Perfect Dark
Reviewed by PlunX
Perfect Dark was thought to be the sequel to Goldeneye 007, a
game with great succession on the Nintendo 64. Perfect Dark can be
called the sequel to Goldeneye 007, since the games are so much
alike... Even possibly TOO much alike. Don't get me wrong, Perfect
Dark and Goldeneye 007 are two completely different games with
completely different goals, but you can tell the likeness from the
get-go. There's a government crisis, and you're trying to stop it.
It sounds easy, but the game is from the strategic angle... It's
not just a 'run-around-the-corner-and-shoot-everyone' type game.
You have to plan on who you want to take out, like in Mission Impossible.
Graphics 6 out of 10
I really didn't want to bring the score this low since the TRUE
graphics are some of the most amazing ones that I've seen on
the Nintendo 64, but the graphics are so good that it slows the
game down... A lot. Like Turok 2 (the graphics were excellent, but
the game was slow), it's hard to actually target an enemy because
of the frameskips when there are a lot of objects on the screen.
Luckily, Perfect Dark has a 'locking-on' feature that Turok 2 didn't
have. If it wouldn't have had this automatic lock-on feature, I would
have dropped the score down to a 4, seeing how the graphics would
be so complex that it would be almost impossible to target an enemy.
Music and Sound 8 out of 10
The music in the game is great, and so are the sound effects. But,
the pause theme sounds almost identical to the pause theme in
Goldeneye 007, which isn't bad, but they should have changed it
around a bit. A lot of the other music and sound effects seemed
to have come almost directly from Goldeneye 007.
Game Challenge 10 out of 10
The only real reason why the game is so hard is because of the
slowness of it. There are a lot of objectives to complete, and it
takes a while to do them (and to get the hang of them). Since the
game takes the whole Mission Impossible 'strategic' style game-play,
you'll have a lot of thinking to do before you do some of the later missions.
Game Play-Fun 8 out of 10
Because of the games slow-down and just the complete slowness
of the game, I didn't have too much fun taking over two hours on
one single mission... Not because of the difficulty, but because it
took me 20 shots just to kill a single enemy. If the game was
faster, it would be completely awesome.
Frustration
I was totally frustrated with the slowness of the game, as you
can see. I just don't know why they'd release a game with this
good of graphics if they know that it'll slow it down.
Replayability 5 out of 10
I took the game back after I rented it to get another game. If
you're a strategy fan (or you liked Mission Impossible for the Nintendo
64), you might have a good time playing this. I really didn't, though.
Game Value 3 out of 10
The only thing that I have to say is that I wouldn't pay more than
$30 for this game.
Overall 6 out of 10
Perfect Dark was a good idea, and COULD HAVE BEEN a great
game. But because of the astonishing graphics that slow down
the game and the framerate, I didn't like it very much. Again, if
you like strategy games in which you must think a lot before you
perform a certain action, rent this game... But don't buy it before
you've tried it. I played this game with and without the Expansion
Pak, and I really didn't see any difference (besides you could only
play a few game modes without it, and all game modes with it). I
was thinking that the Expansion Pak would completely speed both
of these games up, but... It didn't.