Perfect Dark: Joanna Dark's Past Explained

Perfect Dark: Joanna Dark's Past Explained

• The new Perfect Dark reboot showcases a mix of stealth, parkour, combat, and investigation in an immersive-sim experience.
• Joanna Dark, the protagonist of the Perfect Dark franchise, is an experienced assassin trained from a young age.
• The original game, followed by a prequel in 2005, became a classic of the genre known for its plot, graphics, AI, and multiplayer modes.

Crystal Dynamics and The Initiative’s Perfect Dark reboot was finally shown off at this year’s Xbox Games Showcase. Despite rumors of a troubled development, Perfect Dark's trailer managed to be one of the standouts of the Xbox event, showcasing a varied and satisfying mix of stealth, parkour, combat and investigation. Expanding on elements present in previous entries, Joanna Dark's triumphant return looks to be an immersive-sim rather than a throwback to the franchise's old-school shooter origins.

The original Perfect Dark released in 2000 for the Nintendo 64. A spiritual successor to Rare’s Goldeneye 007, Perfect Dark’s focus was on satisfying FPS combat and a compelling, twisty cyberpunk campaign revolving around shady corporate dealings and secret alien invasions. Winning acclaim and awards for its plot, graphics, AI and multiplayer modes, Perfect Dark is now regarded as a classic of the genre and one of the N64’s greatest games.

The original game was followed in 2005 by Perfect Dark Zero, a launch title for the Xbox 360 and prequel to the original Perfect Dark. Following a younger, inexperienced Joanna Dark, the game expanded on the cyberpunk lore of the original but leaned away from Perfect Dark's pulpier sci-fi concepts. While less influential than its predecessor, Perfect Dark Zero sold respectably and reviewed well.

A Game Boy Color game set before the events of Perfect Dark was released alongside the original game in 2000. By combining the Game Boy Color game with the N64 via the Transfer Pak, players could unlock cheat modes in Perfect Dark N64.

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Perfect Dark's Stealth Features Explained

The long-awaited Perfect Dark reboot has just been given a gameplay trailer, and its stealth features look like a real highlight of the experience.

Joanna Dark Is One of Gamings Forgotten Icons

The protagonist of the Perfect Dark franchise, Joanna Dark, is an operative for the fictional Carrington Institute. Born in the year 2000, Joanna was trained from a young age in weapons skills and martial arts. By the time she was a teenager, she was an experienced assassin, traveling the world with her bounty hunter father. At age 20, Joanna joined the Carrington Institute, earning the codename ‘Perfect Dark'---a reference to her success during the Carrington Institute’s training missions.

Perfect Dark Zero: Joanna Joins The Carrington Institute

In 2020, the world is controlled by corporations. Two corporate entities stand above all others: dataDyne and The Carrington Institute. Joanna Dark is a bounty hunter and international assassin. Gradually, she uncovers a conspiracy involving dataDyne, The Carrington Institute, a network of underground scientists, and a mysterious artifact named The Graal.

As Joanna delves deeper into the conspiracy, she uncovers a dataDyne plot to acquire and use The Graal for nefarious ends. Begrudgingly working with The Carrington Institute, Joanna fights her way across Asia, South America, and Africa, gradually coming to terms with the war between The Carrington institute and dataDyne---and realizing she has to choose a side.

Perfect Dark (Game Boy Color): Joanna Dark VS Cyborgs

Two years after the events of Perfect Dark Zero, Joanna Dark is now a student at The Carrington Institute. After completing her final examination---and scoring the coveted A++ ranking---Joanna is given the codename Perfect Dark and sent on her first official mission for The Carrington Institute.

Traveling deep into the jungles of South America, Joanna Dark infiltrates and destroys an illegal cyborg manufacturing facility headed by infamous international terrorist Mink Hunter. After taking out Mink Hunter, Joanna and The Carrington Institute uncover a grander conspiracy involving dataDyne and a crashed UFO---which the evil megacorporation is retroengineering to produce new technologies.

Perfect Dark: The Alien Invasion

Now a fully fledged Carrington Institute operative, Joanna Dark is let in on a secret: humanity is caught in the middle of a war between the benevolent Maians---who have been using The Carrington Institute to slowly roll out alien technologies under the guise of new inventions---and the evil Skedar, who have been working with dataDyne to do the same.

Traveling across the world from Area 51 to China, and even to the Skedar homeworld, Joanna is tasked with unraveling the conspiracy, taking down dataDyne, and saving the world from a Skedar invasion. Finally destroying the Skedar Battle Shrine, Joanna and her Maian allies eventually repel the Skedar invasion, saving the world from total destruction.

The New Perfect Dark is a Fresh Start

With the new Perfect Dark game promising to be a reboot, it’s unclear which parts of the original lore the new Perfect Dark game will pull from. But with such an expansive selection of worldbuilding elements to choose from and remix, there is huge potential for the Perfect Dark reboot to be a unique and rich narrative experience.

Perfect Dark (2025)

Franchise Perfect DarkPlatform(s) Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, PCDeveloper(s) The InitiativePublisher(s) Xbox Game StudiosGenre(s) FPS, Adventure See at Official SiteSee at Xbox Games StoreSee at Steam