#oneaday, Day 60: Perfection

Downloaded Perfect Dark on XBLA today. I’ve been waiting for this for a while, seeing as how I had some very fond memories of late-night multiplayer sessions on the original. Funny thing was, once it actually came out, I found myself hesitating a bit, wondering if it was still good.

I didn’t need to worry. It is still good. Really good. Once you get over the N64-era level design, physics, character models and textures you’ll realise there’s still an incredibly solid game there, only uprezzed to HD and running at a frame rate the N64 could only dream of. I played a bit of the first level single player earlier and then went over to a buddy’s house to play some multiplayer. The single player is good, and it’s nice to play a Rare FPS again. They always were a pretty unique experience, with much more in the way of stealth elements and creative objectives than many other titles. But that’s not what I remember Perfect Dark most fondly for. It’s the multiplayer that I have the best memories of.

My God. How good is local multiplayer? It’s easy to forget in this online age that one time, the only way to play games multiplayer was to bundle around the house of whoever had the biggest TV, take your N64 controllers and try and shotgun the top-left corner of the screen. I always prefer local multiplayer, as there’s something about being in the same room with your opponents – who, by the very nature of the fact you’re playing locally with them, are people you know well – that takes it from a fun but ironically solitary experience to a proper social event.

I ranted about the “social gaming” phenomenon yesterday in terms of how it really wasn’t “social” at all, but this experience is true social gaming. Playing Perfect Dark on the Facility… sorry, Felicity level with remote explosives, rocket launchers and four FistSims on their hardest difficulty, and being surprised when the hand-to-hand only bots end up winning as a result of our collective ineptitude with anything vaguely explosive – priceless. Still fun, nearly ten years after we first did it.

So if you’re umming and ahhing about getting Perfect Dark and you’re the right age to appreciate it – i.e. you played and enjoyed it first time around – then stop hesitating and just get it. If you’ve been raised on Call of Duty you might be a bit shocked at the primitive graphics and seemingly simplistic gameplay, but give it a shot. You might just be surprised.