Fans of the original will enjoy the remake of this Rare gem.
Let me say now that I have a harder time recommending this game to anyone who did not play the original. From a completely objective standpoint, it doesn't even hold a candle to today's offerings, and I'll go in depth why later on. But that's not why this was released on XBLA. This game was revamped for its loyal fans, those of us who enjoyed taking on 8 DarkSims at once or wracking our brains trying to get the Psychosis Gun cheat. It was revamped so that we can enjoy the game with updated graphics and a playable framerate. If none of this makes sense to you, you might not enjoy this title, but it's worth playing the trial version to see how you like it.
In the campaign, you play as the British operative Joanna Dark. Under the Carrington Institute, you travel to various locales in order to uncover and eventually thwart a sinister plot that poses a threat to humanity and a friendly alien race. Early Rare FPS mission design entails completing the given objectives one by one and then make your way to the exit. Unlike shooters today, each mission has you wandering around a given area with limited guidance, and scripted events are limited to cutscenes and voice messages. The briefings try to give background on each of the objectives but don't explain exactly where to go or what to do most of the time. If you're like me and have played this in the past, it shouldn't take long to refresh your memory, but if this is your first time, you can find walkthroughs online to help guide your path.
Each mission can be played on one of three difficulties, with the harder ones adding more objectives and obstacles and increasing enemy accuracy and damage. The easiest difficulty is a breeze thanks to very liberal auto-aim and stupid soldiers; in most cases you can run past enemies and remain unscathed. The hardest difficulty is more humbling, but the primitive AI is very predictable and helps to lighten the burden. Missions on certain difficulties have a target time to beat to unlock cheats that can be used in the campaign or the combat simulator. These cheats range from trivial ("monkey" mode) to infinitely useful (all guns unlocked) to downright silly (hurricane fists). While some cheats you can get just playing through the game casually, others require serious skill, knowledge of the level layouts, and in some cases luck. On top of that, the times for each mission are posted to an online leaderboard that shows how you stack up against other players.
The default control scheme closely imitates that of the original on the N64 controller, but if you're used to certain other FPS's, two other schemes "Spartan" and "Duty Calls" may be more suited. Although the controls are updated for the Xbox 360's dual analog sticks, the sensitivity still feels stiff and it can sometimes be daunting trying to get the auto-aim to lock on to someone. Holding the left trigger enables fine aim, but it is just as finicky as before, if not more. This is most noticeable when sniping, as you'll be fiddling with the right stick constantly just to get a bead on someone. It would've been nice to have to option to change the sensitivity. Switching to the weapons you want seems challenging at first, but holding RB pulls up a rotary menu to pick a weapon or tool with relative ease. You can also press Back to bring up the holographic menu to select these tools as well, which is ideal for speedruns since it pauses mission time. Unfortunately, control is the game's weakest link and is something you'll have to get used to.
Aside from playing through the campaign alone, you can also save the universe with company, be it a bot or a friend... or even a foe. Co-op mode allows you to tackle missions with a single friend via split-screen or Xbox Live. You can also have one or more simulant partners whose behavior you can control from the rotary menu. (Different partners are unlocked through cheats, and higher numbers of sims are unlocked by completing the co-op campaign on different difficulties.) On the other hand, Counter-op mode pits you against another player in which one of you tries to complete a mission and the other tries to stop him.
The combat simulator houses all of the multiplayer options available. Here you can frag other players over Live or kick it old school and play four-player split screen with your buds. Multiplayer modes range from standards like Deathmatch and King of the Hill to unique offerings like Hacker Central and Pop a Cap. There are a wide range of stages for combat and a huge array of weapons to choose from. Matches can be tailored however you wish, with options for time and/or score limits, teams (up to four), weapon loadouts, and simulants (four, up to eight unlocked). Your player's character is also fully customizable; you can choose any character or soldier from the campaign (minus Skedar), even that annoying little alien. Stats are also compiled as you play online or offline. If you and your friends are gluttons for punishment, you can try the combat sim challenges, which start out embarrassingly easy and ramp up in difficulty quickly to just downright unfair. You unlock extra simulants for multiplayer by completing these challenges.
Backing out of the game's main menu allows you to explore the Carrington Institute. Here, you can view different consoles that have information on various characters, gadgets, and guns throughout the game and the story itself. The combat training area is useful if you're just starting, and the target range allows you to participate in various weapons challenges. Completing these unlocks several familiar guns from the Golden ages of shooters.
As stated before, the graphics are updated from the original version to HD textures. Granted, lips still don't move when people talk, and humans are still physically unable to unclench their fists, but the improved textures and the smooth visuals are a welcome change from the blocky models and single-digit framerates of the N64 version (WITH the Expansion Pack, mind you). Sound, music, and voice are ported directly from the original. The sound effects vary greatly for the number of weapons and are still top-notch even today. Voice acting is less impressive, though it's still fun to make fun of Elvis's voice. The soundtrack is still pure gold, which for a Rare title I expect no less.
Perfect Dark XBLA is definitely a blast from the past if you remember the N64 smash hit fondly, but those that were not graced by its awesomeness back then may not enjoy it as much. Still for the staggering amount of content it has to offer, this 800-point package is certainly worth looking into. In my humble opinion, though, it is one of the best XBLA title released so far and a solid remake of a classic.