Special Agent Joanna Dark Signing In And Late For Duty

Rareware (a.k.a. Rare) has been an industry that was around well since the dawn of the NES, starting with games like the arcade Donkey Kong. From NES to the N64 eras, Rare has been an awesome second-party manufacturer that distributed great titles such as Star Fox and Donkey Kong Country. When 1997 came, Rare brought to the world not only one of the greatest games of all time, but the best movie-adapted game; James Bond "Goldeneye". An instant million-seller that was the real reason most people owned the N64, "Goldeneye" had sales very imitable to the sales charts of a blockbuster movie. While "Goldeneye" had its problems, what it did to the first-person shooter market in terms of multiplayer functionality and statistics ratings was unlike any other game that came out for it - PC or not. It was only necessary for Rare take a second chance at bringing a perfected game and, during the end of N64's life, a game was distributed. "Perfect Dark" was, what I felt, the type of game Rare really wanted to create when they made "Goldeneye". But with competition high and little knowledge on how the N64 worked, Rare wasn't able to add depth to the predecessor. So, with "Perfect Dark", gamers get the full-blown calling of what Rare wanted to do with the future of first-person-shooter genre and, may I say, it was simply ingenious!

I know I am about 5 years - as well as 300 and something notches - late of posting a review for "Perfect Dark", but I felt what better product to make my 50th review than my favorite game of all time? So, here is my 50th review. If anybody cares...

Gameplay 5 (Out of 5)

Your lead role is Special Agent Joanna Dark, an intelligent heroine who seems as if she was snatched from the "X-Files" agency. Her job - to seek out government conspiracies involving otherworld matters.

"Perfect Dark" sets you in the mood of a Secret Agent in terms that you not only go on espionage cases to track down scientists, as well as be undercover in some levels, but you as well must train diligently to become the ultimate agent through training classes at your Institute. Here is a brief tour of the game and its sites.

Carrington Institute:

Carrington Institution is a two-storied governmental institution that serves as your hub in the game. The headquarters specializes in creating new inventions in both assault weapons and hover bikes. The institution, as well, is a top-of-the-line corporation that hires only the finest of Agents. Think of it as a privilege to do their assignments, because Joanna is one of the few nationwide Special Agents who is adept enough to accomplish the deadly missions given to her. You have the option to walk the Institute between missions or just stay in your office and choose one of the 17 missions posted on your laptop computer.

Joanna's office is on the second floor of the institution and upon the floor is the head office your officer - and owner of Carrington Institute - Daniel Carrington , Holotraining, and Device Training offices. Holotraining trains Joanna physical combat required in order to be successful in her field (makes it seem that Joanna is fresh and, like the player, needs to get familiar with the common controls of the game). Device Training trains Joanna to make use of the high-tech implements needed in some missions (i.e. the hacking device Data Uplink, X-Ray Scanner that can look through walls, and Cloaking Device that makes you invisible until the cloaking unit gets a disturbance (if you use your gun or a bullet goes through the wall makes the device malfunction - making Joanna visible).

The first floor, though not used as much as the second floor, can be accessed by hovering elevator. After going down the elevator shaft, Joanna is opened to the expansive territories of the academy. The main reason to go to the first floor would have to be the Firing Range; a sound-proof room where you go through tests to gain all three medals (bronze, silver, gold) for one of the 17 (Out of 43) weapons in the game. Each task given to you is the basic (destroy an X amount of targets or gain X amount of points in a given time) trials given in other shooting games - just not as deep or rewarding as in "Perfect Dark".

The rest of the first floor is a reception lobby that has impressive flooring that reflects lighting like emeralds.

The basement is the final part of Carrington Institute. Here, garages dominate the lowest floor where reconnaissance is given on the enemies vehicles. In the garage, you can access a terminal to gather information about what type of craft to expect in the upcoming stage, as well as their weaknesses. Either than the laptop accessibility, nothing but garages and humdrum corridors that lead to more garages are found in the basements. There is, however, a hover bike. You can ride it in a confined outside pit. For fun, I used to try hours to fit the bike through either doors to ride around Carrington Institute, but the bike is used a tantalizing display model. What a shame…

99% of the first-player experience will, however, be concentrated upon Joanna's mainframe. Here, is where her, as well as your, temporary career begins:

Missions:

There are seventeen missions to get past, which are found in nine locations. The locations begin with the multi-leveled high-rise Datadyne building controlled by conspirator Dr. Carroll (Yeah, you begin the game going at the head enemies quarters. How awesome is that?), the beachside mansion of Daniel Carrington, the streets of Chicago that remind me greatly of the locales in Blade Runner, Air Force one (where you will have to fend for the President from invading officers), and the battle-shrine wasteland of Skedar Ruins - home of the superior Skedar race that plot to destroy the world. Making the mission an ultra-sleek governmental-scientific story that would make a great movie.

