Perfect Dark

"What Is"

Introduction

Why is this game called Perfect Dark? If you follow the story line you will know that Perfect Dark is the title presented to the hero of the game Joanna Dark who is the best of the best field agents for the Carrington Institute. In a world run by corporations and on the eve of introducing the world to the fact that we are not alone in the universe two factions collide as one continues to seek and gain power and the other fights to protect the world as we know it from being overrun by an alien race just as bent on power as the corporation supporting them. Perfect Dark is a far step from the precedent that Goldeneye 007 created. In fact no other first person shooter game could owe its exist to what Goldeneye 007 set. And just when you thought you had a game that could not be outdone, then comes Rare's Perfect Dark. Perfect Dark manages to out perform Goldeneye 007 to the max. In every aspect you could imagine from everything in multiplayer to a narrated plot line with plenty of voice acting you get every penny you paid for with this game.

Story 10

Usually I really scutinize a story line. Especially story lines based on aliens. However Perfect Dark is not just about the aliens as it is with the future of the world as well as who is going to ultimately determine where it leads. I would almost laugh off what this game contains,. but the fact is the story line is not real far from the truth. Corporations have been able to remove the independent and the small time business as well begin to develop their own security and develop their own weapons. I doubt Wal-Mart would ever go that far, but you can imagine companies like BlackWater USA and other security firms and contractors have more than raised eyebrows. And Datadyne, the corporation Joanna Dark must infiltrate is a much uglier version of these firms as their main goal is to seize power in government and of course it is no help that the Skedar alien race has secretly infiltrated the entire corporation to help them in this course. The Skedar are a race of aliens that can shape shift and take human form, but their real look is much like that of the StarShip Troopers bugs. The Carrington Institute is also a security firm that was actually developed by Daniel Carrington as a firm to reach out to the Maian alien race. These guys are the guys you see performing experiments on you and zapping you up in a flying saucer. The aliens are not really introduced until you reach the Area 51 levels and with it comes a real shock value. Elvis is the Maian you must rescue and is your Institute ambassador so to speak. He is quite the comical character and becomes your ally during missions. This game takes Joanna through it all from infiltrating the Datadyne main office to rescuing the president to stopping the Skedar from taking over the world. Not bad for a day's work.

Gameplay 10

This may take a while to read because there is a lot to praise about here. The single player mode features a plethora of new weapons, cheats, interesting missions, and plenty of objectives. Perfect Dark is still a run and gun like Goldeneye 007 and a lot security guys are going to get shot up. This time however, they will tell you what is on their mind before they die though. These guys like to swear you off before they kill over, but just shooting isn't the only thing you can do to these guys. The weapon system allows a two way option you can change by holding B and a yellow option will describe what you can do. So if you are unarmed you can knock an enemy out and not kill him or her or it or you can steal the enemy's gun by disarming him or her or it. I say him or her or it because there are women and aliens to fight in this game. It is a bit more difficult to try to disarm a Skedar though. The single player campaign is very interesting and there is nothing repetitive about each mission or the objectives in each. Another feature about the game is that you can play it cooperatively or counter-operatively. A second player can either play with you or against you which is very neat. Also you can play a cooperative game by yourself with up to three computer allies. Most of these you have to unlock first however. The campaign will take you all over the place from alien spaceships to on board Airforce One. There are also a few bonus missions and a duel mission so you get more than what you could expect from such a game as this. There are not a lot of vehicles if any that you get to drive around on. Actually I can only think of one on the Area 51 mission but that may be about it. It definitely does not take away from the game that you don't have some short mission where you have to drive around and shoot stuff. It just goes to show how great this game is.

The Carrington Institute is accessible from the main menu as you find out that you have this free roaming place to get to explore without getting shot at. Here you will find all of the areas for your training needs from weapons to gadgets. You also get to walk around and say hello to all of your fellow co-workers. There is a simulation room to practice as well complete challenges on attacking enemies. You get a gadget room to use your spy camera and other equipment. There is also a firing range to test out some newly developed weapons like the machine gun that can use ammo to make you invisible. The Institute is fairly spread out and no matter where you are you can access the main menu to go to somewhere else. The Institute is also a place you will want to be familiar with for later on in the campaign when a certain incident occurs.

A quick description of some of the awesome weapons and gadgets in this game:
Far Sight: An alien weapon that acts as the ultimate sniper rifle. It will automatically zoom in on targets through walls and far distances and take them out with one shot. No other game could make a weapon this awesome.

