Perfect Dark XBLA Review!!!

Here's a review for anyone interested in picking this up.

Perfect Dark XBLA Review



Can you improve on perfection?


by Daemon Hatfield

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March 16, 2010 - Think of Perfect Dark on Xbox Live Arcade as a re-mastered album from your favorite band, or even a vintage film restored for re-release by the Criterion Collection. Microsoft and 4JStudios have dusted off our heroine Joanna Dark and given her a full makeover so her first adventure looks and plays better than ever. Perfect Dark was ahead of its time for console first-person shooters -- it required us to install a memory expansion pack in our Nintendo 64 just to run it, and even then the framerate would slow to a crawl when the action heated up. Now you can experience it as the developers originally intended, now with a smooth framerate and modern perks like online multiplayer and leaderboards. The game certainly feels dated by today's standards, but I was surprised by how much fun it still is. Perfect Dark was resurrected for the fans, and they're going to be pleased with this improved version.

Here's the gist for anyone sad enough (or young enough) to not have played Perfect Dark back in the day. Nintendo and developer Rare managed to make this spiritual successor to GoldenEye 64 the epitome of console shooters in 1999. PC gamers may have looked at it and scowled because it didn't do anything they hadn't been enjoying for years. Actually, it did less, because PC gamers had been throwing LAN parties and playing online before Perfect Dark was even a glimmer in Rare's eye. But, as far as console FPS games you played with a controller went, Perfect Dark had no peer.

Joanna Dark is a British secret agent trying to unravel an alien conspiracy. Along the way she'll travel to exotic locales, use some fancy gadgets, and kill a lot of people. The best parts of the package are the amazing selection of weapons, the satisfying gunplay, and the friendly multiplayer features. The not-so-hot parts are the dialogue, voice acting, and some vague mission objectives that can be frustrating. The voice actress playing Joanna is horribly miscast and sounds like anything but a badass. Mouths don't move; instead, characters will nod their heads at you and shake their club fists in the air to indicate they are speaking. And Joanna's alien sidekick with an attitude, Elvis, is the epic fail of attempts at comic relief. As for the vague mission objectives…well, it's a 10-year old game, so you won't have any trouble finding help if you need it.

If you never played Perfect Dark, this will probably just serve as a reminder of how much first-person shooters have improved in the past decade. But, as I said before, this wasn't brought back for the uninitiated -- this is for the fans, and they will be very, very happy. Perfect Dark on XBLA is one of the most impressive repackagings of a game I've seen and is definitely worth $10.

That said, I did encounter a hiccup here and there when playing with four players in splitscreen. Every so often the game would freeze for just an instant. It wasn't enough to break the game and it wasn't anything like the slowdown of the original, but it was noticeable.

There may be more to do here than in any other XBLA game. First you've got the 17 story missions, each with three difficulty settings that add objectives and make the enemies less dumb. Seriously, playing on the easy Agent difficulty is like running through a lobotomy ward and mowing down everyone you see. That's not to say it isn't fun -- on the contrary, I appreciate how Agent mode makes me feel like an incredible (hot chick) badass. But when returning and trying the missions on Special Agent and finally Perfect Agent settings you'll find additional goals that must be met.

Each time you complete a mission your time is posted to the leaderboards, and you can instantly compare your performance with your friends. There is bound to be a lot of heated competition in the coming weeks with people trying to post the most impressive speed runs.

All of the story missions can also be played with a friend cooperatively, or you can play for opposing teams in Counter Operative mode. Here, one player is Joanna and the other controls the guards. Joanna still has just one life to give, but the guard player will respawn as another enemy when gunned down. It's great fun. Note that both Cooperative and Counter Operative modes can be played in local splitscreen or online.

Then there is the endlessly tweakable Combat Simulator, also playable online or in old school four-player splitscreen. One of the coolest aspects of the Simulator is that you can add up to four bots, or Simulants, to your game. Simulants come in a variety of attack programs and difficulties. FistSim protests the use of weapons and will only engage in unarmed combat. JudgeSim guns for the player in the lead in an attempt to even out the score. And MeatSim is just there for you to slaughter.

How in the hell did we ever play this game with the N64 controller? Perfect Dark plays like a dream now with two analog sticks and you have three button configurations to choose from: "Classic Style," "Spartan" for you Halo fans, and "Duty Calls" for the Call of Duty kids.

Closing Comments
I can't imagine a better way to revive a classic. Perfect Dark has never looked or played better, and anyone who sank a significant portion of their life into the game a decade ago will happily sacrifice even more of their time to do it all again. There is more content to sift through here than just about any other XBLA game. Sure, the voice acting is terrible and its feeble attempts at humor will have you groaning. But Perfect Dark still has one of the best arsenals of any FPS and the gunplay is very satisfying. This version is even closer to perfection than the original was.

d@mn didn't know it was already out or coming out soon. I thought the release date was in a month or so, dunno if I have the money for it right now

I bought it on day one of release on xbla, who else has this game?

I completely missed this! I always loved this game and then PDZ. Wonder if any of the glitches from the N64 version still work that people used for speed runs.