March 22nd, 2010 by hylian1

As of Wednesday, March 17th, Perfect Dark for the Xbox LIVE Arcade was finally released for the masses to enjoy what is hailed as one of the greatest first person shooters of all-time. The game was first released back in the year 2000 for the Nintendo 64 and is now back in a completely revamped style that features hi-def visuals, new and improved textures, much better frame rate, and online multiplayer mayhem. Oh, and did I mention that a few Goldeneye levels and weapons are included in the game? Yeah, that’s right… ;)

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!