Perfect Dark

Overview

Perfect Dark is a first-person shooter for the Nintendo 64 that was developed and published by Rare. Released on May 22, 2000 in North America, June 30, 2000 in Europe, and October 21, 2000 in Japan, the game was met with acclaim by both fans and critics alike, despite criticism of flaws in its frame-rate. It features a long-winding story that can be played in single-player, co-operative, or the unique counter-operative modes and a "combat simulator", a fully-customizable multiplayer mode.

Perfect Dark is considered the spiritual sequel to GoldenEye 007, and was originally designed as another game in the 007 franchise. But Rare figured that a new IP using a similar "secret agent" idea would be the best way to go. The game's engine is based on the one used in GoldenEye, with significant improvements. The game, however, uses modified weapons and levels from GoldenEye as an added bonus.

The game required the use of the Nintendo 64 Expansion Pak to play (and will restrict you to limited multiplayer gameplay when it's not found). It was one of the first games to support Dolby Surround Sound and higher-resolution graphics up to 640x480 (via the Expansion Pak), and one of the only games to support the Nintendo 64 Transfer Pak. (Using it with the Game Boy Color version of Perfect Dark unlocks cheats) Originally, the Transfer Pak was also used in conjunction with the Game Boy Camera to let the player put their face (or someone else's) in the game. Dubbed PerfectFace, this idea was scrapped. Another idea which was scrapped was the ability to take hostages as human shields. However, as with the Game Boy camera idea this idea was sidelined due to it being perceived as overly violent. However, both of these ideas can be found in more modern games; face scanning in Rainbow Six Vegas and hostage taking in Gears of War.

The protagonist, Joanna Dark

The story takes place in the year 2023 involving espionage between two factions: Carrington Institute (a research and development center) and dataDyne Corporation (a defense contractor). The protagonist is Joanna Dark, an agent of the Carrington Institute, whose high scores in training earns her the codename "Perfect Dark". The game begins as Joanna Dark is sent to investigate the dataDyne Corporation for an insider who calls himself Dr. Caroll. The plot twists through espionage, presidential politics, and eventually interstellar warfare.

Two prequel games were released, one for the Game Boy Color and one for the Xbox 360. The Game Boy Color version, also named Perfect Dark, takes place a year before the events of the Nintendo 64 game, where Joanna Dark has just completed training in the Carrington Institute and is sent on her first mission to destroy an illegal dataDyne cyborg manufacturing facility in the South American jungle. The Xbox 360 prequel, Perfect Dark Zero, takes place three years before the events of the Nintendo 64 game, where Joanna Dark is a bounty hunter working for her father. Two prequel novels, Perfect Dark: Initial Vector and Perfect Dark: Second Front (written by Greg Rucka), and one prequel comic series, Perfect Dark: Janus' Tears, was released in conjunction with Perfect Dark Zero.

Xbox Live Arcade

The Xbox 360 version

On March 17th, 2010, Perfect Dark was re-released for the Xbox 360 over Xbox Live Arcade as part of the platform's "Summer Block Party" promotion for 800 Microsoft Points ($10).

Handled by 4J Studios, who also ported Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie to the Xbox 360, this port contains new graphics in significantly higher resolutions than those found in the original. Geometry, character models, and animation remain unchanged, however. This game runs at a constant 60 frames per second, eliminating the frame rate issues of the original.

Online multiplayer has been added to this version of Perfect Dark, supporting the Combat Simulator (up to eight human players), Co-operative (up to two players), and Counter-Operative (up to two players) modes. The Combat Simulator also adds matchmaking play, either free-for-all or team-play, including a playlist specialized for classic maps with classic weapons. (Making it feel like the online version of GoldenEye 007) This port also supports leaderboards for all single-player missions.

The Nintendo 64 version

This game features 20 achievements for 200 gamerscore. Most of the achievements are easy, though Perfect Agent, Prime Target, and Crowned Glory are very difficult to obtain. The port also introduces its own in-game achievement system called "leaderboard crowns", which are icons that show up next to your name on leaderboards. These can be obtained by doing different and sometimes unconventional things in each mission on a certain difficulty. Some crowns require you to beat the game under a certain time or circumstance while one requires the use of the Combat Simulator.

This Xbox Live Arcade game also features several unlockable rewards:

• Gamer Picture: Joanna Dark - Unlocked by playing a split-screen multi-player match in the combat simulator.
• Gamer Picture: Elvis - Earned by getting game completion of 201% on the leaderboards.

