(Originally published to Glitchwave on 5/26/2024)
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Perfect Dark
Developer: Rare
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre(s): First-Person Shooter
Platforms: N64
Release Date: May 22, 2000
Perfect Dark’s inherent maturity comes from the fact that it’s a first-person shooter title. Upon revealing this information about the game’s identity, hundreds of gamers are going to interject with Goldeneye 007 to dispute my claim that Perfect Dark was Rare’s first foray into enlightened territory. After all, who can possibly outclass the iconic, debonair British spy who always orders his vodka martinis shaken, not stirred, and is the unparalleled epitome of a ladies' man? Hell, some could argue that a James Bond video game adaptation being one of Rare’s properties negates the necessity for Perfect Dark to deviate from the company’s normal practices of pumping out kid-friendly material. However, Perfect Dark’s dignification transcends Goldeneye 007 in more than just its tone and content. Perfect Dark bends the gung-ho gameplay of the first-person shooter genre upward into an intelligency arch, towering over its fast-paced, electric peers by making its players think critically about the overall objective of an FPS game’s levels in a slower, methodical manner. Does this complex approach complement the genre’s general format, or does it prove to be a counterintuitive mistake that causes unnecessary dissonance? With Perfect Dark, either stance is entirely debatable.
On top of the way Perfect Dark conducts itself, the game is irrefutably a technical marvel beyond the boundaries of a standard N64 game. While Perfect Dark is staunchly associated with the now-retro period of the early 3D age alongside the rest of Rare’s notable N64 releases, I mean that it surpassed the others on a technical level in an impartial sense. Perfect Dark’s full scope was so ambitious that it literally could not be exhibited entirely on the primitive 3D console. Everything except the bare-bones multiplayer mode is inaccessible unless the player purchases an expansion pack that adds several gigabytes of RAM to the N64, and only then can the player experience Perfect Dark in its comprehensive glory. The auxiliary aid of the external apparatus renders a noirish, futuristic world akin to the unmistakable cyberpunk aesthetic of the science fiction classic Blade Runner. All Perfect Dark’s setting needs is the Atari logo spanning across the side of a skyscraper to really hone in on that state of a spellbinding, cybernetic world, but featuring another company’s insignia in a video game, not of that company’s creation might involve a serious lawsuit. Requisite, albeit still fantastical, setpieces like flying automobiles zoom through the city skyline illuminated by the artificial iridescence of urban lighting. A conversation of great urgency via telecommunications is heard in the backdrop of this scene, ending when a woman in a skin-tight uniform shimmies down from the chopper the camera has had a narrowed focus on throughout the cutscene onto the roof of one of the tallest buildings in this metropolitan area, signaling the time for action is nigh. Somewhere in Japan, Hideo Kojima’s ego is either bursting with pride that his auteur strides in gaming are being emulated, or he’s green with envy that another developer has managed to craft an opening with the same heightened cinematic scope that he believed was unparalleled. Either way, comparing Perfect Dark’s introduction sequence to that of Metal Gear Solid’s is a lofty compliment, and it should reel the player into the futuristic adventure they are about to embark on. With the enhancement to the system’s capabilities, Perfect Dark’s graphics and cinematic splendor exceed all that we thought was possible on the N64. However, I cannot say that Perfect Dark compares to MGS in the voice acting department, as it’s indicative of the subpar, directionless vocal delivery associated with the growing pains of 3D gaming. Every (human) character has either an American or British accent with the half-and-half consistency of a coin flip, and as much as I snicker at how infamous lines like “No! That wasn’t meant to happen!” are spoken, I don’t think I’m intended to find humor in them given the context. The game doesn’t exactly scream camp to me like Resident Evil.
