At last year’s E3 Expo, Perfect Dark Zero for the 360 was being touted as the early “heir apparant” to the HALO mantle. Which made a certain amount of sense, since the Master Chief was not expected to be seen in the first year of the 360 and Microsoft Studios had a certain amount of expectations to fullfill. I mean, what would an Xbox launch be without a futuristic first person shooter with an enigmatic main character? Sorry Quake 4, but I’d rather see a hot chick shooting bad guys then yer ugly butt slogging through an alien war.
As a “prequel” really, Perfect Dark Zero re-introduces us to the “so hot, it hurts” Joanna Dark. Some of you out there may remember Joanna from the Nintendo 64 hit Perfect Dark. It was one of the very few rated M games on the N64 and a full tilt hit for the house that Mario built.
But, what difference does a few years make since the developer Rare has now allied with Microsoft in order to take advantage of the industry’s most powerful gaming system. There was some talk that this title was originally to be released on the Nintendo Gamecube, but with the visual’s that this title is pushing it’s clear that there is no way that this could have been put on the Gamecube without some serious quality degredation.
Well whatever the history was, PD0 is on the 360 so let’s discuss that. And the first thing that I am going to tell you is that our heroine is hot. Joanna Dark is a tawdry redhead that’s built for things not meant in Sunday morning service. She’s a lethal hand to hand expert who in the first “real” scenario of this game, kills like, 130 badguys. She can carry several different dual wielded pistols and mows down the most evil of triad criminals with deliciously lethal intent. Plus, she has the kind of steel resolve one needs to do the high tech espionage and cold blooded killing that takes place in this title.
Since this is a prequel, you do get to learn how Joanna became the woman she eventually becomes. Working with her hardass ex-cop/ex-Marine Father, Jack Dark and the mysterious intel agent Chandra, Joanna has her hands full as the newest member of Dark Bail Bonds. A sort of Private Investigation cum trouble shooting outfit that takes a lot of jobs that the police won’t even go near. Well, I can tell you that the single player game leads Joanna and her team through a rather dangerous conspiracy that (not to ruin anything for you) eventually may have the fate of the world hanging in the balance.
Yes, this title is exactly what the action Dr. ordered. Lots of bullet ridden action, clever devices to help in your missions and a driving storyline that helps wrap things up into a nice little package.
Now the control schmatic of the game is very familiar to anyone playing first person shooters. The trigger buttons fire the primary and secondary (or second) weapons while the face buttons are used to activate machinery, use tools etc, etc. But since Joanna (after everything we’ve been through Ms. Dark just doesn’t seem right) is a nubile athletic little thing, you can dive and roll quickly to avoid being hit by enemy fire. It’s a unique addition in the world of huge, heavy soldiers who regularly lift vehicles back onto their wheels or carry weapondry normally reserved for hanging off the side of a helicopter. This “evade” button is convienently located on the left bumper button. Staying true to physics, the heavier the weapon, the slower Joanna moves, just like real life, you would be able to move quickly with two handguns, but doing those Jackie Chanesque’ acrobatics simply aren’t while carrying a rocket launcher.
Now, there were a couple of things that I noticed in the options screen in this game that I don’t recall seeing in some of my other 360 titles. Including, the ability to select what type of TV you are playing on, whether it’s DLP, LCD, Plasma or regular. Not that I’m complaining, but it goes to show you that they really wanted to take advantage of the advancements in technology that have flooded the market in recent years.
Also, you could tune the sensativity of the “look” function so that Joanna was looking around as quickly as a shoplifter amped up on ding-dongs and speed. Or as slow as someone swimming in honey while doing the thorazine shuffle. The point being, this FPS reminded me more of a PC game then a console game with these decidedly PC menus. And hust so you know, I liked these options. As we work towards games that look as good as their PC cousins, I think it’s fair to say that we will see more of these high level options.
Of course, once I got the setup the way I felt it needed to be, I began playing through the single player adventure. And I must say, that even though you could tweak things and select auto-aim/invert crosshair type options, the game never felt as smooth as some of the other games I have played. It wasn’t bad mind you, in fact it was a pretty tightly controlled game, but there was this just this little edge I felt the game was missing that put the controls into the upper echelon of controlled games. It’s great, it’s just not as great as I thought it should have been. Either way, it does indeed get the job done and you will probably be scratching your head while recalling my comments as you play, but to me, I thought it just seemed to miss that razor’s edge I thought there should have been.
Of course, what kind of a game would this adventure be if it didn’t feature a full accoutrement of weapons and other equipment. And with no less then 19 guns, six gadgets, four types of grenades and a nifty bladed thingy good for playing Chef with. Assault rifles, handguns, rocket launchers plasma rifles, tranquilizer pistols, the game is stock in weapondry that is both expected and unexpected. No real surprises other then when dual wielding the guns, the alt fire is no longer accesable. And speaking of the alt fire, every weapon has a second function ranging from the normal (flashlight, grenade launcher) to the unexpected like cloaking ability and zip lines. If anything the alt weapon fire was more surprising then the gun loadout. But all in all, I was very happy with the weapons and all the tricks they feature in this game.
