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This *IS* the Halo-esque launch title for the Xbox 360!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 10
Date: February 22, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Although I was worried about purchasing this game at launch (because of the bad reader reviews), I have found it an amazingly deep and complex title. I have finished this game in single player and multiplayer (online mode) and there are a few unique features you need to know about when considering this title:

1. Varying gameplay based on difficulty: When you change the difficulty setting, you are given additional side-missions which you can achieve. One example is a boat that needs to be blown up to protect one of your operatives. This is a refreshing change to the rather boring alternative of just having guys who can withstand more headshots or are using faster moving computer AI. This also makes for a more immersive game, since you feel like a real secret agent, who's being trusted with more responsibility as your skills increase.

2. Varying gameplay based in single vs. multiplayer: When I first started playing this with a friend, I was amazed to find that it is actually a different experience. Rather than just heading down the same road as the single player game, the characters actually split paths and have different objectives. For example, on one level, I was a sniper on a roof, providing cover fire for my partner while he was down below trying to complete objectives for the mission. The game actually takes longer to play co-op, and it brings a lot of extra enjoyment.

3. Co-op over Xbox Live: If you have a friend with a 360 who lives far from you, you can play the game together cooperatively. This is a very nice feature for those of us who get tired of being verbally assaulted by teenagers and completely wiped out by the pros. It also allows for a more strategic gameplay, as you can try out different manuvers and see how they work against the AI.

4. Excellent multiplayer support: The game supports all 4 Xbox 360 controllers. You can even go online with 4 players on a single 360 to really help in a team game. This is the only 360 title that I know of that makes this possible. It's great when you want to really show off the power of the 360.

All of this rolls up into a really nice title for the Xbox 360. And, now that I've played it all the way through, I would certainly recommend it for anyone who wants to get a lot of gameplay out of a FPS (First Person Shooter) game with Next-Gen graphics!

Not perfect, but darn near it.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: November 26, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is very, VERY good overall. It is definetly a swell followup to the original. It packs great graphics, flowing smooth gameplay, great weapons, great sound, and a good story and set of characters. The single player is very immersive and well made, and the multiplayer is just as good.

Yet, I cannot forgive this game for it's lack of a jump button. I'm sorry, but it's just that easy: EVERY FPS SHOULD HAVE A JUMP FEATURE. Yes, the game SORT OF makes up for it with the whole "being able to climb over walls" instead, but it doesn't really do the trick.

Other than the absence of the jump button, this game is brilliant. It belongs among the greatest of the first-person shooter genre, right in there with Halo 2.

**First person shooter innovation**

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: November 28, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I will let you know first that I am an first person shooter pro and have been playing since wolfinstine 3D. This new perfect dark is amazing.I enjoy playing and my wife enjoys watching and playing as well.It has a action anime type feel with 007 64 wepons feel.As most perfect dark vets know perfect dark was developed by the original 007 team and this new xbox 360 version has that great responsive control witch is good for new gamers and comfortable for old gamers or vets.<><><><><><>Now the fun part the grafics This game is very detailed and vivid the levels are open and the caracters look sweet there lips move when they talk.When you shoot a bad guy they respond in different ways the yell out "You hit me in the gut."or"Oh my god you killing me." and many other phrazes and qwips. Oh my personal favorite is when there is more than on guy around and you hit one they will say "Hey you need a bandaide for that" or "She is hit.That had to hurt".Depending on what surface you shoot the bullet hole is different like concrete walls have dist particles and make krush like imprints cars make an indention that is very realistic windows shatter too.Sound*If you have a standard souround sound you good but if you are a effect geek like me you have a digital fiber optic sound system and you willl be able to hear every thing from shells droping from enemys wepons acoss the room.<><><><><><>Game play is new and inovative the roll move is somthing that my friends and I have always wanted in a 1ST person shooter I mean why not you can duck so this is new sweet and fun.The cover move is real sweet.When your next to a wall or window you can press the (A) button and your character will cover acorrdingly you will get a aiming curser to lay the smack down.(this is especialy fun with the shot gun) So over all this is a game for the extream and the casual gamer. To all the blogers or whatever just learn to have fun and state facts no one sided jibberish

good, but no where near great

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: November 28, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Well...this is coming from a hater of the original PD. i bought the game reluctantly due to a friend getting it that same day. all i can say is that for 50-60 bucks, we should've gotten a lot more than we did. after waiting how many years to only get 8 or so hours of play is very, very disappointing. but, while it is short, it is a fun play through. in my opinion, it's the multiplayer that gives it a much needed shot of adrenaline, without it, i'd play it, beat it, forget it.

What Would Elvis Do?