The character descending from the chopper hovering from above is secret agent Joanna Dark, the game’s protagonist whose “Perfect Dark” alias is the namesake of the title. Some people have been campaigning recently to gender swap James Bond for both a fresh character perspective and to depict more shrewd, capable female protagonists in pieces of media for the sake of inclusivity. Little do they know, gaming was somehow light years ahead of the curve in this regard. It’s uncertain how Joanna prefers the concentration of her gin-oriented cocktails, but this young lady is certainly as adept in executing feats of classified government espionage as her male inspiration. Her sultry, feminine charms are also a plus that Agent 007 could never exude for obvious reasons. Joanna is the prime secret operative working for the Carrington Institute, a research facility whose goal is to halt the clandestine affairs of the military weapons corporation dataDyne. Because dataDyne knows that their recent business interactions are shady and illegal, they’ve armed themselves to the teeth with a battalion of alert guards prepared to strike down any snakes in the proverbial grass. The one-(wo)man-army of Joanna Dark is facing a legion of opposition defending their roost, so it's of the utmost importance for her to approach every corner and crevice of their facilities with caution and masterful coordination. If this sounds overwhelming to the player, the game offers them plenty of room for preparation. Exiting the menu from the laptop where the main missions are selected will transport the player to navigate through the Carrington Institute. Not only will simply traipsing around the clean and professional hallways of this high clearance institute allow the player to grasp the base controls but certain sections are dedicated to allowing Joanna to brush up on her fieldwork. An indoor firing range will display an array of targets to test Joanna’s reflexive shooting aim, and a room painted with a black and white grid will emulate various obstacles to maneuver around, materialized via VR technology. Sure, presenting ways to train one’s abilities to better ensure accuracy in dire situations isn’t something previous FPS games have neglected to provide. However, the freeform, interactive space of the Carrington Institute is a neat little touch of deeper interactivity that creates an immersive quality unfound by simply selecting these training options from a menu. The developers took note that neutral hub zones were a prevalent attribute to the 3D era’s evolution of level design, and flaunting the Carrington Institute is one of the N64’s most atypical examples.
While Joanna is capable of walking to any of the institute’s facilities, she’ll still have to be transported to any of the game’s main levels that further the story by selecting them from the menu on a laptop screen. Perfect Dark’s story is divided into chapters, and those chapters are often spliced up even further by the missions in fractions of two to three. If a chapter is fractured, the collective individual missions are usually confined by a particular arc or setting, such as the main dataDyne building as the focal point of the first chapter or the three-act mission arc of rescuing the American president in the fifth one. Joanna’s overarching assignment to end dataDyne’s scheming will take her to a myriad of eclectic locations. Outside of the sterile, Nakatomi Plaza hallways of the dataDyne headquarters and the underground laboratories where the corporation’s secrets are obscured from the public eye, this operation will also take Joanna on a tour of oceanside villas, inside the quarters of a submarine, and the private jet of the most enterprising executive officials in the world. Joanna even burgles into Area 51, which is as thrilling as one could imagine. The streets of cyber-age Chicago in the third chapter are especially awe-striking, with that neon-drenched urban glow that made the visuals of Ridley Scott’s magnum opus (and Akira while we’re on the subject) so captivating. Joanna is treated to a grand tour of level setpieces, but they all tend to adopt the same design despite their expansive topographical range. The earliest FPS titles were confined to a labyrinthian level construct, and Perfect Dark continues to trap the player in claustrophobic, monochromatic corridors as if it's devoted to some kind of genre tradition. Admittedly, the offices of a thirty-story building and the interior of a nautical station are appropriately serpentine. However, the dim ice caves of the snowy tundra where the Air Force One jet plummets is a clear indication that the game’s areas are constrained to this sort of construct. As a result of this cohesive design, traversing through Perfect Dark’s levels can be as frustratingly dizzying as attempting to escape a hedge maze while drunk as a skunk.
