“I’m bringing sexy baaaack!”

Today, I’m going to go a bit into detail on my playthrough for the firstmission of the game. The majority of the discussion will primarily deal with the Perfect Agent difficulty, as that is where this gem of a game truly shines. So with that being said…

dataDyne Central- Defection

This first mission of Perfect Dark has Joanna infiltrating the dataDyne headquarters where she must locate and gain entrance to an underground laboratory. The mission itself, on the Agent and Special agent difficulty settings, is a breeze. Take out the cameras, disable a couple of hubs, and blast any insignificant guards into oblivion in the process and your mission is complete. However, as with all other missions of the game, Perfect Agent is where things begin to get awry…

For being the first mission of the game, I went in thinking, “It’s the first mission, it’s Perfect Agent, big deal. It’ll be difficulty, but not that difficult.” I was wrong. Even so early on in the game, Rare created an experience that can be just as relentless and unpredictable as the later missions. There is just nothing easy about it. And it’s more than just the deadly–no pun intended–accuracy of the enemies, but little tricks Rare throws in here and there to throw the player off. I’ll have more on that within the next few paragraphs.

Now, I don’t know how many attempts it took before I finally completed this mission. I do not keep count as I’d like to keep at least a little of my dignity intact. One of the things I had to be careful with in the beginning of this level was the cameras. There are several strewn about the building, three of which right from the get go. Get caught by one, start over. It just throws the enemy placement in the building off and for myself, knowing exactly where each enemy was located was of the upmost importance. Even then though, I would make such small mistakes as trying to preserve ammo by shooting the enemies less and thinking it would be enough. When that happens, I have a nasty habit of reloading right afterward only to realize, “oh, crap, that wasn’t enough” and here I am in the middle of a reload while the recooperated enemy is filling me full of lead. This has lead to my death throughout the game more times than I can count…

After countless times, eventually I reached a point where I could breeze through the first couple of floors with no problems whatsoever. Just took my time, knew where to go, who to shoot and how to shoot them, and it wasn’t as difficult. But then…remember that little trick I mentioned a few paragraphs back? Yeah…that comes in with the third objective: Download Project Files.

dataDyne Central- Defection teaches a very valuable lesson with that third objective that must be taken into high regard in not only this mission, but in several others throughout the game: When Joanna or someone else in a mission speaks, pay attention, because it is important. In this particular mission, Joanna is given a Data Link, a futuristic gadget that must be used to dowload a set of project files pertaining to Dr. Caroll. In order to get to these files, you must take hostage The Executive who is in charge of the Dr. Caroll project and have him lead you to his office where he can log on and allow you to access the files with the Data Link. Sounds simple, right? It is…but there is a twist…

When the Executive is first located, he is in the middle of a meeting with another dataDyne employee, and from outside of the door you can hear a conversation going on between the two. The Executive is basically told to delete the files. This plays a signicant role because Rare throws a curve ball here and if didn’t catch what was being said right, you’ll surely miss it on that first throw. I know I did.

After progressing all that way with near perfect health, I thought nothing could really go wrong from there. Get to the Executive, follow him to his office, and watch as he logs onto the computer. He says he is logged in, puts his hands in the air, and I whip out my Data Link and start downloading the files. Then what happens? That little prick brings his hands back down and deletes the files in the middle of the transfer, thus ending the mission as the objective could not be completed. It was completely unexpected and caught me by surprise. The solution to the issue is simple: once he says he’s logged in, just knock him out and dowload the files. And that’s exactly what I did everytime afterward without fail.

From that point, it’s basically just a matter of survival once you reach the bottom floor via the glass elevator. I know made it all the way down there once only to be shot in the back with a CMP-150. The next time, however, I was more aware and managed to survive the onlsaught of enemies (barely!), disable that external security comm, and make my way to the elevator leading to the Laboratories.

As you can surely see, even the very first mission can be a doozy. Probably to many, many out there it’s simple on every difficulty, but to me it presented quite the challenge along with that insane “wtf” moment.

Sometime next week I’ll be detailing my playthrough of Perfect Dark’s second mission. In the mean time, why not give us your thoughts on the dataDyne Central- Defection mission??

Now that the brief introduction is out of the way, let’s get on to the purpose in the post…

First and foremost, I have never completed Perfect Dark on Perfect Agent. Back in the day, despite my hardest efforts, I could only manage to complete a select few levels and it was no easy task. One that, due to frustration, I eventually gave up on completely. So with Perfect Dark XBLA, I decided once and for all that it was time to do so, and thus I opted to play through the game in an entirely different manner.

