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How Hype Killed Perfect Dark For Me

Perfect Dark was released in 2000 by Rare. The much anticipated spiritual successor to GoldenEye 007 the N64 & First-Person Shooter love child. GoldenEye 007 was the pinnacle of FPS games during the mid to late ninities for many gamers.

So many were anticipating glorious battles and fantastic weaponry that I would call Perfect Dark the hottest FPS game on consoles before the Halo franchise. So much was riding on this game that comics, books, and tie-in handhelds were created around it. Sounds very similar to what a lot of publishers do now, right?

The hype surrounding this game was intense. The N64 had a camera accessory that was going to let players scan their faces to attach to models for multiplayer madness. That accessory never saw release. But IGN's, at the time, Matt Casamassina are one of a few people outside of the developers that got scanned and placed in the game. The game even required the Expansion Pak to play the single-player and some MP features. That boost in RAM would separate it from other games and guarantee it perfection right?

Sadly, for me, the amount of hype it generated had articles spewiing over every tidbit before release. It got so bad, that reporters were creating articles listiing the levels and storyline. Characters that were meant to shock players at the discovery were hotly anticipated before release by fans ravaging anything they could to feed their curiosity.

Now anyone that plays with me know I love experiencing the story a game tells. Even if it is just Borderlands. The narrative outside the cutscenes included. The layout of levels, the surprise of a guard jumping out at certain moments. These are what the game is to me. It is not just program that has logical switches I treat the game world and story the devs are telling as important as any film you watch for the first time.

The amount of hype this game generated and the effect it had on me is the reason I am so careful about watching videos or reading news articles (finally said goodbye to IGN, no more is it listing on my favorites or in my news feed). While I enjoyed the game and my experiences playing with friends. The story was lacking because I knew that before the game. Even before relase I had a gut feeling telling me I wouldn't like it as much.

Too many times developers or publishers themselves are so excited to talk about a project that they let everything and anything loose. I prefer popping a game in my console and being surprised all the way through. No expectations except this game is awesome because, for example, Rocksteady crafted a great game last time.

True, they need to sell the game, but they can do that without telling the story or exposing gamers to expectations that may turn out wrong with the final product (Duke Nukem Forever & Halo 2 are the big offenders to me).

Publishers and developers need to learn to curb that hype, if they keep feeding into it gamers will see a technical great game, but fail to feel the emotional beats they should. Like when a person you are shown at the beginning to be a teammate is instead dead or a person you talk to and rescue turns out to be a dog. Those twists no longer surprises the gamer, but are expectations and not the wonderful surprises they should be.