• Avatar Award: Perfect Aim - A gray t-shirt with the perfect dark logo on it. Unlocked after killing an enemy with a headshot.
• Avatar Award: Top Secret - A doll prop resembling Elvis the Maian. Unlocked after completing Mr. Blonde's Revenge, Maian S.O.S., War!, or The Duel in any difficulty.

• Premium Dashboard Theme: Perfect Dark - Skedar - Featuring artwork of the Skedar Homeworld. Unlocked by getting a kill with every weapon available in the game, without using cheats.
• Multiplayer Skin: Agent 4 - Crackdown 2 character model, a Save File Unlockable, unlocked if you have a Crackdown 2 save file on your system.

The game received a title update on May 6th, 2010, focusing primarily on achievement fixes, advanced control options, and a new deathmatch-only matchmaking playlist: Hardcore. (no radar, auto-aim, or highlights) The update also made the explosions and performance of the Laptop Gun's sentry mode act similar to the original Nintendo 64 version.

Solo Missions

Perfect Dark contains 17 main missions and 4 bonus unlockable missions, known as "special assignments". There are no checkpoints in the middle of a level or a way to save the game, and the player must restart the level after failing. Each has a set of objectives that varies with the difficulty setting, becoming more involved as the difficulty increases. There are three difficulty settings (Agent, Secret Agent, and Perfect Agent), but a fourth setting, Perfect Dark, lets the player decide the health, damage, and accuracy of the opponents. (The mode is only available after beating all the levels on Perfect Agent). The 4 "special assignments" in the game are canonical to the story and sometimes lets the players control alternative characters. (Two of the missions require you to be a Maian while one of the missions require you to be a Skedar in Mr. Blonde form)

Carrington Institute

The Carrington Institute

When the game starts up, the player picks a profile and is given a menu with all the basic play options available. However, you can back out of this menu and walk around the Carrington Institute as Joanna. The Institute is a multi-story complex with a handful of rooms to do different trainings in. The first time you back out to the Institute, Daniel Carrington greets Joanna and shows her around the various rooms.

• Firing Range - Here, weapons the player unlocks in the story mode and the combat simulator challenges can be used in individually tailored target tests. There is a bronze, silver, and gold test for each weapon and winning enough golds will unlock classic weapons from GoldenEye 007 for use in the single player missions. The computer in the range's antechamber has detailed information about each weapon.
• Device Room - As in most spy games, Dark has a host of gadgets she uses during her adventure. The Device Room lets you try them out at your leisure.
• Simulation Room - This room has several beginner maneuvering exercises you can complete, most improving your skills in evasion and disarming opponents.
• Data Room - The computer on the left side of this room has personnel information on important characters in the story. This information fills in through playing the story missions. Another computer lets you access the cheats.
• Hangar - Other than a host of pointless areas (which will be important later in the game), you can control a hovercraft and a hovering crate. The crate can be taken to the Firing Range and propped up against the door, letting you take the weapons outside of the firing range. This has been fixed in the Xbox Live Arcade port.

Co-Operative Mode

The missions can be played in the classic co-operative mode. Here, two players can share a split screen while they do the missions together. Only the first player, who holds all mission-critical equipment, must survive. You can also play this in single-player with up to four AI allies, or simulants. These simulants only use one weapon and have the tactics (or lack of) of the enemy (though you can manually change their tactics from aggressive to stealthy). You start off playing the game with one AI, but as you beat the game in co-operative under different difficulties, you unlock the option to add more allies to the game. (2 for Agent, 3 for Secret Agent, 4 for Perfect Agent)

Using cheats, you can change the character your simulant(s) or human partner will be portraying. Some missions, like Mr. Blonde's Revenge, will force the simulants to use the Mr. Blonde model (but their weapons will be the same as other missions).

• Velvet Dark - Joanna's sister and the default simulant. Always uses the default Falcon 2 pistol.
• Pugilist - A large man who only uses fists.
• Hotshot - Carries a DY357 Magnum on one hand and the DY357-LX in the other.
• Hit and Run - A Mr. Blonde look-alike equipped with a K7 Avenger.
• Alien - A Maian with a RC-P120.

