Top 5 Missions You Need to Master in Perfect Dark (Perfect Dark Theme Week)

by Lerako on Apr 29th, 2016

Corporate espionage, Presidential Cloning and an indulgent conspiracy for hidden bits of cheddar; these are topics that might seem ‘alien’ to some, but for Carrington Institute’s best Agent, they are found mentioned throughout her intriguing dossier quite a bit. In honor of Rare’s Perfect Dark theme week, we’ve decided to declassify much of Joanna Dark’s future career in order to highlight the most exhilerating missions and unforgettable moments that still resonate strongly with us today. If you’ve spent the years since the Millenium taking on dataDyne’s elite forces, this list should provide a retrospective for some of your favorite Perfect Dark memories – if you’re just getting to grips with the concept of shape-shifting Scandinavians through this sentence, or you’ve yet to plunge into the darkness via Rare Replay, let this list show you what you’ve been missing all of your life. It’s Dark. She’s Perfect. These are the Top 5 Missions You Need to Master in Perfect Dark (Perfect Dark Theme Week)

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#5. DATADYNE CENTRAL DEFECTION, INVESTIGATION, EXTRACTION – PERFECT DARK (N64)

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Responding to a distress call from deep within rival headquarters of the dataDyne corporation, Joanna Dark’s first mission is split into three over-arching chapters over the course of her successful infiltration. The initial descent found in Defection encourages stealth as each floor is gradually taken over with the lobby serving as a point of ingress towards the lower floors. Investigation features more lateral puzzle solving, with Joanna’s gadgets earning the spotlight as the Agent edges ever closer to the mysterious Doctor Caroll. Lastly, Extraction tasks Joanna with asending to the top of the building while facing off against the full-scale resistance of dataDyne. Keep the action intense with a few twists along the way, and this triple offering serves as a perfect introduction of things to come…

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#4. CHICAGO STEALTH/ G5 BUILDING RECONNAISSANCE – PERFECT DARK (N64)

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Serving as a large turning point for Perfect Dark, Chicago’s Stealth and G5 Building missions are seamless when it comes to establishing a mood, with its music standing out especially as some of the best found in the title. Keeping a low profile is imparitive in both Stealth and Reconnaissance, and either mission can be failed immediately if you’re too careless. If you can manage to master covertness however, you’ll find that it can be incredibly satisfying to catch your assailants off-guard and head them all off before they’ve gotten a chance to alert the others. Finishing both Stealth and Reconnaissance with an extraordinary ambush keeps the action balanced as well, with the G5 Door Decoder Safe scenario serving as one of the most frantic and rewarding experiences in all of Perfect Dark.

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#3. AREA 51 INFILTRATION, RESCUE, ESCAPE – PERFECT DARK (N64)

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Compared to its forerunner dataDyne Central, the search and rescue format seems to be one that Joanna is fairly familiar with. What she might not be so well versed in however, is meeting an extra-terrestrial for the first time on Area 51 which was one of the games largest developments. Given the breadth of the military base, it’s not very difficult to find yourself outnumbered when a number of troops swarm onto your position, luckily teaming up with CI Spy, Jonathan Steinberg provided increased fire power and an intelligent Co-operative mechanic. Polish it all with a number of alternate endings to choose from depending on which vehicle you’ve chosen to take away from the installation (including a Flying Saucer and Hoverbikes) and this romp in Roswell isn’t soon to be forgotten.

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#2. CARRINGTON INSTITUTE DEFENSE – PERFECT DARK (N64)

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Readily available from any point during the campaign, Carrington Institute served as a training ground for Joanna and the other Agents that walked the halls and filled its rooms. Its function was expanded upon further during an act of alien vengeance sees the Institute over-run with the Skedar race seeking a vendetta. If you’d previously trained anywhere in the Institute, you would have an upperhand in locating your colleagues and warding off the Skedar assault; it was a tutorial in itself from the very beginning. The final objective involves locating an alien bomb that threatens to take out the Institute in less than two minutes. Carrington Institute Defence is a mixture of familiar corridors, alien brawls and a spectacular explosion aboard a Skedar ship once Joanna has managed to get it out of harms way…

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#1. SKEDAR RUINS, BATTLE SHRINE – PERFECT DARK (N64)

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Joanna Dark has come a long way since the initial infiltration of dataDyne Central, both figuratively, and literally. Now millions of lightyears from the Institute, Joanna must square off against the Skedar King in order to spare Earth from its imminent destruction. Exploration of the Ruins is encouraged, and Joanna will need to both native weapons and her own gadgets to make progress towards the inner shrine. Along the way she’ll need to defend herself against a Skedar army that have been gestating in secret, and destory key Temple targets to gain access to the Inner sanctum. The Skedar Ruins is one of the most difficult missions in Perfect Dark which is entirely appropriate with its placement in the campaign, but it’s one that you can keep coming back to over the years. Perfect Dark is Forever.

Categories: Top 5 Lists