Perfect Dark is a first-person shooter game developed by Rare and released for the Nintendo 64 in 2000. It was a successor to Goldeneye 007 (released by Rare in 1997). Perfect Dark featured campaign and multiplayer game modes. It was considered a commercial success and regarded by many players as one of the greatest games of all-time.
In a world that is now filled with countless first-person shooter games, we have to admit Perfect Dark looks and feels a bit dated. But don’t be fooled. The multiplayer in this game was outstanding for the era. Crawling through corridors and blasting your friends (or bots) was an absolute blast.
Perfect Dark featured split-screen multiplayer. That means you could easily take a peek at your buddy’s screen at any time. With a quick glance you could figure out where they were located and/or where they might be headed in the map. While many consider this a clear disadvantage in competitive play, it added a layer of fun to the overall experience. Players had to get creative in local death matches. Trickery was key. Maybe lure your opponent to an area rigged with a well-placed mine? The split-screen constantly kept players on their toes. And the trash talk was spectacular.
The multiplayer maps in Perfect Dark were a great mix of tight corridors and open spaces. While slow moving doors could be an annoyance, the general flow of gameplay never felt hindered. The developers did an excellent job of creating multiple pathways for players to traverse through different areas. The AI bots were also smart enough to move through the levels and make matches interesting. The ability to customize winning conditions and weapon pickups for each map added a nice layer of replayability. Level design in multiplayer has definitely improved over the years, but Perfect Dark was really good.
One of our favorite things about the Perfect Dark multiplayer had to be the guns. There were a wide assortment of interesting weapons. This wasn’t your regular run-of-the-mill shooter selection. Sure, there was the standard fare of machine guns and pistols. But there was so much more. The Laptop Gun was a clever, high-powered machine gun that could be left on walls shooting opponents as they approach. Mines (proximity and timed) could be placed anywhere, making just moving around perilous. And the FarSight XR-20 was a rail gun with an x-ray powered scope that could shoot through walls. The weapons of Perfect Dark were so unique and varied, resulting in bullet mayhem that never felt stale.
First-person shooters have evolved quite a bit since Perfect Dark was released. The graphics, speed and complexity of game modes is definitely better these days. But over twenty years ago, Perfect Dark set the bar higher for what the multiplayer experience could be. The split-screen, maps and weapons were unlike anything else at the time.
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