“It’s just fun to be the bad guy.” That’s the basic pitch behind GoldenEye: Rogue Agent. Senior producer Chris Plummer expands: “Bond villains have it all. They have the billion-dollar mansions, private armies, a harem of beautiful women, and the most exotic technology. I mean, these guys ARE inspiring. I want to be that guy! Who wouldn’t?”

Plummer and his team at EA have played up the “be the bad guy” aspect of RA, but what does that mean? It means wreaking havoc, using deadly deathtraps, and taking no prisoners. Those of you squeamish about being evil can rest easy knowing that most of the time, you’re facing Dr. No’s forces, not innocent civilians. When asked about how evil you can be to MI6 agents in the first mission, Plummer replies, “They’re good for taking hostage.”

The game itself, as the basic design aims for, is a very straightforward shooter, with some interesting tweaks and flourishes. Dual-weapon capability means that you can use both triggers on your DualShock—one per arm—letting you use two assault rifles at once, one pistol and one rifle, one shotgun and one grenade, and so forth. Some weapons are two-handed, which means your second trigger is a secondary feature on the gun. Or you can melee attack someone and then use him as a human shield—strictly against MI6 regulations but totally OK for rogue agents. And as mentioned earlier, there are deathtraps aplenty—they’re just massive sets that unleash a faceful of death with the flick of a switch. Be careful, though—enemies are perfectly willing to flip the switch themselves as well.

One of RA’s main features is the E.V.I.L. A.I. system. At first, it sounds like a goofy way to describe standard A.I., but E.V.I.L. is an acronym for the basic A.I. engine that drives the enemies. The “E” is for “emotional.” Enemies have specific emotions as a result of their environment and status. If you’re applying pressure, the enemies feel defensive and seek cover. If you’re hiding, they get a little more aggressive and actively pursue you. If they have a high composure, they work as a team, but if you lower their composure (say, by killing their leader), they start to “lose their cool” and act irrationally.

The “V” is for “visceral.” Basically, the A.I. will always try to create crazy, over-the-top situations that look scripted. Big explosions, guys falling off of high elevations, even the way enemies jump and dive for cover or shoot blindly—these are all visceral events that are A.I.-driven instead of scripted.

“I” is for “intelligent,” and that governs basic smarts like using cover, triggering deathtraps, and switching to melee attacks. You can actually learn how to use the environment by watching the A.I. use it against the player.

Finally, the “L” means “learning,” the most ambitious part of the A.I. design. The enemies notice things—if a box is destroyed, they’ll stop trying to use it for cover. If something falls, they’ll use the resultant wreckage as cover. If you hide behind something, the A.I. will notice and alert the rest of its fireteam. Taken together, RA is trying to deliver the thrill and cinematic feeling of scripted events via robust A.I., and it’s done a fair job so far.

When you’re tired of taking on digital drones, you can take on other RA players. One interesting multiplayer feature is the presence of “duel” maps. Plummer points out that most games are geared for a whole lotta players, but none are designed for one-on-one matches. For the duel-specific maps, the team took the last locations of Bond movies (like the Golden Gate Bridge in A View to a Kill and Scaramanga’s fun house in The Man With the Golden Gun) and turned them into maps. Besides those special duel maps, expect your traditional two-to-four-player splitscreen and online action.

But what about the story? Is this a Bond game even without Bond? Pretty much. The campaign features a jet-setting story that gives you a grand tour of the Bond underworld and its denizens. It starts with your participation in a mission based on the end of the Goldfinger film and is followed by your dismissal from MI6. In the process, Dr. No removes one of your eyes, which is the motivation Goldfinger uses to recruit you to the Bond underworld.

After joining Goldfinger’s faction, you’re shown the OMEN, a slick superweapon that Goldfinger is working on—only he gets attacked by Dr. No; your second mission is spent defending Goldfinger’s secret lab from Dr. No’s invading force. It’s here that you’re introduced to your new eye and its abilities and partner up with Pussy Galore, who titles you “GoldenEye.”

You are then sent to Hong Kong to assassinate Dr. No, only to be ambushed and forced to escape alongside Galore, which then leads to you and Galore guarding Goldfinger’s casino—right when Dr. No and Xenia Onatopp attack it. After fighting back the tide of Dr. No agents, you and Oddjob are tasked with detonating a bomb at the Hoover Dam, where Onatopp is operating from. Then you are sent to Dr. No’s headquarters, and our tour of GoldenEye’s world comes to an end.

Pub. EA Games Dev. EA LA Release November

Power Head

Here’s an example of a nasty deathtrap being used. It’s called the Sub-Zero Device, and it’s in the secret lab at Auric Enterprises. Baddies can use it too.

An example of the E.V.I.L. A.I. and your MRI vision at work. He knows you’re hiding, and you can see him try to figure out how to maneuver and tag you.

Extra Talent

EA has quite a collection of gaming outsiders working on RA. Academy Award–winning production designer Sir Ken Adam gave info about the sets for places like Goldfinger’s Fort Knox and the volcano lair in You Only Live Twice, and he designed the Midas Casino, which you’re looking at. Paul Oakenfold is doing the entire soundtrack, and Christopher Lee and Judi Dench are lending their voices and faces to Scaramanga and M, respectively. Matrix costume designer Kym Barrett and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within modeler Rene Morel helped shape the new look for the game’s Bond villains.

THE POWERS OF THE GOLDEN EYE

MRI Vision

Your first upgrade is basic X-ray vision. With the E.V.I.L. A.I. opponents intelligently using cover, this is useful for when you’re hiding and you want to see where the baddies are hiding as well. It’s also useful if you walk into a room and don’t know where anything is. This doesn’t drain eye power (which recharges over time) too fast, so it’s useable for pretty much any occasion.

EM Hack

You can hack items from a distance with this upgrade. No more having to actually sit down with your handy Tandy and plug it into the wall. You might scoff at being able to flip deathtrap switches from afar, but you can also hack weapons. If you hack an enemy’s weapon, he suddenly becomes a lot less accurate with it and may not even be able to shoot it at all.

Magnetic Polarity Sheild

Think of this as temporary invulnerability. This drains battery power really fast, but then again, it basically deflects all bullets away from you. Think of how Magneto can just frown, and no bullet gets near him as a result. People can still hit you in melee, though, so don’t get too cocky. This is great for darting between cover spots.

Magnetic Field

Your last power, it basically lets you shove enemies around. Bet you didn’t think of using your refrigerator magnets as people tossers, eh? This ability is great for clearing a path or disorienting troops around you. Think of it as a James Bond version of those telekinetic powers that keep showing up in other games. Don’t ask us to explain how an eye can push people around though.

Good Bad Guys, Bad Bad Guys

Dr. No

The very first Bond villain, he was the big bad guy working for SPECTRE in the 1962 Bond flick imaginatively titled Dr. No. He’s the guy who shoots out one of your eyes, so you have a pretty good reason to want to take him down.

Goldfinger

Like Dr. No, he debuts in a Bond movie that uses his name as the title. Goldfinger has invented the OMEN, a new one-shot-kill superdelicious weapon, and wants GoldenEye to protect it and assassinate Dr. No.

Scaramanga

A slick assassin with a one-bullet gun in 1974’s The Man With the Golden Gun, Scaramanga is allied with Goldfinger and is the designer of GoldenEye’s, er, golden eye. His famous golden gun is also included in the game.

Pussy Galore