Perfect Dark - Legacy

Legacy

Perfect Dark was the last major first-person shooter game for the Nintendo 64, which was already nearing the end of its lifespan; Nintendo unveiled their new console, the GameCube, at SpaceWorld 2000. The game was also the last appearance of the GoldenEye 007/Perfect Dark engine. Twenty months before Perfect Dark was released, some of the development team left Rare to form Free Radical Design. This company went on to develop the PlayStation 2 game TimeSplitters, another first-person shooter based around a completely new engine. TimeSplitters and its sequels bear several gameplay and presentational similarities to GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark, including a similar aiming system and unlockable options through quick level completions.

Meanwhile Rare began development of a prequel titled Perfect Dark Zero for the Nintendo GameCube. However, the company was purchased by Microsoft in 2002, and as a result it was announced that Perfect Dark Zero would be an Xbox title. Later it was decided that the game would instead be released for the Xbox 360, and it became a launch title for that system. The game retains Perfect Dark's first-person perspective and mission objective system, although other features were not carried over. Joanna Dark remains the lead character. The game's multiplayer mode allows many more computer players, thanks to the more advanced Xbox 360 hardware, and can also be played online (via Xbox Live), which was not possible with the Nintendo 64. While Perfect Dark Zero generally received positive reviews from critics, some – such as Eurogamer and Game Informer – found it to be a disappointment.

Perfect Dark's worldwide sales were not as great as its predecessor's 8 million, and Joanna Dark did not attain the same status in pop culture as other video game heroines such as Tomb Raider's Lara Croft. Nevertheless, the game's universe continued to be developed with the release of the novel Perfect Dark: Initial Vector, a Rare-sanctioned paperback by Greg Rucka. The novel is set in the time between Perfect Dark Zero and Perfect Dark, and portrays Joanna Dark as an ex-bounty hunter drawn in to the Carrington Institute's battle with dataDyne through her own vendetta against the hyper-corporations. Rucka stated, "If you've played the first game, you're going to get a huge treat, because a lot of stuff that happens in Perfect Dark we set up in the novel." In 2007, two new titles were developed: the comic series Perfect Dark: Janus' Tears, written by Eric Trautmann, and a second novel by Rucka titled Perfect Dark: Second Front, both of which are direct chronological sequels.

In 2010, Perfect Dark was re-made on the Xbox 360 as an Xbox Live Arcade game, including reworked graphics and online features (see Perfect Dark XBLA). The development was handled by 4J Studios, the same studio that previously handled the Xbox Live Arcade ports of Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie. The remake was generally well received: while some critics considered the relatively unchanged game to be outdated, most agreed that the title was a great revival of a classic. Perfect Dark has also been re-made as a total conversion mod using Valve's Source engine, titled Perfect Dark: Source.