Counter-Operative Mode

Counter-Op puts a unique spin on co-operative play. One player plays as Joanna Dark while the other player plays as a random enemy. The enemy player has the same low health as the other enemies, but takes control of another enemy after death. This mode can be exploited by a guard who understands the operative's motives (for example, when boarding Air Force One, Jo dons a disguise and cannot shoot her gun without failing the mission), so some form of non- griefing pact should be arranged before attempting this mode with a friend. Even without griefing issues, completing missions is next to impossible on anything but Agent if the Counter-Op player is a good shot--the story mode guards are not even close to as vigilant or aggressive as a human player. In regards to the enemy player, if he is low on health and feels down on his life, there's a suicide pill you can take to instantly kill yourself and re-spawn as a new enemy guard.

Combat Simulator

Perfect Dark's main multiplayer mode, also known as the Combat Simulator, features up to four players (eight in the XBOX Live Arcade Version) and eight CPU opponents (also known as "simulants"). They can split up into different teams (up to eight) indicated by color. (Team 1 and Team 2 are red and yellow, just like the primary and secondary firing mode colors) Nearly every game attribute can be modified, including one-hit kills and radar. For casual games, you may also turn on cheats, such as Unlimited Ammo No Reloads, for extra fun.

Once you complete a match, your stats are tracked on your profile. These stats include kills, deaths, wins, losses and accuracy. There are 4 skill medals that you can get for each match (Accuracy, Headshot, KillMaster, and Survivor, all which are tracked in your profile) and 17 post-game awards (including Most Deadly, Shortest Life, and Most Professional). As you get more kills and win more matches, your profile's level increases. However, increasing levels add nothing to the game.

Not every weapon, simulant type, level, and game mode is unlocked from the start. They must be unlocked by doing challenges in the Combat Simulator. (Weapons can also be obtained by using them in the single-player game) There are 30 challenges in the game, each can be played up to four human players at a time. The more players playing the challenge, the more simulants they face. Challenges start off trivially easy and later become painfully difficult. They often introduce new game modes and weapons. Only four challenges are available at the start, with each beaten challenge unlocking a new challenge.

Game Modes

There are six base game modes that can be played in the Combat Simulator:

• Combat - Traditional deathmatch.
• Hold the Briefcase - Unlocked after clearing 2 challenges. A briefcase item randomly spawns in the level at the beginning of the match. You must grab the case and stay alive. Holding the case for 30 seconds earns you a point. Once you die, you drop the briefcase, which is either picked up by an ally, an enemy, or reset to a random part of the level.
• Capture the Case - Unlocked after clearing 4 challenges. Traditional capture the flag. Your case must be at home to score and dropped cases are automatically returned.
• King of the Hill - Randomly-determined areas of the map must be held uncontested for 20 seconds to earn a point. Each teammate on the hill is awarded a point when the hill's timer reaches zero. After that, the hill is moved to another random area.
• Hacker Central - Unlocked after clearing 6 challenges. Players must grab a data uplink item and use this item (leaving themselves defenseless) on a computer. Both the data uplink and computer spawn in a random area of the map. If the holder of the data uplink item dies, the data uplink respawns to a different area. You get points for each successful "hack", which lasts around 10 seconds.
• Pop a Cap - Unlocked after clearing 12 challenges. One random player is the "victim". If that player survives 30 seconds, he gets a point. If another player kills him, that player gets two points. Once that player survives or dies, the role of the "victim" switches to another player.

Simulants

Simulants in the Combat Simulator are bots that can be customized according to difficulty and specialty. Simulant teammates can be ordered by their human teammates. The difficulty for the bots include:

• MeatSim - Horrible, mindless bot with absolutely no accuracy.
• EasySim - Still going to take bullets, but has slightly better accuracy.
• NormalSim - The average difficulty of simulant. Average accuracy and intelligence.
• HardSim - Unlocked after clearing 4 challenges. HardSims begin using the radar to find you while hunting for the best weapons.
• PerfectSim - Unlocked after clearing 9 challenges. A real challenge. Great accuracy and fast movement.
• DarkSim - Unlocked after clearing 21 challenges. This bot cheats.

Simulants can also have one of many special characteristics, such as:

• PeaceSim - A simulant against violence, he will run around hoarding weapons (while using the unarmed disarm ability against the other players).
• ShieldSim - Always goes for the shield.
• RocketSim - Only uses explosive weapons.
• KazeSim - If this simulant spots you, it will try to attack you no matter what the odds are.
• FistSim - Like the PeaceSim, only more dangerous with the fists.
• PreySim - Hunts down the easier targets.
• CowardSim - Will always run away unless it has a superior weapon.
• JudgeSim - Attacks the enemy player with the highest score.
• FeudSim - Makes a random decision at the start of the game to hunt down only one opponent for the entire game.
• SpeedSim - Speedhacker.
• TurtleSim - While it's very slow, it has a powerful shield.
• VengeSim - Hunts down the last player who killed it.

