GoldenEye 007 Reloaded: 'we're re-imagining the GoldenEye story for the modern day'

By John Houlihan for computerandvideogames.com

Although the original GoldenEye earned its spurs in many players' eyes for its splendid split-screen multiplayer credentials, it's easy to forget that there was also an excellent single-player game powering the N64 classic.

This week sees the release of GoldenEye 007 Reloaded, Eurocom's HD update to last year's well received Wii shooter and spiritual successor to the venerable N64 version.

So with the game set to debut this Friday, Nov 4th, we tracked down GoldenEye 007 Reloaded writer Rob Matthews, to get the story behind the single-player component of the game.

Absolutely, feedback from the press and fans was overwhelmingly positive and our aggregated review scores rate us as one of the best FPS's on the Wii platform.

The original GoldenEye was such an iconic game, it must have cast quite a long shadow - how was it dealing with not only high expectations but those probably slightly rose-tinted memories?

We took a slightly different approach when developing GoldenEye 007, rather than trying to solely recreate the original game, we approached the project as if we were re-imagining the GoldenEye story for the modern day; that meant a new cast and locations alongside some mild updates to the story to make it feel more current to today's world. That said, the original game has generated such a fantastic legacy and we've paid subtle homage to it in a number of places throughout the game.

What has the move to a HD version bought to the GoldenEye game? What did you learn from the Wii version that's fed into the HD game?

The online and split-screen multiplayer features of GoldenEye 007 were really well received when the Wii title launched last year so we've tried give players more of what they love for GoldenEye 007: Reloaded - we have more maps, new weapons, gadgets, game modes and of course a number of new classic characters that Bond fans love to play as. That said, we also added in some new features and content for players who enjoy the single player experience - the MI6 Ops game mode.

How was working with Daniel Craig and Dame Judy Dench?

In a nutshell, fantastic, they are both very talented and professional actors who are always willing to go the extra mile to get a perfect performance, I've been a big fan of both actors for quite a while so for me personally it was a wonderful opportunity to write for and work with them. I'd also like to mention that we had a great supporting cast too, with Rory Kinnear, Elliot Cowan, Alec Newman and Kirsty Mitchell to name but a few.