- Estimated achievement difficulty: 7/10 [hugely dependent on skill, some luck, and prior experience] [Achievement Difficulty Rating]
- Offline: 55 [1000]
- Online: 0
- Approximate amount of time to 1000: 15-20+ hours [hugely dependent on skill, some luck, and prior experience] [Estimated Time to 100%]
- Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 3 [difficulty achievements don't stack] plus around 10 local multiplayer matches
- Missable achievements: None [mission select]
- Does difficulty affect achievements: Yes - must complete each mission on every difficulty, and certain cheats must be unlocked on certain difficulties
- Do cheats disable achievements: Yes - turning on any of the ingame cheats you've unlocked will disable all achievements from unlocking
- Unobtainable/glitched achievements: None specifically, but in general achievements are typically very delayed in unlocking, and there have been multiple reports of general issues with achievements unlocking at all
Introduction:
Welcome (back) to Goldeneye 007, a direct port of the classic N64 first person shooter that laid the foundation for local co-op multiplayer shooters. Do note that this is a port, not a remake or remaster, so while there are definitely some graphical upgrades from the original, in general, this game looks and plays pretty much identical to the N64 version. The main improvement is that you can obviously use both thumbsticks to move and aim, unlike the original, making it feel more modern, but that's about the only modern touch in this port. Health doesn't regenerate, enemies don't always follow set paths, luck can play a factor in each run, and sometimes things can feel unfair, especially when trying for the cheats. However, with some practice, you'll get used to how to deal with various situations, enemies, etc., after a likely pretty rocky start. Let's get started.
Abbreviated Walkthrough:
As noted above, difficulty achievements unfortunately do NOT stack. On top of that, the red checkmarks the game puts next to each difficulty cannot necessarily be used as a guide to see which missions you've completed on which difficulty. This is because if you complete a mission on 00 Agent first, all three difficulties will be checked off as if you completed the mission on all three difficulties, but it won't count the easier difficulties for the respective achievement. You therefore need to be careful you don't lose track of which missions you've done on which difficulties.
To avoid any confusion, I highly recommend taking the game one mission at a time: beat that mission on all three difficulties, then immediately get the cheat for that mission. Since many missions and especially cheats rely on knowing the mission well, the enemy placement, and speedrunning strategies, it's best to do each mission entirely while they're fresh in your head, rather than playing through the entire game on Agent, then again on Secret Agent, etc. For some annoying reason, the achievements for the cheats are not in the normal mission order, making it a pain to see what difficulty and time you need for each mission as you go. To help, here is a list of each mission in order, along with what difficulty and time limit you need to unlock the cheat, as well as a link to the respective achievement, each of which contains a video guide if you prefer one.
Dam - Secret Agent - 2:40 - Splash Damage (10G)
Facility - 00 Agent - 2:05 - I AM INVINCIBLE! (10G)
Runway - Agent - 5:00 - Chest-Pounding Goodness (10G)
Surface 1 - Secret Agent - 3:30 - The Art of Boom (10G)
Bunker 1 - 00 Agent - 4:00 - Who Needs Stealth? (10G)
Silo - Agent - 3:00 - Booster! (10G)
Frigate - Secret Agent - 4:30 - Screen Cheater! (10G)
Surface 2 - 00 Agent - 4:15 - Everyone is Odd! (10G)
Bunker 2 - Agent - 1:30 - Target Acquired! (10G)
Statue - Secret Agent - 3:15 - Here They Come! (10G)
Archives - 00 Agent - 1:20 - Cheater! (10G)
Streets - Agent - 1:45 - DUCK! (10G)
Depot - Secret Agent - 1:40 - So Much Drama! (10G)
Train - 00 Agent - 5:25 - A Silver Lining (10G)
Jungle - Agent - 3:45 - Double-Cut (10G)
Control - Secret Agent - 10:00 - Who's Counting? (10G)
Caverns - 00 Agent - 9:30 - Better Than 2x Klobbs (10G)
Cradle - Agent - 2:15 - Best in Class (10G)
Aztec - Secret Agent - 9:00 - Double ZZZZAP! (10G)
Egyptian - 00 Agent - 6:00 - Full Arsenal! (10G)
Cradle is the last mission of the campaign, with Aztec and Egyptian being bonus levels that you need to unlock and then beat to get their respective achievements and their respective cheats. Aztec is unlocked by beating all 18 campaign missions on at least Secret Agent difficulty. Egyptian is unlocked by beating all 18 campaign missions AND Aztec on 00 Agent difficulty. So, if you follow my advice of completing each mission on every difficulty and getting its cheat as you progress, you'll unlock both bonus levels naturally as you progress. 00 Agent can be pretty tough on some missions, but thankfully there are a lot of resources available. Refer to Bond... James Bond (60G) for video guides for each mission. Note that there's no reason to complete Aztec on Agent for any achievements, so jump right to Secret Agent for the cheat. For Egyptian, there's no reason to complete it on anything other than 00 Agent for the cheat, so don't bother with the lower difficulties.
Once you've completed all 20 missions on all three difficulties and unlocked the 20 cheats listed above, you're all done with the campaign achievements.
Multiplayer:
The multiplayer in this game is local only (no online available). On top of that, every achievement in the local multiplayer can be unlocked with a single controller! However, it is very important to note that a couple multiplayer achievements are tied to campaign progression, namely:
- Many of the maps required for World Tour (20G) are unlocked by completing them in the campaign. The final multiplayer map, Egyptian, is also unlocked by completing it in the campaign, but as noted above, you need to beat every mission on 00 Agent to even unlock Egyptian in the campaign. That will therefore make World Tour (20G) one of your last achievements.
- Oddjob, required for Unusual Work (20G), is unlocked by completing the campaign (i.e. the mission Cradle) on any difficulty. You therefore won't be able to unlock that achievement until you beat the campaign.
Conclusion:
If you played Goldeneye back on N64 as a kid, the nostalgia will likely be huge for this game. It stays true to the original in pretty much every way, with minor improvements to make it play a bit better on modern consoles. However, that could be a bad thing for new gamers looking to try this out, as it'll likely be pretty tough to get into and enjoy if you didn't play and enjoy the original. The achievements are tough but fair, and will assuredly require some practice on many of the missions. Thankfully, since the game has been out so long, tons of strategies and videos already exist to make things easier. Hopefully you survived Facility, Aztec, and their cheats, and if so, congrats on a well earned completion!
Credits: Full credit to Graslu00 for creating so many excellent Goldeneye videos, many of which were used in this guide.