Another title featuring James Bond or another Golden Eye? Generally speaking movie games are usually horrible abominations, yet Golden Eye lucked out. I won't expect lighting to hit twice. I'd much rather get a modern shooter based on Golden Eye which may or may not be connect to JB franchise.
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Will there ever be another James Bond game or is the series dead?
- Thread starter ASleepingMonkey
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I'd assume that this depends, at least partially, on what EON plans to do with the franchise. Right now there's little reason for most publishers to work on a Bond game.
OP
OP
Why's that? He did Quantum of Solace, that Goldeneye remake, Blood Stone, and 007 Legends. There was even a Blood Stone sequel in development at Raven but it never came out, leaked screenshots showed that he was very much in it though. I think Spectre is the only movie where there wasn't a new Bond game at least in development in the Craig era.
There was a Casino Royale game planned at EA to tie in with that movie but it was canned because it wasn't going to meet the film's release date.
This may be a bit ot, but I would love Rockstar to do a Kingsman game. I feel that would be a better match in a sense due to Kingsman being a tad crazier.
Definitely, James Bond may be a bit reserved for them. But I think the Kingsman or MI style would work for one of their games. Be nice to have something with their level of perfectionism that isn't murder centric or based on a band of criminals or violent alcoholic detectives. Mind you I love all their games anyway.
Let's talk about what has gone wrong (and right) with James Bond games.
GoldenEye (1997) by Rareware set the standard. Revolutionary spy FPS with a focus on what Martin Hollis called "cinematic realism" that resonated throughout the entire industry. Games like Syphon Filter and Medal of Honor were created in response to it. It influenced everything from System Shock 2 to Deus Ex to Thief. Even Counter Strike. It's a damn good game. Not as good as Perfect Dark, IMO, but it's fun.
Jumping forward for the sake of it, GoldenEye (2008), a remaster by Rare, never saw the light of day outside leaked footage because Nintendo are a cathedral of wieners determined to ruin everything good and pure in this world. Golly gosh darn you, Nintendo. This remaster looked incredible.
Tomorrow Never Dies (1999) by Black Ops Entertainment was not very good. There's not much to say about it. It's just not good.
The World is Not Enough (2000) for PS1 by Black Ops Entertainment is pretty decent. Not as good as Eurocom's version, but good.
The World is Not Enough (2000) by Eurocom for N64 is very different to the Black Ops Entertainment game. It's an FPS game in the style of GoldenEye, but with Eurocom's own twists on the formula. Quality game, overall. Danjaq executive meddling hit hard late in development and stuff like Bond music had to be removed. Eurocom would make several Bond games, and unfortunately the series would destroy them.
Agent Under Fire (2001) by EA Redwood Shores aka Visceral Games was originally a port of TWINE to the PS2/PC. Due to various reasons, this morphed into a new game which is a bit of a mixed bag. A very problematic design trend was started with this game. DRIVING SECTIONS USING RANDOM NEED FOR SPEED ENGINE ITERATION! WOO! You see, when Eurocom made TWINE, they scrapped a planned boat chase sequence because they felt their engine wasn't suited. EA decided, going forward, that Bond games needed driving sections. So they jammed a second engine into each game for the driving sections. Frankly, driving sections in Bond games have never been great. AUF is a decent enough Bond game, but it's oddly videogamey. It lacks the cinematic sensibilities of the other high profile games.
Nightfire (2002) by Eurocom for consoles is quality. It has forced driving sections -- thank you, EA -- but everything else is great. It's basically TWINE 2.0, with pretty much everything improved. The GoldenEye DNA is still intact. Really good game.
Nightfire (2002) by Gearbox for PC is a rushed mess that condenses every negative quality of GoldSrc into a single game and then breaks key engine features such as lighting, decals, and weapon selection. It has some really nice level architecture in places, but it is worse than Eurocom's game in every possible way, except maybe Nightfire PC's MP, which was pretty decent. It also doesn't have any driving sections because GoldSrc couldn't handle them and bolting on the Need for Speed engine was impractical.
Everything or Nothing (2003) by EA Redwood Shores was a great, great game. Third person cover shooter with tight gameplay and good atmosphere. It was an example of a Bond game that strove to not be like GoldenEye. And this worked out for it.
GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (2004) by EA Los Angeles was a deeply cynical game that EA sink money into while neglecting TimeSplitters: Future Perfect. Ah, EA. We love you. It has some redeeming features, but it's really not a good game. There was a DS version whose engine was used for basically every Nintendo DS FPS game.
From Russia with Love (2005) by EA Redwood Shores was an interesting game. Not a bad game by any means, but it was just very weak. It lacked the momentum and excitement of Everything or Nothing. It was an example of a tired sequel. More of the same, but nowhere near as good as last time.
THEN ACTIVISION GAINED THE LICENSE.
Quantum of Solace (2008) by Treyarch is basically Call of Duty: Modern Warfare with third person cover mechanics. It's a decent enough game, but quite short and is a weird mixture of Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. The problem at this point was that developers were forced to release games to meet film deadlines. This had happened previously. Nightfire was rushed be released around Die Another Day, in order to exploit its marketing hype. But with Quantum of Solace, the cracks of harsh deadlines really started to show.
It gets worse. It gets much, much worse.
Quantum of Solace (2008) by Eurocom is a third person shooter with the worst QTEs since Shenmue II. It has some decent sections. The final boss is the worst thing I have ever encountered. Again, this is because the game was badly rushed. Good developers making sub-par games because the publisher forced a release date.
Blood Stone (2010) by Bizarre Creations is a solid Bond TPS. Hits most of the right notes. Good game.
After Nintendo did their usual "let us now destroy everything nice" act in 2008, Activision shopped around for a developer to make a new GoldenEye game. They approached Free Radical, but that fell through. They they approached Eurocom, who were the most venerable Bond developer. This resulted in...
GoldenEye (2010) by Eurocom is an all-round decent Bond FPS. It's not as good as Nightfire. The alterations to the GoldenEye plot and dialogue are an atrocity. Every single great line of dialogue from the film is gone. Every incredible set piece is gone. GoldenEye worked because it was bleak self-reflective post-Cold War work that deconstructed Bond into a self-aware cynical puppet who works for a truly evil empire. That's all gone, and in its place Banks are Evil and Stuff. Everything that was good about GoldenEye is gone. What's left is a bizarre shell from the guy who wrote Tomorrow Never Dies. The film where Bond solves every single problem with his mobile phone. Guess how Bond solves every single problem in GoldenEye 2010. Gameplay-wise, it's a really good game. Plot-wise? It's awful. They ruined one of the greatest action films of all time. And every single character in that film.
GoldenEye: Reloaded (2011) was a remaster of GE2010 for 360/PS3. They did a pretty decent job. The Wii version was a very nice looking game, but the remaster looks and plays great. A PC version was created but never released, tragically.
Then everything went to shit. For everyone. Activision was on the verge of the Bond license lapsing. So they decided to squeeze out another Bond game in time for the release of Skyfall. This game was...
007: Legends (2012) by Eurocom, a game reportedly made in 6 months, that was so unfinished the Skyfall chapter was released as DLC. It is a tragic mess of a game. There is true passion inside 007: Legends. There is true Bond atmosphere. Famous Bond characters return voiced by their original actors. Some sections are great. The writing is terrible because Mr "And then Bond uses his phone" is still writing. All the incredible political subtext of each Bond film covered by the game is replaced with generic "AND HE MIGHT BE FUNDING TERRORISTS!. STOP HIM WITH YOUR PHONE!" It's so broken and unfinished and it's such a tragedy because there is true Bond goodness underneath it all, screaming for another year of development. This game has nightmarishly awful QTEs on PC, BTW.
After this, Eurocom went bankrupt, Activision lost the Bond license, and all Bond games were pulled from Steam, and there hasn't been a proper Bond game since. That's where we are today. Eurocom is dead and the Bond gaming legacy is a smoking ruin with no clear path forward because Activision had no spine or good sense.
GoldenEye (1997) by Rareware set the standard. Revolutionary spy FPS with a focus on what Martin Hollis called "cinematic realism" that resonated throughout the entire industry. Games like Syphon Filter and Medal of Honor were created in response to it. It influenced everything from System Shock 2 to Deus Ex to Thief. Even Counter Strike. It's a damn good game. Not as good as Perfect Dark, IMO, but it's fun.
