Here it is, the long delayed and long awaited sequel to one of the best N64 games there ever was. It's here, and it's awesome.

The first thing that you will notice when you fire up the game is the graphics. Gorgeous. Nothing much else you can say besides that. All the characters have awesome detail and even the enemies look great. The game does a great job of taking you to a variety of locations to show off the graphics engine. From the streets, to a club, to the rooftops, to the jungle and everywhere in between, the locations are unbelievable. The only bad thing about them is that some of the structure models are recycled several times in each level, but it hardly makes a difference when you consider how nice everything looks.

As soon as you hear the music on the opening cut scene you know the sound is gonna be good. The music has a nice variety of pretty much every type of music you would want to hear in a game, from the mysterious track when you're walking through abandoned halls knowing the silence won't last long to the rock music in an intense exchange of gunfire. As in most games, the music can be easily ignored in firefights, but if you pay attention to the sound of games, Perfect Dark Zero's does not disappoint.

The basic plot of the game isn't anything to get excited over, but it isn't bad by any means. However it's pretty much just there as an excuse to get you into some trouble and have to blow some stuff up. Joanna (the main character for those who don't know), her father Jack, and their computer specialist Chandra are bounty hunters and in need of some money. They take a job to find a scientist and it ends being much more than they bargained for. There are several plot twists, but they feel forced, like they decided to do something, then couldn't figure out how to incorporate it into the story. The story is obviously not the highlight of the game, but it's not bad enough to detract from the overall experience of the single player campaign.

Probably the best part about the game is the variety of weapons and gadgets you get to use. The system the game uses to determine how many weapons you can hold is pretty unique. You have four blocks of space, and each type of weapon takes up a certain number of blocks. For example, most assault rifles take up two blocks, pistols take up one, and certain big weapons such as the sniper and chain gun take up three. Also, if you have two of the same type of pistols in your inventory you can dual wield them. Not only is the system for carrying weapons good, the weapons themselves are amazing. Every single one comes with great satisfaction as you chip pieces off of enemies' armor until you deliver the final bullets to send him to his (or her) grave. Some weapons come with a powerful secondary attack that can be used against groups of enemies or finishing one off if you have to reload.

The single player campaign won't take a terribly long time to complete, but fear not, the multiplayer in Perfect Dark Zero is enough to make the game worth a purchase. There are several modes of multiplayer. The first are the regular gametypes such as capture the flag, killcount, team killcount, etc. The next is darkops which is a lot like Counter Strike. You get credits for winning rounds and killing enemies which will let you buy better weapon and gadgets in the next round. However, you do get some credits for losing to prevent things from getting unbalanced. The third and final multiplayer mode is co-operative mode. In this mode you can play the single player campaign with a friend which gives new life to the campaign, as well as a challenge at the higher difficulty levels.

In the multiplayer and at several points in the single player campaign you get to pilot vehicles. One is a hovercraft which goes pretty fast and can have a gunner. The second is a jetpack, which has a built in machine gun and can fly around the map very quickly. Although the vehicle list isn't extensive, they are both very fun to play with and very powerful to wield.

All in all, Perfect Dark Zero is a great game on so many levels. The game is easily recommendable to anyone who likes first person shooters or was a fan of the first. Overall, this is a game that should not be missed by anyone with a liking for the genre.

Score: 9.3