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Perfect Dark is a video game, the unofficial sequel to GoldenEye 007, Rare's previous first-person shooter for the Nintendo 64 in 1999. In the game, players assumed the role of special agent Joanna Dark. Although technically superior in almost every way to GoldenEye, Perfect Dark failed to have the same following as its predecessor.
Improvements on the GoldenEye engine included the ability to have two separate "modes" on weapons, and the ability to jump off ledges. These improvements required more processing power however, and the N64 RAM Expansion Pak was required for many features of the game to be accessible (including the 1 player mode).
A 2D Game Boy Color game of the same name was also released in the same quarter as the N64 version. The two games could share data by utilizing the N64-Game Boy Transfer Pak.
Rare has announced that they will be releasing a sequel, Perfect Dark Zero, for the Xbox.
Single player
The single player mode is quite straightforward: one is assigned a number of objectives that must be completed. For example, on the first level of the game, one has to infiltrate a skyscraper. The objectives on the easiest setting, Agent, are simple: you must reach the ground floor of the building and access an elevator, likely killing anyone who opposes you. However, the game has two more levels of difficulty, Special Agent and Perfect Agent. On Special Agent, the intelligence, accuracy, and fortitude of the skyscraper's guards would increase, and three more objectives would be placed on the shoulders of the player. On Perfect Agent, the guards become even more capable, so much so that a reckless player can be killed in a matter of seconds, and yet another objective becomes necessary for the level's completion.
There is also a co-operative mode where two players play the single player missions together, one player as Joanna Dark and one as the blonde Velvet Dark or other unlockable characters. Perfect Dark included a twisted variant of the co-operative which as of 2004 is still not seen in other games: counter-operative. In counter-operative, one player takes the role of Joanna Dark, while the other plays as a "bad guy" - a security guard, a soldier, or whatever kind of opponent Joanna faces in the chosen level. This mode wasn't quite as popular as co-operative, for various reasons. Some players complain the bad guy has too little health in comparison to Joanna, although this is countered by the fact that the counter-operative can respawn near infinitely in the bodies of other bad guys.
Storyline
In the year 2023, a secret agent of the Carrington Institute (Joanna Dark) is sent to infiltrate the laboratories of the multinational corporation dataDyne, a rival of the Institute, to retrieve an artificial intelligence construct, which had raised objections to the 'morally dubious' activities engaged in by the CEO, Cassandra de Vries. Two days after the operation is completed, Daniel Carrington's villa is attacked by dataDyne forces, and Carrington taken hostage in the basement — the construct is returned to dataDyne hands.
Upon his rescue, Joanna has to travel to Chicago where she intercepts a secret meeting between Cassandra de Vries, Trent Easton — head of the National Security Agency — and a Scandinavian man nicknamed Mr. Blonde. They are plotting to replace the President of the United States with a clone. (She also retrieves the construct's emotional matrix, though the construct itself is in a more secure location.) Though naturally worried about this, Carrington assigns her to infiltrate Area 51, where several members of the Mayan race have been captured. (This revelation inspires a fair bit of shock from Joanna.) It is there she meets Protector One of the Mayan Ambassador to Earth, who calls himself Elvis. Jonathan, another Carrington agent, allows her and Elvis to escape the installation.
At this point in the game, players were able to choose as to whether Jonathan would survive the escape from Area 51 or not, via two options. The Mayan spacecraft was only a one-seater, and it would be a push to fit in two people. However, three was an impossibility. A nearby hoverbike would provided an alternative for an escape, but this would be a very dangerous route through the corridors of the installation. The player could choose the Mayan spacecraft, making for an easy end to the level but leading to Jonathan's death. In comparison, the player could choose the route of the hoverbike, securing Jonathan's life but bringing about a greater difficulty.
