Perfect Dark is a first-person shooter video game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64 video game console. It is considered the spiritual successor to Rare's earlier first-person shooter GoldenEye 007, with which it shares many gameplay features. Perfect Dark was first released in North America on 22 May 2000; PAL and NTSC-J releases followed soon afterwards. A separate Game Boy Color game, also titled Perfect Dark, was released in August 2000 as a supplement to the game and allows certain features within the Nintendo 64 game to alternatively be unlocked via a Transfer Pak. The game features a single-player mode consisting of 17 main missions in which the player assumes the role of Carrington Institute agent Joanna Dark as she attempts to stop a conspiracy by rival corporation dataDyne. It also features a range of multiplayer options, including a co-operative mode and traditional deathmatch settings. Technically, it is one of the most advanced games developed for the Nintendo 64, with an optional high resolution graphics mode and Dolby Surround Sound. A Nintendo 64 Expansion Pak is required to access the game's campaign and most of the multiplayer features.
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If you can get past that though, this game is feature rich. The campaign is long and engaging, and sadistic in its difficulty when you're playing on harder settings. The campaign can be played in co-op, or you can have up to 4 bots in co-op with you as well. It has a pvp campaign mode as well called counter-operative, where player 2 takes control of an enemy character. Even modern games don't do that. Combine that with a multiplayer mode that can be played with bots or up to four players across multiple different match types, and you have a total package of a game, and about as much fun as you could have with a first-person shooter in 2000. I wouldn't recommend playing this on a Nintendo 64 though. While I'm used to first-person shooter controls on the console, I also grew up with it. I know it's a tall order for most people, especially with those previously mentioned frame rate issues. I would instead point you to the remake Rare did for the Xbox 360 in 2010. That version fixes the frame rate issues and it's also compatible with the Xbox One and the Xbox Series X. If you don't have an Xbox console, some nice people did an unofficial PC port in 2023 that you can play instead. I will link the github at the end of the review for you to download it.
I feel like this game is incredibly slept on, given how much hype Goldeneye gets even now. This is better in every single way than Goldeneye and is the real best console FPS of the era.
Github for the unofficial PC port:
https://github.com/fgsfdsfgs/perfect_dark
I always loved the "Secret Agent" theme, just as I always loved the "Aliens and Area 51" theme!
This game has a sort of Cyberpunk aesthetic, in a futuristic world (which btw takes place in 2023!!! The game was released in 2000, you know...). The perfect agent Joanna Dark (I love this reference) is highly skilled and equiped with some crazy fun high-tech gadgets. Her stealth skills and her intelligence show to be as high as her irreverence... which I LOVE.
To be short, this is a fantastic game, and I recommend ANYONE to try this in an emulator such as 1964 GEPD (it allows mouse and keyboard), if not possible to experience it in the N64 (which was my first way of appreciating it, sooo many years ago...)