Question 1

Is GoldenEye: Source really free?

Accepted Answer

Yes. It's a non-commercial fan project — nothing is sold, nothing needs a license, and you don't need to own the original GoldenEye 007 cartridge or any other game. Steam and the free Source SDK Base 2007 are the only requirements.

Question 2

Do I need to own GoldenEye 007 or Half-Life 2?

Accepted Answer

No. Every level, weapon and model was redrawn from scratch by the mod team rather than extracted from the N64 game, and it runs on the free Source SDK Base 2007, not on Half-Life 2 itself.

Question 3

How many players can play at once?

Accepted Answer

Up to 16 on a public dedicated server. The team's own numbers put at least 20 public servers online at any given time, with community lobbies filling up most evenings.

Question 4

Does it support controllers or gamepads?

Accepted Answer

Not that the team documents. It's a mouse-and-keyboard Source engine shooter — this isn't the couch co-op experience GoldenEye had on N64.

Question 5

Can I play offline against bots?

Accepted Answer

Yes, but the developers call bot support an experimental feature rather than a finished one — a known engine bug can let bots fill a server and block real players from joining even after they're removed, so they don't recommend it for populated servers.

Question 6

Does it run on Linux or macOS?

Accepted Answer

Only unofficially on Linux, through Proton 10.0 — voice chat and the server message of the day don't work there. There's no macOS build at all; this is a Windows-first Source engine mod.