Re-skinning much of what they had developed, they introduced Perfect Dark to the world in 2000, and suddenly that ol’ GoldenEye magic was back. Rare had intended on making a sequel based on the next James Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies, but were outbid for the rights and so had to go in a new direction. Lot. It wasn’t long after that fans were clamoring for more. With four-player split-screen action, it was mayhem from the first day players discovered it and it still tops the list of greatest shooters of all-time. Players had seen nothing like it and they fell into with total abandon. And as great as all that is, it was the tacked-on multiplayer thrown on at the end of the game’s development that wholly changed the face of console shooters forever. A one-time on-rails game, the team shifted to a free-roaming shooter based on the story from the film and in the process introduced stealth, head-shots and reloading mechanics and was the very first home console first person shooter. In 1997, Rare, a gaming studio who had been making games for Nintendo since 1986, released a first-person shooter based on a film of the same name called GoldenEye, and to say this was a game-changer would be a massive understatement. Just one more level, one more race, one more fight. In the mid-90s, myriad titles erupted onto home consoles, keeping gamers huddled together for long session through the night. From racing and fighting to full-on shared adventure titles, split-screen play made gaming a shared experience like no other and suddenly we were challenging our friends or fighting alongside them. Then came split-screen play and everything was different. At home, you’d play a bit or pass the controller to your sibling or friend and cheer (or holler) your way through. At the arcade, you dropped in your quarters, played for a few minutes and moved one. Gaming was, for a long time, mostly a single player experience. A marvel of level design, graphics and re-playability, ‘Perfect Dark’ lives up to its name. ‘Perfect Dark’ is that rare combination in gaming when all the right pieces come together with its story, mechanics, options, gameplay and so much more.
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