In the dystopian future of the year 2052, society slowly spirals into chaos. A lethal virus, the “Gray Death”, ravages the world. The only vaccine, “Ambrosia”, is in such short supply, it is only available to those wealthy enough and deemed “vital to the social order”. With no hope for a cure for the common people, riots occur worldwide and a number of terrorist organizations have formed.

Perfect Dark is set in 2023 against the backdrop of an interstellar war between two races: the Maians, who resemble the archetypal grey alien, and the Skedar, reptile-like extraterrestrials who use a holographic disguise to appear as Scandinavian humans, bearing similarities to Nordic aliens. Using this disguise, they can interact with humans on Earth without looking too overtly suspicious. Meanwhile, on Earth, there is an ongoing rivalry between two factions: The Carrington Institute, a research and development center founded by Daniel Carrington that secretly operates an espionage group in league with the Maians; and dataDyne, a defence contractor corporation headed by Cassandra De Vries that secretly maintains a deal with the Skedar: in exchange for creating an AI capable of cracking an ancient alien spacecraft buried on the ocean floor, the Skedar have agreed to supply them with enough alien technology to become the biggest corporation on Earth.