So today I finished Perfect Dark, which I bought off the Xbox LIVE Marketplace shortly after it came out. Okay, well, I didn't completely finish it. But I think I'm on the last mission, and that's good enough for me because......
 
...... Holy crap, this game is painful. 
 
Really, the only good thing I got out of it was the memories of Goldeneye 007 that came back to me as I played it. Now that I think about it, Perfect Dark also made me love today's first person shooters even more. It made me love the fact that developers aren't making games like it anymore. 
 

So today I finished Perfect Dark, which I bought off the Xbox LIVE Marketplace shortly after it came out. Okay, well, I didn't completely finish it. But I think I'm on the last mission, and that's good enough for me because......
 
...... Holy crap, this game is painful. 
 
Really, the only good thing I got out of it was the memories of Goldeneye 007 that came back to me as I played it. Now that I think about it, Perfect Dark also made me love today's first person shooters even more. It made me love the fact that developers aren't making games like it anymore. 
 

Yeah, that Joanna Dark really makes you bend over and take it.

yeah, Perfect Dark is messed up to play today. although i didn't stop for those problems, i stopped playing because i kept blowing the president (or something) up in one mission. 

Welcome to the world of finding out your childhood favorites aren't as good as you remembered them to be. I am playing through KotOR right now, and man, the D&D ruleset aspects of that game aren't implemented well at all. More than half the feats and skills in that game are just plain worthless and the other half make the game easy. Thank goodness the story and characters still hold up, because the actual act of playing that game is kind of dull.
 
Similarly, Perfect Dark (and thus, Goldeneye) only work in the context of the time and the console they originated on. Remove either and suddenly the obtuse mission design and the copious auto aim aren't so great anymore, eh? Same goes with the multiplayer, but alas: Nostalgia.

" yeah, Perfect Dark is messed up to play today. although i didn't stop for those problems, i stopped playing because i kept blowing the president (or something) up in one mission.  "

Similarly, Perfect Dark (and thus, Goldeneye) only work in the context of the time and the console they originated on. Remove either and suddenly the obtuse mission design and the copious auto aim aren't so great anymore, eh? Same goes with the multiplayer, but alas: Nostalgia. "

" @AjayRaz said:

" yeah, Perfect Dark is messed up to play today. although i didn't stop for those problems, i stopped playing because i kept blowing the president (or something) up in one mission.  "

Was it the mission on the plane? I seem to recall failing that one a lot because the President was dying "

I didn't mind too much when I was a kid. I noticed, but it didn't frustrate me for some reason. I actually 100%'ed that game.
 
If I played it today without the nostalgia and knowing what I'm supposed to be doing, I'd probably dislike it too. But still, it kind of sucks that modern day shooters are such criminal hand-holders.

This game gave me a headache back in the day, the mission were just as confusing then. Still was a great game.

When thinking about designing a game conveying information to the player is one the biggest jobs the designers have and over the past decade or so the way games do that has changed drastically. I remember first seeing games with arrows pointing to your waypoints and then later seeing games where you could set your own waypoints, at their original introduction into gaming these were mind-blowing features for me.

Tetrisphere caused me pain, so it's probably the N64's fault.

Oh how I miss Goldeneye.  Yes Perfect Dark is very far from perfect, but I downloaded it today.  Just to give myself a sense of Goldeneye feeling.

That's why reimagining is the best. Hi-rez or HD is for pussies that are scared to face the truth. Old 3D games are lame and don't hold up well. Let go assholes, just let go. Let us relive the lies with new hints of truth.

Those games ain't bad, our expectations are just higher nowadays!
I still love games like Perfect Dark, they presented a journey, instead of a flyby cam that showed you half the level and what you should destroy/activate or a rollercoaster ride where your only objective is shoot stuff or disable a bomb while everything happens around you.
 
Nostalgia <3

" yeah, Perfect Dark is messed up to play today. although i didn't stop for those problems, i stopped playing because i kept blowing the president (or something) up in one mission.  "

" @AjayRaz said:

" yeah, Perfect Dark is messed up to play today. although i didn't stop for those problems, i stopped playing because i kept blowing the president (or something) up in one mission.  "

It was so good until you added the "up in one mission". "

I just wanted to say I love the QotSA reference there.
 
Also, like another poster mentioned, the problem with childhood nostalgia hits you when you actually go back and play the damn thing you loved: the game mechanics have evolved so much that the stuff we take for granted simply isn't there in the game, and if it weren't for the good times we remember from before we cared about those things we never would have played them in the first place. Stupid pansies, needing things like a "map" and "clear objectives" and "AI that doesn't instantly turn your face into a bullet magnet." Back in my day you were lucky to have games where the character didn't clip into the level geometry and force you to restart the whole level! 
 
Now turn off that durned rap music and get off my lawn!

I had never owned the original so I had no sense of nostalgia....

I understand your pain, man. I can't even do the second mission. It's like "RUN JOANNA, RADIATION!" and I'm like wut? Run WHERE?

None of that bothered me then and not now either.
Loved exploring and finding out on my own where to go/what to do (which was often obvious enough if you just listened/read/paid attention).
I never ever got stuck in the game because my objective wasn't clear.

@myalt22 said:

I had never owned the original so I had no sense of nostalgia....

I understand your pain, man. I can't even do the second mission. It's like "RUN JOANNA, RADIATION!" and I'm like wut? Run WHERE?

The second level in the Datadyne building? uhm, the room you enter has a god-damned nuclear reactor or something in it. you're not supposed to be in that room because radiation and you'll die. you use the camspy to take pictures of the "isotope" for evidence.

i think there's a shield hidden behind it, though. maybe on on perfect agent.

if that presented a stopping block, man, using those little cleaning robots is going to piss you right off. pausing the game and looking at the detailed descriptions of your objectives is actually extremely helpful. it'll tell you exactly what you'll need to do, most of the time - if you just try and go by the shorthand, it's a lot tougher to find your way.

anyways, i really like perfect dark. it definitely shows it's age, but the shooting is really satisfying and i appreciate how the levels are so open and twisty, but not so ridiculous and twisty like some old-school PC FPS, and there's no "find blue keycard" type stuff. also the voice work is amazing, ironically or no.