Of course, the game isn't all about shooting your enemies in the nether regions. There are also the aforementioned eye powers, which can be used both offensively and defensively. There will be four eye powers in all, but we were only shown two yesterday. The first was called Electromagnetic Field, and it's a lot like the telekinesis power recently seen in Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy. You can target an enemy, then lift him off the ground and toss him around like a ragdoll. Speaking of ragdolls, this power really shows off the modified Havok physics engine that's been implemented in the game. Bodies can be tossed out of windows or into walls, and they'll flip and crumple realistically.
The other power that we saw was the Electromagnetic Shield. When you turn the shield on, the screen will have a slightly golden hue to it. As enemies fire upon you, you'll see that your shield is protecting you from their bullets, although this only lasts for a short time. When using any of the powers, you only have a limited amount of energy, and it can only be recharged by waiting around and letting it build up, or by killing more enemies. Of course, we all know which option is more fun, don't we?
So far, the single player game is looking pretty nice. Everything looks very clean, with sharp, well-defined lines, a look that was inspired by the work of Ken Adam, the production designer for many of the early Bond movies. Most of the character and weapon models look very nice, as well, particularly the gold handgun that the character carries at all times. There are actually quite a few weapons that you can carry, from rocket launchers to submachine guns to handguns. With the smaller weapons, you can either dual wield them or simply carry one and toss grenades with your free hand. The producers wanted to make the game challenging, so you can only carry one weapon (or set of weapons if dual-wielding) at one time.
We also got a brief look at the game's multiplayer mode, but were only able to do battle split-screen style. The game will also support online play, as well as system link for all of the Xbox fans out there. The multiplayer was pretty enjoyable, although there are still a lot of framerate and slowdown issues that need to be ironed out. Unfortunately, we were only able to have one-on-one deathmatches, so it's hard to say how the game will play with the standard 8 or 16 players seen in many console shooters.
The level that we played on, however, had some nifty surprises that you had to be aware of in addition to dodging your opponent's bullets. It was a three-tiered metal structure that looked suspiciously like the satellite from the original game, and there were a bunch of trapdoors that would open without any warning, causing you to fall to your death. Along with these sneaky booby traps, there was a helicopter constantly flying around, peppering the top of the structure with bullets. Although there was a rocket launcher precariously balancing on a support strut, I chose to use it on my enemy instead of the helicopter. The addition of these booby traps made the multiplayer more exciting, as you constantly had to be aware of where you were standing. If the rest of the game's 16 multiplayer maps have the same types of dirty tricks, a lot of people are going to play online when the game is released.
For the most part, it looks like GoldenEye: Rogue Agent is coming along nicely, although I do have one concern. As it stands, there isn't a lot of "personality" to the game, and I'm worried that there won't be much to make it stand out from the crowded shooter market. While it's definitely cool to be the villain, the fact that I spent my time taking out other bad guys made me feel like I was just another anonymous hero. My hope is that the storyline will give us more of a reason to like this bad, bad man. Still, the game is looking promising, and chances are it will only get better.
