Perfect Dark

"Perfect."

Intro: There are few games that I've played that have impressed me and engrossed me as much as Perfect Dark has. Perfect Dark is an FPS developed by Rareware for the Nintendo 64. It tells the tale of sophisticated agent Joanna Dark. From start to finish, and everything in between, Perfect Dark is a game that will have you playing for a long time. Let's get on to the review.

Graphics(10/10): Perfect Dark has to have the best graphics on the N64. Honestly speaking, the game does look good (especially for its time). The style of the game, the graphical style, is one that is very mature; the game presents a future that you really take interest in. The environments are well done, from being able to see the city around the dataDyne tower, to seeing the Skedar homeworld while on the Attack Ship. The textures are fitting and proper, and certainly of good quality (for an N64). The animations are superb (seriously, they rival today's animations as today most animations consist of ragdolls). The design, the look of the guards and the look of the buildings, everything is done absolutely perfectly. And if that isn't enough, the game also features 16:9 support, cinema screen (where the top and bottom are black), and high resolution. Granted, the game already is pushing the N64 to its limits and with Hi-Rez, the framerate can become unplayable, but it sure looks damn good. The only flaw, really, is that framerate can slow down during intense action or during certain areas, but graphically speaking this game is top notch.

Sound(10/10): I'm going to break this down into two sections: game sound and game soundtrack.

Game sound - the game's sound is superb. Voiceovers are fitting and fit perfectly for their respective characters, from the sinister yet intelligent voice of Mr. Blonde, to Jo's sophisticated accent. Throughout gameplay, there will be environmental sounds and they are all top notch. Furthermore, each of the weapons has a sound that's unique yet still in place, and generally speaking the sounds, the sound effects, and the audio quality is superb.

Soundtrack - Absolutely brilliant. I wouldn't say the best game soundtrack I've ever heard, but certainly up there. The game delivers mostly futuristic techno themes that still convey emotion, action, and hey, they're catchy. Each level has its own piece, and the pieces fit perfectly with the style of the level (for instance, in Investigation and G5, the music is slow and suspicious). The game's soundtrack is honestly stellar.


Story(9/10): I'll be honest with you, I really love this game's story. And the game's atmosphere and setting. Without revealing anything, you play as Joanna Dark, an agent for the Carrington Institute, and your job is to investigate the dataDyne corporation and uncover their sinister plot. The story will take you to top secret military bases, to space, and all before dinner. However it is by no means "all over the place", the storytelling is fluid and everything makes sense. If you're a sci-fi fan, you're in for a real treat. The only reason I did not give this aspect a perfect ten is simply because there are a few gaps that could be filled.


Gameplay(10/10): Here we are, the meat of the review. Perfect Dark is the best game I have ever played. And it's due to a variety of factors, one of them being variety itself. The game has great diversity in everything, from maps, to weapons, to game modes, to options.....it's in there. This game delivers so many innovative features, and presented so well, it's a wonder why games of today still haven't caught on. First, the game mechanics themselves are perfect. The way the game works, the health, the movement speed, the very design of how the game plays. I feel that they really found exactly what the game needed in this aspect. It plays well.


Now let's get into it. The game features a campaign mode that you can play in three ways: you can play it solo, co-operatively, or counter-operatively (the mode, counter-ops, is one in which one player plays Joanna and the other plays an enemy and attempts to defeat Joanna. Very refreshing albeit split screen hurts what it could've been. Still fun, and certainly creative). There are three difficulty settings: Agent, Special Agent, and Perfect Agent. The easiest, agent, will feature less objectives and less challenging enemies (and even at times, certain areas/occurences are different). As you play on the higher difficulties, you will get more objectives and sometimes do different things, and the game will become quite challenging. This will keep you coming back for more as you play; and your effort will be rewarded. There are cheats you can unlock (either for completing a mission or doing it in under a certain time) and they add replayability to the game, as well as being accomplishment in and of themselves for some of the more difficult ones. There are also unlockable extra missions.

Co-operative play is wonderful and great fun, especially if you play with a friend. This game's co-op is one of the most enjoyable I have ever played. A great game for friends.

As a bonus, you get to go around the Institute itself if not in a mission; there are a few training simulations you can do as well as the firing range, and it's interesting and pretty sweet that you get to do this.

Overall, the campaign is a blast, but the combat simulater (multiplayer) is where you will be spending most of your time. As a multiplayer game, I have never played a game better than this. Seriously. It's that good.

There's 30 challenges which you can complete, and these are preset games that get harder as you go, and as you complete them you unlock content for the combat sim.

First, let's start with variety and options; there are so many! You get one-hit kills, you get slow-mo and fast movement, you get to turn on/off various elements, you get to customize your character's head AND body and there are so many choices for both. Not only that, but you get to add simulants (bots) and you get 6 different difficulties as well as special personality simulants, and they are really well done simulants at that. And you get to customize teams, team names, number of teams...seriously, you get to customize alot.

There is a significant number of maps in this game, and each and every one of them is unique and great fun; in addition, three Goldeneye maps make a return (Temple, Facility, and Complex).

You get to customize exactly what weapons are in a match this time. Big improvement over Goldeneye; and there's no shortage of weapons to choose from.

There are 6 game modes, providing for much replayability as you try them out and play your favorite combinations, with friends or with simulants (or both). The supports up to twelve in a match, 4 players and 8 simulants and anything less.

Honestly, the game is just fun. It's just fun. It delivers so much choice, it does everything so perfectly....and the combat sim is no exception; it's just plain fun.


Conclusion: Perfect Dark was, and continues to be, a phenomenal shooter that has no shortage on fun. It honestly is the best game I have ever played, and is a game that every person has to play. It's truly an experience.

Overall score 10/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 06/09/09

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