Perfect Dark (series)

Perfect Dark is a science fiction video game franchise created by Rare and owned by Microsoft Studios. The series is set in the 2020s and focuses on the experiences of Carrington Institute agent Joanna Dark, code named "Perfect Dark", as she uncovers numerous conspiracies by rival corporation dataDyne. The franchise debuted in 2000 with the Nintendo 64 first-person shooter Perfect Dark, which received strong acclaim from critics and players, leading to the franchise's expansion. Due to Microsoft's acquisition of Rare in 2002, the development of subsequent games in the series was transferred to Microsoft video game consoles.

In addition to video games, the series has also expanded into other media, including novels and American comic books. These supplements to the video games have resulted in significant development of the series' fictional universe. The series has been commercially and critically successful, and the games combined have sold over four million units worldwide.

Setting

The Perfect Dark series takes place in the 2020s and focuses on the activities of powerful organizations that secretly fight between themselves to establish dominance. The most notable of these organizations are the Carrington Institute and dataDyne. The Carrington Institute is a research and development center founded by Daniel Carrington, and dataDyne is a defense contractor corporation founded by Chinese Zhang Li, though it is also involved in other fields of production, such as the pharmaceutical and transport manufacturing industry. Several thousand years before the beginning of these events, an advanced extraterrestrial life form known as the Maians discovered life on Earth and great potential, but decided to let humans develop undisturbed. Another life form, the Skedar, who were bent on fighting, encountered the Maians and soon a war began between them. In 1985, Daniel Carrington discovered and contacted the Maians, and gradually a mutual interest began to grow between them.

The campaign mode of the series has focused on the character Joanna Dark, a highly skilled but inexperienced agent of the Carrington Institute, whose impeccable scores in training have earned her the codename "Perfect Dark". Before joining the Carrington Institute, Joanna worked as a bounty hunter with her father, an ex-marine, former cop, that runs his own organization, Dark Bail Bonds. Throughout the series, Joanna primarily uncovers a number of dataDyne conspiracies that involve aliens and world domination.

Games

The first game in the series is Perfect Dark, released for the Nintendo 64 in 2000. The game is set in the year 2023 and follows Carrington Institute agent Joanna Dark as she uncovers dataDyne's mysteries through 17 missions.^[1] A handheld game, also titled Perfect Dark, which is the only one in the series not to be a first-person shooter, was released for the Game Boy Color shortly afterwards. It takes place one year prior to the Nintendo 64 game and centers on Joanna's attempts to prove herself as an agent for the Carrington Institute.^[2]

A second console game, Perfect Dark Zero, was released as a launch title for the Xbox 360 in 2005,^[3] taking place three years prior to the original game. The story revolves around Joanna's attempts to stop dataDyne from taking possession of an alien artifact which endows individuals with superhuman powers. In 2010, a remaster of the Nintendo 64 title, also titled Perfect Dark, was released for the Xbox 360 through its Xbox Live Arcade download service. It features improved graphics and online multiplayer.^[4]

Development

Artwork of Joanna Dark for the canceled video game Perfect Dark Core.

Rare began development on Perfect Dark in 1997, shortly after the release of GoldenEye 007. The development of the game was led by Martin Hollis, who explained that they rejected the prospect of working on the GoldenEye sequel Tomorrow Never Dies "without hesitation", as the development team felt they had spent too much time immersed in the James Bond universe.^[5] Using a modified version of the GoldenEye 007 game engine, Perfect Dark made its debut at E3 1998,^[6] but it was not released until May 2000 due to its troubled development cycle. The game was accompanied by a handheld game for the Game Boy Color, released shortly afterwards. A "sister" game to Perfect Dark, called Velvet Dark, was initially planned to be developed for either the Nintendo 64 or GameCube in late 2000, but the project was ultimately abandoned.^[7]

Perfect Dark's critical and commercial success led Rare to begin development of a prequel for the Nintendo GameCube titled Perfect Dark Zero.^[8] The development of the game was led by Chris Tilston, who previously worked on Killer Instinct and the original Perfect Dark. In September 2002, Rare was purchased by Microsoft,^[9] and its development was subsequently transferred to Microsoft's Xbox. As the game was still far from completion, it was then decided that it would be released as a launch title for the Xbox 360 in 2005. The overall development of the game took five years to complete.^[10]

