Description
Joanna Dark is an agent for the Carrington Institute, a secret organization funded by anonymous sources and dedicated to protecting the world. Through their highly trained operatives and special devices (gadgets), Carrington keeps an eye on terrorists, world powers, and strange happenings. The speed in which the dataDyne corporation has established itself through the development of new technologies is starting to worry the institute. So when Carrington receives a message from Dr. Caroll, a scientist wishing to escape dataDyne, they send their best agent, Joanna, to infiltrate the company headquarters...
Perfect Dark is a first person game similar to Rare's earlier
Goldeneye: 007 though with more of an emphasis on stealth. Joanna can pick up and use a variety of firearms. In addition she carries quite a few spy gadgets such as IR scanners, night vision, probes, and a deadly laptop.
The Xbox 360 port has redone graphics to support a 1080p full HD resolution at 60 frames per second. It also incorporates full multiplayer support over Xbox LIVE.
Alternate Titles
- "完美的黑暗" -- Chinese spelling (simplified)
- "Wanmei de Hei'an" -- Chinese title
- "Red and Black" -- Japanese working title
- "パーフェクトダーク" -- Japanese spelling
Part of the Following Groups
User Reviews
The Press Says
Forums
Trivia
Bugs
The first release cartridges have more than their fair share of glitches and bugs. The most glaring example is this is that if you try to load up the Warehouse multiplayer level with three players, the game will crash. No exceptions. Worse than this however is that "Challenge 7" is a three person game on the warehouse level and simply impossible to play if you have one of these early cartridges.
Cheese
In each level there is a hidden piece of Swiss cheese. This was originally part of a plan to have a mega cheat activated when all the cheese was found, but it was scrapped in the final version.
Difficulty
Advancing trough the three basic skill levels (Agent, Special Agent, and Perfect Agent) not only increases the number of missions and reveals new areas, but also grants you access to the elite Perfect Dark skill level. Rare's development team has stated that nearly 95 percent of players will never be able to finish the game on this difficulty even if they somehow manage to get to it.
Game Boy Camera
During development, it was announced that Perfect Dark would use the Game Boy Camera in conjunction with the N64 Transfer Pak. Players would be able to use these two accessories to map their own faces on in-game character models for use in multiplayer modes. However, due to the potential of media controversy of 'being able to shoot your friends', this feature was removed prior to the game's release.
Japanese version
In the Japanese version, almost all blood was removed.
References
- The Carrington Institute has a display case with weapons from Goldeneye 007 in it.
- Some of the random head models/textures in the game are based on gaming journalist photographs taken at 1999's Electronics Entertainment Expo. This includes but is not limited to Ed McGlothlin, Matt Cassamassina, and Peer Schneider.
- The BAFTA Interactive Award which Rare was given for GoldenEye 007 can be seen in a safe in the G5 building level of Perfect Dark.
- On the Area 51 Rescue stage, there is a reference to the Pixies, the rock band popular for songs that usually mentioned aliens and UFOs. The following names are called on the loudspeakers:
- "Dr. Francis, please go to Cryo Lab A" - "Captain Santiago, go to Medical Bay 6" - "Lieutenant Deal, report to Containment" - "Dr. Lovering, please phone autopsy"
The band was formed by Black Francis, Joey Santiago, Kim Deal and David Lovering.
Awards
- EGM
- February 2006 (Issue #200) - #170 out of 200 of the "Greatest Games of Their Time"
Information also contributed by
atadota,
Big John WV,
Jeanne,
Jiguryo,
Joshua J. Slone and
WildKard
