The place to be for all discussion related to GoldenEye 007, Perfect Dark, and Perfect Dark Zero!!
(GE/PD screenshots are emulated)
--------------------------------------
Platform: Nintendo 64
Format: 96 megabit (12 megabyte) cartridge
Release dates: Aug. 23rd, 1997 (Japan) / Aug. 25th, 1997 (North America) / Nov. 6th, 1997 (Europe) [Source: NinDB]
Initially in development for the SNES, then on the Nintendo 64 as an on-rails shooter, GoldenEye 007, in its final form as a free-moving first-person shooter, was a revelation. At the time, FPSes on consoles had seen muted success compared to their juggernaut PC brethren such as Doom and Quake. But not only did GE prove the genre could work beautifully with a controller, it showed it could provide more than just mindless blasting and rudimentary puzzles.
Fully-realized worlds that felt like you were in a movie. Objective lists that grew as you increased the difficulty. Mission-critical NPCs that needed to be protected. Cameras and alarms that needed to be destroyed lest they summon a swarm of guards to your position. Varying reactions and amounts of damage depending on what part of an enemy you hit. And oodles of wild cheats unlockable by beating mission target times.
But as engaging and immersive as the missions were, the multiplayer was the real hit, and the reason GE became a system seller for the Nintendo 64. Added late in development by Steve Ellis, the four-player splitscreen utilized compact, easy-to-learn maps, quick movement, a huge roster of characters including classic Bond villains and Rareware staff members, addictive weapons like Proximity Mines and the Golden Gun, and a variety of gametypes in the event players needed a break from standard deathmatch. Moments like the Facility, Slappers Only, cheating with Oddjob, and tense duels in the cramped Archives have become engrained in the gamer consciousness.
The GE community continues to celebrate and dig into the game. Speedrunners have acheived insane feats such as beating every mission on max stats (and done the same in Perfect Dark!), and hackers have discovered things like a hidden test stage, a hidden ZX Spectrum emulator, and button codes to quickly unlock missions, cheats, and a hidden "Line Mode" effect. Most impressively, using the GoldenEye Setup Editor tool, modders have created a plethora of new maps and missions for the game, and even ported GE assets into the Perfect Dark engine!
Weapons
. PP7 PP7 (Silenced) DD44 Dostovei Klobb
. KF7 Soviet ZMG 9MM D5K Deutsche D5K Deutsche (Silenced)
. Phantom AR33 RC-P90 Shotgun
. Automatic Shotgun Sniper Rifle Cougar Magnum Golden Gun
. Silver PP7 Gold PP7 Moonraker Laser Grenade Launcher
. Rocket Launcher Taser Hunting Knife Throwing Knife
. Unarmed (Slapper) Watch Laser Tank Gun
. Timed MIne Proximity Mine Remote Mine
. Grenade
Bonus screenshots
Resources
GE/PD speedrunning records at the-elite.net
GoldenEyeForever.com (featuring the Shooters Forever forums)
GoldenEye X (the PD engine port project)
Goldeneye Vault, your source for GE mods of all shapes and sizes. (archived; now part of N64 Vault)
GoldenEye: Decoded (excellent archive of development and promotional materials)
GE 20th anniversary panel
Interview with GE's director, Martin Hollis (not to be confused with the director of the movie, Martin Campbell)
GE postmortem with Martin Hollis
A talk by GE dev team member David Doak
How to play GoldenEye online via Kaillera (help forum)
Awesome Japanese GoldenEye commercial
Pierce Brosnan plays GE multiplayer with Jimmy Fallon
Promotional renders
Cancelled Xbox 360 port (original leak)
The soundtrack (composed by Graeme Norgate and Grant Kirkhope)
--------------------------------------
Platform: Nintendo 64
Format: 256 megabit (32 megabyte) cartridge
Release dates: May 22nd, 2000 (North America) / June 29th, 2000 (Europe) / October 21st, 2000 (Japan) [Source: NinDB]
Though offered the opportunity to develop a game based on the next Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies, the team felt they had spent enough time in the Bond universe. Borrowing elements from sci-fi and pop culture such as La Femme Nikita, Blade Runner, The Fifth Element, Ghost in the Shell, The X-Files, Independence Day, The Matrix, and RoboCop, Perfect Dark (Japanese pre-release title Red and Black) expanded upon GoldenEye 007 by leaps and bounds in nearly every aspect, and pushed the Nintendo 64 hardware to its absolute limit.
