Perfectly Dark

As all things should be

I didn't know that 'the Avengers' were into game development now! At least that's the impression I get when I hear of a new studio with a name as cold and detached as 'The Initiative' dawning upon us. But this marks the very first project from a relatively new Microsoft-formed studio that promises to launch a new breed of videogame that has been described as 'AAAA', apparently. Now, honestly I'm really bummed that I'm only hearing about these guys now because looking back and seeing the ways in which Microsoft promised the absolute moon from this studio, I'm just fascinated by how handily these guys are being set up for failure. I mean just listen to this; apparently the term 'AAAA' was coined by Microsoft in order to refer to the studio working on games that surpass the scope and development means that we've seen out of the AAA market so far. Can't you just taste the 'doomed' in that mission statement? The AAA landscape is littered with overbloated and overfunded projects that choke on themselves due to any number of reasons relating to the size and expectations welling all around them. Almost every single one of their number has seriously disappointed in some regard, whether that be for poor vision, terrible execution or lack of clarity. (Or serious overpromises in the optimisation department; Cyberpunk) So how do you solve that problem? Throw more money at it, of course!

It just makes me smirk and cringe at the same time, to think back to the days of Destiny and the 500 million which went into forging a game that was only really worth half of retail price in terms of content. I mean don't get me wrong, Destiny's first person combat slapped harder than any other FPS ever made and that's a hill I'll fall down on, but somehow I don't think that 500 million was needed to intricately craft each individual microaction of the player's joystick. And yet if you hear Microsoft talk about it, they think there's a whole new tier of videogame waiting to be unlocked by the right team of the developers with a Caribbean-island's load of money and a name as ominous and non-descript as possible. (I wonder if they'll be officially published by 'The Corporation' and hand off PR to 'The Organisation'?) To that end they certainly secured the talent, most notably being huge alumni from Bungie and Crystal Dynamics. But will this be enough to make Microsoft's vision come true? Almost certainly no, but in this cynical world fuelled by hatred; at least there'll be an entertaining show.

Thus it was confusing when the very first we hear out of the mouth of 'The Initiative' was as big a turn off as one could feasible imagine hearing in their lifetime. 'Eco sci-fi'. I mean just what the heck is that supposed to mean? Are we going 'Fern Gully' up in here, is this another 'The greatest threat was man!' story? And then they went onto clarify that they're talking about a sci-fi world on the brink of ecological disaster. (Way to hit a little too close to home, guys) Also, why exactly does that need the term 'Eco Sci-fi' to be coined at all? That makes it sound like there's something new or innovative at work here, but the way they describe it the story just sort of resembles the exact same thing that Final Fantasy 7 was going for. (Which is really awkward seeing as how that game just got a remake and it was present at the very same game awards show right next to this game's announcement.) So I think it's safe to say that, just like with the zombie game, I didn't start off on the best foot with this game. (Which wasn't helped by the developers attempt at acting for the intro. I appreciate the attempt, but I also don't appreciate it and please stop.)

And so we saw a trailer of pure cinematics which I'm not going to reactively pop-off about considering the fact that the studio itself is literally two years old and this game is absolutely in such early development that it's still an embryo. In fact, even seeing this trailer probably qualifies all of us to apply for the position of 'Oracle of Delphi', because we're seeing further into the future than ever before, and I don't mean that in an excited way. (I'll be surprised if we hear anything more about this game in the next 3 years.) Myself, I found the trailer rather dry and uninteresting for a good length of it's running time, to the tune of me yawning myself silly through the drone shots roaming the futuristic city. In fact, all I really remember thinking was "is that a gun turret? Doesn't seem very 'ecologically friendly' to me. I'd go so far as to call that a betrayal of vision." In fact, I was so checked out that I didn't even notice the logo atop the building, nor the voice over man with his generic-as-heck dialogue refer to the only human we see in the trailer by her instantly recognisable name. But I did sure-as-floods-in-English-summer do a double take when I saw that title card.

Perfect Dark. My lord, how long has it been? And just like many out there I immediately thought of but one thing when I saw that; "I guess Microsoft really did nick all those licenses when they took control of Rare all those years back. That's pretty rough for them, buddy." But seriously, I have to admit that whilst I didn't exactly explode with mirth at this reveal, I did get a little excited. Perfect Dark was a truly exceptional first person shooter back in it's day that still holds up in the gameplay department. It bought the best in FPS gameplay before there was a standardised equation to the formula and so sort of played like a better version of 'Goldeneye'. (Yeah I said it. 'Perfect Dark' is better!) It was pretty challenging too, but so much fun to master; and I'm told the sequel is like the franchise's 'Invisible War', thus not worth playing. But then I learnt about the pomp surrounding 'The Initiative' and I couldn't help but find the whole thing ridiculous again.

This 'super power' studio who are going to set 'new horizons for big budget video games' started off their very first project with a remake; way to hit the ground running, guys! Okay, so maybe this isn't as much a 'remake' as it is a 'reimagining'. (If that makes anyone more interested in the project.) An interview after the matter clarified that whilst this borrows the name and basic premise of Joanna Dark's first adventure, the game will very much be a brand new thing. Does that give it enough room for the story to blossom out from it's 'Deus Ex lite' thing it had going on in the original? Who knows. (No one's mentioned anything about Aliens just yet...) At the very least it means that people who played and loved the original, à la moi, can lie to themselves that this is a sequel because honestly there was nothing about the original narrative to get too attached to anyway. Consider me tentatively interested.

Now it may seem for a minute that I'm being a bit disparaging to this studio on their very first game, and I absolutely am. But given their mission statement, the ludicrously big corporation backing them up and the fact that they're advertising their studio as a place for veterans to flock to; I don't really feel like I'm punching down. Though that being said, let me clarify that I don't mean the team or their game ill-will, I just expect failure from everyone now that CDPR betrayed me. I rolled my eyes when I heard these people talk about their passion in this studio built for 'mega blockbusters' first, but I still would definitely like to see what a Perfect Dark for the modern age looks like. Heck, a new stealth-based action game with high quality developers behind it? That's totally up my alley, so of course I'm down. I'm just worried that maybe the team might not be all there, considering the obvious monetisation-driven compromises this studio is going to be subject to alongside the fact that their marketing team seems to have messed up the web page that's supposed to explain more about the game only 3 days after going live. (Pretty amateur move for the world's first AAAA studio...)

With Metal Gear dead, Deus Ex probably soon following suit and Ghost Recon firmly in the dog house- I need a new stealth-based game to set my passions alight and so based on that selfish desire alone I'm willing to route for this 'Perfect Dark'. Does that mean I believe in the studio behind it and their apparent vision to make the 'biggest games ever'? No. And I also don't understand how this insanely big budget team landed on making a stealth title for their debut, those tend to be pretty niche. (Then again, I'm merely assuming it'll be stealthy because that makes sense given the context. The original actually had a lot more loud action to it, so this may be nothing like I expect it to be.) But even if this 'Initiative' only manages to churn out one game before Microsoft realises that it's too unsustainable and scales things down, I'm glad it's this one.