Perfect Dark (N64, 2000)
Graphics-8 Sound-8 Control-7.5 Challenge-6.5*/7 Story-6
Level Design-7* Frustration-7*/8 Fun-7* Originality-6.5
Overall Score-7
*Default (agent/easy)
+
Pretty impressive texture work and lights (although they don't affect their immediate surroundings in a realistic manner at all), 16:9 widescreen and hi-res mode options (lowers the framerate though)
Per mission difficulty options (easy-hard, default difficulty is easy, fewer mission objectives on lower difficulties and no cameras to destroy on default; enemies have higher HP+do more damage and aim better on normal, enemies do even more damage+aim even better and are more numerous on hard)
Can sometimes listen in on NPC conversations from outside of the room they're in (although it doesn't make sense that they don't notice the action happening near them)
In-game and cutscene subtitles toggle
Can knock out certain NPCs to prevent them from sounding an alarm (level 1)
Some interesting secrets (in level 1 you can make an NPC open a locked door for you by opening the door to the room they're in)
Pretty good framerate overall (the game does kinda chug at times when there are several enemies in a bigger room), Good animation overall
Decent VA overall (some amateurish ones)
Shows some stats after completing a mission (time taken, accuracy, kills and for some reason which body parts you hit on the enemies)
Some interesting gear (camspy - control a flying camera drone to scout ahead and take photos, )
Secondary firing mode for weapons (sometimes just a melee attack)
2-player coop mode and counter-operative mode (one player takes over an enemy character and tries to hunt down the player)
Can lean around corners - System Shock
Some escort segments where the NPC isn't completely useless - also get to fight alongside some of them
Bot difficulty level and personality (such as vengeful) in the deathmatch mode
Can ride a hover bike in some missions (press B twice - not explained in-game)
Minor puzzle element to some levels (clone president, switch puzzle on the ship, )
Pretty good final boss fight (hit an obelisk while it's regenerating/repairing it, summons monsters and teleports around the room)
+/-
Linear mission-based structure (save in-between missions - )
Some aim assist (none when using a sniper rifle though, oddly enough; gets in the way during the final boss fight) - GoldenEye 007
Enemies are pretty braindead on default/easy
Stealth aspect (surveillance cameras which you can destroy)
You still encounter secondary objective related objects when playing on default (a bit confusing)
Reload and interact mapped to the same button
Weapons don't carry over between missions
Can't jump
Can move some smaller objects but not others
Some silly somersaulting during cutscenes
Weird how you can't pick up for example a magnum from a killed enemy that was carrying one but can get the ammo
Enemies sometimes react to other enemies being attacked, but other times they don't (on default)
Weird how you can't talk to elvis the alien during the president clone mission
-
Some control/interface issues (no map system (can at least use a scanner to find your next objective in some parts of some missions), can't have aiming on the c-buttons only and there's no full control config - config 1.2 has you aiming with the stick and moving+strafing with the c-buttons which works but feels off if you're used to M&KB, slow moving scrolling text descriptions for weapons and items, some delay in the HUD when switching between weapons, automatic elevators in level 1 which move slowly upwards then quickly all the way down - 5+ floors, the quick item menu is clunky - tilts back to the middle if you don't hold the stick in position+fairly easy to miss what you're trying to aim at when there are many items (don't have to use it though), overly sensitive aiming controls, can't make the auto-aim switch targets manually - annoying during the final boss fight)
Trial & error (weird lack of direction when starting up the game - you're supposed to pick solo missions from the pause menu to start a mission (not wander around the labyrinthine base area they start you in - the guide/first guy you meet keeps moving if you go into the first room he shows and then if you explore the base you just encounter some NPCs saying 1-2 lines who you're not able to ask what you're supposed to be doing), some of the toggles in the controls menu aren't explained (look ahead=auto-center view when starting to move?, head roll=head bob while walking), vague briefing for mission 1 - says it's about rescuing a hostage who you don't know what he looks like and during it you're suddenly supposed to take out cameras and plant bombs at communication terminals (there is a list of other objectives before the mission starts but they don't go into any detail - "disable internal security hub"), interacting with the lift door switch in the Chicago mission fails the mission, can't tell where the alarm is ahead of time in the G5 building mission so you'll probably fail the mission once or twice, in the second area 51 mission (default/agent difficulty) the game makes it seem like you should use stealth but it's not possible and not needed, figuring out what is meant by an umbilical connector in the airplane mission (and where it is if you didn't see if before - game could've showed more clearly what it was either when the "UFO" attached or in the briefing text and the locked lift right after leaving the president at the shuttle is a red herring), finding various secrets, figuring out where to go last in the snow/president clone mission, how to disable the shields in the last mission)
Some tedious aspects (waiting for a slow moving drone to cancel out the forcefields in level 2, going through a bunch of terminals to shut down the experiment in level 2 (normal/special agent), some slow moving platforms, hacking computers for passwords is just a matter of standing still and waiting beside a computer after using a tool on it, have to go into the written briefings for sub objectives in some missions to understand what you're supposed to do to not fail a mission - breaks flow a bit and there could've been relevant text pop-ups when nearing an objective instead, sometimes 12+ seconds of loading before a level starts, sometimes fairly easy to miss a switch or a key, dead space+slowdown in the president clone mission)
Very poor framerate while using x-ray vision (which is more like heat vision, not used much on default difficulty though)
No mid-level checkpoints and no health pickups (die pretty quickly after losing your shield) - not much of a problem on default but becomes one on higher difficulties
Low FoV (made me a bit nauseous at times while playing it)
The story could've done with a bit more exposition at some point
Enemies occasionally blend into the environment
Some dead end rooms that have no purpose for the mission nor lead to optional goodies - more if playing on default, can sometimes get confusing as you can still interact with objects from "deactivated" sub objectives but it doesn't lead to anything
Scripting issue in the Area 51 escape mission where you have to position yourself right next to the alien after going with him to his ship or nothing will happen (an improvement would be if your colleague said to find the alien first if you go to the door switches and then for this cutscene to trigger as soon as you get near the ship with the alien guy in tow)
No facial animations and models use photos as faces
Invisible walls at the cliff edges in one mission
Not much of an ending
Notes:
-Requires the RAM expansion pack
-Beat default/easy and a couple of missions on special agent difficulty
Level Design-7* Frustration-7*/8 Fun-7* Originality-6.5
Overall Score-7
*Default (agent/easy)
+
Pretty impressive texture work and lights (although they don't affect their immediate surroundings in a realistic manner at all), 16:9 widescreen and hi-res mode options (lowers the framerate though)
Per mission difficulty options (easy-hard, default difficulty is easy, fewer mission objectives on lower difficulties and no cameras to destroy on default; enemies have higher HP+do more damage and aim better on normal, enemies do even more damage+aim even better and are more numerous on hard)
Can sometimes listen in on NPC conversations from outside of the room they're in (although it doesn't make sense that they don't notice the action happening near them)
In-game and cutscene subtitles toggle
Can knock out certain NPCs to prevent them from sounding an alarm (level 1)
Some interesting secrets (in level 1 you can make an NPC open a locked door for you by opening the door to the room they're in)
Pretty good framerate overall (the game does kinda chug at times when there are several enemies in a bigger room), Good animation overall
Decent VA overall (some amateurish ones)
Shows some stats after completing a mission (time taken, accuracy, kills and for some reason which body parts you hit on the enemies)
Some interesting gear (camspy - control a flying camera drone to scout ahead and take photos, )
Secondary firing mode for weapons (sometimes just a melee attack)
2-player coop mode and counter-operative mode (one player takes over an enemy character and tries to hunt down the player)
Can lean around corners - System Shock
Some escort segments where the NPC isn't completely useless - also get to fight alongside some of them
Bot difficulty level and personality (such as vengeful) in the deathmatch mode
Can ride a hover bike in some missions (press B twice - not explained in-game)
Minor puzzle element to some levels (clone president, switch puzzle on the ship, )
Pretty good final boss fight (hit an obelisk while it's regenerating/repairing it, summons monsters and teleports around the room)
+/-
Linear mission-based structure (save in-between missions - )
Some aim assist (none when using a sniper rifle though, oddly enough; gets in the way during the final boss fight) - GoldenEye 007
Enemies are pretty braindead on default/easy
Stealth aspect (surveillance cameras which you can destroy)
You still encounter secondary objective related objects when playing on default (a bit confusing)
Reload and interact mapped to the same button
Weapons don't carry over between missions
Can't jump
Can move some smaller objects but not others
Some silly somersaulting during cutscenes
Weird how you can't pick up for example a magnum from a killed enemy that was carrying one but can get the ammo
Enemies sometimes react to other enemies being attacked, but other times they don't (on default)
Weird how you can't talk to elvis the alien during the president clone mission
-
Some control/interface issues (no map system (can at least use a scanner to find your next objective in some parts of some missions), can't have aiming on the c-buttons only and there's no full control config - config 1.2 has you aiming with the stick and moving+strafing with the c-buttons which works but feels off if you're used to M&KB, slow moving scrolling text descriptions for weapons and items, some delay in the HUD when switching between weapons, automatic elevators in level 1 which move slowly upwards then quickly all the way down - 5+ floors, the quick item menu is clunky - tilts back to the middle if you don't hold the stick in position+fairly easy to miss what you're trying to aim at when there are many items (don't have to use it though), overly sensitive aiming controls, can't make the auto-aim switch targets manually - annoying during the final boss fight)
Trial & error (weird lack of direction when starting up the game - you're supposed to pick solo missions from the pause menu to start a mission (not wander around the labyrinthine base area they start you in - the guide/first guy you meet keeps moving if you go into the first room he shows and then if you explore the base you just encounter some NPCs saying 1-2 lines who you're not able to ask what you're supposed to be doing), some of the toggles in the controls menu aren't explained (look ahead=auto-center view when starting to move?, head roll=head bob while walking), vague briefing for mission 1 - says it's about rescuing a hostage who you don't know what he looks like and during it you're suddenly supposed to take out cameras and plant bombs at communication terminals (there is a list of other objectives before the mission starts but they don't go into any detail - "disable internal security hub"), interacting with the lift door switch in the Chicago mission fails the mission, can't tell where the alarm is ahead of time in the G5 building mission so you'll probably fail the mission once or twice, in the second area 51 mission (default/agent difficulty) the game makes it seem like you should use stealth but it's not possible and not needed, figuring out what is meant by an umbilical connector in the airplane mission (and where it is if you didn't see if before - game could've showed more clearly what it was either when the "UFO" attached or in the briefing text and the locked lift right after leaving the president at the shuttle is a red herring), finding various secrets, figuring out where to go last in the snow/president clone mission, how to disable the shields in the last mission)
Some tedious aspects (waiting for a slow moving drone to cancel out the forcefields in level 2, going through a bunch of terminals to shut down the experiment in level 2 (normal/special agent), some slow moving platforms, hacking computers for passwords is just a matter of standing still and waiting beside a computer after using a tool on it, have to go into the written briefings for sub objectives in some missions to understand what you're supposed to do to not fail a mission - breaks flow a bit and there could've been relevant text pop-ups when nearing an objective instead, sometimes 12+ seconds of loading before a level starts, sometimes fairly easy to miss a switch or a key, dead space+slowdown in the president clone mission)
Very poor framerate while using x-ray vision (which is more like heat vision, not used much on default difficulty though)
No mid-level checkpoints and no health pickups (die pretty quickly after losing your shield) - not much of a problem on default but becomes one on higher difficulties
Low FoV (made me a bit nauseous at times while playing it)
The story could've done with a bit more exposition at some point
Enemies occasionally blend into the environment
Some dead end rooms that have no purpose for the mission nor lead to optional goodies - more if playing on default, can sometimes get confusing as you can still interact with objects from "deactivated" sub objectives but it doesn't lead to anything
Scripting issue in the Area 51 escape mission where you have to position yourself right next to the alien after going with him to his ship or nothing will happen (an improvement would be if your colleague said to find the alien first if you go to the door switches and then for this cutscene to trigger as soon as you get near the ship with the alien guy in tow)
No facial animations and models use photos as faces
Invisible walls at the cliff edges in one mission
Not much of an ending
Notes:
-Requires the RAM expansion pack
-Beat default/easy and a couple of missions on special agent difficulty
