GoldenEye 007 remade in Far Cry 5 is a nostalgic marvel from a solo creator

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For Far Cry Arcade, James?

Almost every single-player stage from GoldenEye is now playable in Far Cry 5, thanks to the extended efforts of one dedicated player.

Far Cry 5's level editor (AKA Far Cry Arcade) has been put to all kinds of purposes since it debuted back in 2018, but the efforts of Krollywood may be the grandest we've ever seen. According to an interview with Kotaku, the dedicated fan spent about 1,400 hours working on the project. And it's "almost" every single-player stage because it doesn't include the secret bonus levels that were put in as a tribute to previous Bond films. Even without any Golden Guns to go around, it's still an impressive recreation of every last detail from Dam to Cradle.

You can see highlights from across the project in the video above, or you can check out this YouTube playlist for in-depth walkthroughs of each individual level. I think my favorite is Facility, because of the way it even recreates the distant green haze that would start to obscure your vision at the far end of hallways and the big tank rooms. As a kid I always wondered if that meant there had already been a gas leak of some kind even before Bond blew up the tanks, but now I'm pretty sure it was just supposed to set the mood (and make big environments easier to render on N64).

Sadly, we already know these kinds of creations won't be possible in the next game - Ubisoft has confirmed that it won't bring back Arcade mode in Far Cry 6 as it concentrates more of its resources on building out the main campaign, but there's nothing stopping dedicated creators from continuing to work their magic in Far Cry 5 (as long as it remains online, anyway). And there's more than one way to remake a dam - such as in GoldenEye Alyx 007, which is remaking the entire game with an intriguing fusion of original level design and Soviet/Alien architecture in Half-Life: Alyx.

Two of the original developers revealed that a GoldenEye 007 remaster for Xbox 360 was nearly complete before it was canceled. 

Connor Sheridan
Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and was formerly a staff writer at GamesRadar.