Released in 2005 as a launch title for the Xbox 360, Perfect Dark Zero is a prequal to one of the best first-person shooters ever made. The hype for this thing was quite large at the time, everyone wanted to see what the follow up to the N64 original would be like on Microsoft’s newest console. It was the second game to be released by Rare since they were taken over by Microsoft and the first big budget game. But many of the staff who worked on Goldeneye and Perfect Dark on the N64 had left before the development of Perfect Dark Zero began, and with the acquisition from the big N to the big M, the 6th console generation passed Rare by somewhat. Can Rare re-discover their form with these new big budget releases, starting with Perfect Dark Zero?
Yes and no, Perfect Dark Zero has been though quite a change since the original, Joanna has had a complete re-design and is no longer a smooth-talking British agent and is now a trash talking American. To go with this, she now dresses in pure mid-2000’s attitude clothing with bright ginger hair. The cyberpunk aesthetic is still here, but its more near future than cyberpunk and certainly loses some of its charm in the transition. The story revolves around Joanna and her dad working independently before being hired by the Carrington Institute to fight the nefarious Dayta-Dyne. The story is awful in all honesty and is completely forgettable, the dialog and voice acting are terrible. Perfect Dark trod the line between campy and serious well, reminded me of No One Lives Forever. Sadly, Perfect Dark Zero misses all that and sticks strictly to the silly and outlandish. That’s not to say the single player campaign is not fun, it is for the most part, the levels are varied, as are the objectives, mixing on foot and vehicle sections nicely. It can also be played in co-op with differing objectives depending on the difficulty, like the original. Some of the levels here do offer various ways to play and alternate routes, and playing on different difficulties opens extra areas of levels which adds to the replay value.
Multiplayer is the other side of Perfect Dark Zero and its where the meat of the game is, only six maps come with the original, but two map packs have since been released. Maps vary in size depending on player count, up to 32 players can play in a variety of game types, DM, TDS, CTF are all here, bots can also be added in to increase numbers which is a nice touch but their A.I. leaves allot to be desired. The level design on the maps is decent with lots of traversal options and ways to get around. Some vehicles are also available and are all fun to drive. In MP is where you can get to grips with the large arsenal of weapons Perfect Dark Zero has to offer and they are all fantastic to use. Returning favourites are here from the original with new additions, all have alternate fire and really are fun to use, none are duds at all and it’s a high point of the game.
What is not a high point however is the gameplay, Joanna feels like a tank on ice, she moves so slowly, and the sensitivity is low, add to that the fact the FOV is too zoomed in, and it can be a struggle at times to get things moving well here. Sensitivity sliders are available and alleviate some of the issues, but you are stuck with that terrible FOV, which makes close quarters combat a struggle. It’s very difficult to know if you have hit someone accurately at all. Joanna also takes a while to get up to speed from still, and her max is a light jog, it makes some MP matches feel quite slow and lethargic, there is no run button here. The game also includes a rather poor cover system in that you have to move to the edge of a wall or window and wait for a button prompt to snap into cover, Joanna will then go into 3rd person for the cover option, but you have to press the prompt again to leave, and there is a slight delay when doing this. This makes the system a handicap in multi-player, its only helpful slightly in single player. Players can also utilise a dodge roll that also uses 3rd person to execute, and it makes it harder for the AI to hit Joanna, this works better and even in MP it’s a handy tool. One thing I did notice is that players tend to have lots of hit points, you can empty an entire clip of an AK into someone, and they still won’t be dead, or even close. Add body Armor to this and players are quite tanky, which is odd for an FPS game.
Now it's not all bad news as graphicly, Perfect Dark Zero is fantastic, it’s clearly been made as a game to show off to your friends. It shows off the power of the Xbox 360, and for 2005 it looks great. Its colourful, textures gleam and are very detailed, lots of bloom effects, shadows are dynamic, it’s a great looking experience. It also runs well, maintains an ok 30fps most of the time with slight dips here and there, only noticeably bad dips when big explosions are happening. Joanna moves so slowly though you’ll hardly notice it anyway!
It sounds like I’ve bashed this game more than praise it and my final score might surprise you but that’s only based off of what’s come before it. Perfect Dark Zero does not live up to the game that came before it, not even close. The gameplay is clunky at times, the story, dialog and voice acting are terrible. It’s completely lost the vibe the first game had for a more generic video game feel. But I still had fun, both in SP and MP, I kept coming back to this game while playing others. The single player levels are still fun, despite the clunky controls, split screen SP and MP is a blast. The MP is fun too with well-designed levels and a fantastically fun arsenal of guns to play with. The AI is lacking but it's nice to have the option of bots. All the achievements still being fully unlockable in 2023 is great as you can unlock them with Bots also.
