"Just a bit short of Perfect."

Perfect Dark. One of the most hyped and awaited games ever to hit the N64. It’s the sequel of sorts to Goldeneye, with the same illustrious company, Rare, behind it, and it promised to outshine its predecessor as the best FPS on the N64.

What advantages does Perfect Dark have over Goldeneye? Well, everything, almost. More guns, better graphics, bigger levels, better-looking, smarter enemies, and use of the N64 Expansion Pak.

Which is better? That question is hotly debatable. It all comes down to whether a pure gameplay experience (Goldeneye) is better than a slightly lesser gameplay experience with tons of extras thrown in (Perfect Dark). You be the judge. I assure you that PD warrants a good look at, as it’s a great, perhaps classic, game that has tons of replay value. In fact, the only people left disappointed will be the die-hard Goldeneye fans. And yet, while I am not disappointed with the game, I’m not overjoyed, either…

Gameplay: 9

Ouch. A 9 for Gameplay… I can see some of you tuning out already.

For the few of you still reading this, let me explain. Perfect Dark’s single player, while using the same engine, control, and general idea as Goldeneye’s, is not quite as, well, refined. Some of the guns are a bit too powerful, and some of the levels a bit too farfetched. If you like Sci-Fi you’ll have a ball, but if you don’t you may find the plot – which jumps from Government Departments like the NSA to alien spacecraft and alien planets – a bit hard to handle. But that’s not the important thing… the important thing is how fun it is to play the game.

After a bit of a disorientating start atop a skyscraper, the game seems similar in style to Goldeneye. The first few missions are a mix of covert infiltration and a little bit of assault. The enemies you’ll meet on the way (dataDyne troopers – no helmeted Russians, unfortunately) are similar in behaviour to those from Goldeneye with a few exceptions. For one, they have more moves: rolling, crouching, sidestepping, and grenade-throwing (only select enemies in the game throw grenades, but these guys are much more dangerous than those from GE) are retained from Goldeneye, but these PD enemies can also run/shout for help, take cover, kick, punch, and surrender. Luckily they can still be outwitted with crafty leaning a la Goldeneye.

My main beef with the gameplay comes a few hours into the game, when you get to the later missions. They’re not that hard, in Agent, but unfortunately the “style” shifts from covert infiltration/assault to full-scale assault. No spoilers here, but you’ll be fighting on plenty of alien ground (interpret “alien” however you like) and a few non-human enemies will pop up here and there. Once you meet these larger, meaner enemies you’ll have to pull out the big guns, which are reminiscent of Quake. For the most part, you’ll still have to use some discretion, but there’s just too much pointless blasting and killing in some parts. It’s probably just me, but in FPS shooters I’d rather be sneaking around in a Bunker watching out for patrolling (human) enemies and security cameras than playing “Who has the better gun, nerves, and aim” on some God-forsaken planet.

Graphics: 10

Very good. On Hi-Res, everything looks crisp and shiny. The textures are very well done and there are lots of textures: sand, grass, water, dirt, and sky all look very realistic. In some missions such as Area 51 (whoops, minor spoiler… well, it’s on the back of the box, anyway) or the Carrington Institute this is used to very good effect. The desolate, sandy expanse of Area 51 – complete with twilight, moonlit sky – looks very nice, as does the fruity, sunny paradise of the Carrington villa. Sometimes the textures can get a bit jarring – they’re occasionally overused on walls – but for the most part they enhance the gameplay.

The enemies are all well rendered and not blocky at all, unlike the Goldeneye enemies. The guns are also well rendered – they have hexagonal barrels now, not triangular – and the effects are very well done. You can shoot bullet holes in guns, or shoot them off the hands of enemies. Everything looks pretty realistic (given the alien nature of things). The discarded shells can be seen from the sides of a gun when firing, so the realism factor kicks in once again, but unfortunately the muzzle flashes in PD are opaque, unlike those in GE. That’s just a minor complaint, though.

The only real problem is the framerate, which occasionally stutters a bit. I don’t think the stutter on PD is any worse than that of GE (maybe just slightly worse), so it’s not a real big issue, especially since there’s no fog in PD. Given that the levels are so big and detailed you’d expect a tad of slowdown, and since it doesn’t really affect your playing much it’s not much of a problem. A mistake Rare made was including a very big, detailed first level. Apart from being confusing at first – the stairways and elevators all look similar and it’s very easy to become disoriented – the framerate is a bit halting since the skyscraper’s floors are immense. After you’ve played the level a few times you’ll get to like it, as it’s as close as PD comes to GE’s Facility level, but it doesn’t make a spectacular impression at first.

Sound: 10

The music is pretty good – very dark and moody. Like Goldeneye’s score, the music in PD is mostly comprised of orchestral and/or techno tunes. These tunes mostly stay in the background and don’t get repetitive. A few tunes are a little more prominent and give you a boost of adrenaline (for example, if you do something stupid and set off an alarm, or if you reach a critical part in a level, the music will speed up, signaling the change in intensity). The Carrington Institute theme is very good – not sad, and yet not happy – with a mix of orchestral and techno stuff. You’ll be listening to the theme a lot, so be thankful that it doesn’t get on your nerves.

