Perfect Dark

Perfect Dark (パーフェクト・ダーク or paafekuto ・ daaku in Katakana S, with the Japan) is a Video game of subjective shooting, developed by Rareware and published by Nintendo, left on Nintendo 64 in Europe the June 30th 2000.

The play makes it possible to the player to incarnate the secret agent Joanna Dark with the service of the fiction Institut Carrington, which must thwart the plans of conspiracy of a powerful company, Datadyne. Very quickly, the business takes proportions much more important. The play includes also a multijouor mode with a broad choice of scenarios suggested in addition to traditional the Deathmatch .

Perfect Dark is often described like the “continuation” of GoldenEye 007 , a play with success consequently developed company in 1997 from which Perfect Dark borrows many features. Although not exploiting the license James Bond, the play has a similar Gameplay and uses a version improved of very the Moteur of play. Perfect Dark left at one time when the Nintendo 64 arrived at the end of the lifetime, and it is perhaps for this reason which he did not know same success as his predecessor, although he is technically higher to him in many points.

A play in 2D for Game Boy Color, also named Perfect Dark , left time little after the original version. It is about a Jeu of action putting in scene same heroin, Joanna Dark, in her very first mission. This play also makes it possible to resolve certain data on the version Nintendo 64 by using an accessory, the Transfer Pak. Rare then left Perfect Dark Zero , Préquelle of Perfect Dark , like one of the titles of launching for the Xbox 360 in 2005. Little time after, a news of Greg Rucka, based on the series and entitled Perfect Dark: Initial Vector , was published.

Synopsis

The history occurs in 2023 whereas two races Extraterrestre S clash in an interstellar war: Maians, whose aspect is inspired largely by the folk vision of the “small gray”, and Skedars, which have a little the aspect of Reptile S and whose technology enables them to be melted perfectly among the human ones.

On Ground, two rival organizations delivers a secret war. On a side is the Carrington Institute, founded by Daniel Carrington, who, behind a frontage of center of Research and development, continues operations of Espionnage in collaboration with Maians. Other the dataDyne is a powerful navigation company which maintains the clandestine bonds with Skedars. The player incarnates Joanna Dark, a new recruit of the Carrington Institute, which, because it recorded the best note of Insitut to the Entraînement, received the Code name “Perfect Dark”.

The play starts with a call to the help of certain Doctor Caroll who emits since the Laboratoire S undergrounds located under the Lucerne tower, the Head office of the dataDyne. Joanna Dark is then sent to invest the center to extract the scientist. That leads it to discover a Conspiration carried out concert by the dataDyne and Skedars: Skedar want to steal a weapon surpuissante of an extinct extraterrestrial civilization located in a Spaceship failed the bottom of the Pacific Ocean in order to use it to eliminate Maians; the dataDyne agrees to help them in exchange of enough technology to make them the most powerful corporation of the world. As the President of the United States refuses to lend to the dataDyne a oceanic vessel of research to go to seek the weapon, the dataDyne decides to kill it and to replace it by a Clône, with the assistance of the Trent Easton, the leader of NSA. What the dataDyne does not know, it is that Skedars envisage to test the weapon by destroying the Earth.

Gameplay

As a Play of subjective shooting, Perfect Dark makes evolve/move the player in environments varied, more or less linear, in order to achieve various objectives and by eliminating the enemies on his road by means of a great number of weapons usable. It is frequently described as being the “spiritual continuation” of the first play of subjective shooting of Rareware, GoldenEye 007 , left in 1997. Although Perfect Dark does not occur at all in the universe from James Bond, its gameplay remains extremely similar to its predecessor; for example in its capacity to use the Discretion to achieve certain missions, or in the additional objectives which appear according to the level difficulty.

The scenario of the play is explained by scenes front kinematics, afterwards and sometimes even during the missions. They put in scene each protagonist and antagonists of the play for better knowing them and feeling their personality. The Artificial intelligence of the enemies enables them to hide behind the walls, to make roulades, to attack with the fist in close combat or to even go if they are disarmed.

The system of difficulty functions on the same principle as GoldenEye 007 , only the names of the modes change. Thus there exist three distinct levels of difficulty: Agent, Special Agent and Perfect Agent. There is a certain number of difference in the gameplay according to the mode chosen such as the number of objectives to achieve, the ammunition available, the system effectiveness of “automatic aiming”, resistance the precision and the inflicted damage of the enemy. In mode Perfect Agent, the bullet-proof jackets getting a no-claims bonus of protection are absent. Once the play is finished in a level of difficulty, all the levels can be played at higher level of difficulty (except for the final level which can be played only once the other levels achieved in the level of difficulty concerned). If the play is finished in Perfect Agent, a novel mode of difficulty appears: Perfect Darkness; who corresponds to the mode Perfect Agent but with the characteristic to be able to choose at the beginning of part the damage, the resistance and the precision of the enemies.

