MI6 previews the forthcoming "GoldenEye: Rogue Agent" game from EA, focusing on the multi-player action...

GoldenEye Rogue Agent - Multi-Player Preview
22nd July 2004

Online Villainy
"Everything or Nothing" was the first Bond game to go online, but this time around with "GoldenEye: Rogue Agent", the multiplayer aspects have been designed with online gameplay in mind from the ground up.

After coming to an agreement with Microsoft, EA now support XBox LIVE (EoN was only online enabled for the PS2) and will support at least 8 players, although the developers hope this can reach an anarchic 16 by the time of release. The XBox version will also support "system link" for further multiplayer options. It is unclear at the moment whether online play will be restricted to the USA only, as past EA titles have been.

 


Above: A four-player death match at the Moonraker Launch Facility.

Download "GoldenEye: Rogue Agent" Moonraker Game Footage (8.37 MB)



Above: A familiar "GoldenEye" locale.
 

Back To Basics
All the new online networking is one thing, but what made the original GoldenEye N64 title a classic was the adrenaline pumping action of four players squeezed on to a sofa in split screen death match mode.

00-Seven years on and finally we can look forward to that same rush. Supporting both 2 an 4 player split screen modes, "Rogue Agent" will expand on the classic death match with extra multiplayer scenarios.


New Twists
Objective based team games will compliment the usual death match modes, and a new "revenge system" enhances an already impressive "bounty scoring system" with players tracking down their killer within the first 30 seconds of respawning. It's goodnight to campers.

One idea being knocked around by the developers is a multiplayer mode that is a spin-off from the tried and tested "capture the flag" formula, where a hostage basically becomes the flag, and each team has to try to grab him and drag him back to their base - kicking and screaming.

The Next Best Thing
Don't have any friends (or friends that want to frag)? Don't have online support? Worry not. "Rogue Agent" will feature E.V.I.L. AI bots to death match against and with, so your skills can be sharpened without anyone taking up your valuable sofa space.

Believe The Hype?
So can "Rogue Agent" finally get a grip on the mantle held by "GoldenEye N64" for all these years? All of EA's past multi-player aspects to Bond games have ended in slight disappointment, but there has never been a better opportunity to deliver action that can rival the 1997 classic. With the additional online play, maybe it's time to get around the sofa again, but without the N64 controllers any more.

 

Multi-Player Maps

Atlantis - Karl Stromberg's underwater lair from "The Spy Who Loved Me" returns from a brief and somewhat disappointing appearance in "Agent Under Fire", this time it's in all it's Ken Adam glory.

Severnaya - Xenia Onatopp made her reputation here by shooting all the Russian Space Division employees in "GoldenEye", let's hope for more "climatic" action.

Scaramanga's Funhouse - The testing ground for the million-dollar-a-shot hitman in "The Man With The Golden Gun" is remade as a perfect hunting ground in deathmatch mode.

Moonraker Launch Facility - Expect to see all the classic elements from the "Moonraker" set, including the conference room (which was cut from the original film script) - where players can activate the overhead thrusters to toast anyone in range.

St. Cyril's Monastery - Although one of the lesser known Bond locales, this mountain-top building from "For Your Eyes Only" makes for a superb multiplayer map.

Piz Gloria- A restaurant in real-life, Blofeld's lair from "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" not only offers great ski slopes and a bob sleigh run - but will now become a top capture the flag location.


  Stay tuned to MI6 for further intel reports on "GoldenEye: Rogue Agent", due out in stores November 2004.

Images courtesy EA Games. Footage shown is actual in-game action. "GoldenEye: Rogue Agent" teaser trailer video courtesy EA Games, used with permission.

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