You begin your game at the Carrington Institute, the HQ of Joanna Dark(from Joan 'de Arc). This is were your training begins. There are various simulators to practice on: firing range, challenge course, holographic battle simulator. Let's stop right there to discuss the wondrous graphics of the platform. This gives you Goldeneye-ish feel, but with more of a realistic feel. The adrenalin pumping in your blood, your heart rate reaching near tachycardia(heart rate of over 100)--can a video game get any better than this?! And the sound! The voices are, according to sources, distinct and clear! I've heard that Daniel Carrington, patron of the Institute, sounds a good deal like Sean Connery in the mission briefs.

After your completed training course, Rare throws you head-on into the infiltration of a corporate skyscraper. Your objective? Track down Dr. Carrol. Of course, this sounds a bit off-hand, no? Don't a know a thing about it? Joanna Dark doesn't either. The beauty of the game is that you learn along with Joanna(similar to a game I saw in Japan). What you learn can applied to help your missions. Pure deductive thought and reasoning is what will get you through these missions.

Perfect Dark makes the most of the N64's cinematic scene capabilitities. There are scenes before, during, and after the mission. These can often be long, but are rendered beautifully. You ask the question: "How'd they fit all of this stuff into that game pak?!" I wonder the same, fellow amazee. A 256-megabit game pak crammed with all of that great stuff. Must be cramped in there.

The controls are much like that of Goldeneye, but everything else has been improved to an awe-inspiring point. As in Goldeneye, there are three difficulty settings, each with different objectives that increase in difficulty--Agent, Secret Agent, Perfect Agent. Frame rate in PD has been "vastly improved"(NP) and the camera focuses on the most action packed scenes. Of course, a game such as this cannot be expected to be short of gory detail. With blood and slight profanity coming from Joanna's dying victims, PD is obviously no good for the Barney-aged group of persons.

An amazing factor to this game, is the AI. No more do you have to curse the stupidity of your opponents. PD's unmatched level of opponent intelligence will keep you on your toes. Guards react to the slightest sounds, call for backup, dodge, roll, and jump over bullets. They will lead you into traps and retreat too. When reloading/cocking your gun, you see the animation in front of you, giving a more realistic feel to the whole process. Yes, that's right, not just sound effects of loading your gun, visual effects too.

Of course, Rare's game wouldn't, couldn't be complete without an outstanding multiplayer mode. Up to four players can duke it out on PD grounds. You can even play against the computer, but be warned, they could prove to be far more intelligent than you or I.