Earlier this afternoon, IGN64 talked with Rare's Duncan Botwood, designer and Perfect Dark team member, about the impressive first-person shooter, Rare's new headquarters and much more. Though we threatened Duncan with hours of Yoshi's Story theme-music and a full viewing of the Star Wars Holiday Special, he would not fill us in on the location of Leigh Loveday's secret "arse"nal. Rest assured, we will find it, and when we do...
Luckily, Duncan was more than willing to spill the beans about Rare's breathtaking 3D first-person shooter - the semi-sequel to GoldenEye - Perfect Dark. Following is our conversation:
IGN64: When did you decide to begin working on Perfect Dark?
Duncan Botwood: We always knew that we were going to do a sequel [of sorts] after GoldenEye. We pretty much finished GoldenEye first and then took a small break before we continued on to Perfect Dark. Actually, it wasn't so much a break from work as we were constantly knocking ideas around and thinking how we'd improve it.
IGN64: One of the most asked questions we get is, why didn't Rare make an official sequel to GoldenEye? Can you clear the matter up?
Duncan: We could have exercised our rights to do a sequel but we chose not to because licenses by nature are very restrictive things. Although it was good fun to do a Bond license, we thought we could do other things. It was a chance for us to grow. Besides, it was the team's first game and we didn't always want to do licenses.
IGN64: What was the inspiration behind Perfect Dark?
Duncan: Mostly films we'd seen and really adored. Blade Runner is a classic that we really took on and there's definitely some homage paid to that. We liked the format of GoldenEye a lot and we just chose to expand upon it. As far as the plot is concerned, it's our own take on the futurist alien contact thing and I think it works quite well.
IGN64: Everyone always points out that Perfect Dark is running on the GoldenEye engine. How much of the GoldenEye engine is actually being utilized?
Duncan: It's changed a hell of a lot. A hell of a lot indeed. We've got a new system for moving around which has been constructed from the ground up basically. In GoldenEye, you couldn't fall off edges and you can now. There's a lot more freedom and this is probably going to cause a bit of a split feeling for some people who are used to the old GoldenEye way and liked that kind of safety around edges. It's also going to put a whole new twist on some of the old multiplayer levels that we've put in such as the Complex and the Temple and we're going to put a few more in there. We're working on some other things to do with edges that will probably be quite good fun. But that's probably the most fundamental thing that's changed.
IGN64: Like GoldenEye, Perfect Dark does not feature the option to jump with an assigned button. Why is that?
Duncan: I still don't think believe that it's a fundamental thing that you ought to have. I still can't see a reason for it. I mean, games like Zelda manage perfectly well without a jump button. We have enough fun [in Perfect Dark] without it.
IGN64: How many levels are featured in Perfect Dark?
Duncan: I think there are around 22 levels broken up into 12 or 13 missions. We have continuity with locations. Taking the first mission as an example, you've got three levels: Skyscraper, basement beneath (and research laboratories), and the third one, which is getting out again. That's all within one mission.
IGN64: How many weapons are in the game?
Duncan: There's going to be quite a few. Hopefully it will be set up so that you can tell the different characters and factions in the game from the weapons they have. Data Dyne, because they are this big, evil corporation, will have large, military-type guns. While another faction, being a more covert operation, will have smaller, possibly less powerful but more operational weapons.
IGN64: Do you have any favorite weapons in the game?
Duncan: I could blow my own trumpet because I designed a couple specific weapons, but I won't. I think my favorite one has to be the FarSight just because of what it can do. We were play-testing the game at first, which is vitally important as you always have to play-test these things, with the scope and the fact that you could shoot anywhere - it just seemed to be lacking something. The levels were designed in such a way that you could run around freely and that kind of kills the sniping mode. So, what we did was to have a lock-on, so that it automatically sets the distance because you have a cut-off depth. We left C-Right as a lock-on button for the person closest to you and as soon as we put that feature into multiplayer, the FarSight was the gun to have. You'd just see four stationary people searching for one another. The FarSight searches for a lock-on slowly so it's not a powerful weapon for players who are moving around.
IGN64: What's the deal with Perfect Dark and the 4MB Expansion Pak?
