If you played Perfect Dark on a Nintendo 64 back in 2000, then you’re going to love this game. If you were overjoyed by Rare’s earlier game “Goldeneye 007″ on any format, then you are going to love it. Otherwise, this is going to be an interesting history lesson in gaming. Actually, the Xbox 360 seems to be mining the past quite a bit at the moment between “Game Room” and its “Time Warp” events.
Perfect Dark on the Xbox Live Arcade is the game updated for high definition screens and on hardware that can actually manage the frame rate lacking back in 2000. At the time it was the best, most advanced first person shooter (FPS) on the market. It even had an in-built “easy mode”, namely the “auto lock-on” feature of the weapons used to take out the security guards encountered in the game. The storyline of interstellar war in 2023 between a cast of aliens that look like a the aliens in V (lizard-like who can disguise themselves as humans) and the greys so beloved by the X-Files, and a lot of other science-fiction. Even back then daring co-op modes and death-matches were wonderful. Admittedly via split screen and with everyone crowded around the same “enormous” 12 inch screen.
Well its all back along with Xbox Live multiplayer support so you can play with people all around the globe.
There is just one problem with this game. Its the original game. Yes the graphics have been spruced up, and I think the voices have been re-recorded (or at least re-mastered), and there are alternative weapons in multiplayer. But is the same game. Things have moved on in the land of FPS games over the last ten years.
To new players, its going to be tough. To put it simply, you don’t know where to go. Levels seem repeated and confusing, part of this was a lack of space to store lots of textures back in 2000, that space is now available. Objectives required to complete missions aren’t always that clear. For example in the first mission level (which conveniently enough is also the demo level) you start at the roof and have to break in to the basement. Great, but you need a key. No where is it made clear where the key can be found, and you are warned that the keys have a “life sensor” type lock. If you kill the owner, the key stops working. Great! You just can’t find the key or the key’s owner. What actually happens is that the texture used for the door in to the CEO’s office (not a spoiler, she is revealed in the cast screen) matches the walls of the corridors and placed between two lifts mean it looks like a separating wall. I found myself walking past the entrance repeatedly. I only found them because I needed a place to duck while being shot at, and the “wall” opened. Then again I might have been playing too many first person shooters what feature a version of the all knowing navigation arrow.
A silly example, but one of make. To put it another way, they could have upgraded a lot of things along the way, but chose not to. You get an enhanced version of the game which runs on improved hardware and seems to have a few of the old glitches removed (ahem, AI tweaks, ahem). Pure and simple. Then throw in modern multiplayer along with the local multiplayer modes.
If you loved the N64 version or really want to play something like “Goldeneye 007″ (which for licensing reasons is very unlikely to happen (unless they really, really need the money)) then spend the download points to get it. Otherwise, try out the demo and see that nostalgia may not be what it used to be.
