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The more I think about it, the weird game of the late 90s feels like. When I was 14, my friends came to my house to play local multiplayer games on the Nintendo 64. And all of that seems so far away and strange during 2020 and this pandemic. But at the time, it was always fun thanks in large part to the James Bond shooter GoldenEye 007. My friends and I spent hundreds of hours playing that deathmatch classic on the big rear-projection TV in my basement. It was such a defining gaming experience for me that I spent years waiting for a worthy follow-up, but nothing really brought back the magic of the original. After years of mostly disappointing James Bond games, I lost hope.
Until today.
Hitman developer IO Interactive announced today that it is creating Project 007. This is an officially licensed game that uses the same Glacier Engine software tools that powered Hitman of 2016 and Hitman 2 of 2018.
“It’s true that from time to time, the stars align in our industry,” said IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak. “Creating an original Bond game is a monumental undertaking, and I truly believe that IO Interactive, working closely with our creative partners at EON and MGM, can offer something extremely special for our players and communities. Our passionate team is excited to unleash their creativity in the iconic James Bond universe and create the most ambitious game in our studio history. “
So why am I getting excited about a new Bond video game adventure? Because time has recalibrated my expectations and because IO Interactive is an ideal choice for this character.
IO Interactive will do something new with James Bond
The problem with every 007 game after GoldenEye is that fans believed they wanted GoldenEye over and over again. This led publishers to stick with the first-person action from that Nintendo original. And the problem with that is that GoldenEye 007 had the benefit of its time and place. This was a console shooter game before Halo or Call of Duty. If you weren’t playing Quake on your PC, you didn’t know what a first person shooter should feel like.
As time goes by, even most GoldenEye 007 fans admit that it was probably never that good. It’s something we suffered because it was the best way to approach the multiplayer deathmatch action that other games would later become real fun games on Xbox and beyond.
And now that we’ve had 23 years since GoldenEye, I know I don’t want a James Bond game like GoldenEye. I want a 007 adventure that does something different, and that’s where IOI comes in.
IOI did not provide any solid details on how its James Bond game will play. But it seems fair to assume that the studio is using its Glacier technology because it wants Project 007 to play as Hitman. And that’s an ideal fit.
While the older Bond games captured bombastic action and car chases, they’ve generally avoided the stuff of sneaky spies and related gadgets. That’s exactly the world IO plays with Hitman in, and it’s the side of Bond I want to see the most in a game.
So once again I get excited about the follow up to GoldenEye. Only this time I’m not thrilled at the prospect of sitting on a couch in my basement again playing splitscreen with friends. Instead, I allow myself to anticipate this game because of the ways IO Interactive could propel James Bond forward.
