Perfect Dark
Tags: violence

Plot synopsis:
Perfect Dark is set in 2023 against the backdrop of an interstellar war between two races: the Maians, who resemble the archetypal grey alien, and the Skedar, reptile-like extraterrestrials who use a holographic disguise to appear as Scandinavian humans, bearing similarities to Nordic aliens. Using this disguise, they can interact with humans on Earth without looking too overtly suspicious. Meanwhile, on Earth, there is an ongoing rivalry between two factions: The Carrington Institute, a research and development center founded by Daniel Carrington that secretly operates an espionage group in league with the Maians; and dataDyne, a defence contractor corporation headed by Cassandra De Vries that secretly maintains a deal with the Skedar: in exchange for creating an AI capable of cracking an ancient alien spacecraft buried on the ocean floor, the Skedar have agreed to supply them with enough alien technology to become the biggest corporation on Earth.
The player is cast as Carrington Institute agent Joanna Dark, whose excellent scores in training have earned her the codename "Perfect Dark". On her first mission, she is sent to extract a scientist named Dr. Caroll from the dataDyne skyscraper. When Joanna rescues Dr. Caroll, she learns that he is an AI who decided to defect from dataDyne after realising that the company betrayed ethical and moral standards. After the operation, Carrington is held captive at his private villa by dataDyne soldiers and forced to tell them where Dr. Caroll has been hidden. Joanna manages to rescue Carrington, who informs her that Dr. Caroll has been taken to the G5 Corporation headquarters in Chicago because he is suspected to be a front for dataDyne. In Chicago, Joanna learns that dataDyne and their conspirators plan to kidnap the President of the United States to get access to a deep sea research vessel called Pelagic II. Despite the President being in danger, Carrington alerts Joanna that a Maian craft was shot down near Area 51 and sends her to rescue any survivors from the base. While inside the base, she rescues one survivor, a Maian protector named Elvis who is key in stopping the conspiracy.
As the President of the United States refuses to loan dataDyne the Pelagic II, the conspirators plot to kill him and replace him with a dataDyne-grown clone. To accomplish their plans, an NSA strike team led by Trent Easton invades the air base from which Air Force One will depart. When Joanna foils this strike, the NSA along with some Scandinavians take over the plane itself, which crashes after an attempt to detach a craft attached to it. Having survived the crash, Joanna eliminates the President's clone and rescues the real President. Meanwhile, Easton is killed by one particular Scandinavian known as Mr. Blonde, who is revealed to be a Skedar in disguise. Without permission from the President, dataDyne decides to hijack the Pelagic II and reach the ancient spacecraft. However, unbeknownst to dataDyne, the Carrington Institute learns that the spacecraft contains a powerful weapon capable of destroying a planet and that the conspirators are actually Skedar aliens disguised as Scandinavian humans who intend to test the weapon on Earth before using it against the Maian homeworld.
Joanna and Elvis follow the conspirators to the ancient spacecraft and eventually find a reprogrammed Dr. Caroll cracking the weapon. Joanna replaces its current personality with a backup of the original, and the restored Dr. Carroll sets the weapon to self-destruct. In retaliation for ruining their plans, the Skedar launch a strike on the Carrington Institute, capturing Joanna and taking her to their homeworld. While in their spaceship, she is met by De Vries, who has also been imprisoned due to her failure to comply with the deal. Feeling that she has been used, De Vries redeems herself by making a distraction and sacrificing herself, freeing Joanna and therefore giving herself a chance for revenge. Joanna is later assisted by Elvis and the pair manage to land on the Skedar planet. There, she defeats the Skedar High Priest, leaving the Skedar in disarray. The game ends with Elvis and Joanna leaving the planet just prior to an orbital bombardment from the Maian navy.

Review: Special Agent Joanna Dark works with the Carrington Institute.
With the lives of earth and other planets in the balance Joanna works to stop the alliance.This "sequel" to Goldeneye uses the same engine to drive it and looks similar in style - the controls being identical in fact.
However the graphics are considerably better, everything moves much faster, speech is involved in both the game and the cut sequences and the cinema scenes are longer.
With three difficulty levels on each stage (not only increasing the ability of your opponents but adding more objectives) and a range of challenges on each this will last you for a long time.
Even when you finish the level - for many if you complete it within a set time then you get a cheat (some of these are really hard).Outside of the game you have the traditional multi player game.
The degree to which you can tweak this is astonishing - you can set all types of weapons, all types of games (combat, king of the hill etc - not just games where you shoot everything in sight), time, scores and a set of 30 challenges to play against.