After Area 51 is resolved one or way another, Joanna learns that dataDyne has made an agreement with the Skedar, an alien race of warriors and the sworn enemies of the Mayans. The Skedar will give dataDyne enough of their technology to make dataDybe the leading weapons corporation on the planet. In exchange, dataDyne must build a sapient with an advanced password cracking ability — the Skedar intend to access an ancient weapon hidden underneath the Pacific Ocean. Because of the depth of the weapon, dataDyne has decided it will require the Pelagic II, an advanced submarine under the control of the American navy. In order to gain a lease on the submarine, the President's approval will be required, and with the help of Easton, they intend to assassinate him and then replace him with the aforementioned clone.
Joanna now has to protect the President from Trent Easton's forces as well as various Skedar agents in human guise — more specifically, blonde Scandinavian males. She is tasked with infiltrating an Alaskan] airbase and then Air Force One, where the President is waiting before being flown to an important meeting in China. Disguised as a stewardess, she approaches the President and presents to him a recording of the Chicago meeting. Just a moment later, a Skedar spacecraft links with the plane, and a firefight ensues. Joanna escorts the President to an escape pod, then uses an explosive to destroy the link with the spacecraft. The link is only weakened, however, and Elvis is forced to use his ship to ram the link, resulting in the crash landing of all vessels involved.
Now lost in the middle of the Alaskan Bush, Joanna recovers near the plane's crash site to find the area crawling with Easton's henchmen as well as Skedar agents. She finds the President's escape pod, and activates a radio signal calling for help. Joanna then takes out the clone and brings the President back to Elvis, who had crashed in another location. They then hold out until help arrives. In the meantime, Mr. Blonde kills Easton.
In a desperate move, dataDyne and the Skedar simply take the Pelagic II by force before the President can return and order the submarine fortified. Elvis and Joanna take charge of the submarine, but not before the Skedar gain access to the massive weapon on the ocean floor. After battles with dataDyne, the Skedar, and the weapon's creators, the Cetans, the sapient is found. Joanna replaces the emotional matrix, and the construct, instead of handing over access to the Skedar, implants a computer virus that activates the self-destruct sequence. Joanna and Elvis escape in time.
In revenge for her incompetence, Mr. Blonde attacks the dataDyne headquarters. He plants a bomb, then captures de Vries and takes her to the Skedar battleship above Earth's atmosphere, where she will face a fate worse than death.
A few days afterwards, Joanna and Daniel Carrington are preparing for a meeting with the President and the Maians. As they are leaving, the Skedar attack and take hostages. Joanna (and if you chose to let him live, Jonathan) combat the Skedar, freeing as many hostages and possible and retrieving sensitive information. She disarms a bomb, but then is captured as well, and taken to the same holding cell as Cassandra.
Cassandra, being a frail old woman, knows she cannot possibly gain her revenge on the Skedar. As thus, she sacrifices her life as a distraction which allows Joanna to escape — and give Cassandra her revenge anyway. Joanna lowers the battleship's shields, and rendezvous with a Maian boarding party. They take control of the ship, and Elvis uncovers the route to the most holy planet in the Skedar religion; its location had never been known, but to destroy it would crush the morale of the Skedar and bring an end to the war.
Elvis alerts the Maian fleet, and Joanna descends upon the temple where she must alert the fleet as to where they should they focus their bombardment. She also eliminates the high priest of the Skedar. The Maian bombardment begins, and she barely escapes with her life; Elvis stops the bombardment just long enough to free her leg from the grasp of a dying but determined Skedar warrior. The two escape, and the Skedar are crushed.
Multiplayer
The multiplayer in Perfect Dark includes all weapons available in the single player mode. The weapons can be combined in any way, or one can choose to play with one of the pre-set weapon sets. There are also six game modes:
- Combat - Same as deathmatch
- Capture The Case - Same as Capture the Flag
- Hold The Briefcase - Take a briefcase and survive with it for as long as possible, 1 point every 30 seconds holding the case
- King of the Hill - One area in the map is "the hill". Locate that area, and stay there for 20 seconds for 2 points. Once this is done, the hill moves to a new location.
