Perfect Dark

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JaySevenZero
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Perfect Dark

Post by JaySevenZero »

Here is where you can leave your thoughts regarding Perfect Dark for possible inclusion in the podcast when it's recorded.
rob25X
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Re: Perfect Dark

Post by rob25X »

First thoughts.... co-op, counter-op, the challenges, weapons training, bot personalities, the laptop gun, the farsight, the combat boosts, secondary weapon functions, cloaking, enemies running for alarms, the cheats menu, blood splatters, voice acting, cut scenes, endless replayability and the best visuals, audio and soundtrack any game had ever had.

To do this day Perfect Dark still astounds me. A game with so much content and creativity it was 20 years ahead of its time. How the XBLA version, remastered in 1080p and 60fps did not receive 10/10 reviews like the original game baffles me. The 360 version is flawless. Any faults that were ever made about Perfect Dark were polished up perfectly by 4J studios.

Perfect Dark on N64 has a metacritic rating of 97% and stands on the site as the 13th best game of all time.

I've been playing Perfect Dark for 16 years and still love it as much as the day it was released.

BEST GAME EVER :)
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Mechner
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Re: Perfect Dark

Post by Mechner »

Perfect Dark

I didn't play this when it came out, as I didn't own a N64 until they were going for around €25 second hand, in 2006.

I remember bringing this home, as one of the 4 games I picked up that same day I bought the N64, and I was very excited to play it. A close friend of mine had said it was similar to Goldeneye, which we used spend hours playing together as kids. Naturally, this piqued my interest.

When I popped it in and powered it up, I was met with playing "multiplayer only", my N64 did not have a 4mb expansion PAK, and I had no idea I needed one to play it. As the internet was still "dial up" in my home, and home broadband internet hadn't fully taken off in Ireland yet, I thought for years, that "Perfect Dark" was multi player only.

Not until around 4 years ago did I get my hands on a PAK, and finally played a bit of the main story. But sadly the nostalgia of owning a N64 had well worn off. The frame rate is a little hard to enjoy these days.

I think I will end up finally playing through the game, when I get an Xbox One and RARE replay. Till then, it will remain an oddity to me. Maybe this podcast will give me a reason to play.

Also that sequel stinks to high heaven, I don't have much to say other than, you'd be better off not playing it.
deacon05oc

Re: Our next-but-one podcast recording (14.5.17): Perfect Dark

Post by deacon05oc »

I didn't get to play Goldeneye when I finally owned an N64 (my first Nintendo console). My introduction to Rare was the introduction Joanna Dark to the gaming world. Perfect Dark was the first FPS that I gave significant replay time to. Completing extra objectives, the variety in weapons, the many modes of play. It actually is one of the first games where I just explored the surrounding areas. I loved just walking around the institute and discovering new areas. Sadly I didn't get to experience much multiplayer as folks had moved on to the PS One by time I was in the N64 world. That being said, I loved my time with Perfect Dark and still play it today on my Xbox 360.
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MauricioMM
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Re: Our next-but-one podcast recording (14.5.17): Perfect Dark

Post by MauricioMM »

My tastes have changed a little since then but I still have fondness for this campy but cool first person shooter made by Rare, the same developers that gave me other amazing experiences like Banjo & Kazooie and the hilarious Conker’s Bad Fur Day. Even though I didn’t own a N64 back then (and never owned one), this was the game I played the most on that console in my teenage years, spending hours and hours on a videogame café (like an internet café but with consoles) playing it without a care in the world.

You know, I’ve never stopped to think about what attracted me about Perfect Dark until now. I guess it was mainly three things: the level design, the weapons and the spy stuff.

The missions had interesting layouts and I loved how, as the difficulty rised, the maps opened up to more areas and the objectives got more challenging not simply because the enemies could take more damage.

The game also had a great variety of weapons with a cool sci-fi look and interesting secondary modes, especially the unusual ones like the Bond-esque Laptop Gun, the innocent-looking but dangerous Phoenix, the skedar rocket launcher Slayer capable of firing remote-controlled rockets and the impressive FarSight.

The espionage aspect was the thing that I liked most about its story and gameplay (I loved using the CamSpy and its variants), plus it had some truly exciting missions, like the ones where protagonist Joanna Dark is trying to save the U.S. president or the Carrington Villa hostage crisis. Back then I didn’t have high expectations about videogame plots, all I cared was that they were fun and hopefully unique experiences. Luckily this game had good entertainment value and its campiness didn’t repel me.

