A good game, but not without its flaws.
The game has three main components; Campaign, challenges and multiplayer. The campaign has two missions from each movie (two Skyfall missions are included, though they were downloadable content (DC) on the PS3 and Xbox 360 because the movie was released after the game), the challenges have two missions from each movie excluding Skyfall, and the multiplayer features 8 levels (Three from Goldfinger, three from Licence to Kill and two from Die Another Day) and characters from all of the movies (two were DC on PS3 and Xbox 360).
Controls:
The wii remote and classic controllers (CC) are not compatible in this game. The wii remote not being compatible is a disappointment because the wii remote controls were very good in Goldeneye Wii, and the CC not being compatible means that you are unlikely to be able to play local multiplayer with more than one person, since you need pro controllers, and probably haven't bought three already. There is no option for off TV play using only the gamepad, which is a shame. There is little control customisation, which is my main gripe with the game. The controls feel clunky to begin with, and since there you can only change the general sensitivity, rather than the vertical/horizontal sensitivity, or ADS/hipfire sensitivity, you may feel comfortable with the hipfire speed, but uncomfortable with the ADS speed. Also, the control layout can't be changed much, which I disliked because I wanted to change my melee attack to a shoulder button rather than pushing in the joystick. I played the local multiplayer with two friends who enjoy Call of Duty, and they seriously disliked this game because of its controls.
Campaign:
For the single player you can only use the gamepad. The controls are the same as on the pro controller and the TV screen is the main screen, but the gamepad screen displays a map, your weapons and attachments, and gadgets. The screen makes it easier to use your gadgets, as you don't have to remember what d-pad directions they are assigned to. It is also used for entering security codes.
It has a similar style to Goldeneye Wii, in that there are separate missions with checkpoints throughout and a choice between a regenerating health system, and health bars with health packs and body armour dispersed throughout the levels. Unlike Goldeneye Wii, the levels are longer, so you can quit at any checkpoint and come back to it, rather than having to restart the level. There is also an xp system which allows you to purchase attachments and perks to help you in the game. This, multiple difficulty settings, and completing a list of various killing methods could give incentive to replay the game if you enjoyed it the first time round.
The gameplay is mainly run and gun, though there are some stealth areas in which you can silence your weapon and take out guards and cameras in specific orders to avoid being detected. Most people seem to dislike stealth sections, since you can't move bodies after you've killed them, but I thought that was good, since it meant you had to plan out your attack more and dispose of the guards more efficiently. There are four missions which aren't run and gun, which involve driving, skiing and riding a motorbike. Most of these involved chases, and there are also a few on foot chases throughout the game. I enjoyed these, but found the skiing frustrating since there were so many trees. The thing I disliked least about the campaign was the melee sections. It involves using the two joysticks to hit one part of four areas of the enemy, which is left unguarded. This was interesting at first, but is over used in the game, and most boss battles revolve around doing this, then completing a number of reaction based button prompts and completing another melee section. I thought this was a waste of good boss battle opportunities, as it would've been more fun to have a shootout in which the boss has a large amount of health, like in Goldeneye 64 (though the last boss battle did exactly this, and was better than the rest).
Challenges:
This is similar to the MI6 ops mode in Goldeneye Reloaded, in which you have to complete 10 missions with various difficulty modifiers in an attempt to get the highest score possible, which is achievable by completing missions undetected, without wasting any bullets, and getting a balance of a quick time, a high kill count and a high difficulty setting. I really enjoyed this mode, and still enjoy competing for the top position on the leaderboards, as it requires a lot of time, practice and thought to get the highest score possible. Some of the missions are things done in the movies that weren't playable in the campaign, such as falling back into Fort Knox as Oddjob when under attack by the CIA, or escaping from Blofeld's lair in OHMSS as Draco, which is a nice touch. There are three types of mission in this mode:
Stealth, in which you have to kill specified targets or escape as discreetly as possible.
Defence, in which you have to protect a laptop from waves of enemies til it has finished uploading data.
Assault, in which you have to kill a large number of people in order to get to the end of the level.
Multiplayer:
Local and Online Multiplayer can use the pro controller or gamepad, and in local multiplayer the gamepad user can play on the gamepad screen while the other 1-3 players use the TV. In the online multiplayer you start at level 1 and progress through 50 levels unlocking new weapons, attachments, perks and receive accolades for achieving certain feats in the game. Upon reaching level 50, the player can choose to "specialise", returning them to level 1 and losing them their weapons. However, some weapons can only be unlocked by doing this. It can be done up to five times. The online uses a regenerating health system, with no modes featuring a health bar system, which is a shame. The online doesn't have many players, and usually there's only one match at a time in Team Conflict mode. Other modes can be played by changing your clan tag to encourage other players to move to a specified mode. There is also no party system, meaning to can't play on the same team as your friends. These are obvious downsides, but the upsides are that there is a small community of people who you will recognise, and the matches will always be balanced and competitive.
The online multiplayer consists of the modes (all of which last 10 minutes):
Legends - A 10 player mode featuring 20 playable characters each with different abilties, such as infinite sprint, extra damage to players who have killed you, extra secondary weapons or throwing weapons and more. 20 kill limit.
Team Conflict (TC)- A 12 player mode with a 60 kill limit for each team.
Conflict - An 8 player mode with a 20 kill limit. (Similar to Legends but without special abilties)
Golden Gun - An 8 player mode with a 40 point limit. Kills are one point, golden gun kills are 5 points. Everyone knows where the golden gun is, and it kills in one hit, but you have to reload after each shot.
Heroes - Each team has one hero. A person will automatically become a hero, and be given a large amount of health, extra damage and new weapons, and will be shown on the map for the other team to attack and your team to protect. After a hero dies, another will respawn until a high score limit is reached.
Icarus - Stand beside one of 5 consoles to hack it. Once it is hacked move onto another console or defend the consoles your team's already hacked, and try to maintain more hacked consoles than the other team to win. No kill limit, 12 player mode.
Black Box - One team tries to destroy the box, the other team tries to carry it around to download data from it. No kill limit, 12 player mode.
Data Miner - A 8 player mode with no kill limit, which is a free for all. When players die they drop a phone. Picking up a phone increases your download rate. Collect as many phones as you can and stay alive until the download is done.
Bomb Defuser - There are three areas one team has to plant a bomb in, and the others have to diffuse a bomb in? I haven't played it, or seen it.
Licence to Kill (LTK) - Conflict with no radar and less health.
Team Licence to Kill (TLTK) - TC with no radar and less health.
Having 12 people in a mode can make it laggy sometimes, but generally it isn't noticeable (especially if you're the host).
The local multiplayer features all of the modes from online except LTK and TLTK, but features two extra modes. There are a large number of modifiers including health, damage, paintball mode, headshots only and many more. You can also customise 6 loadouts each with a choice of any of the online weapons, and play as one of 20+ characters. Legends mode isn't included in local multiplayer because you can choose the characters from legends and whether or not they have their special abilties on.
Conclusion:
The campaign isn't bad, and if you enjoyed Goldeneye wii you'll probably enjoy it.
Challenge mode is fun to play just once, or over and over again to strive for perfection.
The local and online multiplayers have a lot of customisation options, and can be really great.
The two major flaws are the control system (lack of customisation and no wii remote support) and the small online player base.
The Wii U game is more expensive than the PS3 or Xbox 360, but seems to have a larger online player base, and comes with DC you'd have to pay for on other consoles.
It's a challenging game.
Edit: I lost interest in the online and finished all of the challenges, so got like 100 hours of time from it. However the price has dropped so that's a plus.