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: January 11, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The original Perfect Dark was so darn good that when I saw this for a measly twenty bucks I couldn't pass it up. I spent a good year on the original--it was an all-purpose shooter. Even if you were alone, the multiplayer bots kept things fresh, and there were a million and one options to tinker around with.

That game stored not only your custom-tailored character but also your lifetime stats down to the mileage you've run and every round fired. This made it the cartridge of choice whenever I invited people over and we wanted something to play. There was fierce competition in my apartment for several months as people vied for dominance in one stat group or another. If you weren't a marksman, maybe you would only use mines and thus lay claim to the title of most explosive kills and so on. I tell you all this so you'll understand that not a little bit of nostalgia factored into my overall rating. If I hadn't played the original this one would probably get three stars. As it was, I enjoyed it more than a newcomer might.

So I was very pleased to see that bots were being included in this installment as well. I don't know why other games don't mimic Perfect Dark's multiplayer system. All I know is that between the original and Dark Zero, I kept wishing for a game that played just as well with multiplayer just as customizable, and never got it until now.

There are a number of standard rulesets like killcount and capture the flag but there are also scenarios that can be fought through against other live players.

The best, though, is when you have a friend over and want to play. Then you can have a real versus match--none of that one-on-one crap that gets old very fast. Want to play 5v5? Just add eight bots. Instant opponents, or teammates. You can adjust their skill levels anywhere from completely pathetic to death incarnate. And if you're better than your friend, you can add a couple extra bots to his team.

Missing, though, are a lot of those options I mentioned before. You can't customize your character in this one (forgivable), you can't tailor the bots' personalities or appearances (also forgivable), and you can't view your lifetime stats anymore (blasphemy! burn the witch!). That left Dark Zero feeling more cramped than the original. I still can't figure out why they removed all that content. Ah, well. The deathmatch arena in Perfect Dark Zero is still the most fun multiplayer--even just against bots--I've experienced in a while.

As far as the single player campaign goes, it's ruthlessly average. Not bad at all--not even implying that. Everything's rock-solid, action-wise. I just mean the story and the levels are so-so. Nothing standout here. Nothing unsatisfactory, either. You'll get your share of challenges. Some of the stretches you have to navigate in this game will keep you on your toes. I must have tried the bridge assault level ten or twelve times before I made it.

There were a couple of noticeable flaws in the otherwise smooth veneer of this experience, though. One was the physics of a downed bad guy. It's really common in this game for a dead body to start "dancing" on the ground, or even take off and hover in midair for a while. You'll waste a lot of bullets shooting at dead bodies you think are attacking you. Another is the shadows. I haven't seen shadows that pixelated since SNES. Still, these are pretty minor. You won't have a problem overlooking them in favor of the action.

I really liked the music in this game. It seemed to fit perfectly and it did a good job of getting me into whatever was happening onscreen. No thick atmosphere here, but that's a good thing. You're promised an adrenaline rush or ten, and it delivers. Consequently the themes in Dark Zero are much more energetic than in the original. The opening video and song reminded me strongly of Bond credits. Slick.

All in all, I truly liked it. There were flaws, but it was a well-executed game. When you factor in the price you can't go wrong. It's a solid shooter and the adaptable deathmatch will keep you playing for a while.

Perfect Dark Zero

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: December 14, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is amazing, ten stars. I can understand when people say it's not responsive enough but the truth is it can be made to. In the game menu just go to senseativity you can spin as fast as you like. And the speed may be slow but it's relistic. do you realy think in real life you can sprint while holding a rocket launcher. No I didn't think so. Thats why RARE did a great job, they made the game so that if you put away your weapon, You can sprint, or if you have a magnum you can run faster then someone with a rifle. This adds for great strategy like knowing when to pull out your weapon, or put it away and run. Anyway you look at it this is a great game.

Not so 'perfect'...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: November 23, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I must respectfully disagree with the reviewer below me. I snagged this game last night on the assumption that it would push the power of my new 360 console. Sadly, Microsoft's 'flagship' title for the Xbox 360 offers not much new to the FPS genre, to include the purported 'revolutionary' graphics. I'm not knocking the game, it is enjoyable and the multiplayer action on Live is tremendous fun. I'm simply not seeing anything here that wouldn't have looked incredible on my old Xbox, much less a justification to buy a next-gen console.

Conclusion: If you're making PD0 the cornerstone of your arguement to buy a new Xbox 360 this weekend, I'd recommend another title that DOES showcase the abilities of this amazing machine, such as Call of Duty 2 or Kameo.

I hope this helps.

