Perfect Dark Zero Review 
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Feb 04 |
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After the immersive and charming Kameo, I’d expect the prequel to Perfect Dark to be an absolute masterpiece. Instead what I was left with was an uninspired and generic first person shooter. Perfect Dark Zero is really a tale of two perspectives because of its fantastic online multiplayer and poorly designed single player. For a second, I’d thought that Rare had returned to its former glory, and boy was I wrong. While Kameo’s adventure truly felt like a gem, Rare’s first person shooter from a single player point of view felt like a total borefest. And to be frank, it is such a shame too because of the game’s amazing and breathtaking multiplayer aspects. How can the game be so badly skewed? You have everything you would want from a multiplayer perspective, but the single player was so generic, so lifeless, and utterly so bad, that the game is only worth it if you have Xbox Live. Perfect Dark Zero may contain hundreds of hours, but that is mostly due to Xbox Live rather than a balance of Live and the campaign mode.
Being the flagship title of the Xbox360 launch, Perfect Dark Zero disappoints and satisfies at the same time. Surely, the single player will feel uninspired and seemingly lacking in effort from Rare’s part, but the online portion is so breathtaking that the game just feels masterful and disastrous all rolled in one. Being the first person slugger that was hailed as the game to propel the 360 to the spotlight just like Halo did, it was inevitable that this game was going to be met with tons of hype. Now if you strip down the hype, then the game has plenty to offer from a multiplayer aspect. Is it the Halo killer that everyone has been looking forward to? Well, that all depends on how you look at it. From my perspective, Perfect Dark Zero’s multiplayer crushes that of Halo on many levels, but Halo’s topnotch presentation and first rate storyline, ultimately offers a far better single player experience.
Perfect Dark Zero is the sequel or prequel (whichever you prefer) to the highly acclaimed first person shooter that graced the Nintendo64. It follows the life of a young hired gun named Joanna Dark. Joanna exhibits your typical teenage personality such as recklessness, inexperience, and a not so level head that you’d come to expect from a top of the line assassin. Joanna isn’t quite the masterful killer that her N64 counterpart was, but don’t let her childish looks deceive you, she is still quite dangerous. She is still receiving tips and being mentored by her father. And with her trusty assistant, it would seem she is capable of handling anything. Or so it would seem…
The story behind Perfect Dark Zero is like the game’s level designs, it feels disjointed and confusing. The story just basically slaps you with some unnecessary information and then it is basically time to kill everything in your path till the objective is complete. The plot was poorly written, and events would just pop out at random that left me confused and uninterested. There was one level when you were rescuing someone and all of a sudden, for no apparent reason, you are fighting the daughter of Master Li in a simulation. Then afterwards, you were free to go, as if nothing had happened. Correct me if I am wrong, but aren’t bad guys and good guys suppose to beat each other to a bloody pulp? The script was poorly written, the storyline felt disjointed, and the sole reason of the story was to throw you in to a bunch of firefights. If that was the case, then why don’t I just play online? Speaking of which, if you don’t have Xbox Live, then seriously don’t bother because the single player campaign is extremely underwhelming.
Quality not Quantity…Or Perhaps Both
While Perfect Dark Zero’s single player is fairly lengthy, the time you spent with it isn’t necessarily fun. There maybe plenty of missions to complete, but each one is your basic run of the mill scenario that doesn’t even have the same “Rambo” blow everything up type feeling. Instead the core gameplay in the single player feels generic and disjointed. For one, the level designs were poorly developed. It felt like the developers just decided to slap a huge map onto you and said, “Here, complete your objectives”. I never got the feeling of cohesiveness that I was hoping for. The levels felt disconnected because the game negates any exploration with the directional help that it provides. Certainly the levels felt uninspired, but the fact that any exploration was taken out of the equation didn’t help either. Several occasions, when I didn’t know where to go, I would just wait for the arrows to show up and point me in the right direction. When the player finally has the opportunity to explore the world of Perfect Dark Zero, that opportunity is quickly taken away with some unwanted guidance.
The problem worsens when the game feels like a basic run and gun type shooter. Instead of forcing you to strategize and plan out your attacks, the enemies can be quickly disposed of by running from enemy to enemy and shooting the lights out of them. It certainly doesn’t help when the enemies aren’t very good at taking cover. And with Joanna’s life bar recycling, the adventure just doesn’t feel challenging or appealing. Certainly the game has an enormous selection of guns, but during the single player campaign, it simply isn’t as fun or doesn’t have the challenge to require the use of the more powerful weapons. Perfect Dark Zero’s single player really falls short due to the horrible level design and the lack of a challenge when it comes to the A.I. This is especially apparent on the normal difficulty, when enemies would miss you when you are right in front of them. When I am right in front of them and taking on several of these guards, the only action is when the guards yell, “she’s shooting at me”. I was taking on several guards and I would barely take a scratch from their gunfire. Quite frankly, it felt as if Rare just decided to go all out on the multiplayer aspects and just slap together a single player mode and call it a completed game. News Flash Rare! There’s more to a game than just multiplayer!