This will keep the game alive for long after you finish the main game and, unlike Goldeneye - you can still play it even if you're alone!The game has a gradual learning curve in both the game and the challenges, meaning that you will occassionally get stuck but not to the point of frustration.Overall this is a perfect game - I'm sure the graphics etc will be superseeded with time, but the heart of the game is strong..
"Goldeneye" was one of the first games released for the N64 and was a huge success.
The success of the game was mimicked in the years to come with more and more Bond games emerging, but none of them lived up to the originality and intense gameplay of "Goldeneye." But in 2000, Rareware (the makers of Goldeneye) announced plans for a sequel of sorts named "Perfect Dark" - based on almost identical gameplay, it would be about a female secret agent/spy, and when the game was released it was an instant success (it was also one of the first games to make use of the "Rumble Pak")."Perfect Dark" is a brilliant FPS and very unique.
The sequel is coming out soon for XBox 360 and I'm thinking of purchasing an XBox platform just to play the sequel - that's how impressed I was with the original "Perfect Dark" video game..
God dammit, the perfect game!.
After beating it (completing everything, cheats, levels and the thirty horrible hard multiplayer levels - damn proud) I have gone into some sort of dvala, just waiting for Perfect Dark 2.
Way better than Goldeneye...
This is my favorite game for Nintendo 64.
This game is basically Tomb Raider + Goldeneye + The Matrix.
My favorite part of the entire game is the Multiplayer, its so much fun to play with 4 people.
This is a great game..
Probably the best game ever..
Perfect Dark played on an N64 with the 4MB expansion pack is truly and utterly one of if not THE best video game ever.
Goldeneye was fantastic but this has took it to the next level.
Games like Quake 3, Doom 3 or Unreal Tournament might have better graphics but when it comes to sheer gameplay Perfect Dark is the king.
The graphics for it are maybe not quite as polished as its predecessor but the amount of great ideas are unrivaled in video game history.
It's over 4 years old and still beats any first person shooter by far.
Even though the sequel is to be released sometime in the future on the X-Box i doubt it will play the same as the original did.
The missions are so cool and laid out well with a good story and character interaction.
The thing that kept me coming back for more was the death matches with up to 8 players playing at the same time (human or sim) which was especially cool because there are so many modes and tweaks to make you play Perfect Dark for years to come.
Perfect Dark!.
Perfect Dark is one of the most different shoot em up video games on the N64!
The characters, the action, and the sure thrill of adventure makes this game a fun non-stop playing time!
Below is a brief look how I think the game is!
Novice gamers should have a good time here!Graphics: The graphics are wonderful.
The backgrounds are really beautiful!Difficulty: The game is easy but as it goes on you find out that it will become more difficult!Music: The music is great!
In My opinion its some of the best music ever in a video game!Sound: The sound is great.
Nuff said!Overall: I have always loved Perfect Dark!
If you like excellent adventure shooting games then I strongly recommend you play this game!To purchase this video game check out Amazon.com!.
This is one of the best videogames i have ever played.
I can't say enough good things about Rare's Perfect Dark, and as of this writing, I haven't even finished the game!Using their incredible Goldeneye engine, the folks at Rare have improved upon their success 1000% - on the technical side they've added speech, longer cinematic cuts to keep you involved in the story, and great music.
Within the game itself, FPS nuts like myself will thrill to the new weapons and gadgets.The game is not just "shoot everyone and take everything you see," however; there are many sequences where your guile and intelligence will serve you much better than a machine gun.The single or multiplayer Combat Simulator is what every FPS game from now on will use as the industry standard; the ability to tweak every nuance of your deathmatch is unparalleled, and the skills of the computer-run "simulants" will challenge even the most jaded console warrior to the fight of his or her "life."Highly recommended, Perfect Dark scores a Perfect 10..
Truly a great Game.
PD is truely a great game and deserves all the credit it receives.
A great first person shooter and combat game.
But I'd like to look back at a game that pushed the N64 to it's limits.
That game was Perfect Dark, from the makers of Goldeneye comes a game that some would call a sequel, but I wouldn't.
it's a game that uses the same engine, and the same shell of a story, but instead, the hero has 2 Perky boobs on her chest instead of hair.Joanna Dark is a 23 year old Secret agent on a mission to rescue an AI named Dr. Carroll.