Four missions no-claims bonus can be unbolted by the player. The first, the Duel , corresponds to a drive against three Hologramme S, débloquable by obtaining the bronze medal with all the weapons of the field of fire. The three others are special missions which are released each one by finishing the play in a mode of difficulty, and make it possible to the player to incarnate other characters (Mr. Blonde, Elvis, and a Maian soldier) by proposing scenarios parallel with the principal history. the gameplay remains mainly identical but the characters have some characteristics: Mr. Blonde can make himself temporarily invisible and Maians have a small size. GoldenEye 007 also contained two missions no-claims bonus which were unbolted by finishing the play in average” and “difficult” difficulty “.

An originality of the play is the mode Institut Carrington where Joanna can explore the Institute freely, especially thus visiting the various places of the building to be able to use the computers of the center, which make it possible to collect additional information (on the characters, the weapons, visited places…), and to take part in various drives. The most interesting tutoriel is certainly that of the field of fire where the player can test all the weapons of the play. For each weapon, it there with the possibility of obtaining Medal S of bronze, money and gold, of collecting some sufficiently makes it possible to free “traditional weapons” in the menu of the cheatings, in fact of the weapons directly resulting from GoldenEye 007 . Same manner as for the play Tomb Raider , the level of tutorial Institut Carrington becomes a level with whole share of the solo mode, while being made attack by the enemy troops. To have traversed during the tutorial allows to be less made surprise by this unexpected attack.

Weapons

The panel of weapon proposed in Perfect Dark is very broad: Gun S, machine-guns, rifles machine gunners, Rifle with pump, Rocket launcher, knife of combat, Lance-grenade, mines, and even of the extraterrestrial fictitious weapons (three maians and three skedars). The majority of these weapons have two modes of shooting: a primary mode where the principal function of the weapon is exploited, and a secondary mode where the weapon is used in a less conventional way (blow of stick, self-destruction…). There is no limit of load and the player can carry weapons as many as it wants, and some weapons can be used in double with a specimen in each hand. Gadget S are also available for certain missions and are often essential to achieve certain objectives.

Among the weapons extraterrestrial, one of the weapons maians, Farsight XR-20, makes it possible to locate the players in all the level and to draw through the walls. An automatic function of research is integrated. However, the player who uses it does not see any more what it occurs around him and can be easily made kill with the body-with-body without realizing it. Callisto NTG maian has a great rate of shooting, and its secondary mode makes it possible to cross the doors. Mauler is a small gun of energy skedar having a secondary shooting which makes it possible to charge a shooting and to send powerful shootings of energy. This shooting can kill any enemy without shield but must be very precise. The Slayer rocket launcher has one second function which makes it possible to control the rockets in a way radiocontrolled thanks to a camera in front of the rocket.

Some of the human weapons are astonishing as much. For example, the RCP-120 has one second function which makes it possible the carrier to become invisible, which n the other hand consumes the ammunition of the weapon very quickly. The second function of the rifle of Dragon attack enables him to be transformed into mine of proximity which one poses on the ground. It explodes when a player tries to take it. Psychosis gun psychologically disturbs a touched enemy and transforms it into allied: this one starts to help the player and to shoot at his colleagues. Lastly, Laptop Gun is a Laptop which is spread out of machine-gun and can be posed on all surfaces by aquierant a role of sentinel.

Cheatings

Just like its predecessor GoldenEye 007 , it is possible to resolve codes of cheatings by finishing certain levels in a certain mode of difficulty in lower part of a given time. Some can also be freed temporarily by connecting the play Perfect Dark on Game Boy Color to Nintendo 64 via the Transfer Pak. However, whereas simple handling with the buttons of the lever can make it possible to finish the play and all to free in GoldenEye 007 , no known code of this type exists for Perfect Dark . Certain options which were to be freed in GoldenEye 007 are now basic options of the multijouor mode, like the turbo mode, the possibility of removing the radar or the mode Paintball (where the balls leave coloured impacts).

There are more cheatings “right for the fun” than in GoldenEye 007 . The cheating “Perfect Darkness” made in kind plunge in the most total darkness any level of the play, the player then whom can locate itself only thanks to Glasses of night vision. Another example is that of the cheating “Heads of the originators only”, who limiting random heads of the people of the play to the models based on the heads of the developers.

Multijouor mode

Co-operation and countermeasure

In mode Co-operation, two players rejouer together the missions solos can: a player who incarnate Joanna Dark and the other, an agent blonde of the name of Velvet Dark. The binomial can also be directed by the computer. To two player, the screen is splitté horizontally or vertically with the choice. The mission can be finished even if only one player survives, however all the objectives must be accomplished in all the cases. There exists also a variation with this co-operation mode: the countermeasure, where a player directs Joanna Dark while the other is one of the enemies of the level (and acquires at the same time its weapon and its low resistance). The player who plays Joanna must try to supplement his objectives normally while the other player must neutralize it. If the player who incarnates one of the enemies of the level is eliminated, it does not lose but “réincarne” in another enemy. It should be noted that it cannot ruin Joanna by destroying key components for the success of its objectives.