The missions either require you to find and protect a certain person or computer, gain access into a building, or record documents and/or events that may serve as evidence to a conspiracy. With the missions, you are given a certain amount of weapons (at most times the Pistol (scope) and Dragon) as well as the implements required to either hack into mainframes or cloaks to wear in order to work undercover. Although I won't ruin the exposure of every item, let me just say that they surprised me.

If you get confused over the missions of the game, just click (Start) and (like bond) objective menus open up. Instead of a high-tech watch worn around the wrist, there's a high-tech eyepiece that projects before Joanna's left eye. The menus show what missions you completed (as well as lists the remaining uncompleted quests), the functions of your items and weapons, and Mission Briefings (which begin with a background and an inquest made by Carrington in regards with your assignment, followed by a briefing of each task); commonly used in most games these days. Also, in these lists, are options to tweak; Audio (volume of sound and music effects, sound mode, and language filter), Video (screen size - either being full, letterbox, or widescreen - and ratio options; High-Res and 2-player split-screen is also found here), Control options (Control Style, Reverse Pith, Auto-Aim, etc.), and Display (paintball mode, subtitles, etc.). The menus are deep.

The missions are rated on your performance; the time it took you to finish the game, your favorite weapon, accuracy, etc. It is from the time limit, which decides what type of secret you are allowed to unlock (just like in "Goldeneye").

The enemies in the missions spread throughout the dozens, besides the dozens of guards, scientists, and FBI Agents, you'll have to avoid hovering G5 Sentry Bots (which both talk like and look like the ROB off of RoboCop) and shred through armies of Skedars (nasty aliens that seem as if they were snatched straight from Starship Troopers). In all, the main experience is one heck of a ride.


Co-Operative:

Play the game as a team and go through any of the unlocked stages. It is pretty fun for if you have a friend who hasn't experienced "Perfect Dark" and want to show the game off to them.

Counter-Operative:

More like a gimmick, Counter Operative has you as the heroine and your friend as the enemy. While it's your mission to get past the stages alive, it's your friend's responsibility to destroy you before you reach the end. The person, playing the enemy, begins the stage as one of the AI models and, when he dies, gets revived into another form of an AI model. It's fun while it lasts, but most people I know aren't that interested into Counter-Operative

Combat Simulator:

The Combat Simulator is divided into 4 sections. I will explain all of them right now.

Challenges:

You are given 30 challenges to complete (which get increasingly harder the deeper you progress). You are given the opportunity of gaining one of four stars (Agent, Secret Agent, Dark, Perfect Dark), each with a harder task, giving you 120 challenges in all. I won't lie to you, I have only reached as far as halfway through the Secret Agent challenges before I gave up; they are rough!

It is here where newer multiplayer stages, weapons, and characters are unlocked. Your score is saved in your statistics profile.

The Challenges is a good mode to practice and/or freshen up before competing against fellow players.

Load/Preset Games:

This option features Preset options for Multiplayer (King of the Hill, Hold the Briefcase, etc.). It is here, where you use your character for a default competition. Although the statistics are recorded (I'll get to that momentarily), you have no control over the other facets of the game.

Quick Start:
Your bare-minimum, random, option to play the Combat Simulator. You can choose an only player match, multiplayer match, or go against bots (teams included). You can choose your Arena, and a list of weapons to use, as well as the limits (time, kills, wins, etc.). You might play this mode a lot, but its not the most intriguing of modes.

Advance Setup:

Despite how compelling the experience is in Single Player, you'll probably be spending most of your time here. The Combat Simulator is a multiplayer option where you can either go against human players or Bots. I think "Perfect Dark" was the first game to introduce AI simulations in FPS multiplayer, though I could be wrong. Anyhow, this gives you the option to play against three other friends, split in teams to go two-on-two, or fight with/against AI models with/against human players, or just go solo. The options are limitless.

