The year 2000 will always be remembered for the Y2K scare and the Sydney Olympics. But I'd like to look back at a game that pushed the N64 to it's limits. That game was Perfect Dark, from the makers of Goldeneye comes a game that some would call a sequel, but I wouldn't. it's a game that uses the same engine, and the same shell of a story, but instead, the hero has 2 Perky boobs on her chest instead of hair.
Joanna Dark is a 23 year old Secret agent on a mission to rescue an AI named Dr. Carroll. But what starts as a rescue mission for a Flying computer (literally) unfolds into a much bigger story, taking Joanna to a private villa where her Boss lives, Chicago, Area 51, and outer space.
For the N64, The game was amazing when it came out. if you were a fan of goldeneye at the time, you knew PD was going to rock your socks off. the Single player mode was a vast improvement; the Guards would conversate and yell taunts while shooting at you, and their guns would sometimes Jam. They would get scared, and some would scream when they got shot. in goldeneye, all they did was groan when they were shot, and scream when you ran them over with a tank (And Goldeneye was rated T for teen. wonder where good ol' Jack Thompson was then.) Also, you don't just read the in-game Dialogue, The characters actually Speak! On top of that, there was a language filter, but it was more of a joke than anything, cause all it did was cut out the dialogue that had words like Hell and Damn in them, and sometimes that would cut out important dialogue to move the story along.
Multiplayer was probably the biggest improvement. In goldeneye the multiplayer was revolutionary, but in PD the Multiplayer was Amazing. if you didn't have friends, that's OK, PD had Bots! you could have up to 12 people (thats if you had 4 controllers and 4 players) and 8 computers running around killing each other. and unlike goldeneye, you could actually customize Weapon Sets, Character bodies and heads, and music! all in All, Perfect Dark on the N64 was probably it's best title.
Now, for the Xbox 360 Remake.
What can I say about this one? Well, it's not so much a vast improvement, although the 60 Framerate Per Second improvement was the best part.
As for the characters, they certainly made the jump. Their voices are much clearer and their looks are too. Joanna looks downright sexy and so do the female staff at carrington institute. One drawback? the distinct faces are gone. the weird databank guy in the one room? his face is as stock as the rest of the institute's male employees. Cassandra De Vries doesn't look so old anymore. Elvis lost his cuteness (I kinda thought he was) now he just looks ugly.
A few more add-ons; Achievements (shooting all of Daniel Carrington's wine bottles in the villa gives you the "Act your age, Joanna" achievement.) and the addition of online play. I haven't experimented with it yet, so i can't comment whether it's good or not, but i'm expecting it to be good.
Bottom line, I'm proud that Rare created this gem, and I only wish that they could release a good new PD game.
Make Joanna's Fans happy, Rare.
10/10
