Microsoft's long-simmered perfect dark reboot has been in the works for too long, with such a full development history, I basically wrote off everything but today's Xbox Games Showcase's first-look gameplay trailer isn't a full immersive sim that can fill the Deus Ex-type hole in my mind Even so, I didn't think it was a cyberpunk FPS.

The trailer begins with Joana Dark Halo diving into some sort of advanced arcology that was later revealed to be Cairo, Egypt, with a force field protecting it from dust storms caused by climate change. So far, it's cool, but just a cutscenes — but we'll soon dive into some exciting gameplay.

And Fooboy There's a lot to love here. It opens up with some non-combat exploration that seriously intrigued me - which may be easily linear or restrictive, but the perfect dark looks like the kind of immersive sim adjacency exploration and social stealth I live in. Even if that's not all, if Perfect Dark is a more open-ended and sometimes sneaky shooter along the lines of machinegames' Wolfenstein reboot, I'd be happy

after a few walks about the gorgeous city, we see a dark drop in some detective's vision. Please and squat in the restricted area-Walk-Sneak the guard record to get past the voice-locked door before going into sneaky mode. She breaks into some disgraceful adjacent first-person parkour, creeping into the roof and balcony, breaking into the hidden holes of her targets.

Then things get louder and Dark moves to the Shooter section showing off a selection of ultra-spy gadgets and moves including electro darts, takedowns, and an impressive volumetric smokescreen. It looks like both combat and infiltration can be tight, but both depend on the design quality of the levels that are hard to show off in the trailer. But with all this spycraft and style, Perfect Dark looks like a 2020s triple-A Deus Ex who didn't expect to get into the Embracer-related troubles of Eidos Montreal, and Perfect Dark reboot has gone from "Who cares" to "hotly anticipated" in my book.

Since it was announced in 2020, Perfect Dark is even more surprising as the resignation of project director and Tomb Raider studio Crystal Dynamics were introduced to support the development initiative. These aren't good signs, but whatever happens behind the scenes, Perfect Dark looks like it could be something special when it's finally released, but there's still no window for that.