The settings are also limitless; that of which you can select from 8 pre-assembled weapon choices (Pistols, Rocket Launcher, Random, etc.) or Custom - make up a 6-weapon list from the 50-plus weapons (some of which perform a secondary function) found in the game (shields included), set limit options, regular options, handicaps, and create simulants and teams. The simulants fall under 2 options (Normal Simulants - Meat, Easy, Normal) and Special Simulants (PeaceSim, RocketSim, KazeSim, etc.) and you can split the groups into teams or go against them in solo. What's more is that you can assign 8 bots to go against in multiplayer and - with 3 friends - have 12 challengers in all. Which, some of the simulants are very hard and tricky.

There are 16 Multiplayer stages in all that are split into two categories, Dark and Classic. While Dark hosts the newer stages found in "Perfect Dark", Classic has four stages from "Goldeneye". I will say that the Classic stages are fun as ever, but I do miss the library and ship stage and wish Rare would have added them both into "Perfect Dark". But hey, 16 huge stages are more than enough to please anyone, I guess.

You are also able to design your character by placing one of the 60 character model's heads with their lower bodies, or just use the default bodies. So if you want to be a half-breed alien/human or a transsexual agent, then go on ahead. There's nothing stopping you. My character is has the lower torso of Mr. Blonde with the head of the enraged DataDyne trooper. But, whatever suits your fancy…

Statistics is the quintessential reason to play Multiplayer. It serves as an evaluation over everything you do in Multiplayer; how many kills you made, how many times you died, headshots administered, ammo used, damage dealt, pain received. You start fresh with a 100% accuracy (but the average player's accuracy will drop between 80-60 percent after the first match). Also recorded is how many games you played in contras to how many you won, lost, or quit. Time is recorded (I have that baby up to 75 hours) and the distance walked in kilometers (I think mine was in the thousands, but I'll have to double-check). At the end of each match, depending how well you are, you receive a Medal that compliments your performance - rather that being most headshots, best accuracy, most kills, are least deaths - and the Medals are recorded to your stats. You are also given a title that begins from Beginner: 21 all the way down to 1 : (I guess the rank is entitled Perfect. How should I know?). I'm only at level 10: Expert. So, yes, most of the game will be played in the Combat Simulator. But it really isn't all that bad, now is it?

Best Stage: Carrington Villa (I'm into sniping when playing FPS games)

Best Weapon: Tie between the Farsight XR-20 (ability to see and shoot targets between walls) and the laptop (a case, when thrown, turns into either a wall-mounted gun or ground weapon used for sentry)

Worst stage: Deep Sea (I hate confined corridors, I get claustrophobic)

Worst Weapon: The kill-all nuke-like Devastor (horrible cheating weapon) and accuracy-killer Reaper

Best Arena: Villa, Carpark, and Pipes

Worst Arena: Ravine

Graphics: 4.5 (Out of 5)

Some of the best graphics you'll ever see on the N64. Each stage looks unique, there are hardly any recycled textures for walls and/or rooms. The game runs at a fluid 30-50 FPS, which only slows down during 4-player against various Simulants. The character models are vast, the lighting and shadow effects are superior when compared to other N64 games. The animations of the weapons the damage dealt seems realistic for its time. Great physics allow enemies to either drop down slowly, be thrown back while twirled, or trip and roll; depending on how and what region of the body you injure them. The explosions, although very reminiscent with that of "Goldeneye" are improved in effects that the smoke factor now has wisps and the explosions seem more fiery than before. The Mission stages are HUGE for N64, some taking a player anywhere between 10-30 minutes to complete, and are complex in both architecture and geographical standards. The only problems I saw were very miniscule glitches that appeared sporadically throughout the game and, during the cut-scenes, there is no lip-movement. But, hey! They have voice acting now; at least Rare improved one fault found in "Goldeneye". Anyhow, the character models are not as rigid as they are smooth (which is a compliment). Besides the glitches, slowdown (in some areas), and lack of lip-movement, I found the graphics to be superb in quality.

Sound 4.75 (Out of 5)

The soundtrack is as sci-fi as FPS games get. A truly dark/mysterious score that has entices the player to get through the game. Although some stages lack music, the silence heightens the sense of reality. The sound effects are many and each weapon sounds different, that (although the weapon effects may sound similar), no two weapons effects are the same. The script is well written and the voice actors do an excellent at portraying their characters. The audio does not sound as muddled as was found in Resident Evil, though it is not crystal-clear quality as found on CDs. The entire game is run on Dolby Surround and the sound, overall, is simply amazing. Though the soundtrack is easily forgettable, it fit’s the game very well.