But what starts as a rescue mission for a Flying computer (literally) unfolds into a much bigger story, taking Joanna to a private villa where her boss lives, Chicago, Area 51, and outer space.For the N64, The game was amazing when it came out.
if you were a fan of goldeneye at the time, you knew PD was going to rock your socks off.
the Single player mode was a vast improvement; the Guards would conversate and yell taunts while shooting at you, and their guns would sometimes Jam. They would get scared, and some would scream when they got shot.
wonder where good ol' Jack Thompson was then.) Also, you don't just read the in-game Dialogue, The characters actually Speak!
On top of that, there was a language filter, but it was more of a joke than anything, cause all it did was cut out the dialogue that had words like Hell and Damn in them, and sometimes that would cut out important dialogue to move the story along.Multiplayer was probably the biggest improvement.
and unlike goldeneye, you could actually customize Weapon Sets, Character bodies and heads, and music!
all in All, Perfect Dark on the N64 was probably it's best title.Now, for the Xbox 360 Remake.What can I say about this one?
Joanna looks downright sexy and so do the female staff at carrington institute.
Elvis lost his cuteness (I kinda thought he was) now he just looks ugly.A few more add-ons; Achievements (shooting all of Daniel Carrington's wine bottles in the villa gives you the "Act your age, Joanna" achievement.) and the addition of online play.
I haven't experimented with it yet, so i can't comment whether it's good or not, but i'm expecting it to be good.Bottom line, I'm proud that Rare created this gem, and I only wish that they could release a good new PD game.Make Joanna's Fans happy, Rare.10/10.
A perfect sequel.
When i heard that RareWare were bringing out a sort of sequel to Goldeneye i thought great this is going to be much more better.
Best game to get for N64.
The fact that the main character is a female secret agent adds a little sarcasm to the stories.
She's brilliant, beautiful and a professional with guns.I also love the fact that one of the aliens is named Elvis.
He fights by Joanna's side when in space.This game has the same controls as Goldeneye, but this game is way better.
The guns are more futuristic with maybe a couple of modern weapons like a shotgun.Personally, my favourite guns are the laptop gun and Farsight.Anyways, people who enjoy games like CS and Goldeneye, i recommend this game.
It's easy to play and fun for everyone!.
Perfect Dark is hard to review because in many ways it is the same as Rare's previous shooter, GoldenEye 007, but in other ways it is so much better.
In short, Perfect Dark is the perfect, non-official, sequel to GoldenEye 007.
Sure, the settings are different, and there are some different weapons (after all this IS a science fiction based game), but overall you can still see the loving touches the developers brought back from GoldenEye.The game is set in a well developed science fiction environment and many of the levels provide difficulties that are handled by the new features added to the character's options.
The wide range of weapons is one of the major improvements over its predecessor, GoldenEye, as well as the unique plot (after all, this one isn't based on a movie).
So the plot is an interesting one involving alien invasions and government conspiracy and does keep the gamer interested throughout its run, but without a doubt my favorite feature of this game that I found lacking in GoldenEye 007 is the actual use of voice actors.
Joanna Dark and all the other characters in this film have a voice we can link to their image, while with GoldenEye we'd have to go back to the film to recall the voices of our characters.Of course, the major improvement over GoldenEye 007 is the multiplayer feature which is fun, and do to a wider range of weapons the gamer is allowed to execute new strategies, so overall Perfect Dark really is an expansion of GoldenEye 007 as well as being a great gaming experience by itself.This is a game that is great to play back-to-back with GoldenEye 007, because you should probably learn the controls from GoldenEye before you play this game because it makes it a lot simpler (but I suppose you could play this before you play GoldenEye, but I'm someone who likes to play/view in chronological order).So if you enjoyed GoldenEye 007 (as so many other people have over the years) you should certainly dust off the Nintendo 64 and come back to this perfectly worthy successor..
This game didn't get much recognition as opposed to Goldeneye (which this was based on).
However this game constantly amazed me and the as you first start to play it becomes apparent this game is very special.The one player game starts off where Goldeneye's outstanding one-player game left off and is even better.
You play Joanna Dark (codenamed 'Perfect') investigating sinister behaviour of a megacorporation called Datadyne.
In fact, the future of the planet and maybe even the universe is in jeopardy.This artificial intelligence is brilliant, the graphics are amazing for the Nintendo 64, the multiplayer mode is great (but a little overcomplicated) and it's full of innovation from the word go.
It would be easy to get carried away on call this the best game ever made...This game starts to lose it's greatness when it gets to the later missions.
This isn't so apparent when you play it on the easier difficulties but play it on 'Perfect Agent' (the equivalent to Goldeneye's 00 Agent) and you start to realize that this game is extremely hard and success becomes a lot to do with luck as well as skill.As with all stealth games you are outnumbered, however, this game doesn't give you as many opportunities for being stealthy.