Perfect Dark Zero is a letdown, only because of what came before it. But on its own it’s a decent time. We have seen better shooters on the last gen and during the 360’s launch window, however.
SCORE: 7/10
Yes and no, Perfect Dark Zero has been though quite a change since the original, Joanna has had a complete re-design and is no longer a smooth-talking British agent and is now a trash talking American. To go with this, she now dresses in pure mid-2000’s attitude clothing with bright ginger hair. The cyberpunk aesthetic is still here, but its more near future than cyberpunk and certainly loses some of its charm in the transition. The story revolves around Joanna and her dad working independently before being hired by the Carrington Institute to fight the nefarious Dayta-Dyne. The story is awful in all honesty and is completely forgettable, the dialog and voice acting are terrible. Perfect Dark trod the line between campy and serious well, reminded me of No One Lives Forever. Sadly, Perfect Dark Zero misses all that and sticks strictly to the silly and outlandish. That’s not to say the single player campaign is not fun, it is for the most part, the levels are varied, as are the objectives, mixing on foot and vehicle sections nicely. It can also be played in co-op with differing objectives depending on the difficulty, like the original. Some of the levels here do offer various ways to play and alternate routes, and playing on different difficulties opens extra areas of levels which adds to the replay value.
Multiplayer is the other side of Perfect Dark Zero and its where the meat of the game is, only six maps come with the original, but two map packs have since been released. Maps vary in size depending on player count, up to 32 players can play in a variety of game types, DM, TDS, CTF are all here, bots can also be added in to increase numbers which is a nice touch but their A.I. leaves allot to be desired. The level design on the maps is decent with lots of traversal options and ways to get around. Some vehicles are also available and are all fun to drive. In MP is where you can get to grips with the large arsenal of weapons Perfect Dark Zero has to offer and they are all fantastic to use. Returning favourites are here from the original with new additions, all have alternate fire and really are fun to use, none are duds at all and it’s a high point of the game.
What is not a high point however is the gameplay, Joanna feels like a tank on ice, she moves so slowly, and the sensitivity is low, add to that the fact the FOV is too zoomed in, and it can be a struggle at times to get things moving well here. Sensitivity sliders are available and alleviate some of the issues, but you are stuck with that terrible FOV, which makes close quarters combat a struggle. It’s very difficult to know if you have hit someone accurately at all. Joanna also takes a while to get up to speed from still, and her max is a light jog, it makes some MP matches feel quite slow and lethargic, there is no run button here. The game also includes a rather poor cover system in that you have to move to the edge of a wall or window and wait for a button prompt to snap into cover, Joanna will then go into 3rd person for the cover option, but you have to press the prompt again to leave, and there is a slight delay when doing this. This makes the system a handicap in multi-player, its only helpful slightly in single player. Players can also utilise a dodge roll that also uses 3rd person to execute, and it makes it harder for the AI to hit Joanna, this works better and even in MP it’s a handy tool. One thing I did notice is that players tend to have lots of hit points, you can empty an entire clip of an AK into someone, and they still won’t be dead, or even close. Add body Armor to this and players are quite tanky, which is odd for an FPS game.
Now it's not all bad news as graphicly, Perfect Dark Zero is fantastic, it’s clearly been made as a game to show off to your friends. It shows off the power of the Xbox 360, and for 2005 it looks great. Its colourful, textures gleam and are very detailed, lots of bloom effects, shadows are dynamic, it’s a great looking experience. It also runs well, maintains an ok 30fps most of the time with slight dips here and there, only noticeably bad dips when big explosions are happening. Joanna moves so slowly though you’ll hardly notice it anyway!
It sounds like I’ve bashed this game more than praise it and my final score might surprise you but that’s only based off of what’s come before it. Perfect Dark Zero does not live up to the game that came before it, not even close. The gameplay is clunky at times, the story, dialog and voice acting are terrible. It’s completely lost the vibe the first game had for a more generic video game feel. But I still had fun, both in SP and MP, I kept coming back to this game while playing others. The single player levels are still fun, despite the clunky controls, split screen SP and MP is a blast. The MP is fun too with well-designed levels and a fantastically fun arsenal of guns to play with. The AI is lacking but it's nice to have the option of bots. All the achievements still being fully unlockable in 2023 is great as you can unlock them with Bots also.
Perfect Dark Zero is a letdown, only because of what came before it. But on its own it’s a decent time. We have seen better shooters on the last gen and during the 360’s launch window, however.
SCORE: 7/10