Locked and loaded

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: December 08, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The week of the Xbox 360 launch, I would have been terrified if I were in the shoes of a Rare developer. Their game, Perfect Dark Zero, was largely viewed as the spearhead game for the launch. Therefore it was subject to more expectations, more criticism,
and more potential disappointment than any other game on the console. Not to mention, Rare has been frowned upon for a weak Xbox showing after being bought by Microsoft for a little short of $400 million. After completing the single-player campaign and
spending hours on Xbox Live fragging both humans and bots, I'll start clapping now for the once-thriving British developer. Perfect Dark Zero takes a hopeful look, locks, loads, fires, and delivers a blow as the best Xbox 360 launch game and one of the prime shooters of the year.

The story, which feels surprisingly tacked-on to an otherwise solid single-player experience, outlines the bounty hunter life of Joanna and Jack Dark. The Dark pair is tracking down the actions of Zhang Li, the CEO of the dataDyne Corporation, which
is hell-bent on uncovering and using a secret artifact found in South America. Along the way, Joanna is sent to chilly mountains of China, steamy jungles in Peru, and an underwater facility in the Pacific Ocean. Perfect Dark Zero begins as stealth-based
but turns into an all-out hunt at the end of its story. The ending had me rolling my eyes and shaking my head, but by then the story had already rendered me uninterested. It was fun to learn why Joanna affiliates herself with the Carrington Institute
and pursues the dataDyne Coproration before the events of Perfect Dark, but the story just doesn't make par with today's standards.

Despite the ridiculous ending Perfect Dark Zero does a fantastic job presenting and fulfilling each of its thirteen missions. There is a bit of variation from simply killing the artificially unintelligent enemies. Whether you're finding an important
object inside a briefcase in the Sewer Retrieval level, sneaking into Zhang Li's mansion in the Mansion Infiltration level, or monitoring guards in the Nightclub Stakeout level, there is a lot to do and each mission plays differently. Each one is between five and twenty minutes long, making the single-player experience disappointingly short. Still, with four difficulty levels (including the Dark Agent setting that is quite excruciating) and more objectives for each setting, Perfect Dark Zero doesn't
offer a lot. What it does offer you can play with in a few different ways. There are multiple paths through each mission, and using the four different in-game gadgets (like the lock-picking 'locktopus' and the explosive demolition kit), as well as the weapons, opens up a lot more variety in each level.

What I always loved about the Nintendo 64 classic was its staggering number of guns and gadgets to use. Perfect Dark Zero returns with another huge offering. Each of the 20+ tools has more than one use, making for almost fifty different ways to kill
enemies or complete objectives. For example, the high rate of fire and decent stopping power of the RCP-90 submachine gun is accompanied by a thermal vision that allows you to differentiate between friends and foes by outlining each in different colors.
The tons-O'-fun rocket launcher is even more explosive with the guided-by-wire rocket mode that allows you to direct and explode a rocket on your own free will. The KSI-74 (which is decidedly just a fancy AK-47) is deadly at medium range with
its regular bullets but for when the going gets tough and up-close, you can always shoot the attached bayonet at enemies. The return of the powerful, accurate Laptop Gun is my favorite, especially in multiplayer--when I wasn't unloading on enemies, I could always throw the weapon down as a self-activated, defensive sentry gun. It's this weapon variation that makes every experience different, and I certainly enjoyed the guns in this game more than in Halo 2 and other shooters.

While the single-player might be lacking in length, the multiplayer allows gamers to increase game time exponentially. Both on and offline, there are two different types of multiplayer modes--Deathmatch and Dark Ops. Deathmatch is quite simply a deathmatch mode. There are a few types of play, like the free-for-all KillCount and a team-based version, Team KillCount. Capture the Flag and Territorial Gains round out the rest of Deathmatch. CTF and Territorial Gains are almost the exact same thing you've played in other shooters, and Territorial Gains is blatantly similar to Halo 2's territories mode. Deathmatch modes are much quicker and are aimed at the less hardcore crowd. Most of my Xbox Live time was spent here, as I appreciated being able to pick up the controller, play a few rounds, and turn the game off without getting too involved.

On the other hand is Dark Ops. This mode features four more gametypes, each operating in tactical rounds rather than all-out battle. Eradication is an elimination-style mode where players are removed from the match after being killed and the team with the last surviving player wins. I didn't like this mode, as it invites a slow pace and too much hiding. Onslaught, which has teams defending a base against constantly respawning enemies, is the second Dark Ops type. This is much more intense and exciting than Eradication. Third is Infection, which is similar to the popular custom-made game "Zombies" or "Resident Evil". There is a team of "infected" players and "uninfected" players. The uninfected players try to fend off the infected, but become infected themselves if they're killed. By the end of the match, infected and uninfected points are tallied and the team with the most points wins. It's fun, it's simple, and it's exciting like it