The sound is also good. The gunshots sound pretty realistic – they tend to be more jarring than those in Goldeneye – as does the sound of a bullet coming close to you. You can hear everything from faraway enemy cries to the hum of machinery to the tinkle of spent shells hitting the ground.

The audio is also good. There is speech, which helps spice up in-game cutscenes and mission intros. The acting is also pretty good, and you’ll have a laugh at the gruff, Sean Connery voice of Daniel Carrington and the queer, reedy, nasal voice of Grimshaw, an annoying tech guy. Apart from cutscenes and mission intros there is also speech in the form of one-liners spoken to you by oft-disgruntled Carrington Institute employees (“Don’t you have a life”, etc.). Let’s not forget the “speech” made by guards, which was a big selling factor. Well, the “speech” is pretty amusing at first, but not really that good. It consists mainly of mild profanities, macho phrases (“Oh yeah”, “Bring it on”), cries for help or mercy, and death yells. These don’t get repetitive but they don’t really enhance the gameplay experience that much either.

Multiplayer: 9

Call me whatever you want, but I’ll take Goldeneye’s Multiplayer any day. PD’s multi does have more options – you can customize everything from players’ characters (bodies and heads are interchangeable…LOL) and names to their health to individual weapons and their placement. However, it’s not as fun. On the default setting, about two shots to the head will take out an opponent, so there won’t be many intense, circle-strafing shootouts like in Goldeneye. With good players fighting each other, it’ll be more of a duel: first one to pull the trigger two or three times wins; first one to falter loses.

The computer-controlled Simulants add a lot of replay value as you can play alone against sims, or you can team up with sims against other humans. These come in a variety of skill levels ranging from very easy to impossibly hard, and you can even choose sims with varying tendencies (i.e. PeaceSim only disarms people; FistSim only uses hand-held weapons like fists or knives; RocketSim likes things that go Boom, etc.). The Sims are also featured on the challenges. This is generally pretty fun, except the harder Sims like PerfectSim and DarkSim can kill you in a fraction of a second – literally. If you don’t keep an eye on the radar or if radar is turned off, you can get killed before you even have time to turn around and ascertain what direction the Sim is coming from! You might say I suck, but before you do, try it for yourself… DarkSim, no radar.

Anyway, the multiplayer is pretty fun but a little less intense than Goldeneye’s since fights are over very quickly. Still, the fun of customizing stuff and the fact that you can play with up to eleven opponents (three other humans and eight sims) makes this multiplayer pretty good. Apart from the fact that fights are over too quickly my only beef is that some of the textures can be a bit overdone, but that’s about it.

Wait, one last thing. If you play with three other humans and eight sims, you’ll get a good deal of slowdown, so use your discretion. Basically, if you’re playing with three friends, don’t put on more than a few sims.

Replayability: 10

Of course, you have the standard Agent, Special Agent and Perfect Agent difficulty levels. The last two will test your gaming skills – especially Perfect Agent – so expect at least a month playing the solo missions before you beat the game (if you beat the game). After finishing the solo missions you can train your combat and weaponry skills in the Carrington Institute, or play the 30 Challenges in the Combat Simulator (the last few are extremely hard and involve Perfect/DarkSims). If you have a good friend, try beating the game in co-op. If you don’t have any friends (what’s wrong with you?) you can always open up simulants to help you in co-op. After that, you can always have fun in Multiplayer with friends and sims, so don’t worry, you’ll get your 60 bucks out of this game.

Story: 7

The plot is very twisty-and-turny and involves various government departments (including the NSA and the Executive branch) which are mere pawns in a huge, out-of-this-galaxy war between two feuding races. Of course, there are various twists and turns along the way.

Anyway, the first three-quarters of the game are good and well, somewhat believable. After that, when it gets to outer-space travel and wars between species, the plot gets a little hard to believe… anyway, don’t expect the best storyline.

In continuing with a tradition established by Goldeneye, there is no real ending scene and the final cutscene is quite pants. Hooray!

Presentation: 10

The box looks nice and draws you into the game. The manual is lacking in some – perhaps all – parts, but the in-game training is plenty enough. There’s a firing range, device lab, and a hand-to-hand combat Virtual Reality device. The in-game menus are also nice, with colorful, futuristic text and pictures. There are also good descriptions of weapons and gadgets. The inclusion of a training center (the Carrington Institute, if you haven’t figured it out yet) also adds to the presentation.

Overall: 9+

Sorry. If Rare had just made the plot a little better, or if they could’ve kept it a little more grounded, I would’ve given this game a 10. Alas, I thought the single player wasn’t as enjoyable as Goldeneye’s as it was a bit too blast-em-up style. Still, this is a great game and I recommend that everyone who likes FPS’s buy it – a rent will not do it justice.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/12/01, Updated 05/12/01