 |
|
The biggest game of 2000, Perfect Dark, due out May
22nd. |
 |
|
Everybody was kung-fu
fighting. |
 |
|
"O my strength...haste Thee to help
me" |
 |
|
Hey, weren't you that Soviet Union boxer from Rocky
IV? |
 |
|
The 4-player battling...trust us: you will want
to click it to
enlarge. | |
"It's Finally Coming..."
Perfect Dark Central
The day is February 3rd, 2000. Up until
this day, there was nothing going on in the PD world, except for
THE delay that shocked and enraged the whole videogaming world. Besides
E3 1999, the Nintendo Gamer's Summit in early February granted some of the most
amazing news in videogame history. The founders of this site were shocked and
exhilarated as well with the plethora of news and info released. It seems very
overwhelming, but don't worry, that's where this preview comes in. This is the
most up-to-date preview out there, dealing with every aspect and all the main modes of Perfect Dark. One rule
before reading...when you see a link, we highly reccomend clicking it. It will
lead to detailed screens, or other pages of information that can be found no
where else on the site.
This is Perfect Dark, set in the year 2023. Daniel Carrington is the leader
of the elite Carrington Institute, and suspects that rapid technological
developments at DataDyne HQ are the results of the corporation taking a
"dark" path to first contact. People are being abducted, animals are
being mutilated and Carrington suspects that the grand plan penetrates far
deeper than these surface incidents. Joanna
Dark, codenamed Perfect Dark, is sent in to investigate and is involved
with other characters as well. And so the story falls in your hands [
Rareware]. With the many cutscenes and quit turns in the plot, we
believe this game will rival that of, yes, Half-Life's storyline. And that in
itself is an amazing compliment.
Perfect Dark is scheduled to take about 40-50 hours to complete, offer 17
levels, spanned through 9 missions from a futuristic Chicago and Area 51. Each
level has more complex objectives that gamers found in the classic, Goldeneye
and three stages of difficulty per level. With each difficulty, parts of each
level are accessed differently. On the easiest setting, a gamer may find certain
aspects and objectives missing when compared to the highest difficulty setting.
So basically, you are getting three different experiences for each level. Rare
has much more strenuous objectives, when compared to Goldeneye, and is supposed
to be more intellectually challenging, instead of just having the enemy's
difficulty cranked up. Objectives include setting mines that take out all the
cameras in the level, grabbing a data-storing necklace from a DataDyne
higher-up, and convincing a scientist to grant you access to a computer system.
Rare is aiming for "mentally difficult levels," meaning players are going to
have to solve some serious puzzles in some cases - that is, if they play on a
harder setting.
But what is easily one of the most intriguing and exciting features of
Perfect Dark is the weapon selection. More than 44 weapons are in
this game including the entire selection from Goldeneye. The guns each
have a secondary function and can be useful for killing off those enemies. An
example of Rare's genius is with the Dragon gun. It's normal firing is
impressive, but it's secondary function is even better. Players can place the
Dragon on the ground, where it will disguise itself as a normal weapon pick-up.
Then when an opponent does come to pick it up, thinking they've just made a
"steal", it'll blow up and kill them right in their face. Fascinating.
Another cool feature is the Tranquilizer gun which, when shot, causes an enemy
to become dazed and unable to properly hold their guard. This also comes into
play in multiplayer, where your friend may suffer from a temporary dizziness
condition.
Of course one to four players will be able to play Perfect Dark in a
scheduled multiplayer
deathmatch mode that should easily rival 007 for the best multiplayer
on the system. Wait, no, it will dominate any other multiplayer game on a
console. There are 30 maps or so in multiplayer, "bots" as team
members or enemies, and plenty of modes. There is, finally, the confirmed
two-player cooperative play with one gamer controlling Joanna Dark and the other
controlling her sister. What do you think the delay was spent on now? And new is
the attractive
counter-operative mode where one player manipulates Joanna and the other
heads up a random enemy in an attempt to stop Joanna before she can pass the
level. When Joanna kills this random enemy, the player simply jumps into another
enemy body and continues on in the fun. We are a bit confused, curious and
excited, so we'll have to wait 'til we get our hands on the final product to
officially tell how this will play out. In the multiplayer mode, there is an
overabundance of the videogame press as secret characters to use, such as the
IGN folks and great EGM review team. Don't like IGN64? Now you get to kill
them…how charming. Also, with the Expansion Pak detected, four human
opponents can battle it out against and with eight computer-controlled bots in
multiplayer mode. But we'll be frank, the framerate suffers tremendously from 8
bots and 4 players going at it, expansion pak or not. And by not owning one, you
are really missing out big time. Check the chart below for proof.