Arenas

There are 17 arenas in perfect dark, 3 of them which are remakes of Goldeneye 007 arenas:

Area 52

• Skedar
• Pipes
• Area 52
• Complex - Unlocked after clearing 1 challenge. Remake of Complex from Goldeneye 007.
• Warehouse - Unlocked after clearing 3 challenges.
• Ravine - Unlocked after clearing 5 challenges.
• Temple - Unlocked after clearing 6 challenges. Remake of Temple from Goldeneye 007.
• G5 Building - Unlocked after clearing 9 challenges.
• Grid - Unlocked after clearing 11 challenges.
• Felicity - Unlocked after clearing 12 challenges. Remake of Facility from Goldeneye 007.
• Villa - Unlocked after clearing 14 challenges.
• Sewers - Unlocked after clearing 16 challenges.
• Car Park - Unlocked after clearing 17 challenges.
• Base - Unlocked after clearing 18 challenges.
• Fortress - Unlocked after clearing 20 challenges.
• Ruins - Unlocked after clearing 22 challenges.

Missions

DataDyne Defection

Infiltrating the DataDyne Corporation.

The story starts out in a rush as Joanna Dark is sped to the roof dataDyne headquarters. Apparently, a sapient named Dr. Carroll has all the details necessary to foil an upcoming plot by dataDyne's leader and his advanced coding has given him a personality and moral code that Carrington believes would make him akin to their cause. However, officials at dataDyne have realized this and are planning to erase his memory, so time is of the essence. Joanna makes her way through the office space of the dataDyne HQ, taking down guards and camera systems indiscriminately, as well as knock out dataDyne executive Cassandra de Vries for the RFID necklace she has. She continues this rampage until she reaches the basement floor, where a secret wall panel reveals an elevator down to the laboratories under the facility. Assuming Dr. Carroll must be there. She rides this elevator into the labs.

DataDyne Investigation

Sneaking in to rescue Dr. Carroll.

Joanna's mission to capture Dr. Carroll remains the primary objective of this mission. However, as the opportunity presents itself, Carrington also gives her many secondary objectives within this most technologically advanced laboratory. The place is loaded to the brim with new weapons and technologies, such as a prototype shield system and the K7 Avenger assault rifle. Jo works her way through building, takes pictures, steals and sabotage sensitive equipment. She eventually finds Dr. Carroll in a sealed off room where he is revealed be some kind of flying laptop with eyes. Dark isn't sure what to make of this, but Dr. Carroll realizes the danger of the situation and urges her to leave immediately (with him in her care, naturally).

DataDyne Extraction

Lights out.

By the time she reaches the elevator back up the main structure, the upper branches of dataDyne HQ have prepared for Joanna's attempted rooftop extraction. There are many blockades set up with guards waiting for her around every corner. What's more, Cassandra de Vries's personal body guards are stationed throughout the building with station, ready to take down Jo for the slap in the earlier mission. She makes her way slowly and methodically to the rooftop, dispatching all of Cassandra's personal guard and even a hovercopter in the process. When she finally gets to the helipad on the roof, Cassandra is there waiting with two more guards. She offers Joanna a chance at redemption by resigning from the Carrington Institute and coming to work for her. Jo blasts de Vries's last two guards with a shotgun and jumps back onto the aircraft.

Carrington Villa

You've got to be quick or they'll kill the negotiator!

Sometime after Extraction, Joanna receives a distress call from the Institute. Apparently, Daniel Carrington is being held hostage in his private villa by dataDyne and they are questioning him about Dr. Carroll. Rather than go into the mission with their pants down the Institute team devise a plan to send a fake terms negotiator a decoy so Dark can get in as close as possible without detection (on Perfect Agent, Jo actually is the negotiator). She snipes the greeting party that comes for the negotiator and then proceeds to cleanse the area of the dataDyne presence. Their numbers are heavy, but they are unaware of her presence, so they behave in an uncoordinated fashion. After eliminating the watch outside, Jo proceeds to the basement of Daniel's chateau where he is being held. She pushes her way into his holding quarters, but she is too late. Daniel already told them where he hid Dr. Carroll. Thankfully, Daniel read into their peripheral conversations and determined that a meeting of minds was happening at the G5 building in Chicago that night. Using all the time available (not much) Jo gets ready for the trip.

Chicago

Beware the Perfect Dark Robocop.