After the download was complete and Perfect Dark was established in its rightful place on the harddrive, I immediately jumped into the game and started up the first mission. Agent difficulty… a breeze. Mission 2 of course appears next and after a few minutes of contemplation, I rather went back and, with a bit more difficulty, completed the first mission on Secret Agent. It was here that I came to the decision on how I should playthrough this XBLA version: one mission at a time on each difficulty.

Perfect Dark is generally a short game. One that can be completed in a few hours. Now, by opting to the play the game by completed each mission on each difficulty before continuing on to the next, it has not only increased the length of the title quite significantly, but also does an excellent job of showing just how difficult the game can be by being able to better compare and contrast the changes in each progressing difficulty. It really presents an interesting challenge to the game and in my opinion has made it more fun as well.

Before anyone asks, no, I have not yet completed the game in this manner. Perfect Agent is brutal and because of this, I have barely reached the Area 51: Escape mission, which I am currently playing through on Secret Agent.

In a few days or so, Part 2 of this feature will arrive in which I go into detail on my playthrough for the first few missions of the game. Keep playing, and let me hear how you’re enjoying the game!

Direct Link here

Direct link here

Rare has also updated their official website with a few brief details about the title. Most importantly, 4J Studios–the development studio behind both B-K and B-T XBLA–is handling Perfect Dark as well. This could be a rather dastardly problem if they aren’t allowed to update the game ala B-T. PD XBLA with no online play would be extremely disappointing. The framerate issues though are promised to be resolved.

There is still hope, however. Screenshots that Rare provided for the theme are incredibly slick looking and give the game an updated style in visuals. Even the picture provided at the download link provided above offers what could be a glimpse into a major graphical update to the game ala Goldeneye XBLA. Check the pic below:

If that pic is any indication of what’s to come, then we are in for a reeeal treat! More as it becomes available, stay tuned!

We’ll have more information as it becomes available. Stay tuned!

Many do their best to place blame on the team that developed the game. Many people have left Rare over the years, including employees that were responsible for Goldeneye and Perfect Dark’s development. But the issue with Perfect Dark Zero wasn’t the team that developed the game. Sure, neither David Doak or Martin Hollis were on the development team, but there still remained Goldeneye and Perfect Dark veterans, like Duncan Botwood.

What happened with PDZ was the removal of the core fundamentals that made 007 and PD the incredible games they were. The sheer variety in levels and characters to choose from and most everything from PD was seemlessly removed from the title altogether. I understand Rare’s intentions of wanting to create games that are innovative and bring something new to a particular genre, but that needs to be accomplished by simultaneously keeping intact those things that have made a franchise a success. They failed to deliver that in PDZ.

What Rare did get right with PDZ though was the difficulty. There can be no arguement that, again, just as in GE and PD, it was utterly diffficult to complete the game fully on the Perfect Agent setting. Even today it still remains the most challenging title in that regard on the console, imo.

Now, let’s look ahead. There’s no doubt that a new entry in the franchise is probably in development. What could Rare do to please ensure the security of the franchise? Here’s a little list of suggestions…

-A new graphical direction where the characters don’t appear to be barbie dolls plastered in wax

-16-32 players online, allowing more than just two teams per match. For example, if there are 16 players in the lobby, allow an option to set that up as free-for-all or 4 vs. 4 vs. 4 vs. 4 or all teams of two, etc. etc.

-A deep, incredible story with an emotional impact and no cheesy dialogue

-Many more multiplayer levels that are much smaller than PDZ’s. Nothing worse than running around having to find someone to shoot. Action, action, action!

-Massive array of characters to choose from. Every character in PD and GE were playable, why not bring that back?

-Customization. This is what gamers want more than anything this generation. The ability to be capable of customizing things yourself. Include a level builder, customize your own character, build your own weapons by combining weapons together i.e. put the RC-P90′s secondary function of thermal vision on the Super Dragon

Perfect Dark is an incredible franchise with a lot of potential. Please take everything in this post to heart Rare. Playing something new and innovative is great and I do not doubt that you can deliver in that regard. But please… do not forget what made the first a success again. You are considered the true founders of the FPS genre on a console, so prove to your loyal fans and Xbox gamers across the globe that you’re still the best-of-the-best. :)