Combat simulator

The combat simulator can be played from one to four players and to eight players controlled by the computer (simulating). The players enter the arena disarmed, the weapons and the ammunition are distributed in the level at fixed places. If a player is killed, it regenerates some share in the level (there exist several places in each level where the player can potentially Respawn er by chance selected), again disarmed; all the weapons which it carried can be recovered on its corpse. The final goal of the part is given according to the scenario chosen, it exists six about it:

Combat - the traditional mode Deathmatch ;
To capture the case - the equivalent of the mode Capture of the flag ;
To hold the case - the player must take the Mallette before everyone and survive with more the possible for a long time, marking a point every 30 seconds. If it is made kill, it loses the case which can be taken by no matter whom of other.
King of the zone - a zone is delimited in the arena. There are necessary to find this zone and to remain 20 seconds inside without no enemy penetrating there. The goal is to protect it all this time to mark a point. Once “captured”, the zone changes position (in preset places by chance selected).
Center hacker - Some share on the chart, an apparatus of hacking is posed. The goal of the Center hacker is to collect the apparatus and to pirate a computer which is at another place of the chart. The apparatus changes place if that which holds it makes kill. During the hacking of the computer, the player can neither move, nor to make use of his weapons, under penalty of breaking connection, and is thus very vulnerable.
Décapsuleur - a player is the “victim” that all the other players must kill to gain points. The victim gains a point at each minute when he survives. When it is made kill, another player is appointed to be the victim.

At the end of a match, the end results are posted, as well as information on the perfomance personal of each player. Medals are decreed with the winners of several categories: precision, shooting with the head, KillMaster (to kill the most once), and Survivor (to be killed less once). The play also decrees humorous mentions with each player, sometimes based on other aspect that the performance: “most protective”, “more pétochard”…

There are many improvements compared to the multijouor mode of GoldenEye 007 . Each part can be entirely personalized: the scenario, the weapons available, the level, the conditions of victory (number of Frag S …), the duration can be freely selected. The players can also train teams, the players are then personalized with the color of their team. The configuration of the parts leaves much more freedom than the multijouor mode of GoldenEye 007 ; for example, the choice of the weapons in this last was limited to classes (automatic, powerful…). Moreover, in Perfect Dark, other equipment, like the shields, can be placed at the place of the site of a weapon (which can as well be left free). Options like “Side, died to you! ” (death in only one ball) were modes of play to whole share in GoldenEye 007 and could not be combined with other parameters. Certain options, like the mode without radar or turbo, were cheatings which were to be freed via the solo mode. In Perfect Dark , these options make it possible to increase the different number of adjustments.

More weapons, scenarios, of type of simulating, model of player, and levels can be freed by overcoming the “challenges”, of the parts préconfigurées against simulating. There are thirty challenges in all, recovering the majority of the types of parts met. Among the levels suggested, several levels take as a starting point those of the multijouor of GoldenEye 007 (the level “Facility” of GoldenEye 007 becomes “Congratulated” in Perfect Dark for example).

The players can have profiles as separate a multijoueurs mode of their profile in solo mode, which are updated after each part. The player can thus consult his statistics since his first part, and even receive various titles. When the best title, Perfect: 01, is reached, a password and a name of user is registered in statistical lower parts them (see the section curiosities). The player can choose his aspect in the play by selecting the head and the body and any model of character present in the play (except that of Skedars), whose many ones do not even appear in the solo mode.

Simulating

Another innovation since GoldenEye 007 , the multijouor mode of Perfect Dark includes club-footed , called “simulating” in the play. The latter have six levels of difficulty: Cool, Easy, Normal, Difficult, Perfect, and Dark. Darksims can be freed by overcoming the most difficult Challenges. These simulating are faster than the normal players and have a frightening precision. Simulating can also correspond to special profiles, for example Rocketsim likes the explosives, Jugesim prefers at the head to bait on the players classification; Speedsim is faster than no matter whom and Vengesim does not appreciate to die and comes to continue whoever killed it (even if it is a fellow-member).

During the parts in team, a player can give orders to one or all simulating them of his team, like “Defending the zone” during part of King of the zone. The other orders can be to attack a member of the other team in particular, or to follow a human player to defend it.

Simulating have the majority of competences of a human player. However, they cannot work out traps because they do not use the mines or the sentinels, even with the more high level) graphically improved but whose principle remains the same one. The player can squat himself, crawl, lean but does not have still the capacity to jump. However, it is possible to be thrown of a cornice, a possibility seldom used in GoldenEye . The interactions with the environment are done nothing but with the order “use” to open the doors, to activate the computers, and for some other things. The player can now disarm his enemies and to strike them, moreover the majority of the weapons have from now on a secondary shooting. As GoldenEye, the play takes into account the localization of the damage; for example, a shooting with the chest is made more damage than a shooting with the leg. But with the difference of GoldenEye , the shooting with the head is always fatal, whatever the level of difficulty. The systems NTSC and STAKE for Nintendo 64 make turn the play in full screen, without the visible Letterbox on many exits STAKE, an option 16:9 which is used on big screen.

