By Joel Loynds

Copyright escapistmagazine

Outlet MP1st, who recently leaked the Marvel 1943 gameplay, has apparently gotten their hands on internal documentation out of Microsoft. It contains details and concept art for the Perfect Dark reboot, a victim of the mismanagement over at Xbox since they began trying to subsume the industry at large.

According to the report, the details are from a build close to the game’s cancellation, meaning that these were all very possible to be in the final game. As with any game development, features and ideas might be pitched or worked on, but could never see the light of day. For Perfect Dark, we’ll never see any of these in action, as a possible revival of the project fell through after Microsoft and publisher Take-Two couldn’t agree on rights.

Systems detailed

MP1st makes some jumps in their assumptions in some areas, so with a level head, I’m going to suggest that the more dramatic, angry version of Joanna Dark seen in the documents could have been merely a different design. They suggest that the messier look could come from the detailed Adrenaline system, which would have given some abilities in the game.

Examples include your typical video game buffs, like dealing more and taking less damage, as well as a slow-down time ability to dodge attacks. This system would have been backed by “Relentless” and “Reward” systems, neither of which is detailed in the acquired documents.

No luck for episodic first-person shooters

Amongst the drops of information is that the work seen comes from what would have been “Season 1”. In 2023, it was rumored that Perfect Dark would release episodically, rather than as a full title. Episodic first-person shooters have just always had a bad time with either timely releases, as with Half-Life 2: Episode 3 (or Half-Life X or Half-Life 3, depending on which rumor mill you pay attention to), and SiN Episodes only ever released the first one before the developer was bought out.

The report does indicate just how early, or even messy, the game’s development was at the time. Perfect Dark was announced in 2020, after The Initiative was set up two years prior. In the report, it appears that the game wasn’t further than “Vertical Slice 1”, or a finished proof of concept to demo. Presumably, if this got the go-ahead to stay in active development, things could have coalesced quickly once they hit the ground properly.

However, all we have now is some concept art trying to hit this “Eco Sci-Fi” aesthetic. It shows, of course, ideas that might have hit the game. This includes what looks like stealth, exploration of big science facilities, and big futuristic cities.

N64’s Perfect Dark is still totally worth playing

The first Perfect Dark was released on the Nintendo 64, after Rare lost the license to produce James Bond games. After the success of Goldeneye, it made sense for the company to follow it up, but they had to come up with their own world to replace the dashing spy.

I played it for the first time during the pandemic on Xbox through the Rare Collection, and was enthralled with what it was trying to do in such limitations. It’s not especially deep compared to what else was coming out in 2000 (Deux Ex launched just a month later), but it still has a kernel of innovation over the 1997 movie tie-in. However, its non-linear design and general style carry it quite a lot, even if it does begin to pull the “bullshit” lever halfway through.

It was eventually followed up on the launch of the Xbox 360, with Perfect Dark Zero in 2005. If you want to go back and see what a launch 360 game looked like, that’s probably a good one to check out.

Perfect Dark will probably be mothballed, along with the hundreds of other properties that Microsoft has acquired over the last few years. If they can’t make it, no one else will.