I consider it my favorite FPS at the time until two more serious and more engaging games came to my life: Half-Life 2 and BioShock. So, yeah, it had its uniqueness and it was certainly fun and memorable in its goofy way but for me the bar was raised shortly after. I still have good memories of it, though.

---

My three word review:
"Call me Elvis!"
Lokhe

Re: Our next-but-one podcast recording (14.5.17): Perfect Dark

Post by Lokhe »

I could write an essay on the subject, and many probably will, so here's a funny anecdote instead!

When the stick on my last good controller wore out, as they would (hi Bowser!), I could no longer make Joanna run at maximum speed. But I wasn't ready to give it up, so I simply started strafing! Strafing everywhere. I learned all the angles of every map so I could traverse them without really seeing where I was going and as for aiming? Well, the game did most of that to begin with. I got so used to it that I would do it even with fully working controllers at friends' houses, for which they mocked me, at least until I strafed circles around them and made their tiny squares of the screen Perfectly Dark :)
AndyL

Re: Our next-but-one podcast recording (14.5.17): Perfect Dark

Post by AndyL »

On paper, Perfect Dark should have been a game I absolutely adored when I first played it in 2000. I played through 007 multiple times in single player, got all of the cheats with my brother, and spent many nights playing deathmatch with my neighborhood friends. So I was pretty excited when I heard about Perfect Dark.

"So the guys that made Goldeneye are making another Goldeneye game? Great!" I'm sure I thought.

And it was a great game... but it never replaced Goldeneye for me. The single player campaign was fine, but the story never drew me in. The multiplayer was fun, but had little problems that annoyed me and my friends (the 'blur vision' from getting punch sticks out).

Don't get me wrong, I still spent countess hours playing multiplayer with friends, but Perfect Dark never reached the heights that Goldeneye did for me.
Mafisto667

Re: Our next podcast recording (14.5.17): Perfect Dark

Post by Mafisto667 »

I think every person who loves this hobby has one game that really confirmed their passion. Perfect Dark was that game for me.

Goldeneye had been a staple with me and my friends for a couple of years at that point, enough that any use of proximity mines in multiplayer matches had been banned when I was involved. Yes, I was that guy...

But the amount of time I spent with Perfect Dark eclipsed anything I had spent on any console game by far. Over the journey, I managed to reach Rank 2 with two multiplayer profiles, and Rank 1 once (despite my deplorable accuracy medal count). My eventual time played with that first account was a shade over 24 days, which isn't something I ever told my parents.

For several years after the game's release, I would come home from school each Friday afternoon and play a few hours of Perfect Dark with one of my best mates. Our game was the combat arena, random weapons, the two of us amongst a pack of AI Sims, Deathmatch to 50. The variety of weapons was second to none, with a great array of game changing secondary functions, be it the sentry Laptop Gun, the magazine emptying Cyclone or the bouncing proximity grenade. My personal favourite was always the Dragon, which could be dropped as a proximity mine and blow up an unsuspecting player or Sim.

But it was the Sims that made this the game of choice for me. I can still remember the fear of fragging a Feud or Venge Sim on Perfect difficulty, and the knowledge that it would stalk you for the next several minutes... inevitably killing you again and again.

I could talk about this game all day (which I have pretty much done already, sorry!), but let me give just one story of the joy this game brought me. We were playing on the Car Park level, with a group of Hard Sims with a variety of personalities. My friend, Mark, had just re-spawned and ran for the nearest pickup, which turned out to be the perennial favourite, the Combat Boost. Running towards a door in the corner of the room, Mark triggered the boost and time slowed to a crawl. As he approached the door, it slowly began to open, with the feet of an enemy Sim materialising in his path. Exclaiming fiercely, my friend backed away from the door... very slowly... trying to get some distance before his seemingly inevitable death. Unbeknownst to my friend, I was following that very Sim with my one-hit-kill Crossbow drawn. I took the shot. In a moment that only split-screen multiplayer can produce, I watched on Mark's screen as the door finally opened and the Sim seemed to pause briefly, taking aim, before a crossbow bolt speared in slow motion through the Sim's head, sticking firmly out the other side. The scream of surprise, followed by the senseless babbling and scattered expletives was enough to ruin the rest of my match as I gasped for breath in hysterics.

