Perfect Dark

"Still the greatest console shooter ever made."

Ever after all these years Perfect Dark 64 is still one of the best shooters I have ever played. Released in 2000 by Rare, PD was reviewed glowingly by all and sundry with good reason.

In PD you play as Joanna Dark a fairly new agent at the Carrington Institute, a base of operations for a secret service type agent network. Joanna dark goes by the callsign “Perfect dark “ because her training results at the CI were so high a new training level had to be created to mark them.

At the same time the evil, war worshiping skedar, an alien race, are searching earth for a dangerous alien artifact and the Datadyne corporation, a huge syndicate are planning for world domination. The Datadyne are allied with the skedar, but are unaware of their true purpose. There are also the mians passively watching mankind. Soon your espionage type missions turn into something far more inportant.

The graphics are astonishing for the N64. Animation is brilliantly smooth and natural, models are extremely detailed. Death animations are also disturbingly fluid and natural. Say you shoot a guard in the neck. He will clutch his neck trying to scream but just making gasping sounds, collapse to his knees, and sway there for a second before crashing to the ground. Killing them is just so satisfying… The guards also move realistically rolling and side stepping Environments are widely varied with such diverse locations as a company HQ a alien ship, a arctic island and a alien planet Aliens are classically styled, the maians having the big head and gray color of comic book aliens. The other kind you'll see for yourself.

Sound is absolutely top notch for the cartridge-based n64. Gunfire is crisp and clear with each gun sounding very different, so with time you'll know exactly what an enemy is armed with in multiplayer or single player before you even see them. Ambient sound is great as well with distant sirens, Jo splashing through puddles and computers beeping and humming. Guards also talk now unlike Goldeneye 64, When you are seen by a guard they may yell things like there she is, Target sighted and TAKE HER DOWN MEN!! When shot they may say “You *****!” or “She got me!!” You'll even get guards running up to dead ones, kneeling down and saying “Oh no he's dead!” or “Ah I never liked him anyway...”. All this voice acting is generally good and adds a huge amount of personality and fun to the game.

Music is another high point with tracks from fast dramatic tunes to slow suspenseful rifts. They all have a quiet techno feel, and suit the techy levels of Perfect Dark perfectly.

PDs gameplay at first may remind you of Goldeneye 64 but it goes so much deeper than that. First up is the far improved AI. Guards won't just run around a corner and get picked off as in GE. They will sit and wait - with their guns trained on your hiding place - for you to poke your head out. They also work as a team with some attacking from behind, taking cover behind objects, throwing grenades when you are already fighting and not paying attention and generally just being much smarter. This realistic behavior extends to guards who have been shot in the leg will limp armshot guards cradling that arm, and seriously wounded guards or ones who have lost their weapons surrendering. Weapons can now be knocked or shot out of hands as well either with the new disarm close combat move or by shooting the weapon. Mission objectives are nice and varied as well with things like collecting items escorting somebody, downloading files from a PC or remaining undetected. There are also three skill levels like in Goldeneye, each adding more objectives and making the enemies much harder.

PD multiplayer is a gift that keeps on giving. There are just so many weapons, settings and widgets to mess with it just never gets old. The main change from golden eye is the inclusion of simulants (bots) these range from the incredibly easy Meatsim to the unbelievably hard Dark and Perfect sims. There are also stacks of quirky sims such as Vengesim who will chase down his last killer, Peacesim who tries to stop the fighting by disarming everyone and hoarding all the weapons and ammo, Fistsim who just punches and uses melee weapons, and about 20 others each with their own quirk. All these simulants can be tweaked in difficulty from meat to dark and will provide an insanely stiff challenge to the most seasoned Goldeneye veteran.

All up Perfect dark is a game that dwarfs every other shooter ever released. Forget red faction, forget quake just get this. Without a doubt one of the best N64 game ever. Lie cheat backstab, do whatever you must to get your hands on it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/02/08

Game Release: Perfect Dark (EU, 06/30/00)