The art style is a stunner, with its intense colours compared to the mostly grey GE, slick chrome surfaces, piercing light sources, and techno-industrial designs. The visual effects are also an absolute treat, such as the blur motion when stunned or poisoned, electronics shooting out sparks when damaged, gunfire and explosions strobe-lighting hallways, and the ability to shoot out light sources and dim the surroundings (an early concept for the game focused heavily on light and dark mechanics, though this was reduced to just a few setpieces because of hardware limitations). The characters have noticeably higher poly counts this time as well. It's no wonder the additional 4 megabytes of RAM provided by the Expansion Pak was required to access nearly everything aside from 2 player multiplayer.
A slew of new mechanics were added as well. Secondary functions on every weapon (each weapon also has its own cool reload animation). Disarming. Night vision. X-ray vision. Fly-by-wire rockets. And the CamSpy, a little drone that goes places too small or too dangerous for Joanna Dark (also available in explosive and tranquilizing variants).
So many great little bits of immersion too. Enemies dodging and rolling, their guns jamming, being able to shoot the guns from their hands and them pulling a backup on you, and shooting them in the leg and watching them drag it around with bits of blood dripping behind it. Not to mention being able to shoot ammo boxes around, snipers falling dramatically from their perches, certain actions persisting between levels (such as placing a mine for an escape route and dropping a vehicle from a plane), and of course, the Carrington Institute training area, with its firing range, detailed bios for every character, location, weapon, and device, and its surly/goofy/bathroom deprived employees. ^_^
But as spellbinding as the alien worlds, corporate intrigue, and hostage crises of the single player are, the multiplayer...flippin' heck, the multiplayer. You want the kitchen sink? How about the factory that makes 'em!!!
6 scenarios. 13 winding, sprawling, multi-storey maps along with 3 remastered GE maps. 33 weapons and 4 utilities assignable to any of 6 weapon spawns per map. Up to 8 "simulants" (for a total of 12 players on any map), a.k.a. bots, with adjustable difficulties and personalities, and able to accept commands from the team. Highlightable pickups, players, and teams. Single-digit time and score adjustment. 30 challenges. Detailed player statistics. Custom soundtrack playlist. Interchangeable character heads. And a plethora of control and HUD options. Not even the heaviest hitting modern AAA FPSes have been able to cram in this much flexibility.
PD's wow factor is off the charts. All of the above plus co-op, counter-op (play as the enemies during missions!), a kickin' sci-fi soundtrack (lead composer Grant Kirkhope), and incredibly creative weaponry including such favorites as the laptop sentry gun, dual wielding alien pistols with explosive bullets, the chaos-in-a-can N-Bomb, alliance-shifting Psychosis Gun, beyond spray-and-pray Reaper (with backup Grinder :P), and the weapon-of-all-time, the master of cheese (mmm...cheese), the big blue rod of inescapable doom, the FarSight XR-20!
. N-Bomb Psychosis Gun
There is a drawback to pushing the envelope like this, though...the framerate. If lots of characters and/or explosions are on the screen, especially in multiplayer, it slows to a painful crawl. This, along with less mainstream appeal than Bond, a late release in the console's lifecycle, and Halo coming just 18 months after, made Perfect Dark struggle to attain much more than a strong cult following (it sold 2.5 million copies to GE's 8 million).
However, things began to look up in 2010 when, at long last, a port was released on Xbox 360. Early screenshots seemed to indicate it would be a pretty faithful port. Alas, not so much. While the cancelled GoldenEye 007 port was developed internally by Rare, the PD port was outsourced to 4J Studios, who felt some need to shred its magnificent art style. Every head got replaced, and the main characters were especially worse off for it. Sleek alien weapons grew mold. The gold DY357-LX turned orange. The sharp, silver edges of the MagSec 4 (based on RoboCop's Auto 9) got smoothed out and browned. And the sparks, explosions, muzzle flashes, and chrome surfaces all got muted. And also unlike the dearly departed GE port, no classic graphics mode.