The first actual stealth mission in the game, Joanna is charged with making her way into the G5 building undetected by traversing the streets of Chicago. If the guards posted at the building catch wind of her intentions, they will seal off the entrance and effectively eliminate any chance of eavesdropping on the meeting inside. Despite the short time between the two endeavors, the folks back at the Institute have an elaborate ploy already set up for her ingress. A supply drop is placed in a storm drain near the G5 car park entrance. Inside is a remote mine and reprogrammer. Jo sets the remote mine on a blocked off emergency exit at the back of G5 (its placement actually influences the course of events in the next mission) and reprograms a taxi to crash into a robocop, creating a diversion of large enough scale to draw the guards attention and give her window to sneak inside.

G5 Building

Patiently waiting for the right moment.

Once inside, the objective is still far from complete. The G5 building is brimming with security and the guards on the outer layers of this protection possess a new cloaking device technology. After this initial debacle, Jo silently proceeds into a room adjacent to the conference room. She takes down any guard in the area who might sound an alarm and call off the meeting, then disable the laser grid guarding the ventilation system. From here, the CamSpy takes over and Jo sends it into the room where the talking has just started. Apparently, NSA director Trent Easton is conspiring with dataDyne and a "Mr. Blonde" to take command of a deep sea diving vessel. Unfortunately for them, Easton overestimated the President's trust in him. He claims to have a contingency plan ready to go. All he needs now "is a tissue sample." An aircraft interception device is brought up in sparse detail as well.

After the meeting adjourns, Joanna still has to retrieve Dr. Carroll's personality from a vault in the building (they brought it here after invading the villa). The vault cracking goes well, but not unnoticed, and Jo is assailed by every guard from Illinois to Maine as she waits for the vault door to open. After she nabs the personality, she exfiltrates through the exit point she designated with the remote mine in the last mission and gets ready to head back home when a startling development occurs in Area 51. Dark protests the decision to go in favor of making sure of the safety of the President, but Carrington insists and thus she leaves immediately for Nevada, unknowing of exactly what has happened.

Area 51 Infiltration

As if the N64's graphics weren't jaggy enough...

On the trip over, Carrington fills in the details for the excursion. An alien craft was shot down by the interceptor alluded to in the G5 meeting. The craft contained a Maian that was en route to the Carrington Institute as assistance to Daniel. The workers in the facility don't actually know what happened, but are ready to perform autopsy procedures on the discovered alien and will kill him if Jo doesn't get there in time. She begins at a desert helipad on the edge on the base where little attentive resistance is found. She first takes care of defenses and communications on the exterior of the complex, shooting the interceptor crafts parked outside and bombing the comm center. She makes her way inside through a hangar elevator, meeting heavy resistance on the other side from national guard troops armed with Dragon assault rifles. She wades through these guards to Jonathan Dark, already waiting inside the building, disguised as a guard. He lays down the second leg of the operation.

Area 51 Rescue

The evil floating box.

Jonathan has procured a hovering box loaded with explosives. The route Joanna took into the building isn't actually connected by normal access to the autopsy lab. However, the hangar and the lab are adjacent to one another and one particular section of the wall between them is quite weak, allowing for forced entry with the use of the explosives. The crate won't last long under enemy fire, so Jo must use stealth to evade the swarming guards in the area, escorting the box carefully up two service lifts to the weakened wall section and then blow it up (from a friend to a friend: the box is an absolute pain in the ass to escort. Just throw a proxied dragon near the breach and shoot it. You're welcome.). Once inside, there isn't a second to waste. Joanna finds the locker room where the lab technician is just getting suited up. She knocks him out after a wild goose chase and poses as him. The guard unwittingly let's her inside the main structure, but the head surgeon doesn't recognize her and cries for help. This initiates a hurried set of events where Dark takes down the guards in the outer chamber, steals a key card, and then proceeds to rescue the Maian hostage from the grips of the unwitting surgical attendees.

Area 51 Escape

Elvis awakens.

Just as much urgency is present in the escapade as the guards elsewhere in the complex have now caught wind of the events inside the lab. What's worse, the head surgeon turns on a nerve gas security system that bombards Jo with poisonous fumes until she exits the lab. She does so as fast as she can, finds a safe place to put the hovering stretcher with the Maian in it and meets back up with Jonathan. Jonathan had been busy entertaining the guards, but now they needed to leave and the entrance the hangar where the Maian spaceship has been locked is sealed off. Jonathan rigs up an improvised oil bomb to blast a hole in the side of the hangar and the two rush as fast as they can to the Maian, who Jo resuscitates with mysterious medical device.

