I never played the original Perfect Dark, but the trailer for the reboot shown during this evening’s Xbox Games Showcase instantly made it the most exciting game I’ve seen during not-E3. It’s first-person, it’s got stealth, it’s got parkour, it’s got hand-to-hand melee combat including slidekicks. It looks like a mashup of Mirror’s Edge and something more immersive sim-y? What’s not to like.
Cor, when was the last time a big new first-person game looked to have this kind of systemic flexibility. I’m partly just relieved to see a game trailer that looks like a game, and not a cutscene that looks years away from being playable. Although, notably, there was no release date at the end of this gameplay trailer not even a year.
This new Perfect Dark was announced back in 2020, without much real information about the game at the time other than that it was being developed by a new Microsoft studio, The Initiative. Since then it’s apparently hit some development snags, and external studio (and Tomb Raider reboot gang) Crystal Dynamics have come onboard as co-developers.
I will wait however long I need to in order to shimmy down a drainpipe and slidekick some men in the shins.
The flurry of summer games events are now underway! Hit up our Summer Game Fest 2024 hub and our Day Of The Devs roundup for all the news worth caring about from the shows so far.
