Far off in the distance, beyond the murky arctic waters, the vague silhouette of a tower can be seen through the mist. You raise your sniper rifle for a closer look. A solitary island is nestled away from all the chaos. What secrets does it hold?
GoldenEye 007 is one of the most formative first person shooters in gaming history. The Nintendo 64 classic helped solidify objective-based shooters on consoles, asking players to navigate a web of tasks in order to complete a level. The first level was the Dam. It was full of alarms to disable and data to steal.
But there was a single curiosity that grabbed gamers’ attention. A lone island on the other side of the dam. Surely, there was a special gun awaiting across the water. Perhaps there was a hidden objective to complete.
GoldenEye came at a time when internet rumour-mongering mixed with hacking tools like GameShark. Whereas rumours about Ocarina of Time‘s Triforce led to massive hoaxes, GoldenEye players opted for a more empirical approach to their mysteries.
If the island could be reached and examined, secrets might be unlocked. The use of a No-Clipping code allowed amateur sleuths to saunter over the the island. What they found was underwhelming.
The island was empty. The gun turret lay dormant. The guard tower was unmanned. There were no special guns. There was no hidden NPCs. You couldn’t even climb the ladder in the tower.
A decade after release Rare fan site MundoRare spoke to GoldenEye team members Mark Edmonds and Duncan Botwood, who offered some closure for curious fans.
“I think the original plan was to have a building over there to go and investigate, with armour as a reward,” Botwood said. “That would have meant a boat ride needed to be coded in.”
“We never got around to implementing the boat,” Edmonds added. The island remained, an unreachable casualty of design prioritisation.
The story of GoldenEye‘s island is a story of disappointment. It is a moment where myth crumbled to reveal the realities of game development to a new generation of gamers. But hey, there might have been body armour out there!
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5 responses to “That Time An Island In GoldenEye Disappointed A Generation”
Such a classic title. So many fond memories.
Couldn’t agree more. If there was ever a title that defined gaming for me, it was Goldeneye.
T’was one of the glaring omissions from the Rare Replay IMHO … but of course, “licensing” would never let Goldeneye live on the way it was meant to, in all its Pierce Brosnan and Sean Bean goodness.
But now you can play it re-imagined with Daniel Craig in the starring role! Who doesn’t want that?
Everyone?
Easily the worst ‘actor’ of the lot.
These days, they’d patch in the boat, guns, and armor at a later date. Probably as $4.95 DLC…
Such a great game. Endless sandbox fun with all the crazy cheats you could unlock and mess with things.