The last time we got to take a look at GoldenEye: Rogue Agent, the game was making its playable debut on the E3 show floor. The early playable version of the game offered a rough taste of what to expect from the promising shooter. However, at its upcoming summer press event, Electronic Arts is debuting an updated playable version of the game that demonstrates considerably more polish work and more features. We recently had the chance to take an exclusive look at the game to find out just how good it is to be very, very bad.

Take a look at some intense action from a work-in-progress build of GoldenEye: Rogue Agent. Click "stream" for a larger view.

For those who haven't followed the game, GoldenEye: Rogue Agent puts you in the role of an MI6 agent who has been expelled from the British agency and fallen in with a really bad crowd--namely Auric Goldfinger. Despite his obviously evil rep with the public, the legendary Bond villain seems to offer new employees a pretty nice employment package. After signing on with the dastardly one, you're outfitted with a slick cybernetic eye and given your own groovy code name: GoldenEye. The downside to the deal is that your cybernetic eye was a necessary cosmetic upgrade after your own, actual eye was shot out during a turf war between Goldfinger and Dr. No. Well, no one ever said being a villain was all fun and games, right?

The updated playable build on display at EA's event is basically the third level of the single-player game. From a story perspective, this level is essentially your first outing as GoldenEye. The first level of the game, which was shown at E3, tracks your fall from grace from MI6 during the classic Fort Knox siege that served as the climax to Goldfinger. The second level follows you as you are caught in the middle of the impending turf war between Goldfinger and Dr. No. The third level on display at the press event finds you coordinating with an informant within Dr. No's organization, who appears to be helping you take a crack at assassinating the crime lord on his home turf in Hong Kong.

Unfortunately, as is often the case with informants, things end up going horribly wrong. As a result, you're actually set up, and you wind up having to fight for your life when you're ambushed. While this certainly sucks from a work perspective, getting ambushed by a veritable army of killers loyal to Dr. No is never a good thing. However, there's abundant "gameplay gold" here because the level shows off action that's been refined from the E3 demo, in addition to brand-new features that revolve around your cybernetic eye.

When the level begins, you're fighting for your life in a half-constructed building as No's killers flood in and pull out all the stops to plug you full of holes. The game's artificial intelligence ensures that the attacks you'll be defending against will force you to use your brain as well as your guns. The presence of so many construction materials and the building's incomplete layout presents you with a hefty escape challenge, but, when firepower isn't enough, you do have your trusty eyeball to fall back on. While the optic gizmo will have a number of different features that will serve you well in combat, EA only showed two of them at its event. The first is a flashy godsend that coats you in a magnetic shield that temporarily deflects all incoming gunfire. The second is a most excellent "grab" feature that uses an electromagnetic field to snatch and throw your enemies.

But before you get too excited by visions of running through the game with your shield on while flinging people every which way, know that these are limited-use features. Both abilities require a charge, and, as you'd expect, this charge can be run down or depleted. Building up a charge requires excellent gameplay performance on your behalf, and, as far as the game is concerned, the eye is tied to your brain and adrenal system. What this means is that as you pull off headshots and all manner of cool kills, the resulting "rush" will slowly build up your eye's charge.

Rogue Agent's new Hong Kong level showed us lots of new gameplay features, such as zip lines and melee combat.

The Hong Kong levels also showed off a host of other gameplay elements that were coming together. Nabbing a human shield from among your foes was a nice feature that's still being tweaked to ensure it's accessible. The melee system, while obviously not as deep as one found in a fighting game, was a nice up close and personal break from the ranged action you'll mostly be engaging in. Zip lines--which are wires that you'll use to get to the various rooftops you'll be fighting across--were in, and they let you shoot as you made your way from building to building. Death traps were also on display, and they ranged from subtle snares, such as unleashing gas on a foe in a bathhouse steam room, to wicked flash-jets of flame from a massive ornamental dragon, which could even take out a helicopter if properly timed.

In addition to the single-player mission, the demo on display also features a taste of a two-player multiplayer map. The level is set in the area in which the climactic battle in GoldenEye took place--the uplink wherein Bond fought on a massive antenna. The tightly constructed level featured a tiered design that was broken up into three levels. The top and bottom floors featured a collection of weapons and armor, some laid out in the open and others precariously set in areas where you'll have to carefully sneak to reach your prize.