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was on display today to a select group of
press members. The title, scheduled to
be playable with E3's official kick-off
tomorrow morning, delivered on all of

the hype surrounding it and still managed
to amaze even the most skeptical of
onlookers.

We didn't get much time with Rare's
ambitious 3D shooter this afternoon - at
least, not as much as we would have
liked. But after spending roughly 30
minutes by the game's side, it's safe to
assume that GoldenEye's days are
numbered. Joanna Dark, equipped with
a spruced up game engine and tons of
new options, is going to roll right over
Bond this December, and she won't be
looking back.

For the lowdown on options and
previously announced features for
Perfect Dark, see our detailed preview
of the game below. If it's impressions
you're after, then please, by all means
keep reading.

Fooling Around with Joanna
Dark
A Rare logo flashes on three television
screens in the center of a small room.
Moments later comes the Nintendo logo,
which, accompanied by an ominous
choir, begins to morph into the letters
PD. It's just a creative logo screen,
really, and yet the brief introduction of
things to come leaves goose-bumps on
the arms of those present. It's Perfect
Dark, we say to ourselves as anticipation
reaches a boiling point. It's finally here.

The Cinematic Experience
How do you take a game like
GoldenEye and make it better? That was
undoubtedly the question on the minds of
Perfect Dark's development team the
day it began work on the 3D shooter.
And judging by the preview of the title
we witnessed earlier this afternoon, it had
no problem coming up with the answer,
or, as it were, answers. Answers in the
form of more options - from 16x9 widescreen and Dolby Pro Logic
Surround Sound support to the multiplayer-oriented weapon FarSight,
which we'll talk about in just a moment. Rare sat down one day and
decided to make the best damn shooter it could given the restrictions
imposed upon it, and Perfect Dark is the fruit of its labor.

Possibly Rare was inspired by the lengthy cinemas in The Legend of
Zelda: Ocarina of Time, or maybe it just likes showing off Joanna Dark
in movie-esque fashion - regardless, Perfect Dark features more than an
hour and a half of game-engine cinemas. We're talking motion-picture
quality stuff here, with hired voice actors and tons of story-telling speech.
The game kicks off with one such opening sequence in which Ms. Dark
is flying a futuristic ship of sorts through a Blade Runner-inspired future.
We watched with mouths open as our heroine soared high above
skyscrapers and the camera panned down, giving us a fresh look at the
city below. Rare has gone so far as to include minor details such as flying
cars following an air traffic route and bright city lights directly affecting the
shade of Joanna's vehicle. The background actually does resemble a real
industrial city. After landing atop a skyscraper, Joanna jumps out of her
ship and the game begins. It's time to kick some ass.

It was around this time that Nintendo's development manager Ken Lobb
explained to us that many of the animation routines from GoldenEye were
still evident in Perfect Dark. Enemies, for example, would fall to the
ground after being shot in the same fashion as they did in Rare's Bond
shooter. This, Lobb added, is still in the process of being altered
completely. Evidently Rare, now situated in a new headquarters, has also
incorporated an in-house capture-studio on site and is said to have
already grabbed a truckload of new routines that look much more
realistic than those in GoldenEye. If the final animation proves to be
anywhere near as good as that in Donkey Kong 64 then it's going to
rival Iguana Entertainment's capturing techniques as the best for Nintendo
64.

Levels and Missions
The levels in Perfect Dark are laid out in a similar fashion to GoldenEye.
Players, in addition to shooting up enemies and avoiding death, need to
accomplish a set number of tasks. The number and difficulty of tasks, of
course, depends on the difficulty level gamers choose to play with. The
main difference here over GoldenEye is that Rare has really worked to
separate the different degrees of challenge. According to Nintendo, the
GoldenEye team only added the option of different difficulty settings four
months before the game was finished, and because of that didn't really
have a chance to explore the various options to the full extent. With
Perfect Dark, Rare is aiming for "mentally difficult levels," meaning
players are going to have to solve some serious puzzles in some cases -
that is, if they play on a harder setting. Gamers looking for straight action
with less strain on the brain, meanwhile, need only select easy mode and
shoot away.

One level Lobb demonstrated to us saw Joanna Dark trying to
accomplish the following objectives: Find and download project files,
disable communications disk, obtain a keycode necklace (worn by a
woman who players absolutely must not kill, but who resists attempts to
secure the necklace), and disable an internal security hub. All of this while
dodging gunfire and stealthily sneaking around.

Weapons
You may want to sit down before reading this one. Are you sitting?
Good. Perfect Dark features 40 weapons. Yes, 40 weapons. Many of
the weapons in the game are still being kept from us, but we did manage
to write down a few of the most notable as Ken Lobb flipped through the
game menus. There is the Falcon 2, LapTop Gun, Crossbow, AR 34,
Super Dragon, Hunting Knife, Mines, Slayer, Shield, some kind of sword
and the FarSight. We told you we'd get to that eventually, didn't we? The
FarSight, Lobb explained to us, was designed primarily as a weapon to
eliminate those pesky "campers," - or deathmatchers who sit in one spot
continuously and ambush opponents. Described to us as a "depth
focusable heat sensitive weapon," the FarSight enables players the power
to actually look through walls and detect heat. When using the gun, a
player's screen switches to green (reminiscent of night-vision goggles)
and illustrates opponents in red. The catch is that the weapon searches
for heat very slowly, which makes it very difficult to locate and zoom in
on a moving target. But campers… well, that's another story entirely. Just
search, locate, shoot, and watch them fall.

Multiplayer
GoldenEye is still considered one of, if not the best multiplayer games for
Nintendo 64. After Perfect Dark's debut, though, there will be no doubt
regarding its multiplayer superiority - none whatsoever. It is particularly in
multiplayer mode that Perfect Dark shines, and it shines bright. What
Rare has done here, first of all, is add a whole new element to the game:
Bots and "Simulants." If you're big on PC first-person shooters then you
probably know what a bot is. For those of you who don't, bots are
super-realistic computer-controlled players. Bots move and react
smartly, fight strategically and, in some cases, are just as challenging as
human opponents if not more so. Players can go against seven (Rare is
aiming for 10) bots in four-player multiplayer mode. This means that, in
theory, you and three friends could make up a team and fight against
seven computer-controlled bots to the death. And if you've got no
friends, you can go solo against a series of bots and the challenge will be
huge.

But the fun doesn't stop there. Introducing "simulants" -- a Rare creation.
Simulants are very similar to standard bots, except they play on your
team. In addition to the small alien team-members fighting it out with
enemies, they back gamers up through a series of player-controlled
formations. What this means, exactly, is that players not only take part in
the game, but command a team of their own. Using the D-Pad, gamers
can tell their alien buddies to back them up, run ahead to survey the area,
pull back or open fire - and it all works just fine. We were treated to a
demo of this mode in action and we were amazed to see a group of
big-eyed extraterrestrial running forward, squatting and shooting off
lasers at enemies, all controlled by gamers commands.

On a side note, Rare has opted to include a handful of the best
multiplayer levels from GoldenEye in Perfect Dark. Versions of The
Temple and The Complex are in the game with updated textures, newly
added real-time lighting effects and the like.

Deathmatch Taken to New Levels
Using the soon-to-be-released 64GB Pak, gamers can take a photo of
themselves and map it onto characters in Perfect Dark, delivering the
ultimate in character creation. Nintendo's Ken Lobb demonstrated this
procedure to an amazed audience of press-members. First, he showed
us a photo he had snapped of himself using the 64GB. He then uploaded
that picture to the game and, remarkably, stretched his own face texture
to fit perfectly over the 3D model of a face provided. All of this was
accomplished in less than a minute, and the end result was breathtaking.
His character looked exactly like him and it was so easy to execute.

Because this option is merely an expansion of the 64GB Pak's features,
players can also edit their snapped photos, adding facial hair, sunglasses
- whatever they can come up with - to create Deathmatch
representations of their real-life selves. It's an absolutely brilliant
innovation that is sure to be copied by everyone in the future.

IGN64 will play the 32MB cart at length today, at which time we'll post
a more updated hands-on impressions. Stay tuned.

By Matt Casamassina

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Page Updated Thu Jun 17, 1999 6:07pm EDT