Perfect Dark

Developer: Rare Publisher: Rare

Released: May 22, 2000 Rated: M 10/10

Subtract the film license, add aliens. Make everything bigger, better, deeper, and more intense. This is the recipe for Perfect Dark. I’d say that it baffles me to see how little attention this game gets compared to Goldeneye or any other major Rare titles from this era, but it really doesn’t. Yes, this game is, as the title suggests, nearly perfect. It’s a refinement of just about every single innovation brought to the table by Goldeneye three years prior, minus two very important things: the license, and the revolutionary nature of the console FPS as a whole. This is all well-known to those who are a fan of the N64 and of Rare as a company, and I don’t think it was a stretch to say that Perfect Dark was a major milestone for the waning console upon its release – it received the highest review score in Nintendo Power up to that point in the magazine’s history with a cumulative 9.6, a mark that predates modern review sensibilities that buttress any decent title by one or two points at minimum – but almost never receives the attention other titles on the console do when talking about both flagship titles and hidden gems. In fact, Nintendo Power themselves didn’t even rank it in their top 20 N64 games in 2009, seeming to suggest a willingness to bury the title, now in the hands of Microsoft, if that holds any significance, and their prior unhindered praise of it.

It’s funny to think that the modern thesis in regards to Perfect Dark isn’t so much to review the game, as to ask why its quality has ever been up for debate. Why have I, myself, completed the campaign of Goldeneye 007 twice, and only just now begun the campaign in earnest for Perfect Dark. Is my self-imposed schedule of playing the library chronologically solely to blame for putting it off, or would it have fallen by the wayside in favor of my own personal failings to play truly praiseworthy titles in favor of things that are more “obscure” or “under the radar?” Regardless, the overwhelming quality of Perfect Dark makes it one of the few games on the N64 that almost implores fans of the system and its best offerings to play, of all things, an Xbox. Rare’s status as a Microsoft studio after 2001 resulted in the release of the only other title in the series, Perfect Dark Zero, a supposedly solid but inferior title that partly doomed the franchise. More importantly, though, it also means that the Xbox is the home of the ever-important remaster of the original game.

Pushing this rolling cart of explosives around until you get to the specific wall you want to blow up is one of the campaign’s sillier and more unwieldy objectives. Imagine my surprise, then, when it turned out you could achieve the same outcome with a single grenade from your inventory.

That last detail, by the way, of the HD port for Xbox, is essentially the last piece of the puzzle in making this game actually perfect. Even with the expansion pak being mandatory for about two thirds of the game, including the campaign, it can be rough to look at through modern tech. Slowdown, fuzzy polygons, and good old in-engine cutscenes like the N64 was made for, are not the only things that show this game’s age – a modern shooter fan would still likely be flabbergasted by the lack of precision that defines the pre-Halo era of the genre – but even rose-colored glasses can’t fix the technical limitations of the hardware.

Recreating the sleek, suave, and spectacular feel of what they’d accomplished with Goldeneye for a single-player title is no small task, but the look and personality of new protagonist Joanna Dark was a strong way to start. Confident and capable, and yes, sexy, to the extent she can be on 64-bit hardware, Joanna is a seriously cool protagonist with only the overarching stereotypes of international espionage to inform your expectations of the overall cast. Still facing the limitations of static face scans and mediocre, unsubtle voice acting, the overall story and mission design is full of memorable concepts and characters, such as our little gray alien comrade Elvis, who we assist in escaping Area 51. Other bona fide secret agent mission settings like Air Force One, a deep sea research submarine, and your own besieged secret organization headquarters make for plenty of exciting moments in a campaign rife with tension and bolstered by tense music and trope-heavy but nonetheless entertaining dialogue.

It feels almost sacrilegious to say, but it’s almost too good for the system it was made for. It’s sleek, looking like a proper example of what a near-futuristic sequel to Goldeneye would appear with excellent art design in spite of the pivot away from the license. It’s clever, pushing the limits of what the genre could do in its campaign with mission design, gadgets, weapons, and AI. It’s deep, with the campaign bursting with easter eggs, secrets, and two forms of multiplayer to experience the story through. Normal co-operative mode is a welcome addition to an otherwise single-player experience, while Counter-Operative is a truly unique inclusion, seeing one player attempt to finish the missions normally while the other works against them to try and sabotage the operation. Meanwhile, the more standard multiplayer and combat simulator flesh out the gameplay with loads of customization – you’ll stick with Goldeneye for the classic status, but Perfect Dark outclasses it across the board for levels, weapons, and other options. It’s even one of the only games to work with the Transfer Pak. Nothing impressive, just four cheats get enabled immediately instead of being unlocked through play, but it’ll always score points in my book when there are so few things to use that little bugger for. Still, this game needs to be played one way or another, whether you get the cartridge, download it on Xbox, try it with Nintendo Switch Online, or buy Rare Replay. It’s one of the undeniable best, and we shouldn’t forget it.

Continuing Legacy

Apart from the aforementioned remaster and prequel, there are also reports of a full remake in the works, as of this writing in 2023. Although many, I’m sure, don’t see anything wrong with it, I’m sure plenty of shooter fans are more accustomed to the post-millennium feel of the genre, and could use an update of the story, missions, and multiplayer to a modern feel, much like Goldeneye received in 2010.