Review  Perfect Dark
- Controls
- By Mike Schneider,
-by Andrew Weatherton
, 6.30.00
“If
it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Goldeneye had the most intuitive control
set up to hit a gaming system, and Rare wisely opted to not change much over
from the controls between Goldeneye and Perfect Dark. Joanna’s movement is
very similar to that of James Bond’s in Goldeneye.
However, there are some fairly minor changes. The first of which is her crouching ability.
Joanna is able to crouch in two levels.
The first time you crouch you are about halfway between standing and
crouching, crouch again and you are really low.
The lower you are crouched the slower you move, so it’s a trade off.
The only complaint I have is that, unlike Bond, Joanna will not
automatically crouch when you come to a tunnel or something. Another new thing
for Joanna is her ability to move certain items by pushing them.
For example, she could duck behind a couch and use it as a shield as she
pushes it across a room. The other new aspect to the controls is the weapon
wheel. By
| holding down ‘A’, a menu pops up that lists every weapon and
gadget that you’re in possession of, thus allowing you to quickly and
efficiently change items when you possess a large amount of them. I loved this
feature in Turok Rage Wars, and it still works great in Perfect Dark, albeit,
the weapon wheel is not always the answer in the heat of a battle though.
However, for whatever the reason may be, there is a limit to how many weapons
show up in this “quick weapon change” setting, mean that in rare situations
when you are carrying an extremely high inventory of goodies, you will not be
able to access everything from this popup menu. This is a minute flaw, but since
it is there and there’s a chance that you’ll come up against this, it is
necessary to note the fact. Upon holding A (to access the weapon wheel), you can
tap Z twice and be able to access a list of orders |
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The top player is using the "weapon
wheel" to quickly change their weapon. We like the weapon wheel.
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you
can give to the simulants
on your team, be it to defend you, attack a specific person, or more. Plus,
there is 8 possible control settings to choose from. If we had one wish, seeing
that guards are able to roll to evade your shots almost at will, we’re
slightly disappointed by the fact that you cannot make Joanna do the same. A
roll option could have made Joanna feel less “stiff”, and would have allowed
for the controls to make a more drastic step beyond the masterful eyes of its
predecessor.
Continue on to the "Sound
Section of this novel/review", page 5 ...
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