Jumping forward for the sake of it, GoldenEye (2008), a remaster by Rare, never saw the light of day outside leaked footage because Nintendo are a cathedral of wieners determined to ruin everything good and pure in this world. Golly gosh darn you, Nintendo. This remaster looked incredible.
Tomorrow Never Dies (1999) by Black Ops Entertainment was not very good. There's not much to say about it. It's just not good.
The World is Not Enough (2000) for PS1 by Black Ops Entertainment is pretty decent. Not as good as Eurocom's version, but good.
The World is Not Enough (2000) by Eurocom for N64 is very different to the Black Ops Entertainment game. It's an FPS game in the style of GoldenEye, but with Eurocom's own twists on the formula. Quality game, overall. Danjaq executive meddling hit hard late in development and stuff like Bond music had to be removed. Eurocom would make several Bond games, and unfortunately the series would destroy them.
Agent Under Fire (2001) by EA Redwood Shores aka Visceral Games was originally a port of TWINE to the PS2/PC. Due to various reasons, this morphed into a new game which is a bit of a mixed bag. A very problematic design trend was started with this game. DRIVING SECTIONS USING RANDOM NEED FOR SPEED ENGINE ITERATION! WOO! You see, when Eurocom made TWINE, they scrapped a planned boat chase sequence because they felt their engine wasn't suited. EA decided, going forward, that Bond games needed driving sections. So they jammed a second engine into each game for the driving sections. Frankly, driving sections in Bond games have never been great. AUF is a decent enough Bond game, but it's oddly videogamey. It lacks the cinematic sensibilities of the other high profile games.
Nightfire (2002) by Eurocom for consoles is quality. It has forced driving sections -- thank you, EA -- but everything else is great. It's basically TWINE 2.0, with pretty much everything improved. The GoldenEye DNA is still intact. Really good game.
Nightfire (2002) by Gearbox for PC is a rushed mess that condenses every negative quality of GoldSrc into a single game and then breaks key engine features such as lighting, decals, and weapon selection. It has some really nice level architecture in places, but it is worse than Eurocom's game in every possible way, except maybe Nightfire PC's MP, which was pretty decent. It also doesn't have any driving sections because GoldSrc couldn't handle them and bolting on the Need for Speed engine was impractical.
Everything or Nothing (2003) by EA Redwood Shores was a great, great game. Third person cover shooter with tight gameplay and good atmosphere. It was an example of a Bond game that strove to not be like GoldenEye. And this worked out for it.
GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (2004) by EA Los Angeles was a deeply cynical game that EA sink money into while neglecting TimeSplitters: Future Perfect. Ah, EA. We love you. It has some redeeming features, but it's really not a good game. There was a DS version whose engine was used for basically every Nintendo DS FPS game.
From Russia with Love (2005) by EA Redwood Shores was an interesting game. Not a bad game by any means, but it was just very weak. It lacked the momentum and excitement of Everything or Nothing. It was an example of a tired sequel. More of the same, but nowhere near as good as last time.
THEN ACTIVISION GAINED THE LICENSE.
Quantum of Solace (2008) by Treyarch is basically Call of Duty: Modern Warfare with third person cover mechanics. It's a decent enough game, but quite short and is a weird mixture of Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. The problem at this point was that developers were forced to release games to meet film deadlines. This had happened previously. Nightfire was rushed be released around Die Another Day, in order to exploit its marketing hype. But with Quantum of Solace, the cracks of harsh deadlines really started to show.
It gets worse. It gets much, much worse.
Quantum of Solace (2008) by Eurocom is a third person shooter with the worst QTEs since Shenmue II. It has some decent sections. The final boss is the worst thing I have ever encountered. Again, this is because the game was badly rushed. Good developers making sub-par games because the publisher forced a release date.
Blood Stone (2010) by Bizarre Creations is a solid Bond TPS. Hits most of the right notes. Good game.
After Nintendo did their usual "let us now destroy everything nice" act in 2008, Activision shopped around for a developer to make a new GoldenEye game. They approached Free Radical, but that fell through. They they approached Eurocom, who were the most venerable Bond developer. This resulted in...
