Perfect Dark
Reviewed by Frank Martinez
Goldeneye was an excellent game that revolutionized multi player
game play on the gaming consoles. Man people bought the game
just for the multi player because it was fun. Many people thought
that no game on the consoles could beat Goldeneye and its
wonderful multi player mode, but Perfect Dark sure beats the
heck out of it in single and multi player.
You play the role of Joanna Dark, a beautiful and smart woman
who is an agent of the Carrington institute. She goes by the
codename "Perfect Dark" because she had the highest training
scores ever recorded in the institute, beating another agent name
Jonathan's scores, who held the previous record. The plot goes that
a notorious company name dataDyne is working with a scaly alien race
called the Skedar to raise a Cetan ship underwater and fly it so they
can eliminate the human race and another alien race, the Maians, who
are gray and have big heads. As you beat the missions, the plot
deepens and becomes more involving from the first mission which
you infiltrate the dataDyne building, and the last which you go on
the Skedar home planet to destroy the Skedar King who in the game,
is a man named Mr. Blonde. You will eventually learn about and meet
many new people throughout the game.
There are 17 total missions plus 4 bonus missions to keep you in
suspense, but the real deal is the excellent, 100x better than
Goldeneye's multi player mode. With 16 total arenas to play in and
6 modes of play including capture the case and king of the hill, and
tons and tons of weapons to kill your friends with, it's absolutely
wonderful. But that's not even half, Rare gives you so customization
that you can create your own scenarios by choosing the weapons in
the arena, (up to six) and now the very first any console game,
stimulants. Stimulants are computer controlled "bots" who you can play
with or against. You can also have a stimulant as your partner in co-op
mode. There are 18 types of stimulants you can play with including
vengesim who takes revenge on anybody who kills him or shoots him,
judgesim who goes after the current leader, peacesim who goes around
the level collecting guns and many more. There are also normal types
like normalsim and the dreaded darksim. The good thing about multi player
is that you have a type of mode called the challenges which you can play
by yourself or with friend(s). You can just play the multi player mode
and not even touch the 1 player mode and still unlock everything.
Graphics: Most people think that Nintendo 64's graphic's suck and
don't look good but for Perfect Dark, you can't say that and if you
do, you are a crazy person who must be dumb. The graphics
are totally beautiful. Detailed to perfection with beautiful real-time
lighting effects and action packed cinemas. The enemies faces are
very realistic and I love when the blood splats on the wall and the
enemy corpses still on the floor with bullet holes in them. It's just
beautiful. The guns are really cool and look wonderful. I like the little
bullet caps coming out of the game when you shoot it and the light
of the gun when it's firing. Also the explosions look really realistic
and wonderful. While playing multi player with 4 people and 8 stimulants
or co-op the frame rate tends to slow down but who really gives a hoot.
That doesn't mess up the perfect everything of Perfect Dark. Overall
I would say that Perfect Dark has some of the best graphics has
some of the best the Nintendo 64 has to offer.
Control: The control in the game is smooth and easy to learn, but
hard to get used to. The control has improved dramatically from
Goldeneye such as you will automatically look down when you go down
a ramp, auto-aim, and very smooth running. You also have a secondary
function which each gun which you an switch to by pressing and holding
down B for about 2 seconds. You switch your guns with A and shoot
with Z. Just some basic controls easy to learn. Overall the control
is wonderful.
Sound: Usually Nintendo 64 games don't have good sound, but
Perfect Dark has some of the best sound I have ever heard. The
music is creepy and suitable for each mission from those stealthy,
scary missions to those totally shooting missions. But the sound
effects are amazingly perfect. From the little comments made by
the guards to the metal sound made by Joanna's footsteps on a
metal ramp. The game is packed with a lot of voice especially during
the cinemas and you will hear some during the missions like from the
guards or from Mr. Carrington or Joanna. The gun sounds are really
cool and match each gun to the max. You have your pistols and your
machine guns and your explosive guns which they all sound wonderful
especially the explosions and the moans and groans of the guards
when you shoot them. Everything about the sound is wonderful
and just tip top.
Game play and Replay Value: Perfect Dark is just the perfect
shooter with it's many modes of play. The game play is
absolutely perfect. You have your wonderful mulitplayer
mode with many guns and huge arenas and the great stimulants.
You have your excellent solo player mode and the co-op mode
and the revolutionary counter-op mode which one player is
Joanna and tries to complete her objectives while the other
player is a bad guy which tries to stop Joanna anyway he/she
can. This adds tons and tons to the replay value of the game
and the mulitplayer adds infinite amount of replay value to the
game. You also can train at the Carrington institute and play the
shooting range thing where you can use the guns in the shooting
range for practice. Not to mention the multi player challenges and
endless scenarios you can create. You also have your 3 different
difficulties just like in Goldeneye which each has more objectives
and the AI gets smarter. You also in some missions will start
somewhere else. The difficulties add much replay value because
agent which is the easiest will take a short time to beat but Perfect
Agent might take you an eternity to beat and if you beat it on Perfect
Agent, go ahead brag. And of course you have your cheats which like
in Goldeneye you have to earn by completing missions in a certain
amount of time on a certain difficulty. The game play and replay
value are just amazing and endless.
Bottom line: Perfect Dark is the best FPS ever to hit the Nintendo 64.
I totally reccomend this game to everyone. Everything about the game
is wonderful. Everything. Even though the price is steep still buy it or
rent it or just freakin' play it. GO NOW because this game is perfect
and leaves other games in the dark. Most games like these are very
RARE indeed!
Graphics: 10/10
Sound: 10/10
Control: 10/10
Game play/Replay Value: 10/10
Overall: 10/10