"If you've as much as played Goldeneye, do NOT miss this game."

Jeez, this game is good. Having been a fan of Goldeneye since, well, since it was released, I was really eager to get this semi-sequel; although I do admit I was afraid Goldeneye's charm and feel that made it a classic might not exist in the right form, or even at all, in Perfect Dark. Oh, but worry not. Not only is Goldeneye's classic charm and feel back and upgraded, but a whole new feel, as well as tons of new features, are there as well. Let's begin....

Graphics: Very, very nice. The sprites are similar to Goldeneye's, but seem more crisp, more colorful. IMO, though, the best part of the graphics is the scenery...simply amazing. Ranging from a Seattle skyscraper in the night, to the mountain-based Alaskan Air Base, to an ancient alien planet... graphics here are simply fabulous.

Sound: Well, there are three aspects of sound here: voices, guns, and music. All three are done very nicely. In Goldeneye, there was no voice acting; in Perfect Dark, every quote is voice-acted, and done so nearly perfectly. This leads to some awesome sounding quotes; I'll let you be the judge of the best of them once you've played the game. ^_^ As for the gunshot sounds, they sound a lot more realistic than in Goldeneye. A lot of the guns just sound too cool. Even more realistic sounding are the explosions. Once again, a near-perfect job... and as for the music, I've actually heard some negative opinions about the soundtrack, but I have absolutely no complaints about it. The music for both levels and multiplayer games always fit the mood, whether you're working on a stealthy covert operation or running through a stage, fighting for your life while guards are trailing you. Perfect Dark's soundtrack has, naturally, found itself a nice place in my MP3 collection. :)

Story: Since I'm mostly an RPG player, storyline always plays an important role in my overall opinions of games. In games like Perfect Dark, which serve as my RPG-break, I don't play it expecting a good story. However, Perfect Dark does indeed have one heck of a story. It's the year 2023, and the Carrington Institute, which trains secret agents like main character Joanna Dark, has just received a rescue call from a ''Dr. Caroll,'' who needs to get out of the dataDyne HQ building before they do... something bad to him. Eh, you need to beat the second stage to understand. But anyway. Daniel Carrington, founder of the Institute, sends his star agent, Joanna Dark (whose training scores are so high that she earned the nickname ''Perfect Dark''), to rescue the good doctor. When she suceeds in doing so, he is brought to meet with Daniel Carrington... and here begins a giant conspiracy involving dataDyne, the National Security Agency (NSA), and two warring races of aliens.

Characters in this game are really cool, too - star agent Joanna Dark, former star agent Jonathan, Dr. Caroll, the dark and spooky Mr. Blonde, the intelligent, African-American President of the U.S., and so on... Anyway, to wrap things up, the story of this game is very well done, and something I would love to see a sequel or continuation for.

Gameplay: Ah, the most important - as well as best - aspect of this game. Goldeneye featured some great gameplay: not only can you play through the single-player missions on three difficulty levels, working to unlock cheats by beating them on incredibly tough times, but you could also play against up to three friends in the Multiplayer arenas, using a vast selection of guns, levels, and settings. You can do all that in Perfect Dark, but there about a million new features, too. The single-player missions are still there and still very tough, as are the time cheats, but two new modes have been added based on single-player mode. Have a friend join you and you can play Co-op, where you both work together to beat a mission. Or, even better, face off in Counter-op. One person will play Joanna Dark, the other will play as one of the many guards throughout the stage. Joanna must accomplish all of the level's requirements, while the guard must kill Joanna. If the guard dies - which is likely, because he always starts with less energy - then the second player will re-spawn as another guard throughout the stage, and try again to kill Joanna. Both modes lead to loads of fun...

...but not nearly as much fun as the multiplayer mode could ever be. You can still have four players facing off, but there's also a new feature - the simulant. The simulant, strictly computer controlled, can be set to one of six difficult modes (Meat, Easy, Normal, Hard, Perfect, and Dark), or to one of many, many special modes. In Kaze mode, for example, the sim will do anything to stop you, even if it means going on a kamikaze mission. The Turtle sim is slow but powerful, while the Cheetah sim is extremely fast. As much as eight sims can be in one game, which allows for a heck of a lot of customizing. You can also have any weapons you want in a multiplayer game, and even better is the whole new batch of amazing levels. And three of Goldeneye's classics - the Complex, the Temple, and the Facility - are back, too. There are also other modes besides combat, too. You can choose one mode of multiplayer play in which one player has to locate a briefcase and hold onto for as long as possible. In another mode, a player has to run to a designated area and hold it for twenty seconds, without being killed. There are countless other modes that take multiplayer customization to a whole new level.

Two final additions that need to be mentioned are the Challenges and the Carringon Institute. When playing the Challenges, the player has to beat simulants in a certain, pre-customized mode. The challenges range from cake, to tough, to practically impossible. By beating the challenges, the player can unlock more and more features for use in multiplayer mode. And finally, there's the Carrington Institute. Here, you can go through various modes of training... while fun, they can all be done quickly and have no rewards, with the exception of the firing range. By winning gold medals at the firing range, you can unlock all of the guns from Goldeneye for use as cheats in single-player mode. Well, not all, but the best are back: the PP7, DD44 Dostovei, Klobb (well, that one sucks), KF7 Soviet, ZMG (9mm), D5K Deutsche, AR33 Assault Rifle, and RCP-90. Yep, all the good stuff's back... except for the Phantom! Where's my Phantom?!

Oh, and speaking of guns, since they're (obviously) a major aspect of Perfect Dark, they should be touched upon too. Perfect Dark has some of the coolest guns around. Most worthy of mention are the Laptop Gun, which can also be used as a drone gun to wipe out guards quickly; the RCP-120, which can also be used for some temporary cloaking; the Slayer, a rocket launcher which includes a camera that lets you see from the rocket's point of view and actually guide it around; and the Farsight XR-20, which can shoot and see through walls. Perfect Dark's arsenal is one of the coolest around, but the automatics and rifles tend to get very inaccurate...oh well.

And the final aspect of gameplay, the challenge. All I think I really have to say is that, in comparison to Perfect Dark, Goldeneye is cake. This is one of the toughest games around, and its challenge will lead to some very good replay value.

Final Word: 10/10. Unless you really hate first-person shooters, or don't have an N64, get this game. Now. You will be very, very happy you got it... only problem is that you have to shell out an additional $20-30 for the expansion pack, 'cuz without it, you can barely do anything. Sneaky Nintendo. :P

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 07/13/00, Updated 07/13/00