And there are even other modes not even mentioned or conceived before. Rare
has added a Carrington Institute or "Challenge" mode which is generally a
training area, fully equipped with a shooting range and a hologram chamber,
where you can learn how to take on foes in hand-to-hand combat. There are 30
unique trials, 4-player and simulant action as well. In the shooting range,
players are awarded bronze, silver, and gold medals, depending on the
proficiency and accuracy with a specific weapon. And even better, a downstairs
hangar shows off some of the vehicles used in PD, like the cool hover sled. The
other mode added that we had no idea about is the Combat Simulator mode.
Rare has made up some mission simulators for practicing your skills. Not all of
the missions will be open right away with the more completed, the more opened.
There is of course a reward for completing all these. And somewhat unrelated
comes the bad news, which many are already informed of, about the Transfer
Pak/Face-Mapping being cancelled for programming and safety reasons. Having kids
shoot their friends in a game is not Nintendo.
Other features include new enhanced graphics, using the 4-mb expansion pak
matching an 3D-accelerated PC. Trust us when we tell you that this will be the
most beautiful game the console has ever seen (just check out our pictures for
proof). Cinema is set to be a big part of Perfect Dark and there will be more
than an hour and a half of it, complete with lines read by professional voice
actors, in the game. The characters actually converse together, outloud, making
this game a serious contender for the best audio use in a N64 game. The game's
motion capture currently has a chunk from Goldeneye 007, but there are new
death animations and enemy animations, don't you worry. Enemies grab for
their lower groin in what looks to be unbearable pain when shot "down
South". There are all sorts of new visual extras such as night-vision, an
Eye Spy vision where players see through fish-eye bubble explosions, and of
course more. Like we said with multiplayer, there is concern about framerate, even
this late in PD's development. The amazing textures, memory and amount of
players on screen really harm the overall framerate, even with a
"trusty" 4-mb expansion pak. But to get the full hi-resolution effect,
and just the best gaming experience, a 4-mb pak is the way to go, and we assume
90% of you already own one. [Want More on the graphics? Then read our special]
The AI (artificial intelligence) is supposedly 200 times more powerful than
Goldeneye with Rare's proprietary AI engine creating smarter enemies that duck,
hide and even run away when trouble arrives. New, booming surround sound, that
should match Rogue Squadron and its MOsys FX Surround by Factor 5, has also been
added. Rare has promised to include an amazing soundtrack and crisp sound
effects. We of course know it's possible with the excellent music from Goldeneye,
developed almost 2 years ago. Prepare to crank up the speakers for this one. PD
also includes Real-time Ray Tracing and Rare's Acoustic Shadowing Technology™
and some MP3 compression for all those cutscenes. Perfect Dark is scheduled to
be on a 32-MB cart and will have a "Mature" ESRB rating and
the common $60 price tag. The reason behind the "M" rating is due to
the fact this is a rather bloody shooter (a bit bloodier than Goldeneye) and due
to the fact there have been a lot of school shootings in the past year. Expect
almost any and every shooter game from now on to receive the "Mature"
tag. The release of the game is scheduled for May 22, 2000. With the new
info recently relased from Nintendo's Gamer Summit, there is no reason not to
already have this game reserved. Play Goldeneye for preparation, visit PDC for
all the info, and kiss the ground that Rare walks on. We can't fully express the
rabid anticipation we have for the greatest console first-person shooter ever
made and the best N64 game ever made at that. (Slink).
Note: We suggest visiting these links for more additional PD
info:
|
