Goldeneye? Halo? I'm sorry, I only know Perfect Dark.
Overall Grade: A+
Perfect Dark was released in 2000 for the N64. At the time it was touted as "the spirital successor to Goldeneye". Perfect Dark had a lot to live up to. It had already been delayed several times, it was another game that had to live up to Rare's high pedigree and it also had to worthy enough to be called "Goldeneye's successor". When it was released, it was universally acclaimed. Despite this, it didn't sell nearly as well as Goldeneye did, mostly because the N64 was nearing the end of its life. Fast-forward ten years. Perfect Dark has been released on Xbox Live Arcade. Does it still hold up?
Story:
Perfect Dark's story is incredibly basic. You are Joanna Dark, a secret agent who works for the Carrington Institute. You are sent on a "search and rescue" mission for a man known as Dr. Caroll. Several plot events later, you wind up overhearing a meeting where the conspirators talk about kidnapping the president. Now, you must rescue him. Along the way, you encounter a government conspiracy involving aliens. It is at this point that the game reveals it's sci-fi nature. It's also at this point when the story loses its grip on reality. Afterwards, it's pretty much just a bunch of random events happening with little explanation. It's a poor story but for whatever reason, it manages to keep you engaged. If you stop and think about it, you'll hate it. There is nothing to it, it's incredibly shallow and fairly dull. There are very few redeeming qualities to it however there's nothing horrible about it. It never tries to be something it isn't. It's fairly generic "sci-fi" fare. As such, I feel I can give it a pass.
The characters are surprisingly competent for a Rare game too. I'll be honest, I hate Rare's character design a good half of the time, they're often either hideous or just downright annoying. Thankfully, Perfect Dark averts this for the most part. The main character, Joanna Dark, is a strong female character whose dry quips often provide some amount of comic relief to the often "tense" situations. Your assistant, Elvis the alien (I'm not kidding) is absolutely horrible however. He is everything about Rare's characters that I despise. He's hideous, he's annoying and he gets in the way. His character is one-dimensional and is more of a nuisance than anything else. The main villains are also very one-dimensional and not very threatening either. They aren't comical or anything but they certainly don't leave an impression on you. I would go so far to say the rest of the cast is pretty dull too. Every single character is pretty bland including Joanna. Now don't get me wrong, Joanna can be amusing at times and she's an incredibly competent and strong fighter but that doesn't stop her from being a flat character. Obviously, Rare didn't care too much about the characters in this game which may have been for the best. If you really want to see the characters develop, check out Perfect Dark Zero. That game offers a bit more characterization than this game.
Despite, the story being mindless and the characters being flat and dull, the writing is fairly well done. The jokes are amusing (barring Elvis and his "jokes"), the plot actually looks half-decent on paper and the characters actually appear to have some kind of emotion. It's odd and it may sound contradictory but it ends up being more of a paradox than anything else. It's definitely something that needs to be experienced in order to fully understand it.
I really feel quite bad for bashing the plot so much. It had potential what with the strong writers and all but it failed to live up to the potential. If they fleshed out the characters a bit more and maybe made Elvis a little less annoying, I would have liked it more. As it stands, it's very run of the mill. "What you see is what you get" perfectly describes Perfect Dark's plot and maybe that's not a bad thing.
Graphics:
Perfect Dark was one of the best looking games on the N64. It was so good in fact, it required an expansion pack to fully show off its graphical prowess. However, it still suffered from a lot of flaws. The characters were fairly polygonal as the N64 was only so powerful, there was a ton of draw-in and it was often very, very dark. Thankfully, the Xbox Live re-release fixes all of these problems and the game benefits greatly from it. Gone are the blocky character models, instead being replaced by well, non-blocky character models. They are a huge step up from the old characters. The draw-in is also gone and it allows you to fully appreciate how much work Rare put in to Perfect Dark. The small little quirks that populate Rare games were always there in Perfect Dark but they were often covered up by fog or darkness. This is no longer the case and as such you can see all the small details Rare put into the game. It's really quite astounding.
