Reviews

Posted by: jkdmedia

It is finally here, after many years of waiting for it, Perfect Dark Zero has finally landed. It is amazing the changes that this game has gone through since it was first announced and the biggest of the changes is the platform it finally was released on. This game has graced three consoles now: GameCube, Xbox, and finally the Xbox 360. Now that this game has finally been released, how does it stack up, and is it the killer launch title that Microsoft was hopping it would be? Read on to find out the answers to these questions.

Perfect Dark Zero is a prequel to the game that was released on the Nintendo 64 so many years ago. The game puts you in the shoes of Joanna Dark as you and your dad try to complete various missions. The players find out that you are sort of bounty hunters in a way but it has a really “James Bond” feel to it, and that could be due to the games roots: Golden Eye. Either way the story will have players going on various missions trying to complete objectives such as covering Jack as he tries to escape to many other weird and outlandish missions. Are you up to this challenge?

The developers at Rare did a good job with many things in this game. One of the best things that I really liked was the gun management and the implementation of the guns. For instance you can’t carry a rocket launcher and then a laptop gun, your inventory is not big enough for this. So when you are playing through the game you will have to make decisions on which guns you think will be the most useful to you in the up-and-coming situations that you will face. Another good thing about the guns is that each of them has a second use which ranges from silencer, sentry turret, grenade launcher, and various other inventive ways to use the guns.

One thing that I thought was very interesting about this game is that your running speed depends on which gun you are carrying. For instance you can’t carry the M60 and expect to go sprinting throughout the level taking out any enemies that come up on you. No if you are using bigger guns you will expect some lower speed while running and the opposite is true if you are using more of the pistols. So this is a trade off - do you sacrifice speed for power and vice versa?

The biggest annoyance in this game is the lack of a jump button. I don’t know what the reasoning is behind this, but in this post-Halo world there needs to be a jump button. While playing it for the first time I kept hitting all of the buttons trying to find it and nothing. Instead of a jump button to avoid enemy fire players can take cover behind objects or do a quick roll to hopefully get out of the line of fire. The problem with the quick roll is that if you time it wrong you will take some pretty hefty damage. Even though there is no jump button all of the alternatives that you can do in the game are really nice and gives you a really good idea of how to craft a nice strategy to play with against an enemy.

I know many of you are wonder: what about the graphics? Well let me tell you that the graphics for Perfect Dark Zero are really good. The developers really dug into some of the power of the Xbox 360 to produce some of the visuals and special effects that you will be seeing in this game. This is magnified even more so if you own an HDTV and play it in the higher resolutions. Everything in this game is brimming with details and it is the gamers who truly benefit from this. Each and every gun that you will get to fire in this game has its own unique look and feel to it and it really separates it from the others.

The environments that you will be doing your various missions on are really nice and varied, and are also brimming with details. While playing through the game you will be going through snow-covered places, then deep in the jungle, various high-tech buildings, and many more places. The best part is that when you first start off in a level it will look all peaceful but that will not last very long. By the time you are finished, the place will be riddled with bullet holes, pieces of shrapnel everywhere, and bodies that will be littering the place. Then when you start using heavy artillery you will be in for a nice treat as the explosions for the game are out-of-this-world realistic looking.

Another thing that the developers implemented really well is the rag-dog physics. Once you kill various enemies you will see them slump down in various ways in weird positions depending on the location where you shot them and how close in proximity you are to them. It is funny and at times it is distracting to see the different positions of the bodies that are littering the area that you doing battle in. The enemies will even recoil when they are shot, and will react differently as well. It is a sight to behold and shows the power of this next generation of consoles.

The audio for this game is really out of this world, especially if you have a Dolby Digital 5.1 setup. In many of the mission you will not have your handy-dandy radar to help you find the enemy positions. Since this is the case you will have to rely on what you hear in the game; if you hear gunfire from one area then you know what is about to happen and you can prepare for it. Sadly the voiceovers for this game are a mixed bag; some of them are really good and immerse themselves in their characters, while other voices are plain annoying. I don’t know if this is due to the voice actors or if the dialog was just poorly written. Either way it does get annoying.

