DF Retro: Rare's N64 Classics - GoldenEye and Perfect Dark

Perfect Dark has mechanics that modern games still grossly lack. Mechanics like being able to shoot the gun out of an enemy's hand with your last bullet, grab his gun, and force him to surrender. Once surrendered, some enemies would even unlock stuff for you in hopes you'll spare them. Other enemies would suddenly bolt when you look away, and either run for an alarm or even another room full of their buddies. Sometimes they'd even pull out a backup handgun and keep fighting you. Perfect Dark also had seriously some of the coolest weapons in any sci-fi anything ever. Such as the ever OP as f*** laptop gun with a cyclical fire rate of about 1,100rpm, a 50 round mag, the ability to be deployed as an automated turret that can stick to almost anything, and even folds up to pose as a laptop - capable of booting up - to pass airport security. It also had the Callisto NT, an alien rifle, and the Phoenix, an alien pistol. Both run on "blob" mags that feed into the weapon's side through what seems to be some sort of osmosis. The Callisto NT's primary fire mode was a very high rate of fire weak ammo, but the secondary mode, at no extra cost to ammo, slowed fire rate substantially, but each round now was high velocity and armor piercing. The Phoenix was similar, except the secondary mode switched to a lower fire rate, but with truly explosive rounds, capable of killing multiple enemies in a single shot. The alien sniper rifle, the "X-Ray," Was an alien sniper rifle that was guaranteed 1 shot kill, and could shoot through ANYTHING. Couple that with a scope that can not only see through anything, focusing on a given plane of focus, but it also had an auto tracking, life seeking mode that would find and track targets for you at great distances, which you could then kill. Also the RCP-180 (I think), which has a cyclical rate of 1,200rpm of armor piercing ammo and I think it was a 120 round mag, but it could also "eat" ammo to fuel a cloaking device, which would hide you until the ammo depleted or you switched it off. Another game play mechanic that I don't think was seen again until Splinter Cell, was the ability to shoot out lights to blind enemies in darkness. There's even a part near the beginning of the game where enemies with NVGs try this on you by shutting off the lights, but if you were quick and clever, you'd remember there was a light switch for that room where you entered, and if you activated it, the troops would be blinded by their NVGs for a moment, long enough to shoot them all. The game also had disguises you could acquire, and be used to infiltrate certain areas. The game also had a secondary melee mode, that instead of punching, you'd attempt to disarm the enemy, something I'm not sure if I've seen since. There was also the really cool aspect of alternative starting locations combined with additional objectives when playing higher difficulties. It also had a split screen single-player co-op that was done really well. Also hidden weapons in certain destructible objects, hidden wedges of cheese, enemies that would taunt you, or curse you as they died, and reacted to being shot, such as limping, clasping an arm, and they would leave a blood trail you could follow. Plus the soundtrack was dope, and they even had a firing range complete with challenges to showcase the awesome weapons, and get you very proficient with them. The rewards for completing the gold star challenges was the unlocking of the classic guns from GoldenEye 64. Oh, and there was the Dragon, my favorite rifle for multiplayer, as the secondary mode causes you to activate a proximity mine built into the gun, and then chuck the gun on the ground. Sure, you lose the gun, but it looked just like a legit weapon pickup to other players. If you got real crafty, you'd pick up the rifle, activate the mine, and toss it right on its ACTUAL weapon spawn. Sneaky as f***. Perfect Dark was so ahead of its time that I can't even list more, because I need to actually get things done today, but I certainly could go on. It's in my #1 spot of "Best FPS Game of All Time." I still judge modern shooters by the very high standards Perfect Dark set, which is why I truly hated Perfect Dark: Zero. PDZ is an okay shooter, but making it a Perfect Dark title was a complete insult to Perfect Dark, and was such a let down. Again, it's an okay game - if you never played the original. Kinda like how I enjoyed the "Avatar: The Last Air Bender" live action movie, because I had never seen the anime. Once I saw the anime, I understood why everyone said the live action movie was total and utter shit. That's how PD fans feel about PDZ, or Conker's Bad Fur Day fans feel about Conker: Live and Reloaded (which was originally called "Live and Uncut," and was gonna be even less censored than the original). What a shit-pit that ended up being.

7 fps is more cinematic

everyone remembers this game man. was awesome, and perfect dark. cant believe how the low the frames were, never realised back then

to be honest, I really miss split screen multi-player matches, the good old days when we used to trash talk each other face to face...

Wow. That 360 remake of Perfect Dark has to be the best example of how to do a faithful remake I've ever seen.

In GoldenEye, the map designs were ripped directly from the movie's actual set design floor plans. If you watch the movie and already know the game levels, it's kind of a trip to follow Bond through each area.

That Goldeneye soundtrack...

Never had problems with the low Fps back then. Golden Eye was epic

perfect dark in my opinion is one of the best fps games ever created

I didn't even know what a frame rate was back then, such a great generation to play games.

I was really lucky, the first time I got to play GoldenEye on the N64 I was at a friends house on their 50" CRT. This doesn't seem that amazing now, but back then, the only places that usually had a TV that big was large pubs and clubs for Football on Sky. These Televisions cost upwards of £2000 - and that's £2000 in 1997 money, which must be what, £4000 today? Well, anyway, that's a lot of cash. I never knew it had such a low FPS though. It was still awesome.

Original Deus Ex for the next episode would be perfect.

To those people who claim that 30FPS is unplayable, some of your childhood gaming was partly defined by a game that ran at 10FPS...

3:43 heh.. never noticed this error before. That's not DOOM - that's DOOM 2 1994

Love these games to bits today and always knew the frame rate was sub par especially in multi player coupled with explosive weapons, but I had no idea it was so low even in the single player, it really didn't seem that bad, probably because it was so much fun.

Perfect Dark was lagging all right, but back in the day it was awesome

Man, these two games used to fill my entire summers as a kid... and I still play til this very day

Another awesome retro-analysis. I would love for you guys to do one on Metal Gear Solid 2. That was a technical masterpiece.

I love the DF Retros!!!

I still play goldeneye with friends.