Has it Held Up/For Your Download: Perfect Dark
February 1st 2012 01:02
Category: No Category
It has been a while since I did a downloadable title, so i think now is as good of a time as any to do one here, I have also been feeling kind of nostalgic so I wanted to do a game from the past too. So, what better way satisfy both than talk about a game that has been ported and updated for this generation's console? Lets jump in to Perfect Dark for the Xbox Live Arcade.
Lets sit and chat for a second, can we? I have to be entirely honest with you here, this is my very first time playing this game. I know what you are thinking "Man, this game is a classic, how could you miss this one?" and to be honest with you, I don't know how or why I missed it. I played GoldenEye till I got motion sick (true story), and clocked in so many hours on Time Splitters 2, I just never played this one. I have heard of the game before and some of my friends talk about how amazing it was when it was out for the N64, but we all just played GoldenEye instead because that was the game we were most familiar with. So, this is literally my first time playing this game, so none of those naggy feeling will get in the way of my brilliant, completely professional, judgment.
Review:The game starts off with a really interesting menu, I think this is worth mentioning because I have never seen something quite like it. You start off as Joanna Dark in the Institute and you select your option from stating to play the actual game, wander around the institute, or tweaking the games settings. Of course, I choose to wander the hallways of the institute and hear the NPCs praise me for being the goddamn best in the world. Also, in the institute you can do some training missions, go to the shooting range, and get story info. Thank goodness for that last part too, because I had almost no idea what was going on in the game the entire time I was playing it. Something about spies, aliens, and AI...whatever, I guess. The solo is, as you have guessed by now, separated into story missions, but also it has "combat simulator" missions in which you play the multi-player mode with a computer character to meet certain objectives. As far as the multi-player is concerned I wouldn't go giving it the highest of marks. True, there are some features that show so real innovation, the "Counter-operative" mode lets one player play as Johanna, and the other play as one of the drone guards. So your friend literally becomes your enemy. If you are feeling more cooperative than you can of course run through the game with a partner covering your back; it is just the campaign with two people running through the levels. Back on the competitive side there is the normal GoldenEye-esque matches, but with some game variants like King of the Hill and Capture the flag. The game can also be taken on to Xbox Live, but sadly it feels more like a ghost town than anything else, so the fact that there is Xbox Live support does nothing for the loneliness.
As I said earlier, this is not a game for story. I had almost no clue what was going on, it just felt like a really disjointed spy/sci-fi film from some time ago. The game may lack on story, but some of the death groans and how the models move about in the same ways as their N64 days is certainly worth a chuckle. This game plays unlike the modern shooters; you can carry as many weapons as you want, and your health is set at a finite amount, so if you you die or fail an objective it is game over. Some mechanics seem to try and flex the N64;s muscles, but serve almost no purpose in the game today; things like shooting out lights, or deploying a "spy-cam" that hovers around in a fish-eye lens visuals. These things may have been fun back in the day, but here they are just a nuisance and unwelcome. You also move fast in this game, you are constantly running which is nice, if not unrealistic, but that is a very welcome addition to this generation's use of the sprint feature. Also, I don't know how people could play this on the N64 controller, it seems like the game uses ever button on the 360 controller, but perhaps it is because I am just used to this particular setup. Another thing that I find interesting that a good amount of games do not do any more is have two firing modes for almost every weapon, it can drastically change the game play and gives the game a bit more replayability because of the different combinations of wasting your enemies away.
In Conclusion: I actually really enjoyed playing this game, being that it was my first time playing Perfect Dark. This game serves as a snapshot of the time, and is a great way to remember how things were in the GoldenEye era of shooters. The big question is: Has this game held up? The game has in a way held up, and in other ways not so much. I can't say that the enemies are very well done, because they are really stupid by today's standards. I can't say that the lack of a checkpoint system is a huge flaw, mostly because it is how the game is played and it was interesting to see how it was played back in the day. Like I said earlier, some of the mechanics seemed to try and flex the N64's abilities, but with our current hardware they become tiresome and aggravating to have being a focal point. The multi-player is still fun with a bunch of friends, but it is also a tough sell to get a bunch of people to go and play an older game together (See here). I do think that there are some missteps in the game, mostly the story arc throughout and the just plain stupid AI, but some of these scuffs don't destroy the overall quality of this game.
Now, as for how well I can recommend this game that is a different story. The game comes in at 800 Microsoft points ($10 US), so it is not just given away. What this really comes down to personal feelings that you may have had for this game and if you want to relive said feelings again. I did say that it has held up to today's standards, but if someone, like me, who doesn't have any experience with this title wants to see what the fuss is all about I would tell them to save their pennies. The addition of Xbox Live is greatly warranted and welcome to this game for multi-player, but right now it is devoid of humans, so I suppose the point is moot now. I would only tell someone it is worth their money if they really want to relive their memories in HD, and had a few friends who wanted to do the same. For the rest of us I think that it is just fine to leave it where it is. The game is good, but unless you already have some memories tethered to late nights fragging friends, or finding all of the cheese, I would not say that it is worth the 800 points.
Pew pew pew...its a shooting game.
Review:The game starts off with a really interesting menu, I think this is worth mentioning because I have never seen something quite like it. You start off as Joanna Dark in the Institute and you select your option from stating to play the actual game, wander around the institute, or tweaking the games settings. Of course, I choose to wander the hallways of the institute and hear the NPCs praise me for being the goddamn best in the world. Also, in the institute you can do some training missions, go to the shooting range, and get story info. Thank goodness for that last part too, because I had almost no idea what was going on in the game the entire time I was playing it. Something about spies, aliens, and AI...whatever, I guess. The solo is, as you have guessed by now, separated into story missions, but also it has "combat simulator" missions in which you play the multi-player mode with a computer character to meet certain objectives. As far as the multi-player is concerned I wouldn't go giving it the highest of marks. True, there are some features that show so real innovation, the "Counter-operative" mode lets one player play as Johanna, and the other play as one of the drone guards. So your friend literally becomes your enemy. If you are feeling more cooperative than you can of course run through the game with a partner covering your back; it is just the campaign with two people running through the levels. Back on the competitive side there is the normal GoldenEye-esque matches, but with some game variants like King of the Hill and Capture the flag. The game can also be taken on to Xbox Live, but sadly it feels more like a ghost town than anything else, so the fact that there is Xbox Live support does nothing for the loneliness.
All by myself, don't wanna be...
And on this page we can see everyone Joanna killed in Chicago.
Now, as for how well I can recommend this game that is a different story. The game comes in at 800 Microsoft points ($10 US), so it is not just given away. What this really comes down to personal feelings that you may have had for this game and if you want to relive said feelings again. I did say that it has held up to today's standards, but if someone, like me, who doesn't have any experience with this title wants to see what the fuss is all about I would tell them to save their pennies. The addition of Xbox Live is greatly warranted and welcome to this game for multi-player, but right now it is devoid of humans, so I suppose the point is moot now. I would only tell someone it is worth their money if they really want to relive their memories in HD, and had a few friends who wanted to do the same. For the rest of us I think that it is just fine to leave it where it is. The game is good, but unless you already have some memories tethered to late nights fragging friends, or finding all of the cheese, I would not say that it is worth the 800 points.
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