There are a lot of great weapons in Perfect Dark, and the original game's best gun looks like it is definitely returning in The Initiative's new entry. Revealed during 2020's The Game Awards, Perfect Dark will bring the secret agent Joanna Dark back into the current generation of gaming, and while not much has been revealed about this new project outside of its existence, Perfect Dark's brief trailer did tease some pretty exciting returning weaponry.
The original Perfect Dark, developed by Rare and released on the Nintendo 64 in 2000, was created as a spiritual successor to their massively popular FPS title GoldenEye 007. Instead of creating a carbon copy of a James Bond story, however, Rare went with a more futuristic approach, one which involved both more gadgets and more fantastical elements like aliens and near-future technologies. This includes a suite of alien weapons, including the Phoenix (a pistol that could shoot explosive rounds) and the FarSight (a sniper rifle which allowed players to shoot and see through walls). Even with all the alien paraphernalia, however, Perfect Dark's best weapon was man-made.
Every gun in Perfect Dark had an alternate firing method. Some, like the two modes mentioned above, were incredibly useful, while others' (like the Cyclone's ability to shoot an entire magazine in one quick burst) were less so. However, Perfect Dark's Laptop Gun had the best secondary firing mode in the entire game, and it was even more helpful in multiplayer. In alternate fire mode, Perfect Dark's Laptop Gun turns into a sentry turret the player can throw onto practically any surface. This means they could set up ambushes against NPCs on the fly, or quickly toss it across a crowded room for instant enemy flanking. It was an incredibly fun weapon to use - and it looks like it's coming back.
Perfect Dark's Trailer Shows The Laptop Gun In Action
Perfect Dark's reveal trailer at The Game Awards didn't show much in terms of what the new game's story will be about, but it did confirm Joanna Dark and her iconic Laptop Gun are returning. During a portion of Perfect Dark's trailer where a drone flies into a massive building, viewers enter a hallway through a burned-out hole in the wall and encounter a scene filled with fire and gunshots. Bodies litter the floor, and as the drone approaches and turns a corner it begins to spin around to avoid being shot by what, at first glance, appears to be a wall sentry. However, long-time players know this isn't a normal turret - it's a Laptop Gun. Check out the video below around the 1:15 mark:
In the lore of Perfect Dark, Laptop Guns are called such because they can be folded up in a certain way to resemble a laptop computer - something which was never really utilized in the original Perfect Dark's gameplay outside of it being inside a briefcase the player could smuggle on to Air Force One. In their secondary firing mode, however, they showed up a lot - especially in multiplayer. While some people may argue that the FarSight was the better weapon because of how overpowered it was, the ability to see and shoot any player on the map at any given time was usually considered so annoying most players would remove it from their multiplayer weapon rotations altogether. While the Laptop Gun in Perfect Dark was a very useful tool, it was never overpowered. Players could only ever have one sentry out at a time, and although they could throw out a Laptop Gun and then pick up another to use as a normal weapon, if they threw out the second one the original would explode. In this way, use of the Laptop Gun in both Perfect Dark single-player and multiplayer was about strategy and not just point-and-click shooting.
It's great to see Perfect Dark's Laptop Gun show up once again, and leads to much speculation about what other returning weapons players will be able to get their hands on. Maybe there will even be some stealth missions in Perfect Dark's new game that require players to utilize the weapon's laptop feature. For now, it's a little uncertain just how much the gameplay in Perfect Dark by The Initiative will match the Rare original, but seeing great returning weaponry like this is a good way to start.