Microsoft unveiled a new entry in the Perfect Dark series at the Game Awards this week, shocking fans of the futuristic spy shooter franchise. The long-awaited return of secret agent Joanna Dark comes fifteen years after her last major appearance on Xbox consoles, and while the series became part of gaming history thanks to its original developer Rare, upstart studio The Initiative has been tasked with the mission of bringing Perfect Dark into the 2020s.
The teaser trailer for the upcoming Perfect Dark only hints at what Agent Dark's next adventure has in store, but news of the game existing at all has rekindled fan interest in a series that remains full of intrigue and possibility two decades on from its original debut. After such a long wait, the new Perfect Dark will have to recapture the progressive spirit that made the original game a hit if it wants to stand out in a market where high-quality FPS games aren't hard to find.
The original Perfect Dark was set in its own sci-fi universe and had a unique protagonist in Joanna Dark, but the game owed its entire existence to GoldenEye 007, the beloved shooter based on the James Bond film of the same name. Before online multiplayer FPS franchises like Call of Duty and Halo ruled the market, GoldenEye was the gold standard for console deathmatches, and Rare wanted to continue its legacy. However, it lost the 007 license to EA, leading the studio to create a new game to evolve its mechanics and ideas.
As one of the last games released by Rare before it was bought by Microsoft in 2002, Perfect Dark remains one of the studio's most ambitious titles. It was one of the only games on the Nintendo 64 that required additional RAM for the system with an Expansion Pak accessory, and improvements to the GoldenEye engine's lighting, textures, and AI pushed the limits of the console. Despite some performance issues, fans and critics loved Perfect Dark, and much like its predecessor, the game is held up as a modern classic to this day.
Joanna Dark's last starring role was in Perfect Dark Zero, a 2005 prequel to the original N64 game. A launch title for the Xbox 360, the game featured a younger version of the secret agent as she starts down the path toward becoming the superspy we meet in the original. Zero is only vaguely remembered today compared to GoldenEye and the first Perfect Dark, but the game reviewed relatively well on its original release, being lauded for a strong multiplayer offering over Xbox Live, punchy weapons and visuals that, while occasionally inconsistent, hinted at the possibilities of the 360's hardware.
Perfect Dark Zero's single-player campaign fell short of critical expectations, however. In 2020 a multiplayer-focused title can get by with a passable story mode (or none at all), but that wasn't as true in the mid-2000s, especially from a developer as well-known and esteemed as Rare. The studio tried to continue the series several times, including with a leaked prototype codenamed Perfect Dark Core in 2008, but none of the internal efforts made it to final production. Only a few acknowledgments of the series emerged in the years since, with a remaster of the first entry for the 360 in 2010 and appearances for both games in the Rare Replay compilation in 2015.
Now, 15 years removed from the last new game, Microsoft is poised to give the espionage and sci-fi themed FPS series another try. Rumors of a new Perfect Dark game emerged earlier this year, with the mysterious Xbox studio The Initiative attached as the developer, but the company didn't make things official until this week's reveal. Seemingly a modern reboot of the franchise rather than a continuation of either of the previous games, this new Perfect Dark marks the first entry in the series to be made away from its original home at Rare.
Microsoft has recruited developers from the likes of Sony Santa Monica, Bungie, Crystal Dynamics, Insomniac and Naughty Dog to work at The Initiative, and has described the studio as a place for building "AAAA" games. The new Perfect Dark seems to have a combination of development pedigree and support from Microsoft going for it, but the game still has a lot to prove for fans of Rare's FPS games, with two full console generations between titles and memories of both the first Perfect Dark and GoldenEye to live up to. It's too early to know what to expect from The Initiative's take on the franchise, but here's hoping the new studio can deliver something worthy of the Perfect Dark name and legacy.
Perfect Dark is in development for PC and Xbox Series X/S.