Wyatt21
Member
It was on May 22, 2000, in the United States, that the happy owners of a Nintendo 64 were able to discover the futuristic universe, a little dystopian of Perfect Dark. With its stories of multinationals ready to do anything to establish their domination on our good old planet, even if it means making pacts with disreputable alien races, the game developed by Rare caused a sensation. Considered to be a spiritual sequel to the much-loved GoldenEye 007, Perfect Dark is celebrating its 20th anniversary today. The opportunity for us to return to this title which is today in the top 15 Metacritic of the best games of all time.
Perfect Dark
At a time when FPS was still called “ Doom-like ”, the action game in subjective view seemed destined to shine on PC. The Half-Life bomb released in 1998 only recalled the obsolescence of attempts on game consoles. With rare exceptions, no pun intended . In 1997, the British studio Rare published on Nintendo 64 a certain GoldenEye 007 , the video game adaptation of the film starring Pierce Brosnan in the costume of agent Bond. The critical and commercial success which followed convinced the studio to dig the track of the FPS on consoles.Despite the proposal to participate in the video adaptation of Tomorrow never dies, the studio prefers to create its own franchise . Thus was born Joanna Dark, a secret agent who uncovers the mysteries of dangerous organizations.
Perfect Dark on Nintendo 64 takes place in 2022. When its creation began in 1997, we still imagined that Blade Runner flying cars would wander between the skyscrapers of metropolises, in the 2020s. At the head of the team development, we find Martin Hollis, who previously worked on GoldenEye 007. This is why we note many similarities in terms of mechanics between the adventure of Bond and that of Dark. The guards have almost the same artificial intelligence, the handling is very close, and the objectives are added in case of higher difficulty, like the previous FPS produced by Rare. The game engine itself is an improved version of the one used for GoldenEye 007. In total, Perfect Dark required 3 years of development, which can be considered normal production time today, but which was perceived as (very) long at the time. In fact, Hollis had to contend with various pitfalls during design, ranging from the departure of some of its executives (left to found Free Radical) to the lack of RAM on the console . The Expansion Pak, a small card to insert in the N64 to double the RAM, is also mandatory to rub shoulders with the game campaign.
We would nevertheless be wrong to compare Perfect Dark to a simple reskin of GoldenEye 007 . Joanna Dark actually has more than one trick in her Velcro bag. It has the possibility to take a look to discreetly check what is happening in a room, it has fun gadgets, like the famous mini-camera to deploy to inspect the levels, and above all, it can be accompanied by a (e) colleague. The main adventure can indeed be shared by two thanks to an innovative coop mode for the time. Graphically, the game is one of the most beautiful softs of the N64. The localized damage and the blood projected on the bodies as the decorations generate a good feeling of power linked to the weapons, while the musics, which vary according to the degree of danger, show good compositions. As far as sound design is concerned, the digital English voices bring real immersion. If that makes you smile today, it was not legion to hear real voices in the games coming out on the Nintendo machine.
For those who would like to (re) discover Rare's work, a remastered version is available on the Xbox Store (also included in Rare Replay ). It also has a coop mode playable on Xbox Live allowing the split screen despite the distance. Great for feeling like your best friend is playing right next to you while you're trying to save the world.
Perfect Dark
At a time when FPS was still called “ Doom-like ”, the action game in subjective view seemed destined to shine on PC. The Half-Life bomb released in 1998 only recalled the obsolescence of attempts on game consoles. With rare exceptions, no pun intended . In 1997, the British studio Rare published on Nintendo 64 a certain GoldenEye 007 , the video game adaptation of the film starring Pierce Brosnan in the costume of agent Bond. The critical and commercial success which followed convinced the studio to dig the track of the FPS on consoles.Despite the proposal to participate in the video adaptation of Tomorrow never dies, the studio prefers to create its own franchise . Thus was born Joanna Dark, a secret agent who uncovers the mysteries of dangerous organizations.
Perfect Dark on Nintendo 64 takes place in 2022. When its creation began in 1997, we still imagined that Blade Runner flying cars would wander between the skyscrapers of metropolises, in the 2020s. At the head of the team development, we find Martin Hollis, who previously worked on GoldenEye 007. This is why we note many similarities in terms of mechanics between the adventure of Bond and that of Dark. The guards have almost the same artificial intelligence, the handling is very close, and the objectives are added in case of higher difficulty, like the previous FPS produced by Rare. The game engine itself is an improved version of the one used for GoldenEye 007. In total, Perfect Dark required 3 years of development, which can be considered normal production time today, but which was perceived as (very) long at the time. In fact, Hollis had to contend with various pitfalls during design, ranging from the departure of some of its executives (left to found Free Radical) to the lack of RAM on the console . The Expansion Pak, a small card to insert in the N64 to double the RAM, is also mandatory to rub shoulders with the game campaign.
We would nevertheless be wrong to compare Perfect Dark to a simple reskin of GoldenEye 007 . Joanna Dark actually has more than one trick in her Velcro bag. It has the possibility to take a look to discreetly check what is happening in a room, it has fun gadgets, like the famous mini-camera to deploy to inspect the levels, and above all, it can be accompanied by a (e) colleague. The main adventure can indeed be shared by two thanks to an innovative coop mode for the time. Graphically, the game is one of the most beautiful softs of the N64. The localized damage and the blood projected on the bodies as the decorations generate a good feeling of power linked to the weapons, while the musics, which vary according to the degree of danger, show good compositions. As far as sound design is concerned, the digital English voices bring real immersion. If that makes you smile today, it was not legion to hear real voices in the games coming out on the Nintendo machine.
For those who would like to (re) discover Rare's work, a remastered version is available on the Xbox Store (also included in Rare Replay ). It also has a coop mode playable on Xbox Live allowing the split screen despite the distance. Great for feeling like your best friend is playing right next to you while you're trying to save the world.