However, a flaw that was present in the N64 version still manages to find a way into the re-release. You see, during cut-scenes a character's will be talking but their mouth it won't be moving. This was mostly likely done to conserve space for the N64 version however I can't imagine such a problem being present on the 360. It's not a huge problem but it feels unnatural and somewhat unnerving. Another problem I have with the graphics is that some of the faces look airbrushed. Much like the mouths, it seems unnatural and kind of creepy. The original version used the faces of Rare employees among other people (such as Shigeru Miyamoto), obviously many of the faces could not be kept. Still, the least they could have done was make them look somewhat less creepy. Now, I'll admit that many of the faces found in N64 Perfect Dark looked unnatural but they looked like a cheap Photoshop more or less but they had a more genuine feel to them.
All in all, Perfect Dark is a really good looking game. The areas are incredibly well-detailed, the draw-in and darkness are pretty much removed for the most part and the character models look pretty good from afar. The fact that faces don't sync with the dialogue is a problem but it's nothing major especially when you consider how much work was put into the rest of the game.
Music:
I'm going to admit one thing right off the bat. The music in this game isn't exactly "noticeable" per say. It's often overshadowed by sound effects and voice clips. However, once you give the music a chance to play, you'll love it. It just fits perfectly, it's ranges from tense to somewhat dark and brooding depending on the mission and your current state within the mission. Rare soundtracks have always been great and Perfect Dark is no exception. I wouldn't call it the best "Rare" soundtrack but it's at least equal in quality to that of Goldeneye. The music is reminiscent of a spy movie at times and for whatever reason, the rest of the time it sounds like some kind of odd neo-Castlevania. It's a strange blend and it definitely pays off. The music may be too quiet for some but I enjoyed it all. The sound leveling was a bit poor though although there is an option to change it.
This game, unlike Goldeneye, is fully voice acted. The cut-scenes are fully voice-acted, the grunts shout phrases and insults and the other characters give you directions throughout the missions. The best thing about the voice acting? Well, it's actually pretty good for starters. Seriously, the worst thing I could possibly say about it is that a few voice actors either mumble their lines or over-act a little bit. However there's nothing wrong with them aside from that. A few of the lines can become repetitive and Elvis's voice is pretty grating but like I said before, there is almost nothing wrong with the voice acting. Now, it's not flawless by any means but it's not terrible either. It's well-done for a game made in 2000 but it's nothing compared to the almost movie-like games of today. My only real complaint is that the voice actors often try to hide their native accent with...less than spectacular results. It's nothing jarring but it's noticeable.
Perfect Dark's music is really quite good and definitely one of the most underrated Rare soundtracks, I'd check it out if you get the time. The voice acting is solid too and it still holds up today. Some of the performances are pretty hammy but I think it helps bring an otherwise, boring story to life.
Gameplay:
Perfect Dark was a game that was supposed to match Goldeneye in terms of quality. It was supposed to be the type of the game that had bigger guns, bigger maps and more customization than ever before. Not only did Perfect Dark succeed, it exceeded expectations. It offered an incredible amount of customization. There were tons of guns to pick from, a large amount of maps to pick from and even other gameplay modes (such as King of the Hill). It was a complete package, through and through. However, even with all these bells and whistles, how was the actual gameplay?
Perfect Dark came out in 2000 which was roughly a year before Halo made the two-weapon system popular. As a result, Perfect Dark uses the "Hammerspace Inventory" that is used in games such as Goldeneye and Duke Nukem. Now I prefer this Hammerspace inventory because it allows for a lot more weapon variety. However it does a flaw or two. Obviously, cycling through weapons is a pain in these games so Rare came up with an ingenious solution. Instead of pausing the game and putting a halt to action, Rare opted to put in a sub-menu that let you pick what weapon you wanted to bring out. The best thing is, it's quick and easy to use which allows you to pick the correct weapon in even the most tense of situations. Now, in the N64 version you would have to hold the A button to open up the menu. While, easy to accesses, it wasn't very practical. In the re-release, the command is mapped the Left "Bumper" button (think L1) and it is infinitely more comfortable to access. My only problem is that the control for the menu is a bit slippery and you can sometimes end up picking the wrong weapon. It doesn't happen that often either so it's more of a nitpick than anything else.
The game's controls are incredibly solid. The strafing instead of being mapped to the C buttons like on the N64 is instead done with the joystick. While this may be an awkward change to get used to for most 64 players, you'll probably realize that it's for the better as the joystick strafing is decidedly more comfortable. Firing your weapon is done with the Right Shoulder Button and ducking is done by clicking the joystick. Changing your weapon's function is also done by clicking the Right Bumper Button. The controls are all perfectly suited to the 360's controller. People who played the original might have a little trouble adjusting but aside from that, they're incredible.
