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I certainly don't need to explain why GoldenEye 007 is such a beloved game; the mix of mission-based action, tight controls and fantastic split-screen multiplayer mode have secured the game's position as an all-time classic of the FPS genre – but it's always nice to hear about how the game's magic came to be.
David Doak – who worked as a designer on the game and even had his likeness and name used for one of its NPCs – has been explaining on social media why it feels so satisfying to blow bad guys away in the game (something Shigeru Miyamoto apparently wasn't keen on).
"I think a lot of what is special about the hit react / 'stun' timing and rhythmic cadence of the gun play in GE007 evolved from Virtua Cop, which was Martin Hollis' initial direction for the game," Doak explains, before adding:
"GE007 at one point was intended to be an 'on rails' shooter in the style of Virtua Cop / Time Crisis. NPC animation in Virtua Cop will look very familiar to GE007 players - enemies run to position, telegraph their attacks and have location-specific hit reacts.
In GE007 the hit react animations effectively create a 'stunned' state during which the enemy cannot attack - this affords the player with opportunities to make choices - reprioritise threats, re-aim, move, reload, etc.
As the player's familiarity with the duration of hit animations grows it becomes second nature to 'juggle' enemies in threat situations and find effective and empowering flow responses. That's the magic sauce.
Another component is the obvious 'tell' of the small delay when the enemy selects a new attack animation (which always tweens through the stand pose) - it's a little beat that is always there."
Doak is keen to stress that this part of the game's design was already in place by the time he joined the team at Rare, "although I obviously leaned into it in enemy placement in the level setups."
You can read more about how the game came to be here.