Thank you, GAF, for convincing me to give this a try. Positive reviews had me curious, but it was the positive buzz here that pushed me over the edge.
I didn't realize how tired I'd become of the CoD school of single-player design until I played Goldeneye Wii. Since you're not constantly assaulted with waves of enemies, each encounter and kill actually feels relevant. Level design is excellent, with less focus on smothering you with set pieces and more attention given to actual pacing.
I'd forgotten how much fun it can be to take it slow and be stealthy in a FPS. I also really appreciate that run-and-gun is also almost always a viable approach as well. After years of CoD, it was refreshing to discover that while using iron sights gives you better accuracy, shooting from the hip is also still effective (and is sometimes the superior option).
The visuals were somewhat jarring at first, especially when it comes to anything that uses transparency - muzzle flashes, smoke, spotlights, etc. The dithering is quite bad, and gives things that are meant to have a soft glow and luminescence a grainy, low-fidelity appearance. I also dislike how quickly bodies disappear; such things really suck me out of the game.
The sound is somewhat mixed. Many weapons sound disappointingly weak and lack punch, but the bullet impact sounds and thuds of bodies are quite nice.
I forced myself to try the game with motion controls first before trying the Classic Controller, and using the settings listed in this thread I've acclimated pretty well. There are still moments where I jerk the camera around too quick and lose my orientation, but in general it's worked well and helps to make it feel like a unique experience.
In general, I'm thrilled. The original N64 Goldeneye may be my most replayed single player game ever; I was replaying my favorite levels (which were just about all of them) every day for seven months. The Wii version can certainly never live up to those standards, but I am already looking forward to a second playthrough.
Eurocom deserves some serious praise for this one. What sounded like a shameless cash grab by Activision is actually one of the best single player FPSs I've played in years.
. The Severnaya-Bunker level is absolutely fantastic. I've reloaded the checkpoint at the beginning of Bunker about ten times because I wanted a stealthy flawless victory, and actually accomplished it (for the most part). I FEEL like a spy playing this game. This game is what made the original great and then some.