The changes didn't stop with the graphics. At launch, there were no Legacy or Southpaw controls (which EVERY Halo has had), explosions were drastically shortened, and the laptop sentry gun had its ammo severely reduced. These were patched in (in the game's one and only patch), but the Legacy controls were poorly coded and broke the quick select menu and sniper zoom. And though it runs at a locked 60 FPS most of the time, the game stutters when passing through explosions - one thing from the original that SHOULD have been fixed.
That 60 FPS isn't all it's cracked up to be either - the animations feel much too snappy. The manual aim also isn't as smooth as the original, a strong echo that can't be turned off was added to all corridors, and several audio bugs (rapid footsteps, voiceovers not cutting off correctly, music channels dropping out) were added. The menus became a bit of a chore to navigate too.
At least the port's not a total dud. The gameplay is intact, the levels have been pretty faithfully uprezzed, and the 1080p/60 FPS is pretty swell. Online play and speedrun leaderboards have also been added, though the online is pretty barebones. No parties, weak playlists, no custom game browser (in THE game that would benefit the most from one), limited team options, and no cheats. The population dropped off rapidly, and you'd be hard pressed to blame the age of the game for that.
Resources
Trailer
Perfect Head mode (removed prior to release)
Perfect Dark Recon - a hub for all things PD
The Yamo's Lair (PD mysteries)
Classic Game Room reviews PD
The official making of video
Promo art + wallpapers
Regional/version differences
Martin Hollis discusses PD
More multiplayer footage
More screenshots
A zany yet informative (and woefully unfinished) Let's Play by Evil Tim (GoldenEye too!)
--------------------------------------
Platform: Xbox 360
Format: 6.8 gigabyte DVD (original release)
Release dates: Nov. 18th, 2005 (North America) / Dec. 2nd, 2005 (Europe) / Dec. 10th, 2005 (Japan) [Source: Wikipedia]
In development for the GameCube, original Xbox, and finally the Xbox 360 as a key launch title, Perfect Dark Zero is the prequel to Perfect Dark.
Now then, how do you go about following up one of the most acclaimed FPSes of all time as well as its spiritual sequel that cranked everything up to 11? Simply throw out everything and start from scratch, that's how!
PDZ feels nothing like either of the previous titles. The movement is slower. The weapons are mostly different. And the levels are big and mazelike to the degree that arrows show up on the ground if you spend too much time wandering around. A great sign of top-notch development, no?
The story didn't fare much better. The plot is bonkers, and Joanna's character went from a smooth, female James Bond to an ultra-hip teenager. Oh, and somehow she doesn't have a British accent anymore (all the voice acting is cringeworthy).
While the graphics are technically impressive at times, the art style manages to be both cartoony and dull, and loaded with bloom to boot. And the physics...hoo, boy. Eschewing the classic hand-crafted death animations for Havok ragdolling, dying characters move like they're bobbing around in a hot tub.
The soundtrack's also completely different. Composed by David Clynick, who scored the cutscenes and bonus missions in PD N64, the style has gone from ethereal and electrifying sci-fi synths to a more ordinary, upbeat funky sound. It's not bad, but it's nowhere near as catchy. If you want to hear how it SHOULD'VE sounded, check out this EPIC PD N64 credits remix by Grant Kirkhope!
The multiplayer fares somewhat better than the campaign, featuring up to 32 players online, but the weapons and maps are uninspired, and the gameplay is still slow. GE and PD were all about fast, arcadey action and impactful kills, but in PDZ, everything feels limp.
Overall, the game feels like a combination of development hell (adding insult to injury after all the platform jumps, the team only got proper development kits five months before release, and final stability certification was skipped to make the 360's launch), and adding stuff because it was flashy (like over-the-top vehicles, tacked-on tertiary weapon functions, and an utterly ridiculous roll maneuver) instead of good for the game.
Resources
Trailer
Screenshots
Early concept art
Later concept art
Post-launch developer interview
Electronic Gaming Monthly's review
Post-Rare developer interview
Novels and comic books
Edit 12/29/2017 - corrected PD sales figure.
Edit 4/4/2019 - corrected text alignment.
