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Four years after its cinematic reveal at The Game Awards, Xbox has finally given us a proper look at its reboot of Perfect Dark at today’s Xbox Games Showcase.
It featured a look at gameplay for the first-person shooter, as well as the welcome return of protagonist Joanna Dark.
“Earth has been struck by a series of disasters, bringing ecosystems around the world to the verge of collapse,” Perfect Dark’s YouTube description reads. “In this first look at gameplay, follow agent Joanna Dark as she hunts down the world’s most wanted criminal, Daniel Carrington, to uncover the mysteries that threaten the lives of millions.”
An Xbox Wire blog post adds additional context, answering numerous questions about Perfect Dark. Among other things, the post says that it will be a single-player experience with choices offered in how to complete the missions. The combat system will feature melee and gunplay, stealth mechanics, and “liberal use of gadgets.” In short, it’s a “true secret agent fantasy.”
Perfect Dark development is being led by The Initiative, a fledgling studio spun up by Xbox in 2018 to shepherd its path into the spy/espionage genre. But The Initiative isn’t going it alone. Previously, IGN has reported that it was being co-developed with Certain Affinity, but ongoing struggles between the two studios led to a parting of ways and a reboot of development in 2022 with Crystal Dynamics joining the project.
Progress has clearly been made since then, as demonstrated by the trailer today, though IGN understands the game is still a little ways out. No release window was revealed.
Perfect Dark first debuted on the N64 back in 2000, developed by Rare. It got rave reviews, with IGN even handing the first-person shooter a 9.8/10 at the time, calling it “the most well-rounded multiplayer mode ever to grace Nintendo 64.” It would be followed by Perfect Dark Zero in 2005, a launch title for the Xbox 360, and a Perfect Dark remaster in 2010.
For more, check out our roundup of everything announced at today’s Xbox Showcase.