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Definitely not perfect, but far from a zero.

Perfect Dark Zero is by far the most controversial of all Xbox 360 launch titles. Since the day it was announced, fanboys cheered, Rare haters jeered, and the collective gaming community was eager to see what would become of the next-gen Perfect Dark prequel. Most were of course hoping and praying that PDZ would be the Xbox 360's GoldenEye or Halo. Though in reality, what we ended up with is a game that shares similarities with both, yet at the same time isn't superior to either.

The game's plot is neither fantastic nor appalling, but it has a few intriguing, if not predictable moments. The year is 2020, and you are Joanna Dark, a young and ambitious would-be secret agent. During a routine bounty-hunting mission, Joanna and her father Jack find themselves swept up in the wake of circumstances which, if left unchecked, could set in motion a worldwide power struggle of devastating proportions.

In providing a couple of ways to complete certain objectives, Rare decided to make the environments quite large and less linear than what you may typically expect. Couple that with some vague objective details, no type of layout map, and you'll find yourself frequently walking around in circles while trying to trigger the next objective. The designers clearly knew this, so by default, they've added dynamic "waypoint arrows" which appear on the ground for a brief time and lead you in a certain direction when the game thinks you are lost. The waypoint feature isn't perfect though and there are times when you may actually be confused, yet the arrow doesn't appear. So you'll need to find ways to trick it into telling you which way to go, such as standing in place for 5 seconds or so until it pops up once again. Even then, the arrows may disappear so quick after following them that you may need to stop, wait for it to reappear, and then follow it again. This becomes less an issue once you've play through each level, but the first time around it really kills the flow of the game. Speaking of the first time around, you can easily breeze through the entire single player game in several hours at most on the default difficulty level.

As with previous games in the genre, Rare has tried to inject some new gameplay elements into Perfect Dark Zero. Besides the usual running and gunning, Joanna can crouch, take cover behind structures, use ziplines, and perform an evasive roll. Strangely, she can't jump at all, though when approaching certain low structures she can step onto/over them. The game does controls well once you get used to the "different than Halo 2" control scheme, and I have no particular complaints in that department. You can tweak the layout and the sensitivity of the analog sticks, and if the standard setting don't work for you, it shouldn't be too hard to find one that does. The weapons that Joanna has access to, all of which have a number of alternate firing modes and functions, are probably among the most interesting aspects of the game. From silenced pistols with exploding clips, to a shockwave rifle with an X-ray vision scope, Rare has put a lot of thought into PDZ's weapon designs. You begin the game with a simple pistol, and slowly work your way up to more advanced hardware as you encounter better-equipped enemies in the game. You also have a dedicated melee attack button, which comes in use for close combat and busting open crates/objects.

In the first few stages of Perfect Dark Zero, the game attempts to emphasize the importance of stealth. That idea dissolves rather quickly once you realize how easily it is to not be stealthy in the game. The second you trigger an alert, either by being spotted, or by being heard when using an unsilenced weapon, it's all over. The enemies swarm you to no end, and you'll have no choice but to fight them off by any means necessary. There are a few times when being stealthy pays off, and those instances are thankfully very obvious. But otherwise, it's almost not worth the time, especially when on the default difficulty you can absorb dozens of shots without being killed. At the higher Perfect and Dark Agent levels of difficulty your tactics do need to change a bit since attacks do sap your energy more quickly. One incredibly annoying issue is the ability of enemy sharpshooters to take potshots at you from several hundred yards away. Of course, this is without you seeing them or knowing exactly where they are hiding. The red damage flashes can point you in the general direction, but without using a scope and carefully looking around, it's sometimes not easy to track down that particular enemy. Also infuriating is the long weapon loading animations and the seemingly always empty clips. With 8 or 9 enemies in pursuit, all of which can literally take a few bodily hits before going down, and a weapon that only holds 12 - 30 shots on average, you have to reload very often. That wouldn't be an issue if some of the reload animations didn't take 3 or 4 seconds a piece. So you either go for all headshots, or you reload often, use a lot of melee attacks and roll around trying not to get hit.

Visually, Perfect Dark Zero is a mixed bag. The engine itself is competent enough, and does a good job at pushing the game at a near constant 30fps. Oddly enough, the only time I've seen the framerate stutter was during certain cut scenes. The animation and rag doll physics of the enemies and objects in the game are definitely a nice touch. Being a sci-fi themed game, you would expect PDZ to be chock full of bright metallic surfaces and lots of neon lights. And you'd be right. But people in the future also apparently have smooth, glossy skin to go along with the shiny floors, walls, plants, rocks, snow, wood and water. Whereas Kameo used nearly every graphical trick in the book, Rare went normal mapping and specular shader nuts in PDZ. It's a slick effect when used sparingly, but in Perfect Dark Zero it's practically used everywhere and on everything. The character designs don't fare much better, at least from a style standpoint. In game, characters both animate and look good enough, but during the cut scenes and close-ups they just seem odd. The faces in particular give the appearance of being sculpted out of some type of clay material. Joanna's style changed a few times during development of the game, and while she doesn't look horrible by any means, she still has that part Bratz punk doll, Part elf thing going on. PDZ looks great in HD, as you would expect, but I feel some of the gaudy design decisions drag the overall graphical package down a notch.

With just 12 stages, the Perfect Dark Zero single player experience is over rather quickly. You can replay the game at higher difficulty levels and unlock additional weapons and achievements, or head to where all the fun is - Xbox Live. Whether you and a friend are playing the single player missions in online co-op, or battling it out with 31 other players in a team-based Dark Ops match, the game works extremely well online. As compared with other modern first person shooters, Perfect Dark Zero is slower and more strategic, and when playing online that fact becomes even more obvious. The hectic and hyperactive experience of something like Unreal Championship or Halo is nowhere to be found, which is mostly a good thing. PDZ offers a good amount of customization for the online modes, with options ranging from weapon restrictions, to bot abilities, to map variations. The matching making seems to work decent enough, especially when looking for a particular style of match. The various multiplayer maps are well designed and a few are absolutely enormous. The larger of the bunch are so expansive that they are not even worth playing on with less than 20 simultaneous players or so. Rare thankfully saw fit to optionally include some realistic playing bots to help fill in those holes. There are some issues with the weapon balancing, and the aforementioned weapon loading/high damage annoyances, but man are those Dark Ops modes fun. And oh, the jet packs. For those without Xbox Live, Perfect Dark Zero also supports local play for up to 4 players via splitscreen, as well system linking, but neither are as enjoyable as the online play.

With all the bitching and complaining, you'd think I completely disliked Perfect Dark Zero. But in reality, with it being both an Xbox 360 launch title and a highly anticipated game in its own right, it's somewhat easier to pick out the annoying little issues. While not as polished or well designed as we all hoped, Perfect Dark Zero is still worth a play-through, if only for the cool weapons and the enjoyable online battles.