Editorial Review: A first-person shooter that mixes spy and sci-fi, Perfect Dark is both a thoroughly engrossing one-player experience and a riotously fun multiplayer romp. Easily one of the best games of its genre on any video game console, this long-awaited follow-up to GoldenEye 007 is a must-have for Nintendo 64 owners--and a damn good reason to be one if you're not.
The futuristic Perfect Dark casts players as Joanna Dark, a secret agent who becomes embroiled in a sinister conspiracy involving aliens and an evil corporation. Gameplay is broken down into missions, each with objectives that must be unerringly completed before progressing to the next mission. This is not your typical kill-anything-that-moves game: putting a bullet in the wrong person, not keeping the right one alive, or perforating a seemingly unimportant inanimate object can often result in mission failure.
While Perfect Dark's solo missions play out much like those in GoldenEye 007, the game's fantastic multiplayer options are another matter entirely. Cooperative and counteroperative simultaneous-play modes allow for another player to join in on a mission as, respectively, a teammate or the enemy. However, the real fun here is in the highly customizable Combat Simulator, a one-to-four-player simultaneous-play mode that features both free-for-alls and team-based challenges and can include up to eight Simulants, computer-controlled combatants of varying behavior.
Although Simulants make for decent adversaries or teammates, you'll want to grab a friend--and an Expansion Pak, as only 35 percent of the game is available without one--to fully enjoy Perfect Dark. --Joe Hon
Pros:
One of the best first-person shooters on any video game console
Outstanding multiplayer game with huge replay value
Bevy of game options, cheats, and secret features
Excellent training mode with challenges all of its own
Cons:
Graphics get ugly when playing with more than two players
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Best mulitplayer game ever made.
Back in the day this was the best multiplayer on N64. Since then I am sure there are better graphics and such, but none can compare. The weapons were original for its time, graphics, gameplay, control all mastered.
Rating: - One of the best games ever!
Presentation
10
The entire Carrington Institute, voice cut-scenes, awesome futuristic menus and more really bring PD to life.
Graphics
9.0
Amazing 3D architecture, beautiful texture design, real-time lighting, solid animation, etc. Framerate suffers now and then.
Sound
10
Dolby Stereo Surround Sound, tons of in-game speech, great, ambient music soundtrack and more.
Gameplay
10
Whoa. So much to do, so little time. Intense single-player adventure, gripping storyline, and so many objectives. Amazing control and options will hook you.
Lasting Appeal
10
The most replay value of N64 game ever made -- period. If we need to explain why, you haven't read our review.
9.8 Overall Incredible Game!
Rating: - One of the best games for the N64
I bought this game having played 007 quite a bit, which was made by the same people and is one of the greatest N64 games ever made. The advantage that Perfect Dark has is in the multiplayer combat. In addition to friends, you can have up to 8 computers playing in the game, with any combination of teams that you want. This is fun with several real friends, or just for playing by yourself against others. The AI is smart enough to be extremely challenging at the hardest difficulty levels, or slow/dumb enough for a new player to learn against at lower difficulty levels. Newer systems have better multiplayer capabilities (online, or hooking up multiple X-boxes for Halo parties, etc), but for the N64 this is as good as it gets (and if you like to play against computers instead of real people, then this is as good as any newer system games that I've seen).
Rating: - Ehh...an interesting shooter, with fun 4 player options...
...but nothing quite like Goldeneye, or any of the 007 games. If the price is under $10, buy it, it'll be worth it.
Rating: - Great Action Shooter Game
Perfect Dark is GoldenEye's gameplay sequel. Not the story sequel. It involves more and more weapons than GoldenEye and a co-op campaign missions to help you if you get stuck. This game also has dialogues which means not only do they have the subtitles, the characters actually speak. GoldenEye doesn't. Plus the sound effects of footsteps make things more realistic. Very challenging and very fun. Beat GoldenEye first, then get this game and beat it.
- Best mulitplayer game ever made.
- Ehh...an interesting shooter, with fun 4 player options...
- Great Action Shooter Game