The Maian wakes with a start, screaming in agony. The screaming dies down and the Maian introduces himself to the two as Elvis or "Protector One" if they prefer the more relevant name. They opt for Elvis. With Elvis in tow, the group then hurries to the spaceship, only to realize that it will not hold all three of them; just two. Either Jonathan or Joanna must escape on a hoverbike located nearby after opening the two main hangar doors. Who does what is left up to the player. They make their escape without further incident.

Air Base

The crossbow remains a vital asset of any super-spy even in the future.

With Elvis secured, Dark refocuses her attention to the President. Trent Easton is planning to kidnap him while aboard the Air Force One. The first step to preventing this is to board Air Force One. This involves stealing a stewardess uniform from a civilian on the way into the air base. She procures a briefcase from two unaware businessmen and loads her many gadgets inside. All of her secret spy stuff (and guns) would obviously set off the alarm, so she quickly makes her way to the scanner room where she subverts the scanner, letting the case through without incident. She then proceeds down a diagonally-oriented elevator to the Air Force One hangar, where is given the option of boarding the craft from the bottom by dodging a laser grid or through the main door at the top by evading detection. The choice is the player's and it determines where Dark begins the next mission.

Air Force One

The President is in danger.

First things first, equipment. Jo makes her down the kitchen area, the kitchen being directly connected to the cargo bay. This is must faster if the plane is boarded from the bottom as Jo actually starts down there. Once she acquires her effects, she makes a segue for the president's cabin to inform him, in a barrage of facts and evidence, that he is in mortal danger. Just as she convinces him, however, an alien aircraft forcefully attaches itself to Air Force One, and dataDyne soldiers pour into the main cabin. Jo escorts the President to the plane's escape pod to ensure his survival of the inevitable crash. The alien craft is detached through a combination of a timed mine and Elvis's intervention. This does not make things better and Elvis loses control of his ship in the process of shooting a tube connecting the alien craft to Air Force One. All three machines proceed to fall out of the sky.

Crash Site

That's gonna cost ya.

The scene opens with Joanna picking herself up off a bank of snow. She was flung far from the Air Force One during the crash and, once she finds her bearings, hunts it down for the presidential tracker. Along the way, she finds the president's escape pod and activates the distress beacon in the hopes its signal is strong to defeat the radio interference currently jamming her own transponder. While traversing the snowy landscape, she happens across Elvis and his ship. He seem well prepared to defend himself, and so designates his ship as the rendezvous point once she finds the president.

Using the president tracker found near the wreckage of Air Force One, Jo searches around in a large ice cavern, encountering both the real president and a clone of the president. The former is being held hostage by Trent who runs when Jo shoots at him. The President and Jo make it back to the surface and she leaves him in the able hands of Elvis. She goes back into the cavern to dispatch the clone and then makes the trip back up to Elvis for the last time. From there, they wait to be picked up.

Pelagic II

All's quiet at the Pelagic docking bay.

With the apparent dangers now averted, Carrington orders an investigation of dataDyne's real scheme. Jo is tasked with heading to the Pelagic II's dry dock and do whatever it takes to sabotage the expedition and, if this fails, board the vessel. The dock operation proves to be a very difficult test of quick dispatchment as the entire complex is loaded with alarms and guards that are more than willing to activate them. On the way through this gauntlet, Jo deactivates the power to the facility and forces the deactivation of the autopilot and GPS navigation systems. She meets back up with Elvis in the basement where they begin preparations to board the vessel down in the Moon Lift.

Deep Sea

Elvis continues his trend of outclassing you in firepower.

The craft takes the duo down to a mysterious submarine facility of a construction similar to the alien craft that attacked Air Force One. These aliens are identified as Skedar. The guards here, as in the G5 building, are armed with cloaking devices, but Dark now has a shotgun and she makes quick work of this now second-class threat. The two come upon a curiously shaped wall that Elvis identifies as an inactive teleportal. The panel to activate is located far inside a dark cavern loaded with odd door opening mechanisms. Nevertheless, once through, they enter the heart of an enormous complex that turns out to be a potentially world-ending super-weapon developed by an ancient civilization called the Cetans. Needless to say, the urgency of the mission steps up a bit from here.