In Perfect Dark Zero, the ability to jump is taken out and replaced with a roll maneuver. A simple push of a button will allow you to roll and get out of an enemy’s line of fire. During the single player campaign, this move is rarely used due to the lack of a challenge from the enemies, but from a multiplayer aspect, the roll can be a great beneficiary to the player. Another key feature is the ability to take cover behind walls, pillars, etc. While you may think that this is the perfect feature for campers to abuse such a move, aiming and getting that perfect head shot isn’t quite that easy on a moving opponent. During this cover move, the player will transition into a third person perspective with the reticule to the side of them to aim. This transition from first person to third person is done with great fluidity.
Luckily for Rare, not all is lost because the game’s multiplayer aspects are certainly the best I have played on Xbox Live. With its mind blowing and heart throbbing 32 player matches and tons of options, the game has an everlasting value. Everything about the online matches felt exceptionally balanced, unlike *cough* *cough* Halo 2. Sure the sword is quite powerful, but I found if I had a shotgun, I would just keep backing up and firing until the opponent was dead. That’s what makes the online portion so fantastic, it is due to the fact that there are so many weapons and each weapon has something else that can negate it. You can abuse the jetpacks, but a simple well placed grenade from my Superdragon would destroy it. In the Desert map, people can just sit in thatng on the cliff and just snipe, but with the jetpacks, a round of suppression fire would take care of it. Not to mention that the maps are so big that you would never know if you are the one that is being sniped. And that is what makes the multiplayer so special. Everything feels so balance, so intense, and so chaotic that game is just what Xbox Live gamers have been dreaming for. Throw that in with 32 player matches with hardly any lag, and plenty of different types of online matches and you got yourself an online addiction.
When it comes to weapons, there are certainly plenty to choose from. But the amount of online options is certainly not too shabby either. Deathmatch modes alone will offer killcount, team killcount, capture the flag, and territorial gains. Then you have another set of matches such as Dark Ops that offer a different experience. By far my favorite has to be a 32 player capture the flag match over desert. The map is so big that there are literally several huge firefight all over the map. In one instance, my teammates and I were cornered into our base. And while the battle may have seem lost, every advancing inch into our territory was heart felt, as we let them know, whose house it was. Then in another capture the flag match, we found ourselves down 2 flags to none, and through team work and will, we fought out way back and won. The match lasted a little over 2 hours, and by time we were finished I knew that this game’s online capabilities was by far the best I’ve ever played.
Oh the profanity!
With Joanna Dark, you can expect to hear plenty of F-bombs and other profanities. During an online match, Joanna would let out a few F-bombs when heavily under fire. But in a situation like that, who wouldn’t? While the profanity certainly makes you feel at home with the situation, the rest of the voiceovers were poorly implemented. During most of the game, Joanna hardly talks, but when she does, she is lacking any emotion and isn’t able to capture the moment. And don’t even get me started on Chandra and her accent. I cringe at the very thought of her voice. Then throw that in with the announcer during your online match, and you have a deafening voice cast that makes you scream. With lines like killtastic, you wonder what Rare was thinking. On a more positive note, the fast pace techno music gave the game a better sense of pacing. The beats were rhythmic and brought out the futuristic concept into perspective. Not to mention the game’s introductory theme song has a catchy tune. While the voice acting being underwhelming is an understatement, the game’s fantastic music soundtrack was able to redeem it a bit.
One thing is certain though, Perfect Dark Zero has plenty of eye popping visuals. From the highly detailed character models, to the silky smooth frame rate, the game is quite an achievement from a visual standpoint. Even though, the game isn’t quite as attractive online, the game still has plenty of detailed environments. One thing that feels lacking though is the game’s shoddy animation. The physics felt a bit off, especially how the enemies would slump over after they were killed. And during your online play, when someone dies, the body is shattered into pieces in an awkward way. But despite that, the game for the most part has excellent graphical features. The game itself is a graphical feat, especially with its huge environments and beautiful lighting. And the best part, the game hardly lags online. Even with a full 32 player online match, tons of chaotic battles that make it feel like a war zone, and its large maps, the game for the most part runs quite smoothly.
What is especially difficult about Perfect Dark Zero is how the game should be rated. On one hand, the game simply has the best online matches I have ever played, but on the other hand, the single player campaign was extremely underwhelming. Quite the dilemma huh? But to be honest, the single player was so disappointing that it is probably the biggest issue that I will take out of it. Perhaps the insane multiplayer overshadowed the single player campaign, but in the end, it just wasn’t any fun at all. Perfect Dark Zero had plenty of hype, but it failed to meet that plateau. It certainly isn’t the Halo killer some of you were expecting, but on its own merits, the game can be enjoyable if you have Xbox Live. So let me reiterate that for you, this game is best played online. If you have Xbox Live, then this game is worth every penny. But sadly if you don’t have Xbox Live, Perfect Dark Zero’s single player is a forgettable experience.
- Galactus21
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