Many graphic improvements of the engine, like the option allowing to play of high-resolution (640 X 480).

Perfect Dark allows audio options ever seen on Nintendo 64 before; it is in particular one of some plays to offer a sound Dolby Surround. The majority of the audio files of the plays were compressed in MP3 in order to return in the relatively low memory capacity of the cartridge, although the music was séquencée. All the dialogs are entirely doubled (contrary to the “dumb” dialogs of GoldenEye ) and one can sometimes hear the guards discuss between them.

The artificial intelligence of the enemies enables them to call for the aid and to set off the alarm. The guards can be alerted by the shots, the quiet weapons are thus less likely to start alarm than rifles of assault. They can also launch grenades and, if the player disarms them, use a secondary weapon. A criticism related to GoldenEye 007 was the relative vulnerability of the enemies in close combat; in Perfect Dark, the problem is solved because the guards can deliver blows near the player, inflicting some damage and especially the effect of giddiness very handicapping to continue the combat. In GoldenEye, the guards could not see through the panes - a deliberated attention so that the player can espionner his adversaries through the windows.

There is several bugs in the engine of the play. For example, in the first level, a defect in the Collision detection makes possible to pass through a supposedly solid wall, making it possible to cross the level in six seconds. Also, like many old men plays of subjective shooting, the players can use a technique called Straferuninng to exploit a bug play where to move diagonally allows the player to move more quickly than while running of face. This technique is essential to complete certain levels in necessary time to resolve the cheatings.

Curiosities

The levels solos of the play include/understand many Easter egg S and objects strange, zones and anomalies sources of many speculations. Rare has admitted that several of these curiosities had been implemented “just to laugh”. Most of the time, the developers answer only in a way diverted the interrogations in connection with these curiosities.

The curiosity which is certainly most easily visible is the presence of a piece of Fromage in each level solos of the play. Assumptions claim that they in the beginning would have been designed to be collectable, and could have been used to free cheats (which are with final the déblocables by finishing each mission in a given time), the idea would have then been abandoned but the cheeses would have remained.

Certain parts closed in certain levels of the solo mode are used to lay out the models of characters who are then integrated into the scenes kinematics. The player can see these models but often only thanks to cheatings. However, in the third mission, if the player succeeds in reaching the elevator rather quickly, it can kill a guard while arriving on the first floor and recover on its body a chart of access for the office of Cassandra. This chart also makes it possible to open a door at the ground floor where the models are, as well as the glazed main door of the building to reach the street (however one should not go too far under penalty of falling into the vacuum). In this level, the closed room contains the models which are used for the kinematic scene of end of mission. The player can shoot at these characters who prove to be invincible. In kinematics, they will be then full with blood. By leaving this chart of access, Rareware wanted certainly that the player discovers this room. Once again, this mystery was the source of many speculations on all the forums of fans.

There is also the mystery of the name of user " EntropicDecay" (that one can translate by entropic degradation ) and of the password " Zero - Tau ". They are registered on the page of the statistics of any player who reached the Perfect title: 01 as a multijouor mode. The utility of this information forever be discovered, the most judicious reason is that they were to be used to reach zones reserved on one of the Web sites Perfect Dark created by Rareware. Perhaps is they useful to resolve no-claims bonus in Perfect Dark Zero.

As in GoldenEye 007 , there is a big number of bugs which contributed to surrounded the play of a certain mystery. For example, in certain very rare cases, an enemy randomly starts to run through the level while shooting at his fellow-members without reason. These treacherous enemies are sometimes compared with the myth of Janus, in reference to the double agent of GoldenEye whose pseudonym takes as a starting point the name of a Roman God .

Other disconcerting details are at the level of the Level design , where certain parts of the level enter in collision with others. In the real-world, that would give parts which would overlap. An good example is in the level Croiseur . At the beginning, the player and Elvis take each one an elevator in the hangar. In the room where they arrive, if the player a scanner with x-rays or one Farsight (which makes it possible to see through the walls), it has can see the bottom of the engine of the vessel crossing the room.

In Countermeasure mode, towards the end of the level “Sector 51 - Infiltration”, the enemy player can open the door which gives on a kinematics and visit part of the level of the following mission. It can thus see a guard being held upright without moving and Jonathan, which must cut down it in the kinematic scene. Also, in “Sector 51 - Rescue”, by using the scanner with x-rays through the door located at the top of the entry of the level, one discovers a man who calls for the aid. It then becomes possible to cross this door, in normal weather locked: One finds oneself in a hangar which one normally exclusively visits during mission “S.O.S. Maian”. By using the elevator, one can then recover a phoenix, a gun maian.