Edit 9/11/2019 - minor text alignment + fixed/added a few GE links.
(GE/PD screenshots are emulated)
--------------------------------------
Platform: Nintendo 64
Format: 96 megabit (12 megabyte) cartridge
Release dates: Aug. 23rd, 1997 (Japan) / Aug. 25th, 1997 (North America) / Nov. 6th, 1997 (Europe) [Source: NinDB]
Initially in development for the SNES, then on the Nintendo 64 as an on-rails shooter, GoldenEye 007, in its final form as a free-moving first-person shooter, was a revelation. At the time, FPSes on consoles had seen muted success compared to their juggernaut PC brethren such as Doom and Quake. But not only did GE prove the genre could work beautifully with a controller, it showed it could provide more than just mindless blasting and rudimentary puzzles.
Fully-realized worlds that felt like you were in a movie. Objective lists that grew as you increased the difficulty. Mission-critical NPCs that needed to be protected. Cameras and alarms that needed to be destroyed lest they summon a swarm of guards to your position. Varying reactions and amounts of damage depending on what part of an enemy you hit. And oodles of wild cheats unlockable by beating mission target times.
But as engaging and immersive as the missions were, the multiplayer was the real hit, and the reason GE became a system seller for the Nintendo 64. Added late in development by Steve Ellis, the four-player splitscreen utilized compact, easy-to-learn maps, quick movement, a huge roster of characters including classic Bond villains and Rareware staff members, addictive weapons like Proximity Mines and the Golden Gun, and a variety of gametypes in the event players needed a break from standard deathmatch. Moments like the Facility, Slappers Only, cheating with Oddjob, and tense duels in the cramped Archives have become engrained in the gamer consciousness.
The GE community continues to celebrate and dig into the game. Speedrunners have acheived insane feats such as beating every mission on max stats (and done the same in Perfect Dark!), and hackers have discovered things like a hidden test stage, a hidden ZX Spectrum emulator, and button codes to quickly unlock missions, cheats, and a hidden "Line Mode" effect. Most impressively, using the GoldenEye Setup Editor tool, modders have created a plethora of new maps and missions for the game, and even ported GE assets into the Perfect Dark engine!
Weapons
. PP7 PP7 (Silenced) DD44 Dostovei Klobb
. KF7 Soviet ZMG 9MM D5K Deutsche D5K Deutsche (Silenced)
. Phantom AR33 RC-P90 Shotgun
. Automatic Shotgun Sniper Rifle Cougar Magnum Golden Gun
. Silver PP7 Gold PP7 Moonraker Laser Grenade Launcher
. Rocket Launcher Taser Hunting Knife Throwing Knife
. Unarmed (Slapper) Watch Laser Tank Gun
. Timed MIne Proximity Mine Remote Mine
. Grenade
Bonus screenshots
Resources
GE/PD speedrunning records at the-elite.net
GoldenEyeForever.com (featuring the Shooters Forever forums)
GoldenEye X (the PD engine port project)
Goldeneye Vault, your source for GE mods of all shapes and sizes. (archived; now part of N64 Vault)
GoldenEye: Decoded (excellent archive of development and promotional materials)
GE 20th anniversary panel
Interview with GE's director, Martin Hollis (not to be confused with the director of the movie, Martin Campbell)
GE postmortem with Martin Hollis
A talk by GE dev team member David Doak
How to play GoldenEye online via Kaillera (help forum)
Awesome Japanese GoldenEye commercial
Pierce Brosnan plays GE multiplayer with Jimmy Fallon
Promotional renders
Cancelled Xbox 360 port (original leak)
The soundtrack (composed by Graeme Norgate and Grant Kirkhope)
--------------------------------------
Platform: Nintendo 64
Format: 256 megabit (32 megabyte) cartridge
Release dates: May 22nd, 2000 (North America) / June 29th, 2000 (Europe) / October 21st, 2000 (Japan) [Source: NinDB]
Though offered the opportunity to develop a game based on the next Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies, the team felt they had spent enough time in the Bond universe. Borrowing elements from sci-fi and pop culture such as La Femme Nikita, Blade Runner, The Fifth Element, Ghost in the Shell, The X-Files, Independence Day, The Matrix, and RoboCop, Perfect Dark (Japanese pre-release title Red and Black) expanded upon GoldenEye 007 by leaps and bounds in nearly every aspect, and pushed the Nintendo 64 hardware to its absolute limit.
