Perfect Dark - Reception

Reception

Upon release, Perfect Dark received very strong reviews from magazines and websites. Reviewers praised multiple aspects of the game, particularly its graphics, sound and value. GameSpot's Joe Fielder awarded the game a rating of 9.9 out of 10, making it the highest-reviewed first-person shooter of the site. He commented, "As a single-player or multiplayer FPS experience, Perfect Dark is unparalleled on the console systems". Patrick Klepek of Gaming Age described it as "probably one of the best FPSs to be released in quite a while", while Chi Kong Lui of Game Critics criticised the "weak characters and an unoriginal storyline," but nevertheless judged the "extraordinary amount of high-quality multiplayer modes and features", meant that "the game is still a blast."

The graphics were praised for their dynamic lighting and crisp, varied textures. Aaron Daigle of Game Chronicles enjoyed the "smoothly animated" characters and their location-dependent hit reactions. Similarly, IGN's Matt Casamassina observed that the new reload animations and blood effects on walls "are wonderfully animated". The audio was lauded, with Jonathan Nicklas of Gaming Target comparing it favourably to that of Capcom's survival horror title Resident Evil 2. The voice cut-scenes, the amount of ambient noises, musical scores, and Dolby Surround Sound capabilities were said to effectively bring the game to life. IGN went to say that the game "sounds terrific".

Gameplay was generally praised for the excellent artificial intelligence of enemies, and complex and varied level design. Chi Kong Lui credited the missions for their "nice mix of timed, patterned, and random events that makes playing through them different and refreshing each time." The enemies were admired for their use of squad tactics, for waiting for the player to come back instead of obediently chasing after them, and for challenging players to duck around a corner for cover. In contrast, Game Revolution considered that "the number of times you have a hallway filled with dead people is a little ridiculous." The multiplayer and replay value were seen as the strongest elements of the game. Reviewers noted that the flexibility of options, amount of game modes, "clever" weapons, number of unlockable features, and customizable simulants, give the game "endless replay value". Chi Kong Lui wrote, "Perfect Dark is easily the most advance, elaborate, and entertaining multiplayer gaming experience on any home console."

One frequently criticised aspect of the game was its low, inconsistent frame rate. This flaw was mentioned in numerous reviews, and by Trigger Happy author Steven Poole, who noted, "The game's inadequate temporal resolution—owing to a wrongheaded choice to privilege visual detail over frame-rate—made it unplayable at higher difficulty levels." Poole also described the "lazy sci-fi fetishism" of Joanna Dark's character design as "a blatant and doomed attempt to steal the thunder of Lara Croft", and argued that she illustrated the challenges of characterising the protagonists of first-person shooters, a problem that GoldenEye had avoided by using the already well-known character James Bond.

The overall positive reaction from critics can be gauged by the results of review compilation sites; the game has a Metacritic rating of 97%, which is considered "universal acclaim", and a GameRankings ratio of 95% as of June 2007. Perfect Dark has also been featured in many "greatest game" lists. In 2006, the game placed 15th on IGN's "Readers Choice Top 100 Games Ever" list; also that year it was rated the 100th best game made on a Nintendo System in Nintendo Power. In 2007, it placed 86th in IGN's "Top 100 Games of All Time", and 28th in Edge's "100 Best Videogames" special issue (a list voted for by readers, Edge staff and gaming industry professionals). Rare was also recognized for its work on the game, as the company was awarded the BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Moving Images Award for 2000 and the Golden Satellite Award for Best Interactive Product in 2001. Perfect Dark also received GameSpot's 2000 "Best Nintendo 64 game of the year" award.

Edge published two retrospective articles on Perfect Dark in 2007 and 2008. The magazine acknowledged that the game's framerate and other dated elements of its design rendered it "nigh-on unplayable", but found its ambitious range of options still praiseworthy: "At release, Perfect Dark was the most comprehensive first-person shooter ever made, and in some ways it still is." Edge found the ambitious mentality which resulted in weapons and bots being "designed for possibilities rather than balance" both one of Perfect Dark's most interesting aspects, and the cause of its biggest problem: "Restraint … would have made Perfect Dark a tighter, more focused experience, helped with those framerate issues, and removed almost all of the fun." The magazine concluded that despite Perfect Dark not standing up as a good game to play in 2008, "its currency of ideas and provocation … remains sound."