Reviewed: July 1, 2001
Reviewed by: Aaron Daigle

Publisher
Nintendo

Developer
Rare

Released: May 22, 2000
Genre: Action
Players: 4
ESRB: Mature

10
9
9
10
9.5

Supported Features:

Replacing Bond, in a near future setting, is Dark, Joanna Dark, code name: Perfect Dark, a 23 year old agent working for the Carrington Institute. The game starts off as what seems to be a simple mission to rescue a scientist before he’s killed, but before long Joanna is going toe-to-toe with traitors, clones, and aliens in an effort to save the galaxy; yes that’s right, the galaxy is saved by someone named Joanna.

Perfect Dark is definitely a cut above GoldenEye in nearly every way and for good reason, as it basically requires you to have the Expansion Pak for your M64 system. The inclusion of in game speech is a welcome addition, as is the new multi-purpose weapon system. Looking at the game, you can tell it was designed by the same group responsible for Bond, though the whole thing looks much smoother.

When you start the game, you have the option to explore the Carrington Institute. There you can explore the hangars, shoot the breeze with your boss, Daniel Carrington, head down to the firing range, or get in some hand-to-hand practice among other activities. When you're ready you can start your mission. The level setup is just like GoldenEye’s, there are better than 20 mission-based levels, the objectives of which range from search and destroy, to save the hostages, to sneak and steal ala Metal Gear. As you adjust the difficulty setting, the number and complexity of each mission’s objectives increases. For most people the Agent setting will be too simple, this is compensated for by the challenging Special Agent setting and the downright nightmarish Perfect Agent setting.

The other thing that changes between difficulty settings is the enemy AI. Even in easy mode the enemies make the GoldenEye goons look like Special Ed dropouts. In Perfect Dark they won’t just blaze away at you, but use squad tactics to advance and cut you down. As the difficulty setting rises so does the enemies’ durability, speed, and tactics, and in the later levels, they use their weapons just as well, if not better than you do. Charge into a room full of enemies, pistols akimbo and blazing and you’ll likely be looking at the red screen of death momentarily.

Speaking of weapons, Perfect Dark features more than 30 and each one has a secondary function that can be accessed by holding the B button for a few seconds. For instance, the rocket launcher has both dumb-fire and lock-on fire modes, the K7 assault rifle has a threat sensor to locate gun turrets, mines, and bombs. Even your fists have a secondary function, allowing you to disarm your opponent (keep in mind however that, on at least one level, the enemy agents have a back up weapon).

The coolest and most useful weapon has got to be the laptop gun (yes, a laptop gun), which in secondary mode becomes an auto-firing, wall-mounted gun turret, mowing down baddies with lethal precision. In the later levels of the game, mastering the secondary functions of your weapons is imperative for success. In addition to the weapons in your inventory you also carry an array of gadgets to do Q himself proud, including remote cameras, hacker up-links and X-ray glasses.

The cinematic cut scenes are all rendered with the game engine and look great. Facial animation would have been great, but the lack thereof really doesn’t take anything way from the experience. One complaint though; the frame rate can bog down at times, but it stays playable and rebounds quickly.

There are lots of ambient noises, like fans, leaking pipes and distant sirens, and like the rest, it all sounds great. The music is in a similar vein to GoldenEye’s electronic spy tunes but naturally sounds better. If you don’t have a surround system for your TV, Perfect Dark is ample reason to invest in one.

I would be amiss if I didn’t mention the game's multiplayer mode, without exaggerating, the options have options! Needless to say this results in A) one of the most flexible multiplayer console games out there and B) endless replay value. As I said before, after you beat the single player missions, what will keep you coming back will be Perfect Dark’s multiplayer modes which are played via split-screen. These range from Capture the Case and Deathmatch to King of the Hill.

Within these game types you can choose human opponents or "simulants". One surprise is that the simulants can put some of your buddies to shame in terms of skills and tactics. Playing against a "PerfectSim" can be downright spooky. After you pick opponents and teams you can choose the arena, weapons, and time limit.

Many of the items and gadgets really come into play in multiplayer, like the Cloaking device. You haven’t lived ‘til you have a "CloakSim" materialize in front of you and flash flame you with a rocket. The same gripe I had before and is worth mentioning here is that sometimes when things get busy on screen, the frame rate will bog down. It's not quite as bad as GoldenEye and it never gets unplayable, but it’s still there.

Aside from standard FPS multiplayer features, Perfect Dark also has Cooperative and counter-operative options. Co-op allows you and a friend or a simulant to play through the game’s missions in tandem. Having trouble with a mission? Have a friend come over and give you a hand. Counter-op is just the opposite. Your buddy can control the enemies as you try to use Joanna to complete the mission. As long as there are enemies left, the enemy player will continue to respawn into their bodies.

Joanna Dark has shown her self to be a worthy successor to 007. Perfect Dark contains all the flavor of GoldenEye and then some. It is without a doubt the best FPS available for the Nintendo 64 and easily a front-runner on the console scene over all.