Like most people, I bought Perfect Dark Zero as temoporary Halo 2 replacement on my Xbox 360. I was impressed by the reviews and was a fan of Perfect Dark and 007 on the N64. At first glance the weapons in this game are easily the most entertaining aspect. It had a wonderully large arsenal of weapons that was immediately remenicant of the orignal game. I saw myself drawn in by the look and feel of each gun. Each one was attractive and very unique. Every weapon had a secondary function adding to the variety of the game. Many guns even had a tertiary function that would frequently come into play and only made me want to play and master this game even more. The differences in the ranges between the guns was vast, though overall, the weapons have extremely long range. This created multiplayer levels that took 10 to 15 minutes to walk from one place to another. The long range is also coupled with an extremely weak auto aim causing a very unbalanced multiplayer experience. Area effect weapons become kind. Those weopons that have secondary explosive functions dominate the battle field in virtually all multiplayer. The result is very unblanced multiplayer. Rare tried to compensate for this with weapons at spawn points for some games but it does little to change the balance problems in the game because, with potentially massive teams, you will probably be the dude stuck with the pistol against the super dragon grenade launcher. Like the weapons, the graphics are excellent but missing a little something. The picturesque jungle scenese, especially, pop. There is plenty of foliage to make the scenes truely believable. There aren't fog of war problems or pieces of grass that fade in as you walk through the jungle. The level of detail is truely next gen. The snow was also nicely reflective, though it didn't seem to be intractive the way real snow would be. However there were some aspects of the graphics that it seems Rare may have glossed over. Most notably: the water. The water does not lay flat like water does, in many campeigns the rivers magically defy gravity by riding up cliff walls. The multiplayer was another potentially fun experience that seemed to fall short. The wide array of weapons with extremely long range and dull auto aim made for long boring hikes across gigantic levels which ended quickly by from players that weren't even visible because of their distance from you. The interface was clumsy at best. I found myself wanding around menues trying to get to where I wanted and never really making any progress. In the wide array of multiplayer game types there were many games that proved to be fun, there is definitely a game type out there for anybody. Whether it's straight up "slayer" or a wide variety of games playing off slayer or other objective games you want, they're all there. Many of the gamer points available in this game are also unlocked by playing multiplayer. However, I had several occasions where the points were never recorded even though the task had been completed. Overally, Perfect Dark Zero was fun to play through but too much of it seemed glossed over by the developers or poorly thought out. I would say it's worth a play but not worth the hype. The single player is entertaining and the multiplay, though unblanced, will make you want to explore the different game types. All in all it's fun and attractive but not a Halo replacement by any means.
By Madskillz999 | Review Date: Jan 06, 2006 | X360
Perfect Dark Zero is one of my favorite release titles for the XBox 360. The graphics are gorgeous, the main character has personality, and it's a good combo of shooting, stealth and puzzle solving. I've been testing... Read Full Review
At first i wasn't so excited about how perfect dark zero would handle and if it would live up to its predecessor, but i can honestly say that this game is all it should be and possibly the best launch title for the X360... Read Full Review