Now rewind a bit, a few sentences back I mentioned that you can change your weapon's function. This is a key part of Perfect Dark and it's definitely one of my favorite additions to the first person shooter genre. Each weapon has two modes of function. The primary pistol can be used a bludgeoning tool, the shotgun can be set to two shots at once and so on. Each of the secondary functions are varying in terms of usefulness (for example, the aforementioned pistol has a nearly useless second function while the shotgun is made better by the two shots at once). This can add a bit of strategy to the game and it reveals a hidden layer of depth. It forces you to answer questions like "Do I want to conserve ammo and use the lesser of the two functions" and "Do I want to rip right through the enemy at the risk of losing all my ammo". They're fairly simple questions but you'd be surprised at how often you have to ask yourself such a thing. This little novelty that seems like more of a fun distraction actually ends up being essential if you want to get the most you can get out of Perfect Dark.
The weapons themselves are creative too. You have your standard pistol, shotgun, automatic weapons however you'll often stumble upon other more "unique weapons". These weapons include an automatic that has an odd (and fairly inaccurate) spread fire, an automatic whose secondary function acts as a land mine and my personal favorite, a sniper rifle that can go through walls. Now these may sound cheap and while some of them may blur a line between "cheap" and "fair", the game manages to create an odd balance, so it's never a one-sided fight.
The multiplayer maps are incredibly well set-up. They're large and while they may seem confusing at first, they're also very easy to figure out. You see, in addition to being large, they're also very simple. They have a very basic layout that manages to be fun without ever being annoying to navigate. Your hardly ever left alone especially if you have "simulants" on. It's almost guaranteed that a fire-fight will be going on at some point which mean the action never comes to a complete stop. My only gripe with the maps is that they aren't suited for one-on-ones due to their large size. Granted, Rare obviously had deathmatches and the like on the mind when creating the multiplayer.
Speaking of the multiplayer, the amount of customization in it is incredible. You can customize almost everything including your appearance. You can change the available weapons, the score limit, handicaps and you're also able to pick from several different modes of play including Capture the Flag and "Pop A Cap". All of these modes are fairly different and almost all of them are fun in their own right. First we have your standard Deathmatch and then we stumble upon some other FPS staples such as King of the Hill and Capture the Flag. Later we have "Pop A Cap" which marks a certain player as "the victim". This person needs to be eliminated. If you kill them, you get a point. Then another player is marked "the victim" and so on. There is also another mode known as "Hacker Central" in which you hack into a computer. This is obviously more of a team based mode and it can be obnoxious at times. This is definitely my least favorite of all the multiplayer modes. It can be incredibly confusing at times and it's still irritating even when you are on a team since the "hacking" process takes forever to finish. It's easily the worst of all the modes but it can be a fun novelty if you're somehow bored of the other modes. Now I do have one gripe about the customization in this game and this complaint isn't present in the N64 version. For whatever reason, mixing female heads on men's bodies (and vice-versa) is no longer present in this version. Technically, you can still do it it with yourself but you can no longer do it for simulants. It's an incredibly minor gripe but doing some weird thing like that is part of what gave Perfect Dark its charm. It seems pointless to take it away. Like I said, it's an incredibly minor gripe and it certainly doesn't hurt the experience
There are also two other multiplayer modes. First; we have FPS staple, Co-operative and then we have a really cool novelty known as "Counter-Operative". Co-op is basically what you would expect and to be quite honest, it's really fun. There are few things more satisfying than running through a mission or two with a friend. It's well done and there is really nothing wrong with it. Counter-Operative is a whole different ball game though. In Counter Operative, Player 1 takes the role of Joanna Dark while Player 2 takes the side of the enemies blocking your path. This is theoretically a really cool idea and for the most part, it is but for some missions it just doesn't work. It's hard to describe but on some missions, counter operative is just boring. Nothing really happens. Player 2 can't be everywhere at once and as a result, it generally just plays out like a waiting game. You can commit suicide but there's no guarantee that you'll spawn in a better place. However, it is worth mentioning that when you stumble upon a fun map, counter operative does become really enjoyable.
