Great Moments in Video Gaming History #2: GoldenEye - The Dam Level
Posted by Michael Joyeux on 08.08.2006
The level which brough the Sniper Rifle to the masses and changed guns in gaming forever.
He waits, that's what he does. Then with a controlled side step he leans out from his hiding place, slowly he looks, then with a deft movement he takes aim and delivers sweet silent death to his would be foe. The shot was a deadly as it was quiet. He never saw it coming. Some would call this particular kill; artistic in the grand theatre of war. Then he moves quickly and efficiently to his next spot and surely another silent death.
He never waits, he storms around the corner catching the guard unaware, he unloads several brutal shots into the guard's head and torso, he cannot be sure at what point the guard died. But he probably didn't die from the first shot, his death was probably quick and very painful and there will be no open casket for this solider. Some would call a kill like this merciless, sadistic and devoid of all humanity; another pointless statistic in man's endless bloodlust. Then he turns and spots another guard running towards him, just another life to end, so he faces his victim and goes to end him.
This week's gaming moment contains so many memorable moments, I could probably write a column on each of them; the weapons, gadgets, set pieces, level design, story, cheats, multiplayer, legacy and of course music all combined to make one of the greatest games of the previous console war. This game broke the boundaries of the first person shooter and popularised a whole new genre "Stealth".
This game was the sole reason I got back into gaming, it was so fresh, dynamic and completely different to anything I'd ever played before. I hadn't seen the movie prior to playing the game, but after several months of playing the game with my friends, we rented it. You could spot the set piece from the game in the movie, as if this was a movie of a game, as opposed to the other way around. So many scenes and levels perfectly replicated; running alongside the truck, driving the tank, bungee jumping off the dam or fighting on the train.
This week's "Greatest Gaming Moment" is the Dam level from Golden Eye on the N64. Although not the finest moment in the game, it is the first game play moment in the game as the camera swoops across the level, around the watch tower, over the bridge and then finally onto James Bond, who stands with his Walther PPK at the ready. Then you are on her Majesty's server, licensed to kill. However, how you do it is completely up to you. As described above, you can play this game in what ever style you want. You can go through the entire game with only a handful of guards actually realising you exist, the rest are silently killed with deadly accuracy. If you want to go in all guns blazing, that's not a problem, alternatively you can sneak around corners, hide behind crates and bring cold death without them even seeing your face.
With the first guard despatched in one of the afore mentioned fashions, you run across the bridge and into the watch tower. There's guard at the top, he's guarding something which has become such a standard weapon that it's comical. He's better placed than the other guard, you wait until he leaves the safety of the glass room, when he does a bullet passes through one ear and out the other, then the bounty is yours, you pick up his Soviet machine gun and then the Sniper Rifle. One great aspect of Golden Eye is that any weapon that the enemy use, you can use too! If they've dropped a pistol it's yours, if their holding a rocket launcher, then you can relieve them of it. This increases the methodology to the game as if you're a poor shot, you'll soon run out of bullets for the PPK, meaning you have to resort to the Soviet rifle, which is louder and less accurate.
The sniper rifle was brutal in its efficiency; a well placed shot was a one shot kill. You could zoom in and out to a level which suited you. This was put to immediate use upon picking up the sniper rifle, in the tunnel leading to the Dam you could see two guards, you couldn't take them both out with one shot, but you could take out one, then turn to the other as he advanced. Alternatively you could save your ammo and go rushing up to them. Again that was the beauty of this game; it was completely at your own discretion how you completed the missions.
Personally I always sniped when possible, I would take out one guard, then take out the other guard before he even realised what was happening. Then I would go running down towards the first court yard. Then with careful aim I would dispatch all the visible guards from behind a petrol drum, and then I spot a guard running away from me. I laughed the first time I played through the level. Then I thought, why is he running?
Suddenly an alarm sounds and he turns around and starts shooting back at me. Shit.
With more guards dispatched, you move over to a gate. It's locked with a padlock… You need a key… Do you have a key? A quick check of the beautifully stylised inventory system says not. You retrace through the level, checking every book, nook and cranny. But still no key!? This isn't what Bond would do…
What would Bond do?
The result to this problem is so plain in the face that it's laughable, just like the scene with the Swordsman from Indiana Jones, just shoot the blasted thing! A quick press of the R button and a squeeze of Z gets you through.
Now veteran Golden Eye gamers will notice that I've missed something… The uplink!
The installation of the Remote Uplink was something which other Golden Eye players can sympathise with, especially during speed runs. You had to throw the uplink onto the Satellite panel. It was easy to miss as a newbie, which was another one of those great little moments, you could fail the level and still continue, just for practise. This is because you would never be explicitly told what to do in Golden Eye, you just had to figure it out yourself. You could battle through the underground sewer and get to the control panel, but without the remote uplink installed you couldn't upload the data to HQ. So you'd have to go back… Many fans of Golden Eye have pointed to this open ended nature as being the reason that the game succeeded. You could do most of the missions in any order. Only to go back because you needed to pick up file A to give to person B, but objective C was complete.
After speaking to several people about the Dam level, one of the things all Golden Eye players agree was their most fun experience of the level was the sniping of the guards in the watch towers. As I mentioned earlier in the column, killing people from a distance, with precision and skill is an art. This makes finishing the rest of the level on Agent or Secret Agent really easy as there's no Soviet Opposition.
But even if you're playing on Agent or Secret Agent you can still go down and do the other tasks, they don't count, but you can do them as practise for the harder difficulty levels.
The final great moment in the game for me, comes down in the underground tunnel. I was standing and ducking trying to squeeze off a round and I noticed one of the guards wasn't firing any more. He was… throwing something? What would he be throwing… Isn't that a… shit.
GRENADE!?
MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!
While one guard threw the Grenade to force me out, the other would shoot me. The great moment comes in the fact that the Guards work together, moving, suppressing fire and using tactics. Compared to today's AI Golden Eye may seem rudimentary, but in 1997 it was revolutionary.
Then up to the top of the Dam, the object says "Bungee Jump off the Dam", but how do I do that? Then I move out onto the edge of the platform and the computer takes over. An exciting end to one hell of a level!
Golden Eye as I said before was a perfect game at the time, it was so well designed with a perfect learning curve, a hell of a multiplayer and tons of longevity. It hasn't aged as well as other games of the time, mainly due to the fact that the control scheme isn't as smooth as modern console first person shooters. But there is no denying the lasting effect that Golden Eye had on gaming. This game has so many great moments, but the first level provides such a great introduction.
So Golden Eye: The Dam Level is our Greatest Gaming Moment #2.
If you have any comments, thoughts, ideas or questions. I would honestly love to hear from you! So drop me an email! Feedback is very welcome!
Next week, the what happens at the end of a fight in Mortal Kombat…
