Perfect Dark’s video was actually gameplay with some retouching, according to a developer

An former developer of The Initiative, at work on the reboot of Perfect Darkrecently canceled, He did not appreciate that he called himself “false” the gameplay video shown last year. In addition, According to him, it was a vertical slice of the project that really went around the game engine. Nevertheless, According to his words, it was true gameplay, with some retouching to improve everything.

The cancellation of Perfect Dark is part of the restructuring tears. Moreover, blood operated by Microsoft Gaming in recent days, which has seen the dismissal of thousands of people and the cancellation of different games, such as Everwild of Rare, a Zenimax Mamorpg Online and, in fact, Perfect Dark. However, Of the game. Nevertheless, announced in 2020, very little had been seen, at least until the video presentation of the Xbox Games Showcase perfect dark’s video actually gameplay in June 2024. Similarly,

Post deletion, began to shoot the rumor that the video was completely false and that it was not actually gameplay. Everything was born from a post by the journalist Ethan Gach of Kotaku. according to which the demo was “practically fake”. Adam McDonald, former developer of Perfect Dark and now Senior Game Designer at Studio MDHR (Cuphead) intervened to clarify.

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“He actually turned in the game engine,” McDonald explained. “I was one of the three level designers who worked on us. He gave his best if played exactly as you can see in the video. but it was still playable even without following every step perfectly.”

“Of course, there is perfect dark’s video actually gameplay some trick,” he admitted. “The game systems shown were enough to make a good impression. We were making concrete design decisions precisely so as not to deceive the players on what would have been. the final experience. Parkour is all true, as well as most of hacking and sidetracking systems.“

“The fight is ‘real’ in the sense that the actions seen in the video were performed by a person. but the sequence was prepared to take place in that way and did not make the same if faced differently.”

As explained by McDonald. therefore, the video showed game systems still developing, but still working for what was needed for the video. Where they were not yet ready, he compensated with tricks. Like any vertical slice. even that of Perfect Dark had been built to give a concrete and visually finished idea of ​​the final product, if ever had arrived on the perfect dark’s video actually gameplay market.

The intention of the team, suggests, was to be as honest as possible. However, it is clear that some elements were still “work-in-progress”, although representative of the final vision.

“I see mounting the controversy on the fact that ‘everything was fake’ And it irritates me. so I wanted to intervene, “concluded McDonald, defining the demo” a fairly standard ‘vertical slice’ and adding: “I don’t think we were particularly dishonest.”

“It is more real than you can imagine. We have improvised solutions on the fly to be able to include them in the demo. doing the best not to ‘lie’ to the players. There is a little fiction, but very much was authentic. “

This does not exclude that the game had development problems. as emerged from some reports, but at the same time explains why the video was presented as “of gameplay”.