Now, a paragraph or two ago, I mentioned something called "simulants". Simulants are basically computer controller opponents that you face in the multiplayer. Back when Perfect Dark came out, this was a huge selling point. After all, even if you nobody wanted to play Perfect Dark, you could still mess around with the simulants. It also made deathmatches more fun and drastically reduced the number of boring one on ones. Simulants were made to reinvent multiplayer but for some reason, they weren't the huge hit they had every right to be. Simulants are in fact, one of the greatest parts about Perfect Dark. They, much like everything else, can be customized to suit your tastes. You could customize their intelligence (easy, medium, hard, etc.), you could change their clothes and you could change their behavior. Sims have a large pile of behaviors you could pick from. There were sims such as "CowardSim" who ran away and others like "VengeSim" who would hunt down whoever killed you last. Every sim presented a different style of gameplay and they are incredibly interesting to experiment with. However, even with all these pros, there are still a couple of flaws. For one, many of the Sims can't use certain weapons and they rarely (if ever) switch over to a 2nd function. Another problem is that they cheat. Now the lower difficulty sims don't cheat that often by the higher difficulty sims are prone to teleporting and infinite ammo and stuff like that. They never becoming invincible but they still cheat. Overall, Sims are a great way to keep the multiplayer fresh and interesting...even with their flaws.
Perfect Dark 64 had a real problem with saving data. By that I mean that only 4 players could save their profiles which had everything from Kill/Death ratios to bullets fired. It was a neat little feature that a lot of people probably missed out on. The re-release sort of fixes this....if only a little. You see, if your friend can sign into their Xbox Live profile and use that profile as their in-game profile. Of course, their profile will most likely not be on your Xbox, so they'll have to use the "Retrieve Gamertag" which might be a bit inconvenient for some. It was still a nice thought and it is technically a remedy to an apparent problem.
Now, this whole time, I've been talking about the multiplayer. That's because the multiplayer is easily the best part of Perfect Dark. However, the single player is no slouch either. I'd go so far as to say it's better than Goldeneye's single-player. Perfect is composed of 16 regular story missions and 4 extra missions and all of them are varying degrees of enjoyable. Perfect Dark was touted as having an emphasis on stealth however this is only apparent in a couple of missions, most of the time you can just go in, guns blazing. The game also has a pretty balanced difficulty. The default mode, Agent, is fairly easy and most players should be able to conquer it. The following difficulties, Secret Agent and Perfect Agent are much harder. Perfect Agent especially. Secret Agent is manageable as the amount of damage you take is minimal and the enemy AI still isn't all that great. Perfect Agent however, ups the AI to 11 and the amount of damage you take is significantly increased. It, much like Secret Agent, is manageable but it certainly requires more strategy and time. So, yes, the Single Player is just as good as Goldeneye, if not better. My only gripe is that the mission objectives can be somewhat unclear at times, even when it's explained to you.
The overworld hub, the "Carrington Institute" is certainly impressive as well. It's set up like an office building, with elevators and computers and the like but some exploration will reveal training rooms. These "training rooms" include a firing range, a simulation room and a another unnamed room that covers the various gadgets you will encounter among your travels. Most of these rooms are fairly pointless and are just there so you can get a feel for the game mechanics. The firing range on the other hand is incredibly handy and it's actually used to unlock a bonus Single-player mission. However, the firing range is incredibly basic as it just consists of trying to get a certain number of points or destroy a certain number of targets. There are three ranks of doing so and it can become fairly challenging at times but it's never over-the-top difficult.
Overall, Perfect Dark is an incredibly well made game. The weapons are well-balanced, the simulants are creative and keep the multiplayer fresh. The maps are sprawling and fun to explore, in addition to being fun to fight in. The single-player is well done and it while it can be difficult at times, it's generally because you didn't plan ahead of time. Perfect Dark had so much care put into it, you can tell it was Rare's magnum opus.
Overall:
Perfect Dark is perhaps, Rare's best game. It improved on Goldeneye in every way. It's single player was better and it's multiplayer was miles ahead of its time (on consoles at least). The improved controls and graphics greatly improve upon the 64 version's shortcomings and the soundtrack is certainly underrated. It's plot is bare-bones and somewhat incoherent but that's forgivable. I mean, FPS games weren't really known for their stories until Halo came out. Perfect Dark has aged like a fine wine and I heavily suggest that all Rare and FPS fans pick up the Xbox Live re-release.