GoldenEye (2010) by Eurocom is an all-round decent Bond FPS. It's not as good as Nightfire. The alterations to the GoldenEye plot and dialogue are an atrocity. Every single great line of dialogue from the film is gone. Every incredible set piece is gone. GoldenEye worked because it was bleak self-reflective post-Cold War work that deconstructed Bond into a self-aware cynical puppet who works for a truly evil empire. That's all gone, and in its place Banks are Evil and Stuff. Everything that was good about GoldenEye is gone. What's left is a bizarre shell from the guy who wrote Tomorrow Never Dies. The film where Bond solves every single problem with his mobile phone. Guess how Bond solves every single problem in GoldenEye 2010. Gameplay-wise, it's a really good game. Plot-wise? It's awful. They ruined one of the greatest action films of all time. And every single character in that film.
GoldenEye: Reloaded (2011) was a remaster of GE2010 for 360/PS3. They did a pretty decent job. The Wii version was a very nice looking game, but the remaster looks and plays great. A PC version was created but never released, tragically.
Then everything went to shit. For everyone. Activision was on the verge of the Bond license lapsing. So they decided to squeeze out another Bond game in time for the release of Skyfall. This game was...
007: Legends (2012) by Eurocom, a game reportedly made in 6 months, that was so unfinished the Skyfall chapter was released as DLC. It is a tragic mess of a game. There is true passion inside 007: Legends. There is true Bond atmosphere. Famous Bond characters return voiced by their original actors. Some sections are great. The writing is terrible because Mr "And then Bond uses his phone" is still writing. All the incredible political subtext of each Bond film covered by the game is replaced with generic "AND HE MIGHT BE FUNDING TERRORISTS!. STOP HIM WITH YOUR PHONE!" It's so broken and unfinished and it's such a tragedy because there is true Bond goodness underneath it all, screaming for another year of development. This game has nightmarishly awful QTEs on PC, BTW.
After this, Eurocom went bankrupt, Activision lost the Bond license, and all Bond games were pulled from Steam, and there hasn't been a proper Bond game since. That's where we are today. Eurocom is dead and the Bond gaming legacy is a smoking ruin with no clear path forward because Activision had no spine or good sense.
Awesome post. Good job on detailing the history of the Bond license in great detail. As a Bond fan, that was very interesting to read!
A game that you didn't mention that I think is quite underrated is the GBA version of Nightfire. It was completely overshadowed by the console versions of Nightfire of course, and while the GBA version is not as good, it's still a pretty decent handheld FPS game. The game is also completely different from the console versions in the same way the PSX and N64 versions of TWINE are different from each other. It's not just a mere port of the game.
Another game you forgot to mention was 007 Racing on the PSX which I think was released around the same time as TWINE? Not the movie, the games I mean.
Sure, I wasn't sure whether to mention some the other games but they're worth noting. Nightfire GBA is a pretty neat technical accomplishment. It's closer to the PC version than the console versions, but it has its own take on things. I wasn't sure whether 007 Racing counted. But yea, worth noting.
See, before Eurocom made TWINE, they made James Bond Jr. in 1991, which is a terribly frustrating side scrolling shooter/platformer. There are a fair number of "Bond" games before GoldenEye. There's probably worth discussing on their own merits. Some are better than others.
Everything or Nothing was the best Bond game ever. I really wish some dev would acquire the license and develop another game like that.
Even its coop campaign, which was made mainly by recycled assets from the SP campaign, was insanely fun.
Also, original story. One of the reasons it was so great, because it wasn't trying to mimic a movie. Plus, fantastic intro sequence and theme.
Even its coop campaign, which was made mainly by recycled assets from the SP campaign, was insanely fun.
Also, original story. One of the reasons it was so great, because it wasn't trying to mimic a movie. Plus, fantastic intro sequence and theme.
Yeah, there were a bunch of Bond games before Goldeneye. It's just that Goldeneye was the first BIG one and started the train rolling.
EDIT: Oh yeah, there was also James Bond 007 on the Game Boy which came out in 1998. Heard decent things about it. TWINE also had a GBC version, but it was pretty terrible. I have fond memories of it since I played it as a kid, but it was pretty awful lol.
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OP
OP
This is great! Can I stick this on to the OP with credit to you?