Jo fends off baddies as Elvis consults various mysterious panels in the hopes of reaching the nerve center of the whole apparatus as fast as possible. They eventually manage this and find one Dr. Carroll hooked up to the heart of the machine. He is not the unassuming computer he was before, having been reprogrammed, but the folks back at the Institute created a virus designed to reinstall his old personality. After some initial sputtering and fidgeting, it works and Dr. Carroll is back to is old self. He explains that he can initiate the self-destruction of the entire machine, but he would have to destroy himself in the process. Jo and Dr. Carroll say farewell to each other and Jo and Elvis get the hell out of there.

Carrington Institute

The godsmashing RC-P120

All seems taken care of now, and things can finally get back to normal. Elvis and his entourage have now arrived on Earth and Daniel Carrington is ready to take them to a formal contact between Earth leaders and the Maian people. Alas, dataDyne is not so easily cast aside. An explosion goes off somewhere in the facility just before the group boards the plane. Given no choice, Joanna grabs an AR34 from a nearby guard and sets out bring the invasion obviously in progress to a halt. She first heads further down into the hangars to activate the turrets. Knowing that the influx of soldiers has been reduced, Joanna surges through the office complex, rescuing the Institute scientists being held hostage there. She makes a stop by Carrington's office to destroy some sensitive information dataDyne might have wanted to get their hands on. She also stops by the firing range where she acquires the RC-P120. Foster had been working on it to deal with dataDyne's new shielding technology, which they now employ, it works pretty well.

The chain of events continues to escalate when the soldiers rig a bomb on a Skedar craft. Jo heads down to the hover-pads and disables the device whilst avoiding fire from a multitude of "Mr. Blonde"s (actually Skedars in disguise). With this pandemonium taken care of, Dark dashes back to the main hangar where the others have already boarded the airplane. She signals for them to leave without her and they no sooner out of the building than she is knocked out by Skedar right behind her.

Attack Ship

A Skedar just before getting it good.

Our heroine wakes up inside a Skedar holding cell. Once she gets the strength to stand up, she notices that she is not alone. None other than Cassandra de Vries is in the cell with her. No matter what Cassandra's feelings toward Jo might be however, she is far more interested in getting back at the Skedar. She sacrifices herself to make a diversion for Joanna. Jo takes this opportunity to stab a Skedar guard, steal his gun, and deal with all other guards in the vicinity. She gets a signal from Elvis that they are orbiting the ship holding her captive and that she needs to lower the force-field so they can help her. She shoots up the field's controller and meets up with the Maian forces on the bridge who are actively engaged in fierce battle the attendees of the cruiser. Elvis and Joanna make their way to the star system to make some sense out of where they are going. Elvis realizes that the ship is on the way to the Skedar's home planet and urges Jo to take him to the bridge. After much confrontation, they make it and Elvis eagerly lands the ship on the planet's surface.

Skedar Ruins

The Maians never knew where the Skedar's home planet was located. Now armed with that information, they have an honorable quest for Jo on the surface: kill the Skedar King. Jo starts her assassination attempt on the outskirts of the planet's royal temple. She places a number of target amplifiers on pillars outside the main structure in order bring down any shielding afforded the grounds by them. Once down, Dark goes spelunking in the dimly-lit rooms of the Skedar's most holy realms. She encounters armored Skedar bearing Reapers and Slayer rocket launchers in addition to smaller Skedar that leap out of her from corners. She makes a sacrifice to the War God by placing a weapon at the Altar below the door to the Inner Sanctum and strolls inside to discover a Skedar task force in suspended animation. One-by-one, the corpses are reanimated and assault Jo, who proceeds to take them down in turn.

Now, finally, with all obstacles finally behind her, Joanna walks into the Skedar King's main quarters. He is waiting for her in front of a large altar. Some form of shielding technology (not unlike what DataDyne was using) is protecting him and is powered by the large statue behind him. Through waves of smaller baddies and procedural destruction of the idol behind him, the Skedar King falls to Joanna itchy trigger finger. After a rather lighthearted "Yes!" from Joanna in response to the death of a major alien society's leader, the

I won!

entire complex begins to crumble and Jo is caught by falling rocks. Elvis finds her later buried under the rubble and helps her out. The two make their way back to the ship and the credits roll. Now you have to do it all again on the other two difficulties.

Special Assignments

Special Assignments are bonus missions outside of the main campaign. Each one uses environments from existing levels, with new enemy placements and objectives. To unlock them:

• Mr. Blonde's Revenge - Complete all story missions on Agent or higher.
• Maian S.O.S. - Complete all story missions on Special Agent or higher.
• War! - Complete all story missions on Perfect Agent.
• The Duel - Earn at least a Bronze rating with all 32 weapons in the Carrington Institute's firing range.