Controls 5 (Out of 5)

There are eight options to choose from as your control preference under two categories; those being Single (Use one controller) or Double (use two controllers). While Double attempts to be revolutionary, the controls give me a splitting headache, so I don't even bother with the Double Control Styles. I use the Single Control 1.1 and 1.2. I will only those two sections of the Control Options.

1.1: You are allowed to move around with the analog stick. Clicking R-button toggles cross-hairs on or off (but makes Joanna stand still). C-Up looks down and C-Down looks up (I put on the option for reverse pitch; if you haven't already noticed) and C-Right and C-Left strafes, Start goes to the menu screen, A switches between weapons and (when held down) toggles between Primary and Secondary functions, B reloads your clips, and Z-trigger fires (of course!). Anyhow, I prefer using 1.2 (look up and down, turn left and right with analog stick; walk backward and forward with C-down and C-Up Buttons), the remaining 1.2 controls are similar to the 1.1 controls.

Overall, the controls are very responsible, as well as comfortable, I wouldn't ask for a smoother experience out of an N64 game.

Replay Value: 5 (Out of 5)

Infinite is the true rating to give the Replay Value in "Perfect Dark". What with the lengthy missions, multiplayer, vast array of weapons and multitudes of options to tweak and modify to your comfort, this game has more legs than the Macy's Day Parade. Besides the complexity, the dozens of secrets to unlock, hidden cheeses to find, statistics to rank up, ranks to achieve in Combat Simulator, as well as the ability to play against AI Simulants and/or friends more than redeems the value spend for this game. This is the second game I have ever played that had the most depth of what you can do to modify the game. Although "Goldeneye" was extremely fun, "Perfect Dark" eclipses over its predecessor; making the previous title shallow in replay value compared to this game. And just imagine if "Perfect Dark" was online and/or system (72-player battles between 16 people and 48 simulants), I'd never leave the house. But, the lack of on-line put aside, this is the deepest multiplayer game I have ever played and the missions, themselves, are astronomical for being in the N64 era. Way ahead of its time.

Overall: 4.85 (Out of 5)

Very few factors prevent "Perfect Dark" from attaining it's perfect score. But don't let the score dissuade you from purchasing the game. Its one of the best N64 games ever made and a turning point in gaming history, its closest rival being "Timesplitters 2" and "Halo". When I first bought "Perfect Dark" at 18 years old, I felt the game was revolutionary in every way possible. To this day, I still become impressed by what has been done. "Perfect Dark" is a definite classic and a must own for all N64 users.


FINAL SUMMARY


Gameplay: 5 (out of 5)

Engaging missions, dozens of high-tech weapons, a lead woman who can kick some major a**, and an alien names Elvis. Who would ask for more?

Graphics: 4.5 (out of 5)

Okay, I can accept the lack of lip movement during the CGI movies, but occasional slowdown and some glitches lowers the quality of the graphics. Hey, as great as the game looks and all, I still have to be an honest critic.

Sound: 4.75 (Out of 5)

One of the best audio qualities found in a video game (as far in music, voice, and special effects). A game that delivers.

Replay Value: 5 (Out of 5)

The deepest multiplayer experience I have ever underwent. If dozens of weapons and 60 character models don't interest you, then the rank system will. The Combat Simulator alone promises hundreds of hours to complete. That's deep for a cartridge game.

Overall: 4.85 (Out of 5)

Everything works great in the best console shooter I have ever played. I know people keep ranting and raving over Halo, but I prefer being a special agent than a war commander any day. And, when compared to "Goldeneye, well call it a lack of nostalgia, but I believe Joanna slaughters James Bond in many departments, making the myth "women can do just as good as men" a reality all so true. Do yourself a favor, fork over the money to get yourself a Expansion Pack and get this game. Although the bundle will cost around 40 bucks, chances are that you won't regret the purchase. "Perfect Dark" is an overwhelming game to own and a historical moment in gaming history.

Rated (Mature 17) for Animated Violence and Animated Blood.

Player: 1-4 Simultaneous

Expansion Pack: Required for most functions, including Single-Player Missions and 1-4 Multiplayer

N64 Controller Pack: Optional

Rumble Pack: Optional