Certain unusable but strongly enigmatic graphic details strew the play. In the interior levels of the Sector 51 , air ducts overhang the toilets located beside the hangar. If one provided with a far-sight XR-20 and that one traverses one of these conduits in vision X, one leads to a dead end materialized by a plate embedded inside the wall on which the form of a lock is drawn. In the level multijouor Warehouse, in the air ducts, a closed grid is located plumb with the puit at the top of the clean room. This grid is closed by a latch with strange appearance. There is no more ambiguity when one uses an aiming with x-rays: it is indeed about a question mark ! In the level multijouor Sewers, a indestructible case of ammunition is placed under a grid in lower part of which it is impossible to reach. Another is placed at the top of a grid giving to the free air and to which a scale carries out. This mysterious scale is quite visible but paradoxically out of reach, the faculty of jump being absent from Perfect Dark. The grid and limps it are thus as much inaccessible.

Ironically, the fact that the play comprises many singularities often pushed the players to explore it in the least recesses, and sometimes (as for the case of the models of kinematics in the level), some of the Game designer S congratulated the players to have found these details. The best tool to explore the play remains the use of the Action Replay which makes it possible to modify data of the play and of, for example, to pass through the doors or to fly in a level.

Consequent actions

Certain actions carried out in levels have direct consequences on the continuation of the play, offering alternatives to certain events. It is about a concept rarrissime for a play with multiple missions independent, and considerably advanced, even compared to other plays with continuous mission using the same concept, such Resident Evil. To know these consequent actions is essential if one seeks to fill certain objectives of the play, like finishing certain levels in the levels of difficulty special agent and agent perfect, or filling the levels under a certain time of mission, in order to resolve cheatings.

Actions consequent is safeguarded if you fill a level in a precise difficulty while having carried out the action in question. To start again this level without remaking this process erases the safeguard. The consecutive action , which is the single consequence of each consequent action, can be carried out only in the level of difficulty where was carried out the consequent action or in the lower levels of difficulty. For example to make a consequent action in level X in agent will not be able to make some profit in the level there of agent perfect. The safeguard of a consequent action is unobtrusive if one starts the level where must be carried out the consecutive action while letting turn it video of presentation until the end, i.e., until one returns in the head of Joanna Dark. It is thus necessary to press on the button start at the beginning of the video of presentation. Thus for example in Air Force One - Antiterrorisme , Joanna Dark will start in the compartment and not in the corridor where the video makes it start.

Some of these consequent actions are difficult to detect and carry out. One cannot be completely certain of all to know them, even if they are always extremely precise. Here is thus an not-exhaustive list:

In Chicago - Furtive , you must pose a mine on the wall of the G5 building, in order to spare you an escape in the following level. If you to pose this mine on the walled door top of the staircase, it is this one which will explode in the level Immeuble G5 - Recognition . If you pose it on the walled door of the medium of the staircase, it is that one, located at the level of the trunk in Immeuble G5 - Recognition , which will explode, shortening your escape.

In Sector 51 - Infiltration , if you do not kill the soldier who is held in front of the interceptor , while having moved away it so that it is not affected by the explosion of the interceptor if you decide to disencumber you, a man will be held behind the closed door with the top of the corridor of entry in Secteur 51 - Rescue . No shot must be drawn near this door. Attract keeps it placed in front of, and go then support on B as to open a normal door: at the end of a few seconds this one will open. You will find then a Phoenix in the room of observation where Elvis activates the signal at the end of mission S.O.S Maian.

In Sector 51 - Escape , a dialog takes place between Joanna and Jonathan in order to decide which will remain on the spot, and which will go up in the saucer with Elvis. If you leave too early, Joanna does not say to Jonathan to leave, they is thus you who go up in the saucer and Jonathan which flees with the hoverbike . Perhaps he survives his escape, but in this case he you will want some nevertheless to have sacrificed it and it will not be to help you in " Institute Carrington - Défense". If on the contrary it is you who leave the complex with the hoverbike, you assist with the takeoff of the saucer of the threshold of the additional door located meadows of the antenna. In thanks of your devotion, Jonathan will wait to you in front of the office of Carrington, once carried out the primary goals of mission of Institut Carrington - Defense , and it will help you while being caught some with the attackers. It will be for at the time invincible.

In Air base - Espionage , if you enter by the side Air Force One, you will start in the central corridor in Air Force One - Antiterrorisme . If you enter by lower part by the scale located the hangar of air base, you will start then in the compartment. To start at this place shortens your course in the level Air Force One - Antiterrorisme , and enables you to obtain the cheatings related to this level.

In Air Force One - Antiterrorisme , a hoverbike is present in the compartment. Press on the switch and the hoverbike will disappear in the ground. He will survive then the crash landing and will be to fifty mêtres on the left of your point of fall in Site of the crash landing - Confrontation . The hoverbike appears useful extrèmement in the natural environment of this gigantic level.

Mystery not cleared up : on extremely rare occasions, an enemy character is taken of a fatal madness at the beginning of a level, and starts to run through the level by killing the enemy characters the ones after the others, until it is done finally itself to cut down. During his race meurtière this strange character is unaware of the presence of Joanna completely. This phenomenon is extrèmement extremely rare is master key thus to have a randomness. It is probably about the greatest mystery of the play. It is however possible to imagine that consequent actions too subtle to be easily detectable are at the origin of this mysterious behavior of agent-double .

