Split-Screen :: The Game-Geek’s Daily Read

By Ravi Sinha

What do you look for in a first person shooter? The adrenaline, spurred by a competitive structure and satiated by harrowing wins? The emotion associated with entering not simply a world but an entire being within it? Or do you pick up and play an FPS for fun – that amalgam of graphics, gameplay and level design honed to utter and inseparable perfection? The narrow divide that began in FPSes nearly 8 years ago continues today, catering to target audiences on the basis of their requirements from an FPS. A requirement only fulfills one need, however and the best first person shooters have gone above and beyond satisfying a fan or newcomer’s best laid expectations.

We continue our countdown to the absolute best first person shooter all time. Those remotely familiar with Rare’s past legendary status as a competent FPS developer (if not an overall games developer) will identify with Perfect Dark for the Nintendo 64, our #9 best FPS of all time. On the other spy spectrum is Monolith Productions’ No One Lives Forever, a trippy, kitschy roller-coaster dripping with style yet backed by the meatiest sustenance a video game could possibly deliver at #8.

#9 Perfect Dark

Synopsis

The grey Maians and shape-shifting reptilian Skedar are conflicting alien factions on a futuristic planet Earth. But when the Skedar and the evil dataDyne corporation hatch a conspiracy to obliterate the planet, the Carrington Institute’s top agent Joanna Dark is dispatched. Following the multi-million selling Goldeneye 007, Perfect Dark released in the Summer of 2000 on the Nintendo 64, then nearing the end of it’s life-cycle. Developed over three years, even subjected to a design over-haul a year into development, Perfect Dark was one of the few N64 titles to extensively require the 8 MB Expansion Pak. With efforts from David Doak, Steve Hellis and Martin Hollis (both who left mid-way to form Free Radical Design), it received universal acclaim.

The Big Deal?

Perfect Dark didn’t have the perfect heroine in Joanna. It’s frame rate also suffered on numerous occasions with too much on-screen action. However, Perfect Dark was unanimous for its abject perfection in ever other area of design. The graphics incorporated dynamic lighting and motion blur, associated with the “dizziness” from being hit point-blank, and 16:9 aspect ratio support for wide-screen televisions. Dolby Surround Sound was supported from the outset and was the first N64 game to have full voice acting. Rare improved every aspect of the AI to allow for secondary side-arms, melee attacks and brilliant teamwork. Weapons could be shot away, but they could also be swiped and this worked both ways: You could as easily lose your weapon as re-enter the battle with a bang.

The gameplay tied in with the replayability to give most modern FPSes a run for their money. Co-operative mode, Counter-operative mode (where one player took on the role of Joanna while the other became the enemies), training missions that unlock classic Goldeneye weapons, mission tasks increasing in complexity at higher difficulties…and what ultimately set the framework for Timesplitters: Simulants and multi-player. Simulants weren’t your usual bots. They had their own individual personalities accompanying preferred tactics like the PeaceSim who would disarm rather than kill players and collect the level’s weapons. Couple this with six scenarios, multiple maps, 30 challenges against Simulants, full customization of matches, easter eggs, cheat codes, ranks, statistics and medals. That’s a lot of content for a 256 MB cartridge.

Nintendo Official Magazine named Perfect Dark “the best shooting game this century” before release. While not the best, it’s certainly one of the absolute best ever made.

And How Much Did They Milk It?

The prequel Perfect Dark Zero released for the Xbox 360 after given release dates for 2 previous consoles (Gamecube and Xbox). The game was rife with bugs and annoyances in the single-player mode, though multi-player retained some magic of the original. Rare has seized offering updates, the last being a planned 50-player cap for matches that never released. There was also the lame Gameboy Colour Perfect Dark, two sanctioned novels set after Zero and before the original – Initial Vector and Second Front – and Janus’ Tears, a comic book capturing the events between the two novels.

What’s Next?

No game sequel, though rumours have surfaced now and then. A third novel is also on the way from Greg Rucka, acclaimed comic book writer of DC Comics’ 52, Gotham Central (for which the “Half a Life” arc won him several awards) and the screenplay for “Crossfire” from the DVD anime Batman: Gotham Knight.

#8 The Operative: No One Lives Forever

Synopsis

The evil H.A.R.M., when not engaged in trademark tangles with the Hair Alternative Replacement Membership club, wants to destroy the world and they’re killing UNITY agents each week to prove their point. UNITY recruits ex-burglar Cate Archer to infiltrate H.A.R.M. and end their nefarious ways. Developed by Monolith Productions, a mix of Austin Powers, James Bond, Modesty Blaise and The Avengers, replete with thousands of humorous dialogues and topped with the best mission in the history of FPSes – “Kick Armstrong’s Arse” – this is 2000′s No One Lives Forever (coincidentally released a few months after Perfect Dark).

The Big Deal?

It’s easy to encounter stagnation in the shooter genre, be it in the missions, weapons, graphics or plot. No One Lives Forever took our notions of typical FPS gaming and injected them with 70′s flower power enhanced steroids. Not a single mission felt anything less than new, exciting, over-top and fun, whether it was sky diving out of an exploding plane towards a target with a parachute while evading enemy sky divers or fighting enemies in a zero gravity space station and subsequently escaping it during a meteor swarm. Multiple approaches to mission completion was reflected in the stealth portions, for which humorous inventions like mechanical poodles to distract guard dogs and explosive lipstick. Numerous bullet types and a vast weapon selection based on the era of the game’s setting. Intelligent AI that reacted to sound as easily as it flanked you made the game ever more exciting. The music is, for lack of a better word, “groovy” and we strongly encourage heading over to Fox Interactive’s forum for listening to both listed and unlisted tracks inspired by the NOLF.

However, more than anything, it was the sheer sense of charm and wit in every aspect that won us over. H.A.R.M.’s diabolical mastermind? A hand-puppet. H.A.R.M. guards engage in metaphysical discussions on the nature of their evil while offering relaxing shoulder massages. Did we mention the funny exchanges? Sample this one:

Berlin contact: I seem to have lost my phone number. Can I borrow yours?
Cate Archer: I’m in the book. Under “police department”.
Berlin contact: Why must I be made to say such stupid things?

And then there’s the awesomeness that only kicking Armstrong’s arse provides.

And How Much Did They Milk It?

Despite critical acclaim, NOLF didn’t do well sales-wise. That didn’t stop Monolith from developing No One Lives Forever: A Spy in H.A.R.M.’s Way (published by Sierra Studios) which continued the original’s flair for tongue-in-cheek gameplay and witty writing. There was also Contract J.A.C.K., the expansion set between the two games. Let’s just call it the Snake’s Revenge of NOLF, shall we?

What’s Next?

Alas, it appears Monolith Productions and Fox Interactive moved on to bigger and better things with F.E.A.R. Despite the number of unresolved threads in No One Lives Forever and the sheer hotness of Cate Archer’s “well-textured” figure, a continuation of the mythos in any form is not forthcoming now or in the near future.

Yet another thing Cate and Joanna sadly have in common.