- Hacker Central - Somewhere on the map, a data uplink can be found. The objective of Hacker Central is to capture this Data Uplink and use it to hack a computer system which can also be found on the map. When the player who carries the data Uplink is killed, the data uplink is moved to a new location. When hacking the computer system, one cannot use weapons, and is thus a sitting duck.
- Pop a Cap - One player is "the victim". All other players gain two points for killing the victim. The victim gains a point every minute alive.
More weapons and levels are unlocked as one beats the "challenges", pre-set games against bots. Challenges are a good start to learn the multiplayer modes and weapons. If one can beat all 30 challenges, the highest bot difficulty level, Darksims, are unlocked.
Simulants
Perfect supports bots, or as they are called in the game: simulants, or sims for short. The bots in Perfect Dark have six levels of difficulty: Meat, Easy, Normal, Hard, Perfect and Dark. Meatsims are moving targets, and DarkSims can nail headshots from any distance. Bots can also be of one of several special types such as the RocketSim which favors explosives or the VengeSim who tries to get revenge on the player who killed him.
Weapons
The weapons of Perfect Dark include handguns, assault rifles, and sub-machine guns as well as several weapons that doesn't fit into one of these categories. Such weapons include a shotgun, a rocket launcher, combat knives and a grenade launcher. All weapons in the game have two modes of fire, interchangeable by holding the B Button down on your controller for approximately 1.5 seconds. Also, six alien weapons are in the game, three Mayan and three Skedar. One of the Mayan weapons, the Farsight XR-20, is a highly interesting weapon. It is made of a rifle combined with an X-ray scanner which allows it to see through walls. Because the rifle is extremely powerful, it will kill anything in one shot, and pass through walls without leaving a trace. It also has a "target locator" mode, which can find possible targets. However, when using this firemode, the user is a sitting duck because he/she can't see anything. The Farsight can be analogized to Quake's Railgun. It is extremely powerful, but only in the hands of a steady trigger finger. In either firing mode, you need a precise aim, even though Perfect Dark features Aim assistance.
The Mauler is another alien weapon available to Joanna Dark, it was made by the Skedar and is a small handgun with 20 rounds per clip. The Primary mode fires little energy bursts that go at the speed of light. These are respectably destructive, but pale in comparison to the Secondary mode. The way the secondary mode works is quite simple; You wait a few seconds, and the Mauler will load a charge that disperses 5 units of energy (instead of the single unit consumed in the primary fire) given adequate time to complete the charge. This shot can take down anybody who doesn't have armor, and sometimes even somebody who does. The compromise is struck by the amount of ammunition onhand and the stringent aim requirements.
Some of the human weapons are also interesting. For example, the RCP120 has a secondary mode which allows the carrier to become invisible, but consumes ammo at a very high rate. Another example is the grenade launcher which can launch sticky grenades. The sticky grenades will stick to a wall or a ceiling for a few seconds and then drop and detonate when they hit the floor. It is a good strategic weapon which can be used to get rid of followers. Some weapons rely on brute force, for example the Reaper (a Skedar weapon) which is probably the only true machine gun of Perfect Dark. It has three rotating barrels and a huge clip of 200 rounds. Because of the rotating barrels, the fire rate increases the longer one is firing. The maximum fire rate is 1800rpm. Another brute force weapon is the sub-machine gun named Cyclone. It has a secondary fire mode that empties the whole clip of 50 rounds in approximately 1.2 seconds, giving it devastating abilities.
Controversy
There was one feature initially planned for the game that was scrapped in the final version — Perfect Face, which would have allowed players with a Transfer Pak and a Game Boy Camera to take a picture of a person's face, then convert the picture into a mask that could be applied to the player's character. When Rare was asked why this feature was not implemented, they initially claimed that it had turned out to be more complex that originally thought, and thus dropped it. However, it later came out that Rare had in fact gotten Perfect Face to work in an earlier build of the game, and had dropped it due to concerns about public backlash over violence in video games. The rationale was that violence against the faces of real people was more serious than violence against those of fictional people.
See Also
External Links
Perfect Dark FAQs at Gamefaqs (http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/n64/game/25092.html)
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