Gaming, Headline, Microsoft, Review, XBLA|March 21, 2010 12:12 pm

Perfect Dark Singleplayer Review (XBLA)



Game: Perfect Dark
Release Date: March 17, 2010
Genre: Shooter
Developer: 4J Studios
Available Platforms: Xbox 360
Players: 1-4 (2-8 Online)
MSRP: 800 MSP
Multiplayer: Versus
, Co-Op
Game Rating: M (Mature)
Website:http://www.4jstudios.com/

Ohh Perfect Dark, how I have longed to play you since the days of the N64. Well now thanks to magic of technology I have the chance to relive some of the memories I had with the original. You could say Perfect Dark was one of the original FPS games that along with Goldeneye but If you haven’t played the original Perfect Dark, don’t worry because the story line and gameplay hasn’t been touched and remains the same. The only difference between the XBLA version and the N64 is the updated graphics and Xbox Live support. And let me tell you there beautiful, compared to the N64 version it just knocks it out of the park.

The basic storyline is simple, its the year 2033 and your a British Secret Agent by the name of Joanna Dark and you work for Carrington Institute. Your main goal is to investigate dataDyne; (someone very evil) but then you uncover an alien conspiracy and thus try your best to save the world.
So like I mentioned above the campaign is the exact same as the original and it most definitely feels like it. The campaign is pretty lengthy, it has 17 missions which will keep you playing for awhile. The game has 3 difficulty settings; Agent, Special Agent, and Perfect Agent. As you bump up the difficulty you will have more objectives, less ammo and not a lot of shields to find. The game also has an auto aim feature which if you play on the lowest difficulty like I did, you will find the auto-aim very accurate and precise but as you increase your difficulty the auto-aim gets less accurate and less precise.

Obviously the main thing and the best thing about this re-launch of the original game is the graphics. In the original they were very pixelated, but that was understandable because the original was running on the N64. The new XBLA version has very polished graphics compared to the original. You can see a massive difference and it’s definitely on the same wave length when it come’s to graphics with most of the XBLA games out there. I wouldn’t go as far and say it’s amazing because there are better looking XBLA games out there; Toy Soldiers, but you can see the improvements made and it certainly makes the game more enjoyable. and is a pleasure on the eyes.

Just one thing I never liked in the original and in this one, is the lack of a map. Most of the new FPS games that you play nowadays give you a helping hand when it comes to objectives etc but Perfect Dark doesn’t. You can check your objectives by pressing the back button but the lack of a map too actually show the location of your objective leaves you walking around endlessly (sometimes without success) until you find and complete it. I can see how they wanted to stay with original and not add anything to it, but the objectives are that vague that I resorted to an online walkthrough. I just feel it was something they should have added to the XBLA version.
Andrew’s Say:

I was glad to see Rare re-launch Perfect Dark again with the updated graphics. It’s a throwback title and will bring you down memory lane if you played the original. When I heard about this game I thought don’t make it 1200MSP simply for the fact that I wouldn’t spend $15 on a game that was released over 10 years and only has updated graphics and Xbox live support, but when I seen it was going to be 800MSP you could only imagine my excitement to play this game. I would recommend this for people who played the original and for people who didn’t.

VGN24
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