EA’s latest incarnation of the James Bond series of games has culminated in a retread of the franchise to a golden time (no pun intended). The 007 games have taken a step back to Goldeneye, except this isn’t the Goldeneye related to the film nor the classic by Rare for the N64 – this is EA’s spin on Goldeneye.

The Story revolves around Dr No’s ambitions to take out Goldfinger, and you are hired by Goldfinger to eliminate Dr No before he eliminates your new boss. With Scaramanger replacing Q in the gadgets department, you take on the role of Bond’s second in command, now the Rogue Agent sent to take our Dr No. The plot is a little contrived, and ends up bringing in characters from several of the films, including Goldeneye in a story which doesn’t really hold that much weight.

It’s inevitable that comparisons would be made to Goldeneye on the N64, so here it is that I compare the two. Even after close to ten years (getting there), EA has still failed to match, let alone eclipse, the one-of-a-kind Bond title from Rare. It doesn’t even come close to matching the tension, the intricate level design or story-based structure. Even the graphics seem God awful even on an Xbox.

Compare the game graphically to something like Chronicles of Riddick and it will shock you how Goldeneye Rogue Agent managed to get past Quality Control. It’s an atrocious example of what the Xbox can do, and certainly does it no favours. Like for like, Goldeneye on the N64 is more fun, more entertaining and an infinitely better game than Rogue Agent.

Electronic Arts makes games for the masses, which makes Rogue Agent accessible but lacking any innovation, style or panache to make it stand out from the rest of the crowd

The crux of the problem with Rogue Agent, aside from its laboured and string stretching plot, is variety in its levels. The level design is average at best, but you somehow start to feel that going up and down ladders was about as ingenious as the designers could get. Almost all the levels are run and gun, with no real feeling of involvement other than to press a switch, you feel that this is a FPS disguised as a James Bond spin-off, rather than a Bond game in FPS mode. If you changed a few names, this would no longer be a Bond title, and that’s how weak the connection is.

There is some innovation, but it’s horrendously implemented. You are given a Goldeneye, which allows you to execute several special functions such as Xray vision to see the enemy behind walls or a shield that repels bullets. The problem with this is that you don’t actually have time to execute this rubbish during a fire fight. The last thing on your mind is to execute some bloody eye, and the first thing is escaping from a soldier with an RPG.

A gimmicky inclusion is the ability to grab your opponents, or to hold them hostage and use them as a shield. This is rarely possible and basically servers as a token gesture to add variety to the gameplay. 99% of the time you will run and shoot, and that is all you will do. You can duck behind objects, but you can’t jump over them – I wouldn’t call this innovation. The game seems to have taken several steps back in FPS evolution, preferring to remain stagnated in the mechanics of the past rather than inventing anything new.

AI is something to be moderately commended, but in the end they just can’t add any real sense of tension to the proceedings. Be sure to set your analogue sensitivity to high when you first start, as you’ll find the default settings are suitable if you want to die very, very quickly. Mostly, however, the AI is forced into moving in a set pattern, and eventually you figure out the pattern and knock them out.

EA has still failed to match, let alone eclipse, the one-of-a-kind Bond title from Rare

There’s no sense of urgency, you can always hang out in a corner and take some respite from what’s happening, and the variety of the levels falls down to moving from floor to floor, ladder to ladder, zipper to zipper. It’s dull as ditch water. Some of the levels are far, far too long and start to bore you. Several times I had to stop playing because I almost fell asleep, and my friend and I swapped the controller in order to avoid falling asleep. Some levels can be fun, but these are in such a minority it’s a wonder why they’re even included considered the dullness with which the rest of the game plays.

In reality Rogue Agent is incredibly disappointing, and failing yet again the fans of the original Goldeneye. It’s no wonder that Microsoft is ever keen on buying MGM in order to bring back the Bond franchise back to Rare. This of course is a little nonsensical, as the best members of Rare who worked on Goldeneye left to form Free Radical and have translated their skills in the only game that has managed to eclipse Goldeneye, in the form of Time Splitters 2 (and soon the excellent 3rd game). Bringing the franchise to Rare will yield little in the way of replicating past glories.

Electronic Arts makes games for the masses, which makes Rogue Agent accessible but lacking any innovation, style or panache to make it stand out from the rest of the crowd. The multiplayer aspect has improved yet again, but this soon becomes boring; much like the single player campaign. Credit to EA for presentation, but they often fool gamers into buying their pretty games, only to provide a shallow gaming experience. Rogue Agent is just such an experience. Chronicles of Riddick would be a better choice, until a better Bond game comes out – unlikely as it is.

Verdict: A graphical shambles, lacking any gameplay improvements and yet another nail in the coffin for poor Bond titles from EA.