Not Perfect but other than a few things this is a great game.
Story: In a story that takes place 3 years prior to the N64 classic "Perfect Dark", you play as Joanna and see how she went from a 20 year old girl training to be a bounty hunter with her daddy, to a one woman army for the Carrington institute. You see her experience death, betrayal, and pain as she takes town the CEO Zhang Li of Data Dyne for killing her father.
Gameplay: The game was done quite well with some improvements over the past game. There is now a cover move where you can hide behind an object and fire out from behind it. You can also pull off a roll menuver [though some complain about there not being a jump button], I found this to work well and it is a lot more fun than playing Halo against a kid spamming the jump button and a Shotgun. There are also a lot of guns [not as many as in PD1 though], each with a secondary function and some have a tetridary function, like on the PP9 or whatever it is called, you can attatch a flash light to the gun. All guns also have a melee move that can be used. My main gripe with the game is that the AI does not feel changed enough, there are not enough levels, the story flops around too much and and the Multiplayer is not customisable enough. But it is still a very fun game and works quite well.
Controls: The game uses standard 360 controls, I am more used to the N64 method for em than the 360 one on Consoles, but I adjusted quickly. I found everything to be placed well snd much easier to use than the Octopus controler on the old XBOX. And some people complain about the Auto Aim thing, but I like that they gave you a choice.
Graphics: This game is stunningly beautiful, and proves how tallented the people at Rare are. I was stunned by how good all of the weapons looked, they also used Parallax Maping the same thing F.E.A.R. that was used to allow you to make holes in walls to give flat objects a 3D look. I found the people to have a look that felt like a mixture of cartoony and realistic and some places were overtley bright and blinding. Hell some characters could look like crap up close [Joanna can at times]. And even though you need an HD Tv to get the best picture out of this game it still looks great on a standard TV, but I can't help but think that the game would be possible on the old XBOX, it might of been possible on the Nintendo Wii as well [now I just need to wait for that] with some things turned down. But a few minor things do not detract from my score, I found the game to look amazing.
Sound: The game also sounds great. The music was a kind of techno, rock mixture and the song "Pearl Necklace" is the best dirty song I have ever heard. The guns also sound amazing [rember, Rare brought us the 44 Dolstovo in Goldeneye], but some voices were annoying and seemed to lack emotion. And Joanna lost her English Accent in this game.
Multiplayer: Even though at times the single player mode felt tacked on, this made up for it. Sadly you cant do as much as in PD1 but tue intensity of the games makes up for it. Rare beat Bungies multiplayer for Halo, and we finaly have a Perfect Dark game online [now just get the first one up and that would be a dream come true]. The games are intense and fun, and the AI is great. There is also a CO OP mode, which can be played online as well if you dont have any buddies willing to play with you.
Replayability: You can keep playing and get achievements. And the weapons being kept after you win a level with em let you replay for more fun.
Overall: A tacked on story and some single player troubles hurt a little, but this game is damn fun. And the Multiplayer makes up for any troubles you may have with the slightly boring Single Player mode, and Co Op is damn fun, it makes up for the weak Single Player mode. And if you can find it, the tin cased variant is very pretty and has a comic in it :)
Rent or Buy: But it, it's 20 bucks and has 2 classic Goldeneye maps in it, Facility and Temple.