Has the story expanded into hyperbole over time. Almost definitely. But 15 or so years later, I still laugh at this memory. I'm not sure about you, but I can't ask for anything else from my favourite hobby.
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Craig
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Re: Our next podcast recording (14.5.17): Perfect Dark

Post by Craig »

The hype surrounding this game was hard to describe. The N64, starved of "mature" games was getting a massive sequel to one of the best games of its kind.

I counted down to the day of the release, and gave my dad the cash to buy it when I was in school. That day I literally ran the 3/4 mile home with a bag full of books to find that my dad had got the goods, as well as the expansion pack. Giddy with excitement, I was then impeded further as I had to do my paper round. While delivering papers used to take about an hour each day, I managed it all in a slick 15 minutes before I was back home with controller in hand. I was thrilled.

The game didn't disappoint. I loved all the interesting new weapons (particularly the laptop gun), the campaign was interesting and a decent length and I didn't mind the introduction of aliens towards the end. Elvis was a bit pants but no game is perfect, even those with the word it in the name.

They brought forward the brilliant difficulty setting in Goldeneye which introduces more objectives the harder the difficulty giving you reason to go back. I still rarely replay a game on hard, but for this I made a welcome exception.

I only got to maybe the second level on perfect difficulty, but I still remember it clearly, at least the opening moments. The doors open in a facility and you quickly take out the guy, you head right and pop off a few more guys before heading back on yourself. I remember getting really stuck as on the end of the level there was a section which had lots of gun turrets if you activated the alarm and were pretty much dead.

The counter-op multiplayer mode is something I'm amazed didn't see take off more. Essentially one of you plays the single player normally, and the other takes control of the low level, low health grunts that make for enemies in the game. I guess the balance is broken as you just rush the player's location wherever you are, but whether it was fair and balanced isn't really the point, it was just a lot of fun.

I even went out and bought the Gameboy Color game on the day it was released. It was pretty hard to track down and I can't remember much about it other than it had a rumble pack built in, and I was pretty terrible at it. I didn't play it for long.

Perfect Dark was such an ambitious and complete package for the day. A joy in every sense.
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seansthomas
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Re: Our next podcast recording (14.5.17): Perfect Dark

Post by seansthomas »

I've got patchy memories of Perfect Dark. It never gripped me or my University Halls like Goldeneye did and I sense that may have been because of it's complexity. Everything from acquiring the expansion pack to play parts of it, fiddling with the vast menu options, selecting weapon modes and the overly ambitious graphics grinding the action to a standstill at times meant the more casual gamers in our group never loved it like they did Rare's former shooter.

I had a soft spot for it though. Single player was decent, with that opening level from memory seeming like a brilliant excuse to brag about the sniper rifles scope distance. I recall at the time being stunned that a game could release for £60 with that experience missing however for those who hadn't read you needed the expansion pack, which was how we had to play it for the first month or two until funds allowed.

The weapons were terrific though. Guns you could deploy as remote cannons, rifles that shot through walls and some of the most satisfying sounding pistols in any game I've played. I can still recall many of the games audio effects and death screen jingles even now.

I spent most of my time with the game playing two player against some very tough bots. We would push the settings of the game to breaking point and enjoy the challenge of being outnumbered and outgunned. But when you won a contest, it brought that sense of reward only the finest games do.

It always felt like Perfect Dark tried a little bit too hard for me and ended up being good rather than great. Joanna felt like a response to Lara Croft, the alien sidekick was a bit irritating and the game barely functioned at its most frenzied. But I still found much to enjoy back in the day.
GoodShrewsbury

Re: Our next podcast recording (14.5.17): Perfect Dark

Post by GoodShrewsbury »

A quality successor to the brilliant Goldeneye. I love the campaign in Perfect Dark. It's got an Interesting story, a memorable heroine, great levels, and a cool soundtrack. I really enjoy the old-school level design, flaws and all, with the Villa and Air Force One levels being standouts for me. However, as much as I really love the campaign it was always the Multiplayer where Perfect Dark cemented itself as a classic.

Me and two of my buddies spent the entire summer of 2000 playing versus bots and competitively comparing stats. The customizable options for multiplayer were insane for the time. Even looking at it now, the number of ways you can play MP is as varied as most modern games. Some of the guns in Perfect Dark are the most memorable in video game history, For me, the Laptop Gun and the Cyclone should be alongside the Gravity Gun and the BFG as absolute video game classics.

Like many games of the era PD doesn't quite hold up today, considering the evolution of the FPS genre, but I had more fun that summer with this game than the vast majority of games I've played since.
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