Mr. Blonde's Revenge

A "Mr. Blonde" is sent to the DataDyne building to capture Cassandra de Vries and bring her to Skedar justice. Mr. Blonde fights through security to gain access to Cassandra's office, followed by extraction off the helipad in a Skedar ship. The coordinated assault results in Cassandra's encounter with Joanna in the Attack Ship's holding cell.

Maian S.O.S.

One of the Maian Protectors escapes an Area 51 lab to send out a distress signal. Though the mission is a success, the protector gets tranquilized and captured once again. Thankfully, his heroic deed reaches the Carrington Institute, who respond with Joanna Dark's rescue effort.

War!

The war against the Skedar changes... somewhat. A Maian assault squad now leads the charge onto the Skedar home planet. Leading the planet's defense are 3 Skedar Kings (depending on the difficulty chosen). The Maians prevail and celebrate with their traditional Dance of Joy.

The Duel

In the Carrington Institute's combat training room, Joanna squares off against a DataDyne guard, followed by Jonathan Dark, and culminating with Trent Easton. Each encounter's difficulty is increased, and being armed with handguns means that accuracy is key. Agent Dark, of course, overcomes all of her opponents with ease.

Characters

Weapons

Perfect Dark improves upon its predecessor, Goldeneye 007, in the use of weapons by including both a primary and a secondary function/fire mode for each weapon. (With the exception of the classic guns, which are primary only).

For a more detailed look at the weapons, see this list.

Classic Weapons

Gadgets

Cheese

Hidden within every level of the game is a small piece of yellow cheese. These were most likely meant to give the play a cheat if they found them but was abandoned for the complete the level on a certain difficulty and time restriction as a means for a greater challenge of the players skill. Even though they do nothing Rare left the cheese in each stage, just to look at.

dataDyne Central - Defection

The cheese is near the start of the level on the fifth floor (near the panel that an EMC mine can be attached to). An explosion can break the cylinder open and it is inside a grate in the room down below.

dataDyne Central - Investigation

On the pipe under a sheet of glass in the room where the scientist who tries to set the alarm off is.

dataDyne Central - Extraction

In Cassandra's office there is a grenade on the table and if it is thrown next to the wall on the rights hand side (facing the window) the piece of cheese in in the room that

Carrington Villa - Hostage One

It is found on top of one of the wine shelves down in the wine cellar.

Chicargo - Stealth

Found in the Pond Punk Bar toilets. It's inside the toilet.

G5 Building - Reconnaissance

Close to the Damping Field Generator in a vent on the wall near the sloping ceiling.

Area 51 - Infiltration, Rescue and Escape

Only really able to see if a GameShark is used and a clipping cheat used to get into the vents above the bathroom. In Rescue there is a procedure that you can go through to allow you to get through a locked door and into some ventilation.

Air Base - Espionage

When the rail car lets the stewardess off and head left to the ropes. Going to the wall where the rope meets the wall equip the horizon scan, look down to view a piece of water and zoom in close enough to see it.

Air Force One - Anti-terrorism

One the plane in the room that contains the escape pod and the piece of cheese is just past some pipes to the left of you.

Crash Site - Confrontation

When near Air Force One, face the cockpit and to the right there is a small section in the wrecked wing on the far right.

Pelagic II - Exploration

In the room with the primary power generator the cheese is on the grating to the right of the door.

Deep Sea - Nullify Threat

When exiting the large room you start the mission in there is a large window to the left, if you zoom in with a sniper rifle you can see it on the ocean floor.

Carrington Institute - Defense

The main door to the Carrington Institute will be broken down and you are able to walk out onto a balcony and look at it through the use of a sniper rifle. You can see this piece of cheese whenever you are in the institute and have access to the Slayer. By pushing the hover crate in between the door of the firing range you can keep it open when shooting and you can guide the Slayer's rocket through the institute and see the piece of cheese that way.

Attack Ship - Covert Assault

When the hangar at the start of the level is open go up to the elevators near the rear of the room and face them. To the right there is a separate room and on the floor there is a transparent part that has the piece of cheese underneath it.

Skedar Ruins - Battle Shrine

After crossing the fissure and before destroying a wall, there is an area to the right with a Skedar on top of a shield. Getting close to the wall with the large crack and moving to the right, you can peer through the crack and see the cheese.

Soundtrack

Soundtrack

The Soundtrack for Perfect Dark was composed by Grant Kirkhope and released on two discs.

Disc one

Disc two