The art style is a stunner, with its intense colours compared to the mostly grey GE, slick chrome surfaces, piercing light sources, and techno-industrial designs. The visual effects are also an absolute treat, such as the blur motion when stunned or poisoned, electronics shooting out sparks when damaged, gunfire and explosions strobe-lighting hallways, and the ability to shoot out light sources and dim the surroundings (an early concept for the game focused heavily on light and dark mechanics, though this was reduced to just a few setpieces because of hardware limitations). The characters have noticeably higher poly counts this time as well. It's no wonder the additional 4 megabytes of RAM provided by the Expansion Pak was required to access nearly everything aside from 2 player multiplayer.
A slew of new mechanics were added as well. Secondary functions on every weapon (each weapon also has its own cool reload animation). Disarming. Night vision. X-ray vision. Fly-by-wire rockets. And the CamSpy, a little drone that goes places too small or too dangerous for Joanna Dark (also available in explosive and tranquilizing variants).
So many great little bits of immersion too. Enemies dodging and rolling, their guns jamming, being able to shoot the guns from their hands and them pulling a backup on you, and shooting them in the leg and watching them drag it around with bits of blood dripping behind it. Not to mention being able to shoot ammo boxes around, snipers falling dramatically from their perches, certain actions persisting between levels (such as placing a mine for an escape route and dropping a vehicle from a plane), and of course, the Carrington Institute training area, with its firing range, detailed bios for every character, location, weapon, and device, and its surly/goofy/bathroom deprived employees. ^_^
But as spellbinding as the alien worlds, corporate intrigue, and hostage crises of the single player are, the multiplayer...flippin' heck, the multiplayer. You want the kitchen sink? How about the factory that makes 'em!!!
6 scenarios. 13 winding, sprawling, multi-storey maps along with 3 remastered GE maps. 33 weapons and 4 utilities assignable to any of 6 weapon spawns per map. Up to 8 "simulants" (for a total of 12 players on any map), a.k.a. bots, with adjustable difficulties and personalities, and able to accept commands from the team. Highlightable pickups, players, and teams. Single-digit time and score adjustment. 30 challenges. Detailed player statistics. Custom soundtrack playlist. Interchangeable character heads. And a plethora of control and HUD options. Not even the heaviest hitting modern AAA FPSes have been able to cram in this much flexibility.
PD's wow factor is off the charts. All of the above plus co-op, counter-op (play as the enemies during missions!), a kickin' sci-fi soundtrack (lead composer Grant Kirkhope), and incredibly creative weaponry including such favorites as the laptop sentry gun, dual wielding alien pistols with explosive bullets, the chaos-in-a-can N-Bomb, alliance-shifting Psychosis Gun, beyond spray-and-pray Reaper (with backup Grinder :P), and the weapon-of-all-time, the master of cheese (mmm...cheese), the big blue rod of inescapable doom, the FarSight XR-20!
. N-Bomb Psychosis Gun
There is a drawback to pushing the envelope like this, though...the framerate. If lots of characters and/or explosions are on the screen, especially in multiplayer, it slows to a painful crawl. This, along with less mainstream appeal than Bond, a late release in the console's lifecycle, and Halo coming just 18 months after, made Perfect Dark struggle to attain much more than a strong cult following (it sold 2.5 million copies to GE's 8 million).
However, things began to look up in 2010 when, at long last, a port was released on Xbox 360. Early screenshots seemed to indicate it would be a pretty faithful port. Alas, not so much. While the cancelled GoldenEye 007 port was developed internally by Rare, the PD port was outsourced to 4J Studios, who felt some need to shred its magnificent art style. Every head got replaced, and the main characters were especially worse off for it. Sleek alien weapons grew mold. The gold DY357-LX turned orange. The sharp, silver edges of the MagSec 4 (based on RoboCop's Auto 9) got smoothed out and browned. And the sparks, explosions, muzzle flashes, and chrome surfaces all got muted. And also unlike the dearly departed GE port, no classic graphics mode.
