Perfect Dark Zero (Limited Collector's Edition) (Xbox 360, 2005)

It's tempting to try to put Perfect Dark Zero in perspective by spending a lot of time on topics other than what makes it such a terrific action game. One of the highest-profile Xbox 360 launch titles, this near-future first-person shooter is the long-awaited sequel to a highly acclaimed Nintendo 64 hit, and it happens to be one of the biggest games to be released by veteran developer Rare since its well-publicized acquisition by Microsoft several years ago. Perfect Dark Zero's sci-fi theme, together with the circumstances surrounding its release, also means it's destined to be compared to Halo: Combat Evolved, the game that defined the Xbox (so yeah, no pressure). But let's stick to the point: Perfect Dark Zero's stunning presentation, excellent assortment of believable weapons, exciting tactical firefights, and fully featured single- and multiplayer components combine to make it easily one of the best first-person shooters this year and one of your best options in the Xbox 360's starting lineup. Despite some minor shortcomings, the game is still a tour de force for the Xbox 360, and it's just a thrilling experience that pushes the already-extremely competitive first-person shooter category still further forward.

Perfect Dark Zero's winning combination of pure run-and-gun action and tactical realism is also captured in the well-designed health system, which lets you soak up a good amount of damage but doesn't let you get cocky about it. Each time you're shot in succession, your health drops just as you'd expect, though Joanna can take a surprising amount of punishment at the normal difficulty setting. If you avoid taking any more damage for a couple of seconds, your health meter instantly jumps back up. This seems like Halo's recharging energy shields at first, but the difference is your maximum health gradually gets depleted the more damage you take. So, typically, the later into a mission you are, the more carefully you'll need to tread.



Expect serious resistance during the game's missions, which are even more fun if you play them cooperatively.

That's especially true since you'll often have to start a mission over from the very beginning (or maybe from a checkpoint halfway through) if you're killed or otherwise fail. You can't just quick-save your progress after every few steps like you can in many shooters. There are a couple of missions that are demanding of some trial and error, where the lack of an in-mission save feature might be frustrating (there's one particularly punishing late-game mission that forces you to complete your objective in a certain amount of time or start over). But this design choice mostly just forces you to stay on your toes, and it also helps extend the length of the story mode without feeling cheap. If you do find yourself stuck, thankfully you can adjust the difficulty independently for each mission.

The story missions offer a lot of variety, both in terms of mission objectives and tactical situations. You'll experience plenty of up-close, in-your-face shoot-outs that are perfect for shotguns and high-powered pistols, not to mention melee attacks. But the game also packs in lots of medium- and long-range shooting, sometimes pitting you against surprisingly large numbers of entrenched foes. There's some hacking, lock-picking, and demolitions thrown in there for good measure, each involving its own quick little minigame.

A lot of people loved the classic N64 version of Perfect Dark. It had everything you would ever want in an FPS. Simple easy to use controls, used the same engine as Goldeneye which was also a highly played and loved game, had a good sci-fi story, interesting weapons, a cute girl, and had amazing multiplayer. Perfect Dark Zero, as I understand, was made by the same company but a different team. You are still Joanna Dark, still good looking, still a FPS, and still blasting away at enemies like there is no tomorrow.

However, Perfect Dark Zero had controls that were hard to get use to, even for expert FPS players. The controls were down right slow and annoying. Even with the sensitivity all the way up, you just can't seem to aim right. The game tried to use some sort of progressive camera that got faster the more you held the stick in that direction. This tries to mimic real life, as you can turn at full speed at first. Interesting concept, but fails for gaming. It can be done right, because it has been done before and worked real well, but you don't speed up fast enough. It doesn't take 3 full seconds to turn full speed in real life, but in PDZ it does. In single player it isn't a big deal since the AI is slow, but in mutli-player it is hell since players who played this game for a year finally got use to it.

The AI in the game is just stupid. Remember how enemies would run up to you, stand there, and shoot in N64? It was fun then, because the console couldn't handle good AI so it was normal to see. However, since PS2 and Xbox(1) it all ended. We don't see that anymore, but in PDZ we did. Its nice they tried to get the PD feel from the N64 back, but when it comes to AI the game needed to improve.

Graphics in this game are one of the only amazing aspects of this title. It was a launch title for the 360 and already had the top graphics for the system for months to come. It is pure eye candy. Amazing realistic graphics with a shiny comic like feel. Characters were decently detailed, but when it came to weapons and environments the game really showed its crisp artistic style. Environments are huge and fun to explore. The buildings are well detailed with shader effects (gives textures depth) and high polygon counts. Lighting is moderate, but the bad areas dont show unless you really look and find a spot that wasn't lit well. The Jungle level is so detailed it reminded me of the tech demo for Crysis, and for those who have seen that game you know thats a HUGE compliment. It looked just as good, no joke, only difference is trees don't take damage and there isn't grass. But all the flowers, bushes, trees, and other foliage is so detailed you'll cry. I didn't play this game on a standard definition TV, but in HD the game looks incredible.