History of the development

Martin Hollis, the producer of GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark , explained why Rareware rejected “without hesitation” the idea to work on Demain never dies , the continuation of GoldenEye ; the development team indeed judged to have sufficiently spent time in the universe of James Bond. The decision to make of the central figure a heroin comes owing to the fact that Hollis found that there was not enough play centered on the women. Joanna Dark thus appeared, inspired by other heroins: Kim Kimberly of the play of adventure Snowball , tempting X-27 spy of the film Dishonored , the femme fatale éponyme of the film Nikita, and the agent of FBI Dana Scully of the televised series X-Files, at the borders of reality . The name of Joanna Dark, him, comes from Jeanne d' Arc (and pronounced with the French E).

Ghost in the Shell was a major influence for the universe of the play. The name of the company in the play “dataDyne” was inspired by Yoyodyne of the book Sale by auction of the batch 49 . Another important influence in the visited places of the play is the work of the writer Philip K. Dick, Martin Hollis and its designer David Doak chose many places which they found impressive and architectural, on the model of GoldenEye but in a universe of dystopic Science-fiction . The framework was creates before the intrigue, built thereafter by Dave. The word “Dark” was selected in for its bringing together with the side infiltration of the play. The double Barre obliques in the logo of the play was inspired by the Japanese symbol Dakuten.

Of one moment, Nintendo thought of leaving the play to the Japan under the title 赤と黒 (Aka to Kuro, reads. Red and Black). However, it finally left under the name パーフェクト・ダーク (Pāfekuto Dāku, パーフェクト・ダーク?), a transliteration of the Western title.

At the beginning, Hollis hoped that the difference between the light and the darkness would have a significant implication on the gameplay , and titrates it be supposed to reflect this leaning. A flashlight was added by Steve Ellis (the person in charge of most of the multijouor mode of GoldenEye) which was then removed final version because of the technical limits of Nintendo 64. Hollis admitted that such an objective were too ambitious but although all the awaited objectives were not accomplished, the play includes/understands a lighting more thorough than GoldenEye ; the lights can be extinct, the shootings light the parts, and the player can use glasses of night vision and Infrarouge.

Martin Hollis took part in the adventure Perfect Dark during the first fourteen the three years months of development that to need the play, during which the evolution of the play progressed slowly. David Doak leaves fine 1998 a little later, followed by Steve Ellis to form Free Radical Design. Following these departures, the project knew a strong rehandling on the level of the design (the history and the characters remained intact).

Polemic

An option in an original manner envisaged in the play was mysteriously removed at the last time, little before marketing. This option, called “Perfect Head”, was to make it possible any player to model his head to use it in the play as a multijouor mode. By having a Game Boy Camera and a Transfer Pak, the player could have taken a photograph of his face to then transfer it towards the play and to improve it while adding to it of the Polygone S. When Rareware was questioned on the reason of the suppression of this option, they answered that would have been more complex to set up than they had imagined it at the beginning. However, of the images prove that Rareware had succeeded in making function the mode Perfect Head in a previous version of the play. The true reason is especially of an ethical nature and not technique. It would have been more shocking to fight and kill out of the real people modelled in the play that entirely virtual characters. Although Rare declared that the option had been completely removed source code of the play, pirates using a GameShark found references textual of this option such as a menu and messages in report/ratio, however anything else was not preserved.

Influences

The play has a very dense and original universe, which rests on a great number of cinematographic references to majority.

Perfect Dark was announced at its beginnings like a nonofficial continuation of GoldenEye 007, play of shooting reference all platforms confused, of which will have it largely exceeded the circle of the owners of Nintendo 64. Perfect Dark takes again the engine of play of GoldenEye. Some of the first trailer cards showed movements of the enemies identical to those of GoldenEye. Perfect Dark prolongs the concepts of GoldenEye, and is thus presented by extension like a futuristic James Bond. Thus Joanna Dark uses quantity of gadgets, as in films of the saga James Bond or in the play GoldenEye. In the level of tutorial Institute Carrington , the principal weapons of GoldenEye, such mythical PP7 , are visible behind panes. Those are accessible to the use thanks to small the cheating Traditional Armes as with the cheating All the weapons in solo : the nouns of GoldenEye are modified, probably because of a defect of license. Certain levels of the Simulateur of Combat are remakes levels multijoueurs of GoldenEye of which famous Facility, itself directly inspired by the film GoldenEye.

Drawing-animated the Japanese Ghost in the Shell is one of the major influences of the play. The character of Major Motoko Kusanagi influenced that of Joanna Dark directly, to start with their physical resemblance. The Occulter, which is an outstanding element of Perfect Dark, is used abundantly in Ghost in the Shell . In the cartoon, Kusanagi is charged at one time to recover an artificial intelligence, PuppetMaster. This one is created with a precise aim by a concurrent organization and, by acquiring by itself a conscience, it demolishes domination of its creators by seeking the assistance of the institution of Kusanagi. The course of the IA Caroll in Perfect Dark is almost identical.