The changes didn't stop with the graphics. At launch, there were no Legacy or Southpaw controls (which EVERY Halo has had), explosions were drastically shortened, and the laptop sentry gun had its ammo severely reduced. These were patched in (in the game's one and only patch), but the Legacy controls were poorly coded and broke the quick select menu and sniper zoom. And though it runs at a locked 60 FPS most of the time, the game stutters when passing through explosions - one thing from the original that SHOULD have been fixed.
That 60 FPS isn't all it's cracked up to be either - the animations feel much too snappy. The manual aim also isn't as smooth as the original, a strong echo that can't be turned off was added to all corridors, and several audio bugs (rapid footsteps, voiceovers not cutting off correctly, music channels dropping out) were added. The menus became a bit of a chore to navigate too.
At least the port's not a total dud. The gameplay is intact, the levels have been pretty faithfully uprezzed, and the 1080p/60 FPS is pretty swell. Online play and speedrun leaderboards have also been added, though the online is pretty barebones. No parties, weak playlists, no custom game browser (in THE game that would benefit the most from one), limited team options, and no cheats. The population dropped off rapidly, and you'd be hard pressed to blame the age of the game for that.
Resources
Trailer
Perfect Head mode (removed prior to release)
Perfect Dark Recon - a hub for all things PD
The Yamo's Lair (PD mysteries)
Classic Game Room reviews PD
The official making of video
Promo art + wallpapers
Regional/version differences
Martin Hollis discusses PD
More multiplayer footage
More screenshots
A zany yet informative (and woefully unfinished) Let's Play by Evil Tim (GoldenEye too!)
--------------------------------------
Platform: Xbox 360
Format: 6.8 gigabyte DVD (original release)
Release dates: Nov. 18th, 2005 (North America) / Dec. 2nd, 2005 (Europe) / Dec. 10th, 2005 (Japan) [Source: Wikipedia]
In development for the GameCube, original Xbox, and finally the Xbox 360 as a key launch title, Perfect Dark Zero is the prequel to Perfect Dark.
Now then, how do you go about following up one of the most acclaimed FPSes of all time as well as its spiritual sequel that cranked everything up to 11? Simply throw out everything and start from scratch, that's how!
PDZ feels nothing like either of the previous titles. The movement is slower. The weapons are mostly different. And the levels are big and mazelike to the degree that arrows show up on the ground if you spend too much time wandering around. A great sign of top-notch development, no?
The story didn't fare much better. The plot is bonkers, and Joanna's character went from a smooth, female James Bond to an ultra-hip teenager. Oh, and somehow she doesn't have a British accent anymore (all the voice acting is cringeworthy).
While the graphics are technically impressive at times, the art style manages to be both cartoony and dull, and loaded with bloom to boot. And the physics...hoo, boy. Eschewing the classic hand-crafted death animations for Havok ragdolling, dying characters move like they're bobbing around in a hot tub.
The soundtrack's also completely different. Composed by David Clynick, who scored the cutscenes and bonus missions in PD N64, the style has gone from ethereal and electrifying sci-fi synths to a more ordinary, upbeat funky sound. It's not bad, but it's nowhere near as catchy. If you want to hear how it SHOULD'VE sounded, check out this EPIC PD N64 credits remix by Grant Kirkhope!
The multiplayer fares somewhat better than the campaign, featuring up to 32 players online, but the weapons and maps are uninspired, and the gameplay is still slow. GE and PD were all about fast, arcadey action and impactful kills, but in PDZ, everything feels limp.
Overall, the game feels like a combination of development hell (adding insult to injury after all the platform jumps, the team only got proper development kits five months before release, and final stability certification was skipped to make the 360's launch), and adding stuff because it was flashy (like over-the-top vehicles, tacked-on tertiary weapon functions, and an utterly ridiculous roll maneuver) instead of good for the game.
Resources
Trailer
Screenshots
Early concept art
Later concept art
Post-launch developer interview
Electronic Gaming Monthly's review
Post-Rare developer interview
Novels and comic books
Edit 12/29/2017 - corrected PD sales figure.
Edit 4/4/2019 - corrected text alignment.
Edit 9/11/2019 - minor text alignment + fixed/added a few GE links.
Last edited:
