GoldenEye 007: Reloaded on PlayStation 3 Hands-On Impressions.

It felt early. Really early. Borderline broken in fact. After restarting our demo — because a bit of geometry was obtruding our entry into a vent — we decided to restart the game from the beginning. The Dam always was our favourite stage on the Nintendo 64 (well, aside from Facility anyway), so that's where we started.

For those that haven't been keeping up to date, GoldenEye 007 was relaunched on Nintendo Wii last year. The game was built from the ground up by British developer Eurocom, featuring the likeness of Daniel Craig and a reinterpreted campaign. GoldenEye 007: Reloaded is that same Nintendo Wii game remastered for PlayStation 3.

You can tell the title was developed as a Wii game first. It doesn't look particularly bad, just not up to the standards of the current generation. It's a pity, but as Bond sneaks into a much more sinister interpretation of the Dam facility from the original game, it is at least able to showcase its weather effects as rain pours onto the ground and lightning flashes across the environment.

Accompanied by Trevelyan in a Call Of Duty inspired opening, we quickly sneak through the facility, hitting R3 to pull down enemies in stealth and using Bond's famous silenced PP7 to pick off guards on the look-out. The action feels snappy and modern — clearly heavily inspired by Call Of Duty but not in a bad-way. The AI works in packs, trying to flank us and draw us out of cover. It's shooter 101, but it feels solid enough.

Having dealt with a fresh convoy of troops appearing from the rear, we head towards a truck. It's clear from here that Eurocom has put its own stamp on the GoldenEye formula, prompting an  on-rails sequence as we try to disguise ourselves from the passing troops, only to get detected a few yards down the road. Bond quickly pulls out an AK47 and points it from the window, prompting a high-octane shootout from the cab of the truck.

Unfortunately we couldn't get much further with the demo as it was broken from this point on. A tanker blocking the road — which clearly needed to be shot at — would not explode, even when unloading an entire clip into it. This caused us to get caught in a death loop, where we'd respawn outside of the truck before quickly warping back inside once the game caught up.

Other issues included heavy loading times, and general crashing. The build appeared to have all its content in place, leaving us concerned how close to final what we played actually was. With the game due out in about a month, we hope Eurocom can be vigorous enough in its testing process to iron out the bugs present, otherwise one of our most anticipated titles could end up being a bitter, bitter disappointment.

We'll still maintain hope, but we're concerned to say the least.

GoldenEye 007: Reloaded on PlayStation 3 is set to release on October 28th in Europe and November 1st in North America. It will include optional support for the PlayStation Move motion controller.