Perfect Dark Zero (15)
Verdict: Shiny plastic people
Platform: 360
3/5
Perfect Dark Zero is one of the worst looking games I have ever played. It’s an odd thing to say about a game released on the most cutting edge console on the market but i’m sticking to my guns. Sure it’s crisp, Hi Def and the draw distance is magnificent but everything is horribly bland, plastic and SHINY! Every texture seems to be sweating - wood, sand, metal - you name it. It sweats. It shines. It’s horrible.
Graphical grumbles aside, Perfect Dark is a fairly decent first person shooter and the long awaited sequel to the N64 classic. Made by the Goldeneye wonder boys Rare it had been in production for years before its release (originally penned for the Game Cube) and to its detriment this shows. It feels like an old game in next gen clothing (posssibly a mirror ball suit) and is only held up by the thankfully strong offerings online (a definite theme with the 360’s first wave of games).
Since PD’s first offering, the world of the FPS has undergone many changes - titles like Deus Ex, Half Life and Halo have shown how the genre can move forward and in most cases PDZ seems to have ignored them, choosing to chase that outdated Goldeneye magic.
Saying that though it has brought with it some subtle advances - introducing an intuitive analogue zoom for scoped guns, a riot shield that changes the pace of play and some nice alternative firing modes. Blindfire is handy, allowing you to aim whilst in cover but it’s ‘me too’ and isn’t implemented very well - trying to find the small context sensitive spots amidst a gunfight is fiddly and the switches between first person to third person are jarring.
Considering the amount of time taken to make the game, you’d wonder what they spent their time doing - it should have been on level design - any game that leads you through its levels with glowing arows on the floor needs some serious rethinking.
As I said earlier, the online stuff is great, with a ton of game types to play with like the Counterstrike styled Dark Ops and a chance to experiment with all the high tech weaponry without dodgy A.I. or mission structures bogging you down.
The future‘s bright, the future’s shiny.