Rumors about the development of a direct sequel to the Nintendo 64 game began to circulate in 2007. According to Indian site GameGuru, the supposed game would apparently introduce a morality system where the choices players make would branch the storyline and the plot would be unveiled entirely through the player's perspective without cutscenes.^[11] In 2011, it was revealed that a new title, called Perfect Dark Core, was in development at one point, but was ultimately canceled.^[12] The game was intended to feature a more realistic atmosphere than its predecessors, with a "smoking, flirting" Joanna Dark.^[12] In 2012, Chris Seavor, who was in charge of project, mentioned Deus Ex as inspirations for the game.^[13] According to him, "It wasn't as narrow as something like Call Duty [sic], where it's like, walk, cutscene, walk, cutscene. It was definitely going to be, you could go over here and do this over here, or you could go over here and do this over here. And then it would bottleneck down to something that would then take you to the next bit. It was very much about missions and storyline."^[13] He also said that the game would feature several parkour mechanics, including jumping from walls.^[13] He commented, "we had that really good. There was a really nice feel to it. So you could fight like that, and then there was the more traditional gun shooting."^[13] The game was in development for nearly a year.^[13] It was canceled since Perfect Dark Zero did not sell as many copies as Microsoft had hoped, leading them to prioritize the development of the Halo series.^[13]

In 2009, it was announced that a remaster of the original Nintendo 64 game was being developed by 4J Studios, the same studio that previously handled the Xbox Live Arcade ports of Rare's platform games Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie. The remaster was under development for roughly 11 months and was exclusively released as an Xbox Live Arcade game in 2010.^[14] In August 2013, Rare revealed that they have ideas for a possible Perfect Dark game, stating that "It would be controller plus Kinect. We've got ideas for most older Rare IP, you won't be surprised to hear. There's quite a lot of desire to do that, and Viva Pinata, Conker... Banjo's very popular internally, a lot of people want to do stuff with Banjo".^[15] In 2015, Microsoft Studios creative director Ken Lobb stated that they have not abandoned the Perfect Dark series and that a new game will eventually be developed, although not necessarily as a first-person shooter.^[16] In August 2015, both Perfect Dark Zero and the Xbox Live Arcade version of Perfect Dark were released for the Xbox One as part of Microsoft's Rare Replay collection.^[17]

Music

The music of the Perfect Dark series primarily features two soundtracks. The first soundtrack, Perfect Dark: Dual CD Soundtrack, was composed by Grant Kirkhope and contains the complete score of the Nintendo 64 game. The second soundtrack, Perfect Dark Zero Original Soundtrack, was composed by David Clynick and contains most of Perfect Dark Zero's music.

Adaptations

In addition to video games, the Perfect Dark series is supported by numerous printed adaptations which have resulted in significant development of the series' fictional universe. Although a novel trilogy was announced in August 2005,^[18] only two novels were released. The two novels, Perfect Dark: Initial Vector and Perfect Dark: Second Front, were written by Greg Rucka and published by Tor Books in 2005 and 2007 respectively. The first novel is set six months after the events of Perfect Dark Zero and focuses on dataDyne's new CEO election. The second novel follows Joanna Dark as she attempts to stop a clandestine group of hackers responsible for some major accidents that allowed dataDyne to take over involved corporations.

In November 2005, it was announced that Prima Games would publish a six-issue comic book series written by Eric Trautmann and illustrated by Cold FuZion Studios.^[19] The comic book, Perfect Dark: Janus' Tears, was released in six monthly issues from August 2006 to January 2007 and revolves around Joanna's attempts to unmask a mole in the Carrington Institute's Los Angeles office. Trautmann also wrote a comic booklet included in the Limited Collector's Edition of Perfect Dark Zero, entitled Hong Kong Sunrise, which sets the scene for the game.

Reception

Along with the Banjo-Kazooie series, the Perfect Dark series is one of Rare's most successful franchises. The Nintendo 64 game sold 3.2 million units worldwide, ranking among the best-selling Nintendo 64 games.^[27] The game was met with a substantial level of critical acclaim,^[21] and its release on Xbox Live Arcade neared 410,000 units sold as of year-end 2011.^[28] Perfect Dark on Game Boy Color received mixed reviews from critics, who particularly criticized its difficult gameplay and lack of strategy.^[29] Perfect Dark Zero received overall positive reviews from critics, though not as high as the original game.^[24] Total sales for the game exceeded more than one million copies worldwide.^[30] The games were generally praised for their customizable multiplayer modes and replay value.

References