Lest we forget in discussing Perfect Dark’s levels is that it's still an FPS game, so anyone can logically assume that the vexing search for an exit will constantly be distracted by swathes of armed guards for Joanna to subdue. One could also draw conclusions from the spy implications that Joanna’s carrying a treasure trove of weapons and gadgets to use on the field as well. The Carrington Institute doesn’t supply Joanna with any drastically covert items like a stick of lip gloss that melts steel walls when pressed on surfaces, or bubblegum that disables security cameras when it is spat on the lens. Still, the revolving array of doodads the agency does grant Joanna are government-grade materials and are bound to draw a sense of curiosity from the player. Joanna’s primary weapon that seems most commonplace in her utility belt is a scoped pistol called “The Falcon,” and it can be supplemented by the slew of automatic firearms that the guards generously leave behind after Joanna has picked them off. The Dragon, Cyclone, and the K7 Avenger are as deadly and proficient as their badass names would suggest. They are also the weapons I recommend using during missions because their ammunition can be replenished plentifully due to enemies prevalently using them to strike Joanna down. If it sounds like the institute has overestimated Joanna’s abilities by only granting her access to a peashooter with minimal ammunition, fear not: their budget is exorbitant enough to supply their finest operative with some creative and esoteric gadgets financed by the cumulative tax dollars of the people. A crossbow may not seem unorthodox for something exclusive to secret agents, nor does it seem efficient for killing. However, it proves to be the only weapon in the game that ensures a quick dispatch for any target in Joanna’s sights. Sleep arrows are an alternate type of ammunition for delicate targets who must be sedated temporarily. The agency provides a laser that is comfortably placed on Joanna’s wrist like a watch, and a sniper rifle is evidently too essential a weapon to have Joanna scrounge on the field. The fetching weapon that outclasses all of its peers in Perfect Dark is definitely the Laptop Gun, a sub-machine gun that also functions as a detached, automated turret disguised as a seemingly innocuous laptop. Joanna is also equipped with plenty of non-deadly gadgets that are entirely situational to specific objectives such as night vision goggles and the voyeuristic CamSpy. No matter the size or firepower of a weapon, all of them are equipped with a secondary view that zeros in on a target from afar. While the utility of this feature seems like a no-brainer, the aiming controls when looking through the reticle are more slippery than a sea lion. Couldn’t the agency have provided Joanna with some Diazepam to calm her nervous tremors? Actually, it doesn’t matter how unwavering this supplementary sight is because aiming in the standard viewpoint is already course-corrected by the game. Because the FPS genre’s core gameplay mechanic is automatically assisted, the satisfaction that should’ve come with mowing down enemies with Joanna’s eclectic arsenal was ultimately unfulfilled.
Then I quickly realized that shooting combat is not the focal gameplay aspect of Perfect Dark as it is for the average FPS title. I’ve mentioned the word “objective” plenty throughout this review so far, but I have yet to emphasize how pertinent the mission objectives are in establishing Perfect Dark’s directional identity that discerns it from its more guerilla FPS peers. Before the introductory cinematic that sets the scene for a mission, the player is given a checklist of tasks that they must complete in order to succeed. Only during the first mission is Joanna’s trajectory a straightforward trek from point A to Zed, as these objectives will have her scatter across the map searching for solutions to where one of these objectives is located and how to approach it. The number of objectives needed to complete the level coincides with the three different difficulties, with the easiest “agent” requiring three objectives, the standard “special” with four, and the most daunting “perfect agent” presenting a whopping five of which to contend. Every objective found in the simplest difficulty is shuffled with the additional one or two, and the peremptory ones needed for the harder difficulties are still actively occurring even if the player doesn’t have to bother with them. As stressful as the prospect of adding more tasks to the workload might be for some players, maximizing the productivity in each area with the highest number of objectives is the best way to fully engage with an area to its fullest extent. Doing so will also inject more context into many of the scenarios that the easiest difficulty omits for the sake of mitigation. For example, the scene in which Elvis the alien miraculously wakes from his vegetative state in what is essentially a levitating coffin all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed on “agent” difficulty seems too conveniently instantaneous. One objective for the “special agent” difficulty sees Joanna resurrecting the intergalactic creature with a medkit after acting as his sole pallbearer and suddenly, all of my confusion and skepticism was assuaged. Still, regardless of whether or not the player wishes to leave each level without a trace of unfinished business, the objective model alone requires a concerted amount of brain power and patience from the player that no other FPS game has ever come close to factoring into their gameplay.
