"Finally, Bond can safely be retired. Make room for the best, Make room for PD."

There isn't a single gamer on god's green earth that hasn't heard of Perfect Dark. In development for over 3 years, this game is a follow-up to the best selling Goldeneye for the Nintendo64. While not a direct sequel, this gem features the same great features as it's predecessor, as well as an enhanced engine, multiplayer mode, and expansion pak compatibility.

-{GRAPHICS}- 8.5/10

First off, let's just say, that if you plan on purchasing Perfect Dark, make sure you have the N64 Expansion pak as well. You'll experience a wonderful high-rez mode, and improved frame-rate. Now, onto the graphics themselves.

The most obvious improvement that everyone will notice off the bat over Goldeneye is the great use of Dynamic Lighting. Lights are everywhere throughout the first, and following levels, that add to the futuristic feel of the game. Even better, shoot them, and the room gets darker. Attention to detail anyone? The character models have also been improved, with a higher polygon count, as well as additional animations. The metallic ''feel'' to most of the levels also adds to the futuristic setting that is Perfect Dark.

However, the graphics are not without minor flaws. The single player missions are smooth throughout the entire game, with the exception of the first level, especially if you're running in high rez. The multiplayer can be choppy if you try anything over 4 Humans + 3 bots. (Hint: Don't ever run multi-player in High Rez, you'll enjoy it much more in Low, trust me.). The Co-op and Counter-Op scenarios (Which I'll explain later on) can be choppy when 18 enemies appear, and may cause quite the amount of frustration, with a headache to boot. Don't worry though, these are the only things that hinder the game. Playing 4 Humans with 2 bots is smooth, fast and enjoyable. 1, or 2 humans is incredibly smooth, even with 8 bots :)


-{SOUND & MUSIC}- 10/10

Don't worry. As much as the minor framerate issues may have scared you, Perfect Dark more than makes up for it in the sound department. The firing of the weapons, reloading of clips, screaming of enemies, firing of large helicopters, explosions..er..ahem, well, you get the idea. Clear, crisp, perfect.

Next, is the music. Perfect Dark is set in the future, therefore, it should have a fitting musical score of techno-metal music; and it does. Each piece beautifully fits each level, and you'll be going crazy in multiplayer, thanks to the adrenaline-rushing tunes, and mellow ones for those long, sniper's heaven shoot-outs. There is also the wonderfully implemented feature of being able to choose which songs you want to be able to play throughout your deathmatches. Don't like a song? No problem, just ''un-check'' it, and you'll never hear it again. Also, there is a suped up ''X'' version of each song, which has a faster tempo, more bass, and additional instruments.

Great job Rare.

-{GAMEPLAY}- 19/20

Hehehe, is it even possible for someone to sum up Perfect Dark's gameplay? It might not be, but I'll give it my best shot. Perfect Dark is a FPS (First-Person Shooter). Throughout the years, the genre has evolved magnificently. From Wolfenstein 3D, to Doom, to Quake.

Folks, meet the next revolution.

You play the Role of Joanna Dark, a top-class secret agent who must protect the earth from an evil alien race. At your disposal is over 40 weapons, from the high-tech Phoenix, to the stealthy RCP-120, and all the way to the unbelievable Farsight. Each weapon has a secondary function, that you can access by holding down a certain button (depending on your control configuration). For example, the Dragon, in it's primary form, acts as a machine gun that anyone would love to mow down baddies with. However, it's secondary function let's you throw it own the ground, but it becomes a proximity mine. An unsuspecting enemy will try to pick it up, and Boom! See ya :) It's moment's like this that will keep you coming back for more.

The single player levels in Perfect Dark have been well crafted, and are for the most part, larger than the ones found in Goldeneye. On the same topic of single player, there are 20 mission for you to complete, on 3 different difficulty sections; Agent, Secret Agent, and Perfect Agent. Each level gets progressively harder, and when you reach Perfect, you'll be smashing your head on the way, it's that hard. Also, there are several objectives that you must complete in each level to complete it (compared to simply finding an exit, ala Doom). Each difficulty level adds a new objective, which will further test your skills. The levels flow smoothly from one to another, and are accompanied by beautiful real-time cutscenes, that feature great voice acting. The role of Joanna was done perfectly by the VA, as with the remaining cast. That's all that there is to Perfect Dark's gameplay, amazing.

Oh yeah! Multiplayer :)

Just kidding, don't worry, I plan to extensively cover the #1 one reason that people will buy this game.

Up to four players can join into what Rare likes to call the 'Combat Simulator'. What this is, is the multiplayer aspect of Perfect Dark. You choose the level (Well over 10), you choose the weapons (up to 6 of your choice), you choose the opponents. New to PD, is the features of Bots, or 'Simulants'. These are deathmatch players that are controlled by the computer, and can be given both a difficulty level (From Meat [easiest] to Dark [hardest]), and an AI setting. The AI settings are extremely fun to play with. You could make your sim act so that it only goes around collecting weapons, or that it uses the most powerful weapon available, regardless of whether it kills itself or not, and even have it choose one player at the beginning of the game, and hunt him/her down throughout the match. The possibilities are endless.
During the match, you can have up to 4 Humans and 8 Bots, and anything below that.

Once you've chosen the settings, press start, and the match begins. Basically, you go around trying to destroy everyone that you can find, but, if you're not into pure deathmatch, there are several other scenarios for you to choose from.
Hacker's Central, is a game where you must find the 'Data Uplink', and try to hack into the other teams computer, without being discovered/shot/killed. Capture the Briefcase is the same as Quake fan's CTF (Capture the Flag), where you must find the other team's briefcase, and return it to your base. Trust me, you'll never run out of choices.

After the kill/point count reaches it's limit (you choose the limit), the game ends, and statistics such as kills are shown. To sum it all up,

Perfect Dark's multiplayer mode defines fun.

However, there is one drawback, which keeps this section from receiving a perfect 20. The story...well, let's just say it' a lackluster rip-off of most x-files episodes. Don't let it bother you though, there are several twists, and the great cutscenes are fun to watch.

-{SECRETS/EXTRAS}- 10/10

Don't deny it. If you played Goldeneye, you spent countless hours trying to get the time activated cheats. We all did.

For those who are unaware of what I'm speaking about, the predecessor to PD required you to complete a certain level in a certain amount of time, on a certain difficulty level. The rewards were more than worth it though.

Rare certainly didn't forget this feature though, it's back, and better than ever. You still earn the cheats the same way, and many of the favorites are back (Cloaking Device, similar to GE's Invisibility, allows you to go through the levels unseen :), as well as many more.

In addition to the cheats, Perfect Dark features what it like's to call ''Challenges''. These are deathmatches against ''x'' amount of bots that, upon completion, open up new weapons, levels, bots, and scenarios for you to play with. The first 20 aren't too complex, and you might even just whip right through them. But once you get past that, you'll, once again, be smashing your poor head against the wall, floor, or any hard object you can find. They're hard, but at the same time, fun. Enjoy :)

-{Conclusion}-

Trust me, if you have a Nintendo 64, an expansion pack, and at least 2 controllers, buy this game. You won't be disappointed. You won't even remember how much you spent on it. You won't even remember to feed you cat.

FINAL SCORE: 10/10

This review was brought to you by Salpedro.
He dares you to copy, edit, or modify it for your own pleasure in any way.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 07/21/00, Updated 07/21/00