Four years after its initial announcement, Microsoft’s Perfect Dark reboot has finally resurfaced, offering a first gameplay reveal for this reimagining of developer Rare’s classic spy-flavored first-person shooter.
Announced back in December 2020, Microsoft’s Perfect Dark reboot was initially being developed exclusively by The Initiative, a studio specifically set up to handle its creation. However, the project has been hit by numerous set-backs since then and Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics was eventually bought in to help get it over the finish line.
Reports of a troubled development have continued to dog the Perfect Dark reboot – it was described as still being in a “very rough state” in May – so it’s perhaps a bit of a surprise to see a first gameplay trailer now. But that’s exactly what Microsoft has delivered during its latest Xbox Games Showcase, serving up nearly three and a half minutes of the shooter in action.
As per an update on Xbox Wire, the trailer shows Joanna Dark skulking around the Perfect Dark reboot’s near-future Cairo setting, with The Initiative having crafted an “entirely new story and universe” for this latest outing. It all unfolds in a world impacted by The Cascade – a series of environmental disasters which have rendered entire regions inhospitable – and hypercorporations have now stepped in to help the regeneration efforts, but their motives may be less than altruistic.
As Joanna Dark enters a single-player adventure spanning a series of set missions – said to have been designed to give players choices in how they unfold. Melee and gunplay are supported, for instance, and Joanna (here voiced by Alix Regan with Elissa Bibaud lending her visual likeness) can deploy various parkour abilities for use in both traversal and combat. That’s on top of stealth mechanics and a “liberal use of gadgets”.
The new gameplay trailer takes place in Garden City – a more affluent and cosmopolitan area of near-future Cairo – with Joanna’s gadgets enabling her to scan NPCs, analyze NPC voices, and create vocal “deepfakes” to trick security systems or impersonate other characters. There’s also a look at lethal and non-lethal weaponry, close-quarters combat, special abilities, and quiet or loud approaches to tackling missions.
There’s still no release window for the Perfect Dark reboot yet but it’ll be a day one Game Pass title when it arrives.
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