Allow me to introduce you to what I consider a masterpiece first-person shooter. In May of 2000, Rare ltd released Perfect Dark for the Nintendo 64. Perfect Dark was an expansive spiritual successor to Rare's 1997's blockbuster, Goldeneye 007. Building off all the revolutionary features of the previous game, Perfect Dark blends things we loved from Goldeneye and fuses it with a boatload of stuff we didn't know we needed. From a fully cooperative campaign mode to one of the first cases of an asymmetric gameplay style, that is now a popular staple of modern gaming. Counter-Operative mode puts one player in the hero role while the other player sides with the baddies and attempts to help the AI prevent the hero from completing her mission. Upgraded graphics and explosive visuals are accented by high-fidelity sound effects and an over-the-top soundtrack that still pounds to this day!
Perfect Dark is set in a cyberpunk style dystopian world where mega corporations have grown in size to rival governments in power. You play as Joanna Dark, or 'Perfect' Dark as she is known to her colleagues, a young and talented special operative taken under wing by her mentor, Daniel Carrington. She works for his private military research company, known as the Carrington Institute under their special investigations division as a secret agent. The covert operations run by the Carrington Institute allow them to get a competitive edge on rivals, with Carrington Institute being responsible for the "Fifth Element" style flying cars being a prominent feature of the skyline of the world.
Agent Dark is tasked with recovering a scientist from dataDyne corporate headquarters, CI will provide a rooftop insertion, but after that it's up to Joanna to find the scientist and bring him back to the Carrington Institute. With the scientist in hand, Joanna uncovers a plot to overthrow the U.S. government using alien technology. It's up to Joanna Dark to stop the dataDyne coup attempt and possibly even stop a war beyond her own planet.
For me, Perfect Dark is a game that holds a wealth of nostalgic memories. Countless hours were spent with my brother and cousin battling in the Combat Simulator against a team of 8 simulants. We would set the goal to 800 kills and then race to be the person to have the most kills at the end of the round. And when I say countless hours, I mean it. Some of our old multiplayer characters had hundreds of hours in game time, with us prone to deleting and remaking them on a whim. For many years, this was the game we all gravitated to and enjoyed playing together. My cousin and I still periodically talk about Perfect Dark and the fun we had, wishing we could recreate the simplicity of childhood if only for a moment.
I am currently doing a replay of the Perfect Dark series on my youtube channel. I would really appreciate it if you could throw it on in the background, toss me a like and maybe even subscribe to my channel. I am also working on a Perfect Dark Retrospective video essay, and I'm pulling the script together now. It's been exciting to learn so much about the game I thought I knew so well. Stay tuned for that in the future!
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