Now the game does a couple of things involving the weapons that some shooters do and some don’t. For one thing, depending on what weapon your carrying your movement speed is effected. Joanna is pretty lithe and quick when running with a couple of handguns, but put the rocket launcher in her hand and things slow down for the poor girl. Next, the game only allows you to carry a couple of weapons, when you take a bad guy out and you walk up to their corpse, if you are carrying the same gun the game just defaults to you picking up their ammo, but if you discover that there is a different weapon on the ground then the game gives you the option of swapping it with one of your curent weapons. Veteran gamers will recall the way HALO deals with it’s weapons, basically it’s the same idea.
And finally in this violent and technology ridden future you will get the opportunity to use some of the vehicles, well two at least. The first being a sort of rocket pack/jump jet thing where you can fly around and hover. This vehicle features dual mounted machineguns for the player who likes to kill on the go. And the other being a squirrelly hovercraft. The hovercraft can go a bit faster then the jet pack and also features the ability to take on passengers and interchangable weapons loadout. And with these vehicles, which are done quite well, PD0 maintains the status quo in first person shooters that feature vehicles. I’m not complaining, but when is the next big innovation going to occur?
Now for all these really nifty guns and insurance deductable causing armaments, probably the coolest inception is the gadgets featured in this title. By my count you play with about six of these really ingenious little toys. Not only are they cool to have but rather then them being an automatic type tool, you actually must “use ” them. For example, one of the tools is called the Locktopus, it’s a nifty little device that can pick any standard locking door. But rather then make it a passing thought, the developers made it so you must move the thumbstick to control the tumblers when picking a lock. It’s one of those small quirks that can really help out a game that’s looking to make a name for itself. The same could be said with some of the other devices. All of them are controlled one way or another giving the player a richer gaming experience.
Now I’ve said how gorgeous Joanna Dark is a couple of times, it’s true, the folks at Microsoft and Rare made sure she was a sexy little thing. But they didn’t stop there. There are other gals who were designed with supermodel in mind. Not Dead or Alive women mind you, but beautiful, strong willed types, that just happen to be impossibly hot. I’d say the same thing about the men in the game, but I couldn’t pick out a good looking guy if my life depended on it. But given the attention the women received by the developers, I’m going to assume they too are good looking. The game zips by at a healthy 60 fps without any sort of slowdown, whether the screen is screaming by while I’m doing 90 in my hovercraft or it’s a full-on battle with NPCs shooting other NPCs the game never loses track of what it is. That being a next gen system title.
Futuristic buildings, architecture that shows off the rendering capabilities of the 360, even the cool looking futuristic doors and locks. It’s the most minute things that I like to look at and darnit, if I want to walk up to the remains of a destroyed spider-bot and examine it’s robotic guts then I’m going to do it. Lighting effects are crisp and bright and the game’s levels are contrasted nicely by the actual location. When infiltrating a scientific lab I expect everything to be nice and clean, and have an almost sterile feel to it, I get it. And likewise when roaming the docks, the grittier look to the doors and buildings is expected, again, I got it.
If I was going to bitch about something (and I always have something to complain about) it would be that I was almost expecting to not see the same bad guys coming after me in any given scenario. One mission had me spying on bad guys and getting their voice print copied. Well after killing said bad guy (who in all fairness looked original) I was disappointed to see his clone come after me two minutes later, then again. It’s almost as if I am expecting too much from these 360 titles, should the development team take the time to make a completely original bad guy for each any every one I face, even if it’s only for three seconds? No, that’s an unrealistic expectiation, yet I did. Go figure.
The title also features my favorite in game Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. With as many speakers as I am pushing, I really like to see how these games put my surround sound system to the test, or vice versa. Well think about this, when speaking with another character, if I turn away from them, the speakers recognize that and the character’s voice goes from the main center speaker to the side speakers in sync with the way I am moving. I’ve played plenty of games and this is one of those things that I really appreciated. Of course, the game has incredibly detailed sound effects. The explosions, the gunfire, the voices, all come out crisp and clear and to tell you the truth I would I expected it to. Anything other then “holy sh*t” awesome was going to be a letdown.
Lastly, the game does have full Xbox live capabilities and does feature some things on the multiplayer death match that aren’t found on the solo game. If I said anything one way or the other I’m sure I would be bombarded by emails telling me I was crazy, that the multiplayer experience is “Insert adjective here”. Let me say this though; for every map that is frustrating (too big or small) there seems to be an answer to it. This title in my opinion is to be purchased for the strong single player game, anything the multiplayer aspect brings to the table is just extra frosting on an already sweet cake.
Perfect Dark Zero is a pretty good title. Some argue that it is one of the better 360 games out there and I would be inclined to agree. I’ve played pretty much all of them and the only one that surpasses it is Call of Duty. That’s saying a lot. With a very strong storyline and characters we actually care about, this title makes us want to see what is going to happen next because it does such a good job of enveloping the player. Great graphics and even greater sound make this one of my favorite games right now. I know that they are probably already at work on the next Perfect Dark game. Here’s hoping it’s as good as this one.
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