Ghost in the Shell is with Terminator the greatest influence of American film Matrix. Perfect Dark abounds of influences and direct references to Matrix. The level Grid of the Simulateur of Combat has a room which is the counterpart of famous the Salle of the pillars which is the theater of the first scene of shooting worship of film. This room is also reproduced, as well as the sequences of film, in the video game Conker' S Bad Fur Day, itself programmed by Rareware . The Boost Fights which makes it possible to create an effect of idle temporary is inspired by the many scenes of idle of Matrix. The cheating Poing of the Dragon , inspired by the movements of films of Kung fu hong-kongais, allows to adopt a technique of combat with naked hands hyper-rapid used by the Smith Agent in Matrix, whose scenes of combat to the body are directly inspired by action films hong-kongais. The mode of play Contre-Opération puts in scene an enemy agent able to reappear in the body of a member of the enemy troops with each time it is made cut down by Joanna Dark. It can do this at will, without being obliged to die. This mode is directly inspired by the operation of the Agents in Matrix. In the mode Contre-Opération , capacity to do this at will request to use a pill , which is an object emblematic of Matrix.

The flying cars in the night levels are inspired by the cars of the film the Fifth Element, themselves officially inspired by band-drawn the Valérian and Laureline. Flying vehicles are also in the film Blade Runner, of which environment and influential universe on a great part of the level Chicago .

The weapon SuperDragon is directly drawn from the cinematographic saga Alien, in particular of the film Aliens the return, where it appears for the first time. It is not named thus in film, and east creates by Ripley by coupling a lance-grenade with a light machine gun. The two weapons have the same functions and two almost similar looks. The levels Abyss and Croiseur point out in a narrow way the decorations of various films of the saga Alien . The look of the Skedars of style reptilien points out the look of Aliens. As for Aliens, Skedars have several forms, large, tiny. The tiny form of Skedars attacks while leaping with the face, like the crab in the saga Alien. In a general way Skedars prefer the body with body that the remote combat and the use of the weapons. With the body with body they become frightening, using their prominent head as much that their members; a blow becomes fatal contrary to the blow carried by the human ones in the play. Their style of combat is then very close to that of Aliens. The weapon Skedar Slayer makes it possible to visualize the trajectory of a missile by putting at its place . Its speed can then become extrème and its orientation forgets gravity giving to the ceilings the impression of floors. This weapon can thread everywhere and the sight retransmise and deformed considerably. The secondary mode of Slayer thus reproduces with exactitude close to the whole sequences to the film Alien 3, where one is pilot predation of Alien in subjective sight. The saga Alien was also adapted in the play of RareWare Conker' S Bad Fur Day.

The shields of protection have the same function and same esthetics as those used in the film Dune.

The Far-Sight XR-20 has between-others three faculties: to make it possible to see through does not matter that it opaque matter, to make cross to its projectiles all the types of matters and thicknesses, and to be fatal with its target. They are the main features of the central weapon of the film the Eraser.

The character of Elvis is an explicit reference to the character of extraterrestrial typical, with gray body, deep famous person and eyes, popularized following the Incident of Roswell. A video regarded as a hoax circulated showing a scene of judicious autopsy to be itself unrolled in Roswell and putting in scene extraterrestrial. This video is parodied in an explicit way in the video of introduction of the level Secteur 51, turned by Jonathan Dark, as in the scenes of attack of the room of autopsy in the continuation of the mission. The universe of the extraterrestrial plot influences all this part of the play. Thus musical environment points out sometimes the topic of X-Files. The Secteur 51 is a reference to mythical the Zone 51, bases American army located at Nevada, around which a legend is contruite presenting it like a secret place of study of the extraterrestrial phenomena. This place is put-in-scene in a way shifted in a great number of works of science fiction. It is in particular the framework of the video game of reference Half-Life, as well as level of the play of skateboard Tony Hawk. The characters of the film Independence Day also go there. Perfect Dark uses this mythology of the extraterrestrial plot without taking it with serious, in particular through the character of Elvis, whose name is a reference to the singer Elvis Presley. Many American do not believe in his death, and like many businesses, this one with considering setting up around it a crowd of legends being based for the majority on the theory of the plot. The scenario of Perfect Dark playing the chart of the plot at bottom, it refers to most famous modern American legends in an ironic and shifted way.

The name Callisto of the light machine gun maian is a reference to a character of Greek mythology, nymph put pregnant by Zeus, and transformed by him of the constellation of Large Ourse. Another bond with the stars is a satellite of Jupiter, Latin Zeus, name of Callisto.

The name Phoenix of the Maian gun is a reference to a bird of the Greek mythology which with the faculty of ressusciter starting from its ashes after being dead in a flame. This name refers to the secondary mode of the gun which makes it possible to draw from the explosive projectiles.

The name Orbe of the ammunition of Far-Sight XR-20 is him also related to the stars: it indicates the surface circumscribed by an orbit of satellite.