Slayer: Skedar weapon with visual tracking. You can control the speed of the rocket as you guide right into an enemy. Beautiful.

Laptop Gun: A weapon that you can turn into a sentry turret. It will take out anybody and everybody that is not on your side until it runs out of ammo.

Spy Camera: A little gadget that floats around and can do all kinds of things from taking pictures to detonating as a small bomb.

Psychosis Gun: Turns your enemies into your best friend. Enough said.

Dragon: An assault rifle that can also pose as a mine.

And now for what makes this game totally awesome-the multiplayer experience. Everything you thought you could imagine improving Goldeneye 007 with would still not compare to what you get in the Perfect Dark Combat Simulator. Now you will have to unlock a lot of the things you get in the Combat Simulator like gametypes and characters. Not only can you play with up to three friends in the simulator but you also get up to seven computer opponents (or allies). You can set up all kinds of different games and even create your own custom character. Not only that but you can save your custom games and characters and keep a statistics page to see how many hours, kills, and damage you have spent on this thing. The sims have various personalities ranging from a difficulty range to more specific things like Peace Sims, Venge Sims, and Coward Sims. You can figure out what those sims can do. There are set weapon lists but you can also create your own with up to six choices. There are challenges to complete that allow to unlock other items and prestige as well as a quick match to get you into the game. You can choose different characters in the game and mismatch heads to bodies to create some pretty interesting opponents in the combat simulator. Of course you get all of the weapons from the campaign as well except for the Goldeneye 007 cheat guns. You can also create your own in-game soundtrack and pick which songs you want played during the match from the tracks played in the missions. Perfect Dark is still way ahead of its time in the multiplayer experience and is a game that doesn't require online play to still be enjoyable. A special glitch with the mines and other explosives can start a continuous chain reaction of explosions and you can get it to start where some opponents respawn. A glitch, but a rather useful and entertaining glitch once you get it started.

Graphics/Sound 9

Of course I am rating this game as it was and not as it is now. The graphics obviously suffer compared to today's standards. Back then they were the best of the best. The maps are very open-ended so there is a lot of distance involved and the farther away things are the less the visuals get. There are a lot of cinematic takes in between missions as well as within the missions. So you get a lot of videos to sit back and watch as the plot unfolds. There are several tracks on this game and each mission has its own music. The music is outstanding and if not techno with all of the psychedelic visuals at the beginning and end. There is a lot of voice acting and a lot of talking in the game. Unfortunately the characters do not have the ability to move their mouths so they will speak to each other using telekinesis, but you still get to hear what they have to say.

Replayability 10

Even eight years later this game is still fun to play. There is a lot of variety to this game and the open ended missions along with some cheats allow to you take on your enemies in a variety of ways. A lot of the missions are just fun to go back and replay and you also get some classic Goldeneye 007 levels on the multiplayer and multiplayer challenges along with the Carrington Institute challenges and completing missions on harder difficulties with the extra objectives to take. The weapons make replaying missions very fun and the combat simulator has so many options to it that you will spend a lot of time playing around with it. There is a lot of stuff to unlock such as the cheats, extra multiplayer items like gametypes, as well as different characters for the combat simulator and the cooperative game.

Final Recommendation 9.75/10

67,000+ kills and 440 combat simulator games later Perfect Dark is still the best offline multiplayer game as well as an awesome single player game. It is just as fun to play by yourself as with a couple of friends or relatives. Perfect Dark is all about being an original game featuring original weapons as well as plenty of odes to the predecessor Goldeneye 007. I still say Perfect Dark is a definite buy even eight years later. There is just way too much that this game offers compared to what you get from first person shooters that come out on later consoles today. Some games today rely heavily on their online multiplayer while setting the campaign completely on the shelf. Perfect Dark teaches a valuable lesson in that you don't even need an online capability to be an awesome FPS game. I think Perfect Dark is still a game way ahead of its time where other games have failed trying to rely solely on the online play (Shadowrun) or completely shelved the campaign to focus on multiplayer success (Halo 3). If you have never played Perfect Dark then you are missing out. It may not have the same awesomeness as when it first came out, but you still get an excellent game. No prequel or sequel compares to Perfect Dark as well. You will get nothing from Perfect Dark Zero that you get in this game. That in and of itself tells you how much of a great game Perfect Dark is.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 06/30/08

Game Release: Perfect Dark (US, 05/22/00)