Mission 6: St. Petersburg
Part iii: Streets
Mission 6: St. Petersburg
Part iii: Streets
After escaping KGB interrogation at the military archives, Natalya has been recaptured by General Ourumov. She is being taken by car to the Janus operations base in St. Petersburg.
Get after them, 007! We can't afford to let the trail go cold and the chances are they'll lead you straight to Trevelyan. Keep a clear head though, any civilian casualties on the streets of St. Petersburg could create an unfortunate international incident. We believe that Valentin Zukovsky is still in the area - he may be able to help you.
No gadgets this time, 007. Though you should be on the lookout for hardware the Russians may have left lying around. Keys in the ignition and all that, old chap.
I don't think she's worth the trouble, James. Perhaps you should be looking closer to home for a more reliable woman?
Streets is the twelfth level of GoldenEye 007 and the third level of the sixth mission. It's a bit inexplicable, but after Bond and Natalya successfully escape the GRU archives, Ourumov somehow abducts Natalya in an instant and flees with her. Now Bond must pursue Ourumov and rescue Natalya yet again. You do not actually see Ourumov or Natalya in the level and you are instead pitted against a timer.
The streets of St. Petersburg witnessed the biggest action scene in the GoldenEye movie with its tank chase. Thus it is great to see the Tank make an appearance in this level. Unfortunately there is no actual vehicle chase like there is in the movie, but it is still fun to crush your enemies. That said, the Tank is completely optional. Many players prefer to tackle the level on foot.
Streets is one of the largest levels in the game. The distance from the starting point to the end is about 305 meters, but the twisting road layout makes the distance you have to travel significantly longer than that. The map consists of the area just exterior to the GRU archives, a back alley with a couple buildings where Valentin hides out, some lengths of road, and two large city blocks.
After the first roadblock, the one with three of those yellow and black barricades, follow the street around the corner and the armor will be to your right.
After that one extremely long street turn right at the T-junction. Go around the block. This armor is tucked away on the left.
Streets begins in the same alleyway where Archives ended. On Agent difficulty you are given five minutes to finish the level before Ourumov escapes with Natalya. On Secret Agent and 00 Agent you have three minutes to meet with Valentin so that he will delay Ourumov and give you more time.
▶ TIP: Although meeting with Valentin is not required on Agent difficulty you can still do so for extra time.
When you get to the end of the alleyway and turn left there will be two standing Russian Soldiers and a third one will run towards you shortly.
Next there is this courtyard with fuel pumps, a military jeep, and a Tank. You can take the Tank if you want, but be aware that it cannot fit through the entirety of the alleyway you're about to enter.
Exiting the courtyard to view the first street of Streets.
To the left of the last screenshot there is an alley that leads to Valentin's hideout.
The hideout is in this area of neglected and decaying buildings.
Valentin waits for Bond inside this building with peeling red wallpaper. Contact him and wait for the conversation to finish to complete Objective A. Watch out for guards who make come up from behind while you talk. After Valentin leaves the countdown timer will be reset to six minutes.
This other building has two guards who fire at you from behind the windows.
▶ TIP: You can climb in through the windows and pick up this Grenade Launcher and armor vest.
Another view of this dingy area which is really quite nicely detailed.
After the alley it's time to get back onto the main streets. This building that spans over the street was faithfully recreated from the movie.
Following the street as it turns to the left then left again.
▶ TIP: Unlike any other level, most of the enemies in Streets can shoot and damage other characters. That means you have to be careful about civilians running into the line of enemy fire. Luckily the game is pretty forgiving. At six civilian casualties you get a warning that civilian casualties are high. At ten you get a warning that civilian casualties are critical. At 13 civilian casualties you finally fail the objective.
Continuing down the street. This group of cars can slow you down if you're doing this level in the Tank. I prefer to just stay on foot because the Tank is an easy target.
The rest of Streets consists of large blocks of buildings interspersed with barricades. These barricades always have three guards and it is random chance whether the three will be armed with KF7 Soviets or Rocket Launchers. Be ready to strafe so you can dodge those rockets!
If you turn right from the last screenshot you're confronted with another roadblock. I usually take the left path because it is shorter.
Just for the heck of it let's take the longer right path. There's yet another roadblock with three KF7 wielding guards. You'll also come across lone guards with Grenade Launchers as you make your way through the level. Their range isn't that great so just keep your distance and you should be fine.
When you're halfway around the first large block you'll come to this T-junction. The yellow and black hazard stripes on the corner indicate the way forward.
At the end of the long street there's a minefield with blue anti-tank mines. These only detonate if you run over them with the Tank. If you're on foot you don't have to worry about them. If you're in the tank just shoot them to get them out of your way.
I go left at the next T-junction because the left route is a little shorter. There's not a lot to say about Streets in this area. It just repeats the same buildings and roadblocks.
The next T-junction has those yellow and black hazard stripes at the corner again. These let you know you're still on the right path. Just go down this street and you'll reach the end of the level.
Run over to that gap in the wall and you complete Objective B and the level. I'd love to say more about Streets but there just isn't that much to talk about. The developers did have bigger plans for this level, but time and technical constraints meant those were never realized.
If you've played Streets you've probably noticed that the level's end is just a void. That's unusual for a game that generally does a pretty good job of building realistic worlds.
Developer Duncan Botwood said there was supposed to be a gate there with a big star on it. That model actually appears to be on the ROM. It looks like the gate you see at the start of Depot. But, according to him, "I think we were all waiting for the asset and I might have put it in and then not saved it." (Source: GoldenEye 007 by Alyse Knorr, p. 42-43)
Unused model on the GoldenEye ROM. Model name: Pdepot_gate_entryZ. Even though "depot" is in the model name, I still suspect this is the gate that was meant to go at the end of Streets. It would make sense given that Streets and Depot are consecutive levels. Depot doesn't actually use this model. The entry gate in that level is background geometry.
The gate is present in the XBLA version, though it is not quite the same as the N64 model. The XBLA model looks darker and the star is situated a bit higher.