However, there is an underlying issue with the objective-latent pace of the missions, for it makes the game severely demanding. The missions in Perfect Dark are rather delicate, to say the least, and the margin of error for many of the level’s objectives can be as thin as dental floss. The simplest of mistakes can compromise Joanna’s efforts entirely, and she’ll be forced to abort the mission and have her Secret Service badge revoked indefinitely for her insubordination. I first had the impression that Perfect Dark was intentionally languid so the player could meticulously seek out objectives and carefully consider their options. Eventually, I learned that the game’s true intentions were to have the player fail intentionally unless they have honest-to-god Secret Service training and can deal with any of these situations accordingly. This way, every mistake will eventually ensure a flawless run that will lead the player to victory, but this should only be for those who are concerned with beating their timed scores. Sure, the specifics of the objectives are elucidated upon in the dossier, but there are still some stipulations that the game still keeps in the dark. I was not aware of the thirty-second timer that started before the suitcase carrying Joanna’s equipment was compromised by the mountain lodge’s security, nor was I aware that killing the stewardess’s bodyguards was a punishable faux pas that violated the agency’s code of ethics. When a mission is aborted due to the player’s supposed ineptitude, all progress is reverted right back to the beginning. Not to mention, they’ll still have to factor in the amount of damage Joanna receives, and her death will naturally signal a failed mission as well. The game may direct the player’s aim towards an enemy with more assistance than other FPS titles, but this still does not guarantee that they won’t have the sharpened reflexes to shoot Joanna before they are even sighted in her peripheral. Beyond the “agent” difficulty, allowing an enemy to graze Joanna will result in a hefty decrease in Joanna’s health. Joanna is cooked once the red health threshold fills completely (with blood, no doubt). Shields can be utilized as protective armor, and they seem to be more durable than Joanna’s suit. However, on the harder difficulties, the shields found in the locations of the “agent” difficulty have been erased from the equation completely. Does it seem fair that the player’s extra attention in searching for additional aid is all for naught? An agreeable solution to balancing the higher difficulty settings would be to diminish the shield at the same rate as Joanna’s health because she sure as hell is still going to need them to survive. As it is, Perfect Dark tends to put more on the player’s plate than what is manageable.
Maybe the rate of Perfect Dark’s difficulty is on a steep incline because the stakes of the story ratchet upwards to an incomprehensible, galactic crisis. Perfect Dark’s central conflict supersedes the ordeal between the Carrington Institute and dataDyne, as both are acting as the allying benefactors for two alien factions fighting in a war for interplanetary dominance. The Carrington Institute is siding with the greyer, meeker Maians who look like the sketch artist's depiction of every conspirator’s account of their experience of being abducted by aliens. On the feuding side, dataDyne is in league with the Skedar race of aliens, who are indescribably beastly monsters with the power of shape-shifting their appearances (to something less horrific). Negotiations with dataDyne’s austere head honcho, the reputable, sour-faced Cassandra de Vries, have led the Skedar to an artifact submerged in the abyss of the Pacific Ocean. The transactional reward for dataDyne’s efforts is to finance the corporation with enough assets to crush every one of their competitors, but their first inclination with the superweapon is to test its unspeakable potency on Earth before they use it to wipe the Maians from existence. No wonder the floating dataDyne AI John Carroll defected and joined Carrington’s cause. With the help of Maian’s representative Elvis, who is surprisingly far more charming than his archetypal alien design should allow, Joanna makes De Vries learn the error of her ways. She then takes the fight to the Skedar leader on their home planet, who has been posing as a human operative named Mr. Blonde. Besides the unconventional boss fight against the supreme Skedar lifeform, the ending is rather anticlimactic. Joanna and Elvis congratulating themselves on a job well done as they return to their respective environments isn't a conclusion with the sense of urgency that this epic ordeal should have warranted. Considering that situations differ between difficulties, the outcome of completing the final task should also depend on the extent of the player’s accomplishments.
Despite the resounding success of Goldeneye 007, Rare still wasn’t finished in proving their point that original FPS titles could exist competently on a console’s hardware. Goldeneye 007 provided enough evidence that this hypothesis was feasible, but Perfect Dark is the next leap from Rare’s previous FPS title that suggested that some console FPS games could surpass the quality of those on the PC. Perfect Dark is a layered and cerebral FPS game that trumped the PC crowd’s precious progenitors by cooling its formula to the point of rich refinement that only the patient and acute and clever gamers could entertain. Perhaps I’m not as astute of a gamer as I thought, but there’s a difference between a sharp wit and intuition and psychic foresight that the game sometimes expects from its players. Goldeneye passed the ocular pat down to sit and fraternize with the regulars at the FPS bar, but Perfect Dark is the Frasier Crane of this analogy that talks of urbane subjects whether or not the other patrons understand him.
Tres bien, Rareware.
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