You really do have to a perfect gamer to be able to deal with the incredibly hard situations you are put in the game.
and again, and again, and again, and again, and again etc.However, despite this I still highly respect it and I hope the issues are addressed in the eventual sequel on the X-Box. Then, we could be looking at the greatest game of all time.
Interesting to note, Perfect Dark was going to feature a multiplayer feature where you would be able to scan in your face picture with a Game Boy Camera and map it onto a deathmatch character (in full-colour despite the fact the GB Camera took pictures in greyscale).
If this feature had been implemented I feel this game would have become very famous but controversial due to children being able to do this.
Superior sequel to Goldeneye N64.
What can you say about a game where you are a female agent protecting the world from alien domination?
Rare could not come out with a better sequel to Goldeneye than PD.
The plot is especially good, and Elvis is the coolest alien you ever done saw.If you don't own this game you better rush out and buy it!
One Of The Greatest Video Games Ever Made.
Perfect Dark is the long awaited sequel to GoldenEye 007 for the Nintendo 64 Entertainment System.
Following the exploits of new Carrington Institute Special Agent Joanna "Perfect Dark" Dark, who achieved a more than perfect score in her agent training.
Soon Joanna is not only fighting for herself, but for the fate of the universe.Combining first person shooting action, sci-fi drama, and thrilling espionage, Perfect Dark received PERFECT ratings from most reviewers.
Perfect Dark takes the innovative GoldenEye multiplayer to a new level, where you design your character, customize the settings (including guns and limits of the match), choose different scenarios (King of the Hill and Capture the Case), to going against 6 levels of CPU Simulants (from the stupid MeatSim to the smart and evil DarkSim).
This game is one of the last great N64 titles, and is now a Player's Choice - Million Seller Game.You would be wrong not to check out Perfect Dark..
Best Multi-Player for 64.
This game far surpasses it's inspiration (Goldeneye).
A "perfect" game for parties.
If you liked Goldeneye, the only thing you won't like about this game is that fast animation isn't nearly as quick as Goldeneye..
Return of GoldenEye...starring Joanna Dark as 007.
Perfect Dark IS modeled right after GoldenEye (though the rights for the James Bond games were swiped by EA at this time).
However, the elements of GoldenEye still belong to Rareware, since EA hasn't even dreamed of recreating the original GoldenEye (though they are releasing their own version of the game next month; now they're buying up most GoldenEye knock-offs, like TimeSplitters).GRAPHICS: Not really improved since GoldenEye's reign of terror, but there are some add-ons, such as how every gun has its own reload animation and now you can see your hand as you're holding the gun (unlike GoldenEye, where you could only see your hand on handguns.
Environments are pretty big, especially in the multiplayer levels.SOUND: Improved over GoldenEye, but only slightly.
An amusing thing about the sound is how you can hear the simulants in the combat arena shooting at each other in the distance, letting you know there must be one heck of a blazefest going on across the building.
I had to play without the Pak, so I'm missing all the yummy-ness the game was supposed to be built with.GAMEPLAY: Again, same as GoldenEye, except this time, the Deathmatch multiplayer allows one player to pit themselves with or against teams of computer-generated beings called simulants.
You can have up to 8 simulants, but in order to get that 8, you must work for it (preferably in the Challenges).
The only gripe I have is how unfair challenges seem to be after a while, like this one I'm stuck on where I have a simulant to work with against one enemy simulant, and there are one-hit kills.
Also, you need the Expansion Pak for the N64 in order to live the entire Perfect Dark experience.
Hey...that's why cartridges suck.BOTTOM LINE: Though this is a LITTLE better than GoldenEye, I wouldn't say too much.
Overall, you can check it out and see how nice it is, and it should be real easy to get used to if you've played GoldenEye before this.
Perfect Game..
Perfect Game..
SPOILERSPerfect Dark is the 2nd best N64 game(For me, the best is Ocarina of Time).
This can be named "Goldeneye 2" because of the similar things to the 1997 shooter classic.
The graphics are perfect.You can see many details in the game.
The game has many cool musics(Such as the end credits) and a cast of great dubbers.
The gameplay is very simple, with controls of perfect response.
The game is COOL!Many missions(More than 15), many guns(More than 40, each one with 2 functions) and the best Multiplayer of N64.Imagine this Multiplayer in Online Mode!
Perfect Dark is the prove of the quality of Rareware.
The scores are: GRAPHICS-10/10 SOUND-10/10 GAMEPLAY-10/10 FUN FACTOR-10/10Overall: 10/10.
The second best game of N64.