Chronic Fast forward: Perfect Dark – An FPS with the spirit of initiative
The new Perfect Dark, developed by the team at The Initiative, was shown for the first time at the 2020 Game Awards ceremony and revealed through a beautiful trailer. We can’t qualify this title as a surprise, as we’ve shared an article with you detailing all the references to Joanna Dark’s return from January 2020, but with little impact. It’s been 15 years since we’ve seen the famous Carrington Institute heroine since Episode Zero released when the Xbox 360 launched. As you know, the Fast Forward column reminds us of what we know, but most importantly, what to expect a game that has just been announced. So it’s time to open up our connected compacts to see what this enterprise-led future has in store for us.
Video script
A (very) great adventure
When Microsoft founded The Initiative, Phil Spencer announced at E3 2018 that the studio would create a groundbreaking project. If we had put Darrell Gallagher at the helm of the team we owed the restart of Tomb Raider and enticed artists from Naughty Dog and Santa Monica Studio, we would have expected an action game. Third person sight adventure. It is true that if the Redmond company has multiple studios capable of making good RPG and FPS, especially since the Bethesda buyout, it may be their home team for the third person single player game missing. Perfect Dark will be a first-person game, as confirmed by Drew Murray, the game design man who was previously at Insomniac Games. In this universe where companies hide terrible secrets, a global ecological catastrophe has affected the lives of the people. The initiative wants to be inspired by what can be found on television and in the cinema in terms of history and staging.
More and more devices in a world of secret agents
What was fun about GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark back then was the ability to use a range of devices to complete our missions. We remember Agent 007’s laser watch and Joanna Dark’s CamSpy, among others. Good news, the initiative’s teams seem to fully embrace this vision of a world full of secret agents investigating companies. The buzzwords of this perfect darkness are “espionage”, “reconnaissance”, “deception” and “discovery of new places”, all with bizarre devices and weapons, as Drew Murray explains. On the gadget side, everything indicates that cameras will be very important. The entire trailer is shown through the lens of a drone capable of facial recognition that infiltrates the DataDyne skyscraper and dodges a few towers. We also remember the profile of one of the technical designers who confirmed the presence of equipment and a surveillance camera system. We therefore expect to be pleasantly surprised in this area, with unusual devices that match the gameplay.
Parkour in perfect darkness?
In the elements that we weren’t expecting but that seem to have been confirmed, there is the presence of “parkours”, a bit like Miroir’s Edge. The studio discussed the ability to slide and jump over elements and the ambition to play with that Physicalité, the impression of really being in a world. But it could go further. If we look closely at the trailer, we see a whole series of objects that could form “parkours”. For example, as the drone climbs the tower, we notice plants that are easy to hold on to. After all, quite simply, in a world of secret agents where the exploits of Ethan Hunt no longer impress anyone, it goes without saying. We also see open windows and surfaces that could serve as platforms. On a work of art we also see Joanna Dark using an enemy as a human shield in full race. There is no doubt that movement will play a role in this new version of Perfect Dark. What shouldn’t displease us.
The game’s trailer didn’t reveal whether aliens will be part of the title’s plot again. On our part, it is obvious that we would like to find her in this perfect darkness. The fact that the climate is doing everything and that the action is taking place in Egypt, at least in this trailer, makes us say that our little green men, or rather gray, shouldn’t be too far. After all, there is this belief that pyramids are built by aliens. Uncovering buried secrets for yourself is good, but better together. If Perfect Dark is announced as a single player game for now, we’d like a co-op mode to be available, as was the case with the old episodes.
The initiative said it: With Perfect Dark, the team wants to achieve a “blockbuster” in the world of secret agents from the perspective of the first person. To make this vision a reality, the team relies on talent from Treyarch, Respawn Entertainment, Infinity Ward, DICE and even 343 Industries. Yes, first-person video game regulars. We wish them all the best because it is always very risky to bring back an old glory.
By Carnbee, Journalist igamesnews.com
MP
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