Since you can get this game every cheap now I highly recommend picking it up if you have Xbox Live and/or an HD-TV. The game play isn't that good for single player, but after playing it for a little bit you don't notice the bad side as much. I still play this game once in a while, and I don't regret throwing it in my system when I do.

This game is a great game for people who enjoy lots of multiplayer action. It has lots of game modes from killcount and capture the flag to infection and sabotage. In my opinion this game never gets old. Also the multiplayer included AI bots, so if you do not have xbox live, you still have "people" to play with. For these bots, you can set things like their difficulty level or attitude. You can also get all the achievements offline. If you do have xbox live you can download lots of bonus content like new maps. The campaign is average to above average. It has a pretty good story line and lots of weapons to choose from. The only things I didn't like about the game was that in campaign it takes a while to get a checkpoint and the game wasn't the easiest to control. In this game you cannot save your game, so every time you die you have to return to your last checkpoint which may be back quite a ways. This becomes very annoying when playing on a hard difficulty. Overall I think this is a great game that everyone should play.

Pros:
This is one of the best games I have ever played in the 25 years I have been playing video games; it is so much fun! The graphics are amazing on any television, and they are photo realistic when you play the game on an HDTV. The 5.1 audio is also amazing; it literally is a tool that helps you play the game. You can locate enemies in better ways because of 5.1 sound, because you can hear their voices or their steps or their guns in certain speakers at certain times; it really is incredible to have sound be such a huge factor in gameplay!

The background music is also excellent. Perfect Dark Zero is the first videogame I ever bought the soundtrack to. When you hear the song, "Limelight," which plays at a nightclub you are at in one of the early stages, then you will know what I am talking about! The bass pumps out the sound as if you are at a real nightclub, and when you get closer to the building, it is as if you are really there! This is something you will love about the way Xbox 360 uses 5.1 audio!

The gameplay difficulty is also another factor that is excellent, because you can set what sort of difficulty you want it to be at based on what sort of agent you are. I like the way that you have a technical person that your character Joanna Dark is working with named Chandra; she guides you to your location if you take too long doing something and clearly don't know where to go next. This makes it so you don't end up wasting time going back and forth over and over like you do in some of those other games on other systems. This game also has multiplayer and online capabilities that are very nice, especially the online features!

The controls can be adjusted, too; that way, you can have your controller do whatever you want. I personally changed the way the character moves a little bit; I made it so the right analog stick moves the characters head and the things that she sees, which was a little different than standard controls; it's a great feature!

Cons:
I have nothing to complain about this game! Under normal conditions, I would say that the only thing to complain about would be that the game had to come to an end, but the fact that you can play this game online with so many other people makes it so you always get replay value out of this game! Plus, you can go back to earlier levels with more advanced weapons and gadgets that you got in later stages and beat up on those bad guys and examine new places in very fun ways!

Comments:
My personal comment would be for people who haven't played this game yet: If you really want to play a fun game that is meant to be fun for the player while taking advantage of graphics, sound, action, humor, and online features all at the same time, then you should at least rent this game! This is a game that will really make a great gift for anyone! I highly recommend getting the Limited Collector's Edition of the game if you can still find it, because it only costs $10 more at most places, and it comes with some nice things, such as a bonus DVD.

Also, the writers in this game did such an excellent job with the way that the script is designed. The level of humor in this game is absolutely amazing. For example, one of the weapons you use, called, "the Laptop," makes the quick note that it uses Windows 2020. Another funny thing is the way you can listen to people in the game; I have spent lots of time just listening to people talk in the game. Listening to this one guy talk on his cel

RARE has always been so good. Why would they turn a classic like Perfect Dark into a cookie cutter shooter? It's not that the game doesn't have nice graphics or that the story isn't involving. It's not even the multiplayer. It's the shooting. Unless you can land a headshot every single time you will probably spend several shots on each enemy because it seems they all wear bullet proof clothing from head to toe. Taking cover is a cool concept when incorporated correctly but when an enemy can easily run up and melee you taking cover is worthless and pointless. There is no jump button. Instead there is a roll feature which can be frustrating to use since you cannot fire while rolling. The rest of the conrols are ok but don't expect smooth controls. Multiplayer can be fun but you will mostly be fighting against bots. It is also easy to get stuck in a match that is neverending and all of your play time would be worthless in the rankings system. This needs to be fixed. The respawn portals are a great idea though and jetpacks are also a lot of fun to mess around in. I don't recommend buying unless you are a hardcore fan but it may be worth the rental to see if you like it. 3.5/5
The Collector's edition is not worth the extra effort to obtain unless you can find it close to the same price as the first version. Bonus gamerpics and a theme is all that you really get on the extra disc so be warned.