The music for this game is really good as well. While playing through this game the music will carry you from mission to mission as you are trying to accomplish your goal. The developers did a really good job with the implementation of this. The multiplayer doesn’t contain any music, but never fear since this game is on the Xbox 360 just hit the nifty Xbox guide button, select some music either from your hard disk or on your mp3 player and viola instant music. This is really a great feature, and the game becomes that much more enjoyable as you are blasting your friends or total strangers on Xbox Live while jamming out to your own music selection.

The multiplayer for this game is really nice and there are a lot of options available for players to participate in. The biggest mode is that player will be able to play co-op with a friend sitting next to you or online with a stranger. The game becomes a lot more fun when you do this as you relive the moments with another person, also this adds some more strategy to the game seeing how you will need to get out of various situations.

Besides that there are two different multiplayer types - standard death-match games and then dark-ops games. The standard death-match games include: death match, capture the flag, and territorial gains. If you have ever played Counter Strike then you will know what to expect with dark-ops. In this mode players will have a stockpile of cash and they will have to purchase weapons with this money, the longer you stay alive then more money you will receive to buy better weapons. There are a various different gameplay types that you can play with in this mode that will keep you entertained for quite some time.

The best thing about the multiplayer in this game is that if you can not find enough people to play with all you have to do is add some bots. I really enjoyed this feature and wish many other games would add this in … *cough cough* HALO *cough cough.* This makes the game more interesting with more players in the game and a lot more challenging as well. Even thought you can adjust the bots difficulty level, they will not be as fun as playing with more humans, but it is a great place holder till you can gather up some more friends..

Perfect Dark Zero is rated Mature for blood, violence, and language. It will take 100KB for game saves.

Gameplay: 8.8
If you have played the Nintendo 64 original, or any first-person shooter game, then you will know what to except out of this game. The game is really fluid and runs at a high frame rate. What I liked about this game is that the weapons that you carry will affect your speed, just like it would in real life. My only question for the developers of this game is: Where is the jump button? Even though this was a slight annoyance to me, the game is still a blast to play.

Graphics: 9.7
Perfect Dark Zero, Xbox 360, and an HDTV are a match made in heaven. With this setup you will see the reasons why Xbox 360 is a next-generation console. The graphics are really gorgeous, and it just will leave you wondering if this is what a first generation game looks like for the platform, what will be in-store for us when developers really get to know the hardware.
 
Sound: 9.5
I really liked the soundtrack for this game; it really works well with the theme that this game carries. While the some of the voiceovers are decent, others are not so good. The sound effects that are heard throughout the game are really realistic and sound really good, especially if you have a Dolby Digital 5.1 system to immerse yourself in while playing it.

Difficulty: Medium
Perfect Dark Zero has an adjustable difficulty level before you take on each mission. Each level will add its own variety of challenges, which makes the game fun and accessible for all types of players.

Concept: 8.7
What I really liked about Perfect Dark is at the time there was really no “futuristic” first-person shooters, or if there are it is so far out in the future it becomes not that fun. This game strikes the balance and really made things interesting, especially with the gun selection.

Multiplayer: 9.1
Playing with friends either online or offline is a blast. I really liked that you not only can play death match-type games but this game also has some co-op play that will drain many hours of your life. Not only that but if you do go into death match games you can add bots to play against. This is a great thing because many times you will not have enough people to play with online or at home so you can add some bots.

Overall: 9.0
What people want to know is Perfect Dark Zero this generation's Halo? Sadly, the answer to that question is no. That does not mean that the game is bad by any means, this just means that the game has room for improvement. Don’t let that statement distract you as you will have a blast playing Perfect Dark Zero.