Ask most gamers to name the best shooter of the early ’00s, and you’ll get two names: GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark. Considering the innovations, speedrunning potential, and fun of both games, there’s no higher praise. Released for the Nintendo 64 in 2000, Joanna Dark’s adventures helped set the standard for FPS and PvP gameplay. Yet unlike Bond’s story, Joanna’s more or less ended there, despite a prequel and remaster. Now The Initiative and Crystal Dynamics are setting things right. Perfect Dark‘s long-awaited gameplay reveal delivered (almost) everything we wanted to see at Summer Game Fest. Yet one alien conspicuously no-showed.
Perfect Dark Steps Into the Light
FPS games have changed a lot since 2000, but Perfect Dark refused to be left behind. The gameplay trailer shows a variety of modern gimmicks, including slick parkour, wall-running, cinematic melee takedowns, and stylish finishers. If you’re itching for bullet time shootouts and slow-mo slide-kicks, the trailer has some that would make Neo sit up and take notice. Don’t be fooled, however: Joanna’s as multi-faceted an operative as ever. Using a vocal analysis device she’s able to scan guards for their voice prints before infiltrating an enemy hideout to gather intel on the mysterious Carrington and an impending attack.
Early ’00s PvP in Perfect Dark and Golden Eye was as much about Big Head mode and Slappers Only as adrenaline-thumping action. Perfect Dark took so many unique approaches to gameplay that it’s easy to overlook one of the game’s other highlights: Aelphaeis Mangarae (Elvis). When Joanna first meets the Maian alien, he’s laid out on an autopsy table in anticipation of the knife. The unlikely friendship that results is one of the best (and weirdest) parts of the original game’s story, but we didn’t get any peeks at it in the newest trailer. Maybe The Initiative is cooking up a new Laptop Gun instead. For more about this and other reveals, check out our Summer Game Fest Guide.
Perfect Dark will come to Game Pass when it releases, although there’s no official release date at this time.