Marketing

One following the play with success GoldenEye 007 is announced as of the middle of the year 1998 at the time of the E3 like one of the plays headlights of Nintendo. Then, Rareware distills information on the play with the dropper. The first coming out date is placed for end 1999, but finally nobody, nor even Rareware, could not envisage a delay as that which the play underwent: pushed back in April, then with an unspecified date, the continuous play with being strongly followed by the magazines, the official magazine of Nintendo even predicts that it should be the best play of shooting of the century. A functional version of the play appears with ECTS of 1998.

Play finally landed the May 22nd 2000 in the rays of North America, the June 30th in Europe and the October 21st with the Japan, all that just after the Electronic Entertainment Expo where the play was one of the principal titles of the living room. Nintendo undertakes a broad promotion campaign, in particular by engaging to it signal-model Michele Merkin to incarnate a Joanna Dark in flesh and bone to turn in publicities and to take part in the press conferences. A publicity the watch to rise, take a shower, to get dressed and seize its weapons.

Shortly after the exit of the play, two Internet sites are created in addition to the official sites of the play, for the two large rival companies of the play: the Institute Carrington (http://www.carringtoninstitute.com) and the dataDyne (http://www.datadyne.com and http://www.datadynecorp.com). At first sight, the companies had the air completely real (a list of objectives and even of positions of power were registered in several sections - it would seem that these stations were in fact of the places in the staff of Rareware) but the logos of Rareware and Nintendo at the foot of the page were there to recall that it was not absolutely necessary to push the universe of Perfect Dark a little further.

The total sales of the play amount to 1,3 million specimens to the United States and the fact of entering quickly the range “Player' S Choice”, a range of plays reserved for those being sold to more than one million specimens. Launching in Japan is a sold success with 35.000 copies the first week and 77.000 on the whole. In the world, Perfect Dark was sold to 2,5 million units. The popularity of the play was such as televised series and a film would have been one moment considered, but the idea is finally abandoned.

Reception

Criticisms are generally very favorable to the play and agree to say that he is the worthy successor of GoldenEye 007 . The quality of graphics and the multijouor mode are often underlined.

Among criticisms, one of most frequent is certainly that of the problem of the rate of images a second. The history is considered to be a little traditional, even if some consider it sufficiently rich in bounces so that it preserves an interest.

Japanese not being very fond of delicacies of Play of subjective shooting, it is not then astonishing to see a note of 28/40 allotted to the play by the magazine Famitsu.

For its work, Rare was rewarded for the Bafta Interactive Entertainment Moving Images Award in 2000 and of the Satellite Golden Award of best interactive in 2001 produces.

Perfect Dark was placed in many lists “Better sets of all times. ” It for example is placed 15th of the list of the IGN' S Readers Choice Top 100 Ranges off All Time of 2006 and 28e of Signal 100 of stores Edge . In May 2007, it is always the fifth play best noted Metacritic with an average of 97% and the eighth play best noted Gamespot with a quasi-perfect score (9,9/10).

Continuations

Another play entitled Perfect Dark leaves in September 2000 on Game Boy Color, shortly after the exit of the play Nintendo 64. The play follows another screen where Joanna must this time manage to dismantle an illegal network of manufacture of Cyborg S. the gameplay is also appreciably different with a sight of top replacing the subjective sight. There are however several aspects rather improved for a play Game Boy. For example, kinematics contain pieces of words and a “vibrating” device (similar to the Rumble Pak of Nintendo 64) is integrated into the cartridge.

Perfect Dark is the last big game of subjective shooting of Nintendo 64, left whereas the console arrived at the end of the lifetime (Nintendo exposed its new console, the GameCube, with the Space World of 2000). The play is also the last to have exploited the engine of play of GoldeneEye 007 . 20 months before the exit of Perfect Dark , part of the development team leaves Rareware to form Free Radical Design. This new company develops thereafter the play TimeSplitters for PlayStation 2, another play of subjective shooting based on an engine of entirely new play. Timesplitters and its continuation, TimeSplitters 2 borrow many characteristics of the gameplay and presentation of GoldenEye and Perfect Dark , like the system of aiming, the organization of the objectives of mission or the cheatings débloquables by finishing the levels quickly.

Rare the development of préquelle a heading Perfect Dark Zero had begun on GameCube, but the title is then repurchased at Nintendo by Microsoft in 2002. It is then decided to leave it on XBox 360 to do of them one of the titles of launching of the console. It is always about a play of subjective shooting where Joanna Dark must supplement specific objectives. The multijouor mode makes it possible to introduce even more the club-footed ones, thanks to the power provided by XBox 360, and the possibility of playing on Online.

In spite of satisfactory sales, Perfect Dark did not reach the eight million specimens of its predecessor and Joanna Dark did not have the same cultural impact as other heroins of video game like Lara Croft. However, the universe of the play continues to be developed with the exit of a novel, Perfect Dark: Initial Vector of Greg Rucka. The history is between Perfect Dark Zero and Perfect Dark and shows Joanna as old chasseuse of premium taken in the battle between Insitut Carrington and the dataDyne. Rucka declared that at least two other books were also envisaged.

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