Introduction: First-person shooter's have come a long way since the day's of Doom and Wolfenstein. The new generation began on the N64 with Goldeneye and continues with Perfect Dark. Both Rare titles allow exploration of large interactive environments and have advanced artificial intelligence. Get ready for one of the best action games to date.

Review: Perfect Dark draws you in to a futuristic world of corporate espionage and alien intrigue. You play as Joanna Dark, the top agent for the Carrington Institute, a weapon's manufacturer. The clear enemy is the DataDyne Corporation, a rival weapon's manufacturer financed by an external alien force. You must use yours skill in stealth and firepower to complete your 15 missions. Skill will develop in time, but there is nothing to fear as far as firepower is concerned.

Rare out-did themselves this time with an excellence in weaponry. There are over thirty weapons at your disposal, ranging from combat knives to heavy automatics. The weapons are the true 'star' of the game. Each one has a secondary function in addition to its already powerful first. A good example is the knife. It can either slash or be thrown. Or the alien pistol the Phoenix can either fire regular rounds or explosive rounds. A few of the games best weapons is the Farsight, RCP-120, Cyclone, Crossbow, and the Phoenix. The Farsight and Phoenix are both alien weapons and have a cool blue look to them. The Farsight can fire through walls, home-in on targets and annihilate them with a single shot. The Phoenix can discharge quick plasma-like energy blasts or charge up a single immensely powerful shot. The RCP-120 and the Cyclone are both rapid-firing automatics. The RCP-120 has a secondary cloaking device while the Cyclone can be carried twice at a time for ultimate carnage. Lastly, the Crossbow is small and worn of the risk and can either sedate, blurring your vision for a period of time, or 'instant kill' which is self-explanatory.

The game's jewel is the multiplayer. Just like in Goldeneye, the multiplayer is highly addictive and the most well crafted portion of the game. You can either go head-to-head with four friends and seven simulants, or by yourself with eleven simulants. The sim's are great. They can be lowered to minimal intelligence for an all out 'kill-fest', or super advanced for a challenging 'cat and mouse' game. You being the mouse. The sim's make this game playable for hours with a wide variety of difficulty settings and the previously mentioned thirty-plus weapon list. Basically, it's hard to get bored with this game.

Conclusion: Perfect Dark has helped take first-person shooter's a step-up as far as gameplay. Probably the most immense game of the genre to date with a multitude of game settings and a decently long single player story. If you own an N64 you should have this game. There aren't many 'musts' for this console but Perfect Dark is definitely one of them.

Ratings: (scale of 0.0 - 5.0)