Perfect Dark ( XBL Arcade )

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Max_DC

Max_DC

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Wangan01
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Wangan01
Big letdown.

I really liked the original, but this remake didn't use the chance to modernize important gameplay aspects.


Pro :

Retro feeling, music, sound effects, smooth 1080P grafics ( Singleplayer )


Contra :

Gameplay : Moving crosshairs ? a No go for me, modern shooters have had fixed crosshairs for ages. No need to adapt the crippled N64 gameplay aspects. The N64 pad wasn't designed for shooters as we know them today. The 360 pad is. Almost ruins the game for me.

Online Multiplayer : spawns without weapon in hand ? Being killed 10 times in a row because you can't find a weapon in time and get killed by the same lucky guy who was able to get the first double automatic guns ?


Conclusion : You liked the N64 original ? Then go get the Arcade game. But don't expect too much. 800 points is a fair prize, the single player campaign brings back old memories, the grafics are good ( not too many details, but hey, it's a classic and since it's a science fiction game, the kind of puristic level design without details works just fine ) and the controls are ok.

Still I'm dissapointed. Add fixed crosshairs and gameplay modes with guns equipped right from the beginning and this game could rock big time.
As it is now, it's hardly more than a game you throw in every 3 months for 1 hour in order to get some retro feeling of the good old times.

Wasted potential anyone ?


My rating : 6/10
 
I forgot this was coming out, I loved the one on the N64 and it pretty music took over my youth once it was released. It was like a cooler GoldenEye for me. One thing I would like to know though is can you play a multiplayer game with just yourself and a ton of bots? That was my favourite thing to do in the game.
 
Joey D
I forgot this was coming out, I loved the one on the N64 and it pretty music took over my youth once it was released. It was like a cooler GoldenEye for me. One thing I would like to know though is can you play a multiplayer game with just yourself and a ton of bots? That was my favourite thing to do in the game.
Click to expand...

Not exactly a ton of bots, but 4. And 4 player splitscreen. And coop modes.

Avatar t-shirt. A Premium theme.

This remake is by no means bad or rushed by the developers. I like most of it, but both the loose crosshairs and the online multiplayer disbalance ( no weapons equipped at spawn / respawn ) prevent this game from being a perfect remake. As it is, it is just solid imo.

Yet as a fan you can't do anything wrong by buying it. There is a ton of content and the nostalgic aspect makes you tolerate most of the flaws in the end.
Yet I expected a little more. The online multiplayer is downright frustrating, especially in the beginning. I guess you can't ignore 10 years of shooter evolution....
 
Perfect Bump.

I just tore through the campaign of the XBLA version a 2nd time, and it was great. Now I'm working my way through the Combat Simulator challenges. Breezed through 1-15, but wow I forgot about how big a pain in the butt #16 is. :lol:

Personally, I'm glad they didn't tamper with the gameplay too much in an attempt to modernize it. Hell, the minor aesthetic changes they made (particularly to Jo herself) when redoing the textures irk me enough already. The ridiculous moving crosshair auto-aim in particular is a fundamental aspect of what makes Perfect Dark's gameplay so fast, fluid and fun, even if it was originally implemented because the N64's cruddy controller made accurate aiming an impossibility.

Old is not strictly worse than the new.... and in the case of FPS gameplay conventions, oldschool gameplay can be very refreshing when most of today's FPSes do things all the same boring Modern™ way. It's probably a part of why the new Doom was so well recieved, actually. Simple retro FPS gameplay can still kick ass, given a minor tune-up and a sleek presentation. I mean, there are people out there who say the original Turok doesn't hold up, and sure it might be a bit rough going back to the N64 version... but I played through the remastered PC re-release not too long ago and it was an absolute blast. And I'd much rather a new Turok have oldschool gameplay like that than try to play like Call of Duty: Dinosaur Warfare.

Ahem, anyway... you actually can turn off the auto-aim and also lock the crosshairs, if you so desire. These options may have been added post-release, I'm not really sure. And a small correction... after you go through a few of the Combat Challenges, you unlock the ability to have up to 8 bots. I thought this was an odd change for them to make when porting to XBLA, but after checking the original N64 version, it looks like it only offers 4 bots max in the beginning too.
 

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