Built off of an improved Goldeneye engine, Perfect Dark was a game that is still truly one of the best first person shooters you could spend your time with. The story is amazing, taking you on all kinds of insane missions. Through the buildings of opposing corporations, to being a stewardess on Air Force One, to infiltrating Area 51 to free a giant-headed little grey man. The mission difficulty, like Goldeneye, does more than give you tougher enemies, it also gives you more mission objectives to accomplish. Perfect Dark is one of those games that you’ll remember for a lifetime.

The single player has an insane number of weapons, all of them with alternate fire modes. Don’t want to use the Laptop Gun as a standard automatic? The use the alt-fire to through the gun at the wall and have it be a robotic turret. Out of ammo in the Dragon Assault Rifle? Throw it in a doorway as a proximity mine. Many of the game’s weapons have crazy uses such as these. Some weapons and attacks leave the person on the business end disoriented, the screen leaving vast amounts of motion blur behind, pretty much ruining any chance you have of aiming correctly. One of these weapons in the tranquilizer gun. Yes, a tranq gun that actually disorients and immobilizes your opponents. Even the AI bots react realistically, running into walls, and flailing their guns around in an effort to put you down. All in all, the weapons are plentiful and memorable.

The multiplayer in the game is just as unforgettable as Goldeneye’s. As usual, 4 people can have at it, tearing each other apart in one of the game’s many multiplayer maps. The game’s ludicrous amount of options paved the way for Time Splitters and Halo’s highly customizable multiplayer modes. The ability to save game settings as a new multiplayer mode is seen in today’s Halo franchise. But options weren’t the only thing Perfect Dark gave you the ability to control. This game contained many customizable multiplayer “Simulants”, or bots. These guys are further broken down into AI difficulty and AI type. Everything from a peace-loving hippy AI to a bot that kills the person in first place, to a bot that is obsessed with disarming people. Did I mention you can disarm people?

The game is a true marvel. It includes options that most games should have included, but don’t to this day. Such as the option for widescreen play (I’m looking at you, last-gen consoles), Co-op everything (and if you don’t have a buddy around, a simulant can help you out), Winner Out/Loser Out multiplayer options, per player gameplay options (control schemes, character models, basic gameplay options), the ability to customize bot AI, and one of my personal favorites, that I’ve never seen in a game since: Counter-Op. Counter-Op is like co-op, only the second person takes the place of an enemy in the game, with that enemy’s particular skills/weapons, if they die, they switch to another enemy. Makes for a wonderful cat-and-mouse gameplay type. Want to shoot a rocker launcher without being in the level? Have a go at the targeting range. Want to immerse yourself in this world even more? Take your shoes off, park on the couch and read the myriad case-files, bios, and documents on all the characters, weapons, missions, and gadgets. This game is, to this day, one of the best shooters you could ever immerse yourself in.

Perfect Dark also has a slew of graphical options, from screen size to the option for “high-res” textures, to the ability to play with two N64 controllers at once (one in each hand). If you’ve never tried “Double” control, I highly suggest you do, its fucking incredible. It actually reminds me of more modern control schemes today.

Side Note: Perfect Dark Zero is a steaming pile of shit, don’t even bother.

N64 – Perfect Dark (30 Mb)