They already did that a over 5 years ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GoldenEye_007_(2010_video_game)
I thought the GoldenEye reboot did well? Maybe that wasn't the case, it was just well-received? Either way, it's a shame they haven't done much noteworthy stuff with the property - there's so much potential for a different Bond "filter". Personally, I'd like a Bond game with the accessibility (and curve) of Hitman. Think a sandbox style Spy game in general would be a lot of fun, especially one with multiplayer.
Or shoot, just repackage that one map with the two snowy castles and mass rocket launchers. I could probably enjoy that with company until I grow up :lol
Or shoot, just repackage that one map with the two snowy castles and mass rocket launchers. I could probably enjoy that with company until I grow up :lol
As a huge James Bond fan, it is rather frustrating that the video games have seemingly gone away.
I'm still rooting for MS and Nintendo to work something out over that XBLA remake from years ago to be released.
I'm still rooting for MS and Nintendo to work something out over that XBLA remake from years ago to be released.
That was an entirely new game by Eurocom that arguably a new adaptation of the film, not a new version of Rare's game. Back around 2008, Rare made a remaster of GoldenEye codenamed Project Bean. Which you can see here:
The rumour is that Microsoft made a deal with Nintend America. Nintendo would get GoldenEye on the Wii VC, while Microsoft would get the rights to a remaster of GoldenEye on XBLA. Activision signed off on this, too. The problem, supposedly was Nintendo Japan, who threw a tantrum and forced the whole thing to be shut down.
It sold... okay and got good reviews. Solid 8/10 to 9/10 material. I think the 360/PS3 version sold decently, too. But I think perhaps it didn't sell well enough to keep Eurocom's head above water. They did have a lot of employees and they did work on a lot of games, some of which weren't successful. 007: Legends was the nail in the coffin, and that project was entirely Activision's fault.
Good to see Game Boy 007 in attendance with Saffire's marvelous portable effort. I absolutely adored that game. Perhaps moreso than even Link's Awakening, playing it alongside the venerated Zelda outing. Crazy, I know.
Bloodstone was pretty damn good, too. Doesn't get much better than roaring down a river on an Ekranoplan.
Bloodstone was pretty damn good, too. Doesn't get much better than roaring down a river on an Ekranoplan.
I was hoping there was a new game announced when this thread was resurrected and it would be safe to say Never Say Never Again when it came to new James Bond games.
I maintain that a proper James Bond game would be almost impossible. At least, if you truly wanted to make it a standout one.
James Bond only spends some of his time sneaking, shooting, and driving. The best moments in the movies are using things unconventional ways - something games do a real poor job at - and naturalistic detective work without a clear path ahead of him to an objective - something games do even worse. It would have to be a combination of Hitman, Dues Ex, BotW, and Red Faction, and even then it would be all kinds of missing out.
James Bond only spends some of his time sneaking, shooting, and driving. The best moments in the movies are using things unconventional ways - something games do a real poor job at - and naturalistic detective work without a clear path ahead of him to an objective - something games do even worse. It would have to be a combination of Hitman, Dues Ex, BotW, and Red Faction, and even then it would be all kinds of missing out.
Goldeneye Wii was legit amazing. I loved the stealth option and how it gave you the ability to take alternate routes through the stages, as well as the way Bond moved in the game. I always opted for melee over having a shoot out, too.
The Nightclub scene in Barcelona was my jam.
The Nightclub scene in Barcelona was my jam.
You know, I wished Activision didn't canned Raven's sequel to Blood Stone, I really enjoyed Blood Stone even though it took elements from Splinter Cell Conviction but it was Bond in all of it's glory same for Goldeneye Reloaded. I admit I also enjoyed Agent Under Fire but that's more nostalgia for me.
I think it will come back, theres money to be made, especially if they get the right dev.
I think uncharted 4 is more like a bond movie.
I think uncharted 4 is more like a bond movie.
Really loved that game. Only gave it one playthrough but I think it did the Goldeneye thing where higher difficulties had more objectives (again, not 100% sure).
I really liked its repelling mechanic. Anytime you'd run to a ledge you'd just start repelling down. I remember it being impressively seamless.
I also played the demo of this game with the motorcycle level like a dozen times. It was a lot of fun.
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