Duncan: I think we're using it at the moment, but we haven't formally decided to increase the resolution or anything with it. We may go for a general performance improvement, but it's hard to say. I'd like to use it for more background interaction, more objects and things like that.
IGN64: So do you feel that maybe it's not so much as important to have a high-resolution mode as it is to better other aspects of the game?
Duncan: It just seems that everybody is like, "Oh, RAM Pak - that means high-resolution." I'm sure that there are other things that we can do with it so we're just going to play around and see what comes up.
IGN64: You have licensed Dolby Surround Sound.
Duncan: Yep. We're going to try and get that in all the games now. It just enhances the playing experience hugely.
IGN64: What's the cartridge size?
Duncan: At the moment, it's going to be 32MB. There should be some memory on the cart to save games, setup and that sort of thing. We've got voice in the game as well - stuff like combat speech in single-player mode and in cut-scenes.
IGN64: Lots of cinema cut-scenes?
Duncan: We have one intro and one outro for every level. All of them have speech and are very cinematic. They're very nicely done.
IGN64: How's the storyline?
Duncan: There is a very strong storyline to it. There are cut-scenes that occur occasionally in the levels due to the plot, so it's not just at the start and end always. Whenever there is a plot mix that we find very difficult to get across, then we'll do a cut-scene.
IGN64: What's new in the deathmatch department?
Duncan: Bots. We hope to be able to have bots for different characters. We hope to be able to select a team of bots that can play on your side, or four-player against a team of bots.
IGN64: Do you think you'll be able to pull that off with a decent framerate?
Duncan: We should be able to... It would be nice [laughs]. We'll have to see, we haven't fully tested it yet. We have this plan. But yeah, bots are definitely going to feature in multiplayer without a doubt. .It's just how many - we'd like to do more than eight, but eight seems like a good figure.
IGN64: Can you play in single-player against bots?
Duncan: Yes, you will be able to play multiplayer games on your own if you have absolutely no friends at all [laughs].
The way we have it planned at the moment is that you'll be able to select a bot character from a list and it will have a certain personality type. This will give him specific traits including the way he'll attack people in multiplayer and tactics that he'll use. You can also choose the body and the head that you want, and of course, you map your face into the game with the GB Camera.
IGN64: What would you like everyone to know about Perfect Dark?
Duncan: It's a sequel of a sort to GoldenEye, but it's not. It's a completely different story with completely different characters. It uses a very highly modified version of the GoldenEye engine and it should be improved at every turn. We hope it will be a lot more flexible in multiplayer mode particularly.
On Rare Life
IGN64: How are the new offices?
Duncan: They're really, really nice. It's such a change. There used to be real trouble with parking so it was worth your while to get in really early. Now there is a parking space for everybody and there is wonderful environmental control.
IGN64: You've got your own in-house capture studios now.
Duncan: Yes, that's really important to us. We've done a lot of new capturing for Perfect Dark as well. The new capture studio is custom built for us and it has given us a lot more freedom.
IGN64: What is your favorite first-person shooter other than Rare products?
Duncan: Half-Life. Without a shadow of a doubt, it's Half-Life - I've played that through five times. It's magnificent. I haven't had the pleasure of playing it multiplayer yet, but it's on my list of things to do when I have more time. I'm looking out for Team Fortress 2 as well, but Half-Life is certainly one of my favorite games.
IGN64: What's your take on Project Dolphin?
Duncan: Personally I haven't seen anything of it because I've been working on Perfect Dark exclusively. I was there at the press announcement and I was cheering when the DVD medium was announced. That's going to create a lot more freedom for us.
Not all the details have been released for the console and I think it's going to be the one to watch. I think they were very accurate when they said the first new system that comes out is always the one that stumbles. I've seen some very good Dreamcast stuff at the show, but it's going to have its work cut out for it. If Sega has planned for that and they can make a plug-in or something else to make it faster, then that's great. Competition is a very, very healthy thing.
I saw the demos of the PlayStation 2 and it's looking very, very impressive. It's definitely going to be the one to beat, but there's no doubt in my mind that Nintendo can do that.
IGN64 would like to thank Duncan Botwood for taking the time out of his schedule to have a few words with us.
Interview by Matt Casamassina
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