The N64 FPS game Perfect Dark, released in 2000, thrilled players with a story of spy-craft and conspiracy coupled with ground-breaking multiplayer gameplay. Hints about a new Perfect Dark sequel have been floating around for years, but are these rumors likely to bear fruit? For that matter, what could a new Perfect Dark game bring to the contemporary FPS scene?
The first Perfect Dark, arguably the last hurrah of the Nintendo 64, was a spiritual successor to Goldeneye 007, the highly popular tie-in to the 1995 James Bond movie. By changing the setting to a cyberpunk future and the protagonist to a corporate spy named Joanna Dark, Rare Studios built upon the basic Golden Eye 007 gameplay with innovative features like cooperative play, creative weapons, sophisticated enemy AI, and a "Counter-Ops" mode in which a second player could take on the role of an enemy trying to kill Joanna.
Perfect Dark immersed players in a story of conspiracies straight out of The X-Files or Men In Black, with Joanna Dark intervening in a war between mega-corporations, only to discover a deeper, hidden war between two alien species over the fate of Earth. The prequel, Perfect Dark Zero, released in 2005, showed how Joanna first became a spy for the inscrutable Carrington Institute, adapting the stealth and action gameplay of the first Perfect Dark to the Xbox. For years, there have been many rumors about a new Perfect Dark game, the most recent being an intriguing 2018 post on the Twitter account of Rare Studios. If a new sequel is in the works, though, will it be able to grab the attention of gamers and take the Perfect Dark franchise in new, interesting directions?
Perfect Dark 3: The Same Setting With a New Story
Taken together, Perfect Dark Zero and Perfect Dark both follow a complete narrative: Joanna Dark becomes a spy, steals an AI, befriends a grey-headed alien named Elvis and saves the Earth from being blown up by Lizard people. It's hard to expand on a climax like that without making the resulting story feel forced. The key then may be to focus on a new super-spy character with their own story to tell – one who still manages to keep the last name "Dark". A new character would also let Perfect Dark 3 tell a story running parallel to the first Perfect Dark game, or a narrative set far in a distant cyberpunk future a-la Altered Carbon, where humans rub shoulders with aliens in an interstellar community.
Perfect Dark 3: Adding New Features, Building On the Old
Many of the first Perfect Dark's multiplayer features were ahead of their time, innovative even by the standards of modern FPS titles. The "Counter-Ops" mode where players could oppose each other in campaigns pre-dated similar modes in games like Left 4 Dead, while AI behaviors let players create unique multiplayer challenges. Computers could be hacked, and enemies could be disabled with tranquilizer darts, or even disarmed by shooting the guns from their hands. By updating and building on these special features, Perfect Dark 3 could deliver a unique new take on the "superspy" genre for gamers, letting players complete missions with a variety of approaches: running and gunning their way through minions, sneaking past security, hacking databases, or using clever gadgets to save the day.
Currently, the odds of a new Perfect Dark game are slim. The most recent attempt to make a third Perfect Dark game, Perfect Dark Core, was canceled back in 2008, and the rumors of sequels since then have never gone beyond just that. At this point, a successful, attention-grabbing Perfect Dark 3 wouldn't be able to coast on the reputation of its predecessors. It would need to take risks, make the best use of new gaming hardware and offer unique features that other video games on the market don't.
Source: Powerup Gaming