The darker side of the James Bond universe reveals itself in GoldenEye: Rogue Agent, as you assume the role of the aforementioned agent and take on a selection of the most notorious Bond villains in some of the memorable movie settings such as the Pyramids from The Spy Who Loved Me, and the Volcano Lair from You Only Live Twice. A first-person experience with a host of combat styles from single-punch knockdowns to taking out the baddies with a harpoon or a railgun, GoldenEye: Rogue Agent trawls the Bond archive and comes up with some of the most explosive action we’ve seen since Pierce Brosnan got off the train somewhere in North Korea.

As a Rogue Agent, you carry the SPEC-9 personal side-arm, which is never dropped and always has ammunition. Handy, you might say. But as any respectable Bond-affiliated game will attest, there’s a lot more on offer than a simple handgun. The titular GoldenEye refers to the damage done to your right eye at the outset. With a new synthetic eye at your disposal, you can see enemies through cover using MRI vision, manipulate electronics and weapons using the EM Hack, deflect damage with the Magnetic Polarity Shield, and send enemies flying across the room with the Magnetic Field. More than handy, we reckon.

Theoretically, progression in GoldenEye: Rogue Agent is simple. In Campaign mode – the heart of the game in which you exact revenge on Dr No – missions are presented in sequence, and the trick is to complete one, thus unlocking the next. At the end of each mission you are scored on how well you completed your assignment. Your Rogue score is the sum of the total eliminations you accomplish during the mission, plus several bonuses. Special unlocks, such as multiplayer maps, become available by achieving high scores.

With the all-new E.V.I.L. AI controlling the in-game enemies meaning that the game never plays the same way twice, and a mercilessly brutal split-screen multiplayer offering including some seriously heavy weaponry, GoldenEye: Rogue Agent is literally a blast.