pounce from the darkness or hidden cubbyholes or literally teleport in in a flash of lightning and demonic chanting. Whichever campaign you choose to begin here, you’ll start with only your fists or a pistol and have to acquire new weapons along the way. Ammo is dropped by gun-toting zombies, found in lockers, on eviscerated bodies, and scattered all around the environment, as are Med Kits, various armour, and healing stations used to top up your health until they’re depleted. Saving is a manual process, as ever, and I recommend making regular saves once you’ve cleared out a room or stocked up on health and ammo as it doesn’t take much to whittle your health and armour down to nothing. Environmental hazards like fire, high (or endless) drops, and flaming Hellpits are commonplace, and it can be easy to miss a jump during the game’s tricky platforming sections and plummet to your death. You’ll also need to be on the lookout for ladders, teleportation devices or rips in the fabric of reality, and elevators to take you to new locations, laboratories, or even the depths of Hell itself. There’s some light puzzle-solving present in Doom 3 that usually, involves a series of fetch quests as NPCs send you after key cards, access codes, or various power cells to open up new areas. Other times, you’ll be powering up or down reactors, security measures, and other futuristic equipment to progress, extending bridges and activating and riding monorails and moving platforms to traverse the sprawling facility.

*There are some minor, repetitive puzzles here, and helpful Sentry Bots to assist you.*

You’ll also be activating cranes and grabbers to clear out toxic waste, deactivating gun turrets, extinguishing fires, and can even use security cameras to check out areas you’re heading to. Sometimes, you’ll be forced to fight off waves of enemies while waiting for lifts or other machinery to power-up, but mostly you’ll be skulking around every corner expecting a demon to pounce in your face. Thankfully, you can use exploding and flammable barriers to even the odds and there are many times when you’re accompanied by (or, more accurately, have to follow) a spider-like Sentry Bot to a new area. These scuttling little robots will urge you onwards and rain fire upon any enemies that appear before them, which is super helpful. Unfortunately, they’re not indestructible or infallible, so you’ll still have to keep your wits about you and make an effort to cover them to increase your chances of survival. Although Doom 3 is nowhere near as confusing or maze-like as its predecessors, it walks a fine line between action-orientated gameplay and ominous exploration. Whenever you enter an area that seems quiet and invites exploration, be sure to keep your finger ready over the trigger as it’s normal for enemies to pop out or teleport in and ruin your day. These aspects come to a head whenever you venture into Hell, where resources are limited and enemies come thick and fast, or when you explore the more desolate areas of the facility where even the health stations have been rendered inoperable. There are three difficulty settings available at the start of the game, with a fourth unlocked through gameplay, so don’t be ashamed to dial the difficulty down if you’re having trouble as Doom 3 is quite a tough and harrowing experience that basically sees you fighting to survive from one room to the next thanks to enemies constantly appearing all around you.

Graphics and Sound:
Compared to its predecessors, Doom 3 is a quantum leap ahead. It’s astounding to think that the Doom series missed out on the early, polygonal 3D graphics era but it really benefits the presentation of this game as the last time we played a Doom game, everything was cleverly designed 2D textures rather than 3D graphics. In this regard, the game looks amazing. Areas are dark, desolate, and constantly foreboding; bodies, blood, ominous messages, and even oozing tentacles litter many of the game’s environments, especially as you venture closure to Hell. Pentagrams, candles, runes, sacrifices, and bloodbaths are commonplace, as are jump scares from bodies or enemies falling from ceilings or bursting from vents. Occasionally, you’ll be beset by demonic visions; the screen turns red and hazy, the demonic chanting intensifies, and you’ll even endure some poltergeist activity as furniture and bodies and wildly tossed around. Mostly, you’ll be exploring claustrophobic, futuristic corridors in low lighting. Doors will jam, machinery sparks and stutters with static, and voices come over the speakers to either direct or taunt you or create an unsettling ambiance. Sometimes, the environment will collapse around you as you cause meltdowns and explosions. Other times, you’ll be warped through a Hellmouth to the Malebolge itself. Even relatively normal looking areas quickly turn to shit as demons teleport in, the power goes out, or Hell’s influence seeps in.

*While samey at times, the environments are beautifully (and gruesomely) presented.*

Unfortunately, many of these areas are extremely repetitive. You’ll travel through so many laboratories, industrial areas, warehouses, and offices that it’s easy to get bored of the aesthetic. Sure, these are often shaken up by gore, bodies, or flickering lights but it’s still the same assets being recycled again and again, which doesn’t help make each area all that distinctive. Sometimes you’ll see space or the surface of Mars out of windows, which adds a lot of scope to the game, but it’s usually painfully obvious when the game is masking loading times behind elevators and airlocks and other such doors. Your trips onto the Mars surface really help to break up this monotony, as do your ventures into Hell, which is a desolate, volcanic wasteland full of elaborate gothic ruins, castles, and titanic demonic skeletons, but sadly these sections don’t appear that often or are mainly saved for the finale, respectively. I would’ve liked to see you doing more on the surface, maybe acquire a more permanent upgrade to allow you to survive the vacuum for longer. As it is all you really do is move across the rocks or gantries to an airlock, occasionally activating consoles and such. In Hell, you mainly just explore the shifting stone architecture and fend off waves of powerful demons. There are no keys or puzzles to solve, it’s just a fight for survival, and thus, the majority of the action takes place in the UAC facility. While there are some fun distractions and elements, like arcade machines, various stages of disrepair and slaughter, and elaborate sights like the teleports, industrial lasers, and the like, it all gets very old very quickly and I found myself rushing through and making mistakes as a result.

*There’s a lot of emphasis on story and ghastly demonic creatures.*

Doom 3 uses the power of its new graphical engine to greatly expand upon the narrative aspects of the series. Serving as a gritty, overbearingly serious reboot, the tense gameplay is broken up by unskippable cutscenes and overblown conversations with NPCs who beg for your help or threaten your life. Even your character (who I hesitate to call the “Doomguy”) is quite chatty throughout the game, though he has lost a lot of the charm of his predecessor as he just looks like a generic Jarhead, something not helped by the lack of a traditional Doom HUD. It also doesn’t help that the human character models are painfully stiff; while the voice acting is suitably over the top, the characters have that same plastic, action-figure-like look to them that dogged many games during this time. Thankfully, the enemies make up for this; enemies from previous Doom games have been given a gruesome makeover, appearing bloodier and more horrific than ever. You’ll see blood and gouges formed in their skin from your bullets, bodies bursting into flames and disintegrating into skeletal dust upon defeat, and even exploding into bloody chunks if you use the right weapons. I enjoyed the parts when enemies would teleport in and burst from the shadows, as frustrating as these aspects were, and the overall look of the environments despite how samey they could get, though the game’s soundtrack leaves a lot to be desired. While I appreciate it relying on ambient noise and ominous sounds of enemies, I miss the hard-rock infused tunes of the previous games.

Enemies and Bosses:
Many classic Doom enemies make a ghastly reappearance in Doom 3, now more terrifying and gruesome than ever. You’ve got regular cannon fodder such as slow moving, moaning zombies who swipe at you (either with their hands or wrenches) and try to bite you, flaming and emaciated variants, and gun-toting bastards who hide behind cover or riot shields and can whittle your health down from afar. Also on the smaller end of things, spider-like Ticks and Trites will scuttle down webs or out from vents to swarm you, fairy-like Cherubs buzz about in your face, and those damn Lost Souls and Forgotten Ones will fly right at you from out of nowhere. Once all Hell (literally) breaks loose, you’ll be bombarded will all manner of demonic forces. The standard Hell grunt are the Imps who pounce at you and toss fireballs at your face, quadrupedal two-headed Maggots who rush at you, and bat-like Wraiths who can teleport about the place. You’ll also contend with bulbous Cacodemons, chainsaw- and Gatling gun-wielding zombies, and a brutish Commando variant who charges at you with a tentacle-like arm. You’ll initially be introduced to many of the more monstrous enemies in the form of a sub-boss battle. Demons like the Pinkies and Vulgars are given short cutscenes and enclosed areas in which you fight them before they pop up at random and in the worst places.

*Larger, horrific demons offer the greatest challenge ad require more than just endless shooting.*

The massive, dog-like Pinkies charge at you, biting and slobbering, and seem threatening at first until you blast them point-blank with a shotgun. Resurrection of Evil’s Vulgars can also be formidable until you use the Grabber to reflect their projectiles back at time. Additionally, you’ll often run into the screaming Revenants; these skeletal demons fire rockets and can make your day go downhill fast when they appear alongside more melee-based demons. Be sure to prioritise Arch-Viles; while they can’t heal enemies like before, they can summon flames and even Hell Knights, making them a real pain in the ass. Also, keep your distance whenever a Bruiser or Mancubus appears; these huge demons blast at you with their massive cannons so hang back and use your rocket launcher, strafe around them with your Plasma Gun or Chaingun, or utilise the “bullet time” features of the Artifact when playing Resurrection of Evil. There are four bosses to face in Doom 3, with six more appearing in Resurrection of Evil and two being recycled for The Lost Mission. The first is the spider-like Vagary who scuttles about, slashes you, and tosses objects with telekinesis, but she’s simple to take down if you strafe and unload with the Chaingun. You’ll battle two Vagary’s at the end of the game and another in The Lost Missions; in this latter fight, she can’t use her telekinesis but is accompanied by Cherubs, but the arena is much bigger, making this fight even easier. Before you visit Hell, you’ll have to face two Hell Knights at once in a very claustrophobic area; because of the tight quarters, it can be difficult strafing and dodging their stomps and fireballs, and especially dangerous if using explosive weapons, meaning later encounters with these enemies are usually much easier. To escape Hell the first time, you’ll have to defeat the Guardian of Hell, a large crocodilian-type beast who stomps about trying to bite you and rains fireballs. It’s blind, so it sends out “Seekers” to pinpoint your location and destroying these is the only way to expose the Guardian’s weak spot, a blue sphere over its head. When you battle it again in The Lost Mission, it is no longer blind, doesn’t use the Seekers, and can be damaged more conventionally but is also a lot tougher than before.

*The massive, aggressive final bosses will test your skills with the game’s mechanics,*

Fittingly, the bosses really ramp up at the end game. Sabaoth (the Marine’s demonically transformed superior officer) attacks you in the Primary Server Bank, his legs mutated into tank-like treads and his torso sporting heavy armaments such as the BFG9000! Thankfully, your victory over the Guardian of Hell awards you with the Soul Cube, which is crucial for defeating Sabaoth and his successor, the Cyberdemon. Sabaoth also makes use of four pillars, electrifying them (and you, if you’re close by) but he’s also slow and predictable so you can use the Soul Cube to deal massive damage to him. Blast his BFG shots before they can hurt you (the closer to him the better), and unload with your Chaingun or Plasma Gun to end him. The semi-cybernetic, minotaur-like Cyberdemon is an entirely different beast. Fought around a Hellmouth and assisted by infinite lesser demons, this brute unloads with its arm-mounted rocket launcher and can only be harmed, and killed, by you charging up and unleashing the Soul Cube four times, making this a gruelling bout at times. When playing Resurrection of Evil, you’ll need to defeat four demonic Hunters to acquire new abilities for the Artifact: the Helltime Hunter blasts about in flaming bursts and tosses fireballs that you must reflect back with the Grabber as this is the only way to hurt it. The Berserk Hunter leaps at you with slashes and spits fireballs and can only be damaged by targeting the beating heart in its chest, and you’ll need to open up and destroy four power cores to disable the Invulnerability Hunter’s shield, avoiding its electrical shockwaves and attacks. Resurrection of Evil concludes with a final showdown with Dr. Betruger, now transformed into a demonic bat, in what was the toughest fight of the game for me. This bastard flies around, blasts flames across the ground, rains fireballs and flaming meteors, and is both fast, extremely difficult to hit, and incredibly durable. A lack of ammo and health items and a fatal drop add to the difficulty, though you can use the Artifact to get a better lock on with your BFG before the fight abruptly and anti-climatically ends in a cutscene.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
It pays to explore every room, nook, and cranny when playing Doom 3. Be sure to crouch through vents and under stairs and tables to search out Med-Kits, armour shards, and ammo and check every desk and body for PDAs and other resources. Computer terminals and e-mails (and handy online guides) will provide locker codes and access to resource caches, which are invaluable at times, and be sure to make strategic use of any healing stations dotted about the place. As you explore and play, many familiar Doom weapons will become available to you, including the standards pistol, the always enjoyable chainsaw, and my personal favourite, the shotgun. Automatic weapons like the Machine Gun, Chaingun, and Plasma Gun are great for unloading on enemies, but you must factor in charge up and reload time, so be sure to make use of cover or quiet spots to reload.

*Classic* Doom weapons get an overhaul and are joined by some weird, hell-spawned armamants.

You can also utilise grenades, a handy-dandy rocket launcher, and the series staple, the ultra-powerful BFG9000, but take care as these can often explode in your face if you’re not careful! When playing Resurrection of Evil and The Lost Missions, you’ll also get to use the Super Shotgun, a far more powerful version that fires two shots at once but takes twice as long to reload, and the Grabber, a gun-like appendage that can snag objects (even enemy projectiles) and blast them at enemies. It’s a clunky bit of kit that’s sadly underutilised andz while I’m glad there aren’t loads of annoying physics-based puzzles that use it, it does feel like a superfluous inclusion, unlike Resurrection of Evil’s other new mechanic, the Artefact. This beating Hell Heart is charged using human souls and allows you to slow down time, strengthen your attacks with a brief “Beserek” mode, and temporarily become invincible. Similarly, in the main game, you can charge up the Soul Cube by defeating enemies; when unleashed, it passes through all objects and instantly kills most enemies, restoring your health in the process. Finally, various armours boost your resistance to attacks, ammo belts and backpacks boost your ammo and you can temporarily buff yourself with various one-use items. Adrenaline affords you infinite stamina, Beserker renders you invulnerable and triples your attack power, while you can also make yourself invisible and invulnerable in multiplayer.

Additional Features:
There are forty-five Achievements up for grabs in Doom 3, with many of them earned simply by completing the main campaign. You’ll get an Achievement for defeating each boss, for example, and for finishing the game on each difficulty setting (these stack, too, so you can earn multiple Achievements in one playthrough if you’re good enough). You’ll also get Achievements for earning a high score on the arcade machine, having two demons fight each other, acquiring the BFG9000, finding hidden secrets, defeating certain enemies with certain weapons, and finishing the game in ten hours or less. Interestingly, considering Doom pioneered multiplayer Deathmatches, there are no Achievements tied to the game’s multiplayer component, which allows you and you friends to go head-to-head on various game maps in traditional Deathmatches, tournaments, last man standing, and team-based campaigns. Scattered throughout each campaign are PDAs and lockers, all of which need to be found and accessed for Achievements. There’s no level select or New Game+ feature here, though, so you’ll need to make multiple saves or have a guide handy if you want to avoid replaying entire sections. In addition to the main campaign, you can play the two DLC campaigns, Resurrection of Evil and The Lost Mission, right off the bat; both recycle enemies and environments from the main game but introduce new elements, such as the Grabber, Artifact, and Vulgars, in addition to concluding the main story by including a showdown with Dr. Betruger.

The Summary:
I’d been putting off Doom 3 for a long time. I first played it in the BFG Edition on PlayStation 3 but was put off by the claustrophobic environments, low lighting, and tense, frustrating combat mechanics. These elements remain nagging concerns in Doom 3; I never felt like I could relax or really enjoy myself as enemies would pop up or swarm at a moment’s notice and drain my health and ammo, meaning I was constantly on edge and became aggravated at being forced to kill more and more demons as they kept teleporting in. However, as a fan of the series and survival/horror games, it’s true that this sense of constant dread, worry, and anticipation about what lurks behind every door and around every corridor really added to the horror vibe of the game, and was surely the intention. It’s just a very different gameplay experience to the more straight-forward nature of the original games and more horror-themed FPS titles, so I recognise that this is very much a “me” problem rather than a fault of the game, which wants you to always feel endangered. The game plays well; gunplay is satisfying, and the gruesome aesthetic is truly macabre. I just wish it was more prevalent; there are only so many futuristic hallways and laboratories I can skulk down before I get bored, so I would’ve liked to see more blood, more of Mars, and more Hell-based locations sprinkled throughout the game. Having said that, the environments look amazing; the lighting (or lack thereof) and graphics do the game justice here, it’s just a shame that doesn’t translate to the human character models. I’m glad the game wasn’t a confusing labyrinth, but I did get turned around a bit without a map or compass and because of the samey environments and I felt the constant fetch quests dragged the pacing down a bit. When you’re fully armed and engaged with the game’s horrific enemies, Doom 3 shines. I loved the sense of dread and how formidable the enemies were, and the scale of the bosses, I just think a better balance between survival/horror, action, and puzzle solving was needed. Ultimately, it’s a decent enough game; a little too much like a bland FPS at times thanks to the gritty, military aesthetic but easily the most graphically impressive Doom for its time. However, I can’t say that I will throw it on for a quick burst of action like I do the originals as this is a game that insists upon your time and energy.

My Rating:

Pretty Good

Did you enjoy Doom 3? Did you think it was toomuch of a departure from the original games? Did you find the environments too repetitive? What did you think to the new looks for the demons and the new weapons? Were you glad that the gamewas changed to allow simultaneous use of the flashlight? Which boss was your favourite to fight, and would you have referred to see more of Hell? Whatever your thoughts on Doom 3, or FPS games in general, drop a comment below or let me know on my social media.

Game Corner: Terminator Salvation (Xbox 360)

22/08/202429/08/2024Dr. K3 Comments

Released: 19 May 2009
Developer: Grin
Also Available For: Mobile, PC, and PlayStation 3

The Background:
The Terminator franchise (Various, 1984 to 2019) has quite the history with videogame adaptations. Every film in the franchise has been adapted to at least one videogame over the years and the murderous cyborg even matched wits with RoboCop (Verhoeven, 1987) back in the day. Despite the mixed reviews that accompanied Terminator Salvation (McG, 2009), the Halcyon Company turned to developers Grin to produce a tie-in videogame, one whose in-game assets and engine were used to produce a prequel miniseries. Much like the movie upon which it was based, Terminator Salvation was met with mixed reviews that criticised the repetitive combat and lack of replay value and the game was generally seen as a disappointment considering the vast potential offered by its cover-based shooting mechanics.

The Plot:
Years after Judgment Day, John Connor leads Resistance soldiers on a dangerous rescue mission that sees them storming one of Skynet’s main bases and encountering their most dangerous creations: The Terminators!

Gameplay:
Terminator Salvation is a third-person shooter that can be played alone or alongside another player in co-op. When playing alone, AI-controlled allies will provide cover fire and even a bit of ammo every now and then to help fend off the machines, though you’re unable to issue them with orders or change your playable character. The game’s controls are similar to many other similar shooters of the time, and even now: the Left Trigger lets you aim or peek out from cover, the Right Trigger fires your current weapon, and the Right Bumper tosses a grenade or pipe bomb. You can switch weapons with B; holding the button gives you access to a limited weapon wheel where you can switch to different firearms and bombs, but you can only carry two guns at a time. You can pick up new weapons Y, which also focuses the camera on certain objectives or points of interest and gives you control of nearby turrets. X lets you reload, you can review your objectives by pressing the ‘Back’ button, and you can snap to, from, or dash between cover using A and the left stick. Anything from cars, columns, partial walls, and metal barriers can be used as effective cover. You can quite efficiently fire blindly from behind cover and dash between cover to avoid incoming fire, but some enemies can simply come around whatever you’re hiding behind and murder you on the spot.

*Use cover and your partners to take on Skynet’s repetitive forces with some mediocre weapons.*

The game’s narrative is told over nine chapters, each of which sees you navigating the war-torn remnants of downtown Los Angeles, various dilapidated buildings and sewers, and infiltrating the ominous factories of Skynet. However, your mission objectives and the basic structure of each chapter is painfully tedious and predictable: you’ll explore a path so linear that there’s no onscreen map required, following your allies to open or enclosed areas where you’ll be ambushed by T-7-T machines and drone-like Aerostats (referred to as “Spiders” and “Wasps”, respectively). You’ll be forced to take cover, or go up stairs to take the high ground, and clear out waves of these enemies, flanking the Spiders to target the battery packs on their backs and opening fire when your aiming reticule turns red so you know you’re dealing maximum damage. Unlike many games where you’re accompanied by AI partners, Terminator Salvation’s AI is almost too good; there were many times when I simply stayed behind cover and waited out the fracas as my AI companions destroyed all nearby enemies. This was surprisingly effective, though not the most enjoyable gameplay experience; it’s great that your partners can’t be killed and will so helpfully destroy incoming enemies, but it can make you superfluous or leave you sitting and waiting for battles to end as you’re out of ammo or close to death. Your health will only be refilled after a battle has been won, but you can recover a bit of health if you avoid incoming fire for a time; unfortunately unlike other third-person shooters with this mechanic, this can take a long time. I don’t know if this was because I was playing on “Hard”, but my health would take ages to recover in these situations, meaning it was usually better just to let myself be killed so I could try again. In co-op mode, you can revive and be revived by your partner to continue the fight, but this doesn’t happen when playing solo. However, there are a decent number of checkpoints in the game, which can be helpful, though it quickly becomes tedious having to go through the same fights again and again with little reward. Occasionally, you’ll be tasked with protecting Barnes as he sets explosive charges but there isn’t actually any danger of him being killed so this is just another case of battling against waves of machines. Similarly, there’s a cool section near the end where you have to pass through a suburban area on the way to Skynet’s control centre. T-600s and “Skin Jobs” patrol the buildings and grounds, which seems to encourage a stealthy approach but, no, you just take cover behind cars and walls and blast at them until they explode and disappear into the ground like always.

*A few rail-shooting and first-person sequences break up the gameplay, but can be frustrating.*

Thankfully, it’s not all cover and shooting in Terminator Salvation. In addition to being pinned down, caught in crossfires, or being relentlessly hounded by the T-600s, you can man turrets to blast Spiders and Wasps (though you need to be good with your accuracy as this leaves you completely vulnerable), must run away from pursuing T-600s, and your objectives generally include reaching evacuation sites, finding survivors in the wastelands, and fending off attacks from the machines in open and enclosed areas alongside allies and with weapon caches nearby. Gameplay is broken up further by a handful of rail-shooting stages; in these, you’ll man a gun on the back of a truck or wield a rocket launcher with infinite ammo on the back of a speeding subway train and fire at incoming Wasps, Moto-Terminators, and Hunter-Killers (HKs). Sometimes you’ll need to protect an ally in a truck or a school bus but, while these sections aren’t very long, they can be extremely frustrating and are far from enjoyable. You have no options for cover and no way to regain your health, and enemies can be tough to hit since they’re very small and nimble. Your AI companion is also far less useful in these sections, and you have to endure the annoyance of your gun overheating if you hold the trigger down for too long. Thankfully, these sections aren’t very long and they can be fun when you’re just blasting at HKs, but they were one of the most aggravating parts of the game. Later, you’ll control a gigantic HK Tank; here, the game switches to a first-person perspective and employs the red Terminator vision as you automatically stomp across the devastated landscape using LT and RT and RB and LB to fire your gatling guns and missiles at machines and anti-aircraft turrets. Unfortunately, this is also quite a clunky and frustrating section; checkpoints are plentiful, and your health will refill, but the weapon charge time is a joke and you have no way to avoid being blasted by enemies since you can’t move or dodge, so you need to fire quickly and accurately to get past each section without being blown to pieces.

Graphics and Sound:
Terminator Salvation is a bit of a mixed bag in terms of presentation. On the one hand, the environments look pretty good; I liked how the streets are littered with cars, debris, burning planes, and the fallout of all-out nuclear war. Buildings are partially destroyed and full of disused furniture; they’re overgrown with vegetation, and everything has a very bleak and ominous feel to it. Like the source material, much of Terminator Salvation’s action takes place in the daytime; if you stop and think about it, it doesn’t make much sense for the world to be in this state considering it was subjected to nuclear war and there’s a disappointing lack of skulls and bodies strewn about the place, but the general presentation works pretty well. When you’re inside, things become suitably claustrophobic and you’ll have to endure stages set inside dilapidated buildings, sewers, and subway tunnels; nothing massively out of the ordinary, but still in keeping with the Terminator theme. The subway actually makes for a really fun and depressing location; the survivors huddled there have built a pitiable shelter from abandoned subway cars and it really speaks to the desperation felt by the rag-tag survivors. The game’s final stage takes place in one of Skynet’s facilities, an industrial factory where they build their machines. These sections more accurately evoke the dark, desolate Future War seen in the first two movies, and there’s even a cool part when John sets of an electromagnetic pulse and you dash past incapacitated T-600 endoskeletons.

*The machines and environments are better than the character models, but it’s a very basic presentation.*

While the in-game music generally isn’t anything to shout about, it impresses when the classic Terminator theme kicks in when you complete objectives or to bolster bigger, tougher battles. The T-600 encounters are often accompanied by the ominous T-1000 theme, which I really enjoyed, and the machines themselves are a particular highlight of the game’s presentation. While their intelligence is often questionable (they’re either laughably incompetent or annoyingly relentless), the machines impress when they appear. Spiders scuttle through the ruins, T-600s burst through walls and doors guns blazing, there’s a definite sense of dread every time a HK flies overhead (even if they’re pretty easy to take down with your rockets), and there’s even a few genuinely tense moments as you frantically flee from the gigantic Harvester or from a persistent T-600. It’s a shame, then, that the human character models don’t impress anywhere near as well; John lacks Christian Bale’s voice and likeness and it is just a general Jarhead as a result, though Common and Moon Bloodgood do lend their voices and likenesses to their characters. Sadly, they’re stilted, puppet-like imitations of themselves; as there are very few pre-rendered cutscenes, you’ll have to endure these marionette-like soldiers flailing and yapping about and it’s genuinely laughable seeing them (and their vehicles) being pounded about in the game over sequences. The story itself is actually pretty serviceable and works as a prequel, of sorts, to the movie, but I did notice some instances where the game lagged when too much was happening at once. Some glitches, like enemy fire passing through your cover and the AI just running in place aimlessly or dropping through the ground (both of which were actually very beneficial!) also appeared.

Enemies and Bosses:
As you might expect, you’ll be battling Skynet’s forces throughout Terminator Salvation; unfortunately, the malicious AI doesn’t exactly favour variety and simply sends the same handful of enemies at you over and over again, without even any colour or weapon changes, which makes the game very tiresome very quickly. Drone-like Aerostats sweep across the sky raining fire at you and can be annoying to hit as they’re small and nimble; similarly, the Moto-Terminators can be difficult to destroy as they’re very fast and you’re stuck on a set path that can mess up your shot. The most common enemy you’ll face at the T-7-Ts, large mechanical spiders that scurry about firing incessantly once they spot you or your allies. The only way to destroy them is to get around behind them and target their battery pack, which either you can do, or you can distract them so your partners can take them out, but this becomes extremely aggravating in close quarters situations and when the Spiders are flanked by Wasps and T-600s. The T-600s are easily the game’s toughest enemies; wielding gatling guns and shrugging off your bullets, they relentlessly fire at and pursue you and the only way to defeat them is to lob pipe bombs at them or unload all your ammo into their chests from a safe position.

*The game is a non-stop barrage of battles against the same machines over and over again.*

The T-600s are initially presented as mini bosses of sorts; at first, all you can do is run away, luring them into traps to try and bury them under rubble, but soon you and your allies are cornered by three of them and you need to dash to a table to pick up pipe bombs to take them out. This is where the game really takes a sharp difficulty spike; the crossfire here is unreal and you only have a limited number of pipe bombs, plus it’s super tough to get close to the T-600s so I actually found it easier to stay under cover, rely on my AI companions, and fire the way overpowered shotgun at the Terminator’s chests to dispatch them. Later encounters are much easier, even when you’re again forced into a tight corridor, as you have better weapons to help you out, like the rocket launcher or a turret. You’ll also encounter “Skin Jobs”, T-600s in rubber skin, which I actually found weaker than their endoskeleton cousins, and these Terminators soon start to appear out in the open and alongside Spiders and Wasps as the game progresses and things ramp up. While you must run for cover when the Harvester makes its single appearance and never get to engage with it, you’ll be taking on a fair amount of HKs. These are some of the best sections as the massive ships linger outside buildings firing plasma blasts and unleashing Wasps to weed you out. You need to grab the nearby rocket launchers to bring these huge ships down, which is a lot more fun than when you’re steaming along in a vehicle or even in that massive tank as you can actually use cover and aim your shots more effectively. Sadly, there’s not really any big, climactic final battle in Terminator Salvation; the entire game is a series of shoot-outs or tense moments against the same enemies over and over, and the finale is much of the same. Sure, there are more T-600s and it can be really difficult juggling between the different enemies, dashing between cover and using the heavier explosives at the right time, but it would’ve been nice to have a big final boss battle, perhaps against a prototype T-800 or even the Harvester. Instead, you simply blast through the machines until John disables them with an EMP in a cutscene, and then just run to the evacuation chopper to end the story.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
As disappointing as the enemy variety is in Terminator Salvation, the weapon selection isn’t much better. You’ve got an assault rifle, a shotgun, a heavier machine gun, a rocket launcher, and a grenade launcher, alongside standard tossable grenades and pipe bombs. You can only carry two guns at a time, they don’t hold much ammo, and you can’t upgrade or customise them or your character’s abilities in any way. Turrets and vehicles are also on offer, but they’re painfully limited by their cooldown and reload times, and there are sadly no laser rifles to be found here; you can’t even use the T-600’s gatling gun, for God’s sake! However, if you’re going to use any weapon, make sure it’s the shotgun; this thing is ridiculously overpowered and works amazingly well even at long range and against the T-600s, so be sure to keep it in your inventory.

Additional Features:
There are eleven Achievements on offer in Terminator Salvation, with nine being awarded for completing each chapter. You’ll gain an additional two Achievements for beating the game on Medium and Hard, but these Achievements stack and the game really isn’t all that difficult (beyond a couple of really frustrating parts) so you’re better off just playing all the way through on Hard and snagging every Achievement in one playthrough. This is all very disappointing; the game has a co-op mode but there are no Achievements for playing with a friend, there are no items or collectibles to find or unlock, no audio logs or concept art, no additional skins or modes (like deathmatches or anything), and no downloadable content on offer. It really is a disappointingly cheap and barebones presentation; you can replay any chapter after completing the game, but what’s the point when you can sweep all the Achievements in one go and there’s nothing to go back for?

The Summary:
Terminator Salvation is a pretty poor rip-off of the Gears of War games of the time (Epic Games, 2006; 2008); it lacks none of the pulse-pounding action, satisfying weapon combat, or macho bravado of those games and instead distils the gameplay down to a tedious cover-based shooter where you could probably set your controller down at a few key points and let the AI take care of things without your involvement. It’s such a shame as there are some tense and enjoyable moments here; I love how the T-600s and larger machines are portrayed as a real threat and the ominous and desperate atmosphere that accompanies these encounters. Sadly, the enemy AI is absolutely bonkers and easily exploited; even when you’re literally pinned down in a corner and will be cut to ribbons the moment you move, you can still win the day with bucketloads of patience and some well-timed explosives. These sections are incredibly frustrating, though, and result in an uneven pace to the game; even on the hardest difficulty, some chapters and sections will be a breeze (annoying and boring, but not exactly hard) but then others are like running into a brick wall! The rail-shooting sections, especially, are very aggravating due to the lack of cover and small margin for error afforded to you, yet you can be cornered by waves of machines and easily take them all out with no problem at other times simply because you have cover and heavier weapons and competent allies nearby. The lack of real bosses is also an issue; I liked the encounters with the T-600s and HKs, but there could’ve been so much more here, like a showdown with the Harvester or more enjoyable use of the HK Tank. The absolute worst thing, though, is the lack of replayability, collectibles, and unlockables; once you’ve beaten the game and gotten all the Achievements, there’s no reason to play it again over, say, Terminator: Resistance (Teyon, 2019) or any of the Gears of War titles this game so shamelessly apes. There as a bit of an effort made here, but then the developers just kind of gave up. It’s just another videogame tie-in that’s really not worth your effort unless you have nothing else to do and want to earn some quick Achievements, though I’ll give it an extra point for having some decent visuals and moments amidst all the mediocrity.

My Rating:

Could Be Better

Have you ever played Terminator Salvation? What did you think to it and how do you think it compares to other Terminator videogames, and the movie it’s based on? Were you a fan of the cover-based shooting and repetitive combat or did you grow bored by the gameplay? What did you think to the T-600s and the rail-shooting sections? Did you ever beat this game with a friend? What’s your favourite Terminator videogame and how are you celebrating Judgement Day this year? No matter what you think about Terminator Salvation and the Terminator franchise, feel free to leave a reply down below or drop a comment on my social media, and go check out my other Terminator reviews!

My Rating:

Pretty Good

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My Rating:

Great Stuff

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My Rating:

Could Be Better

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My Rating:

Could Be Better

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My Rating:

Pretty Good

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My Rating:

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My Rating:

Fantasic

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My Rating:

Great Stuff

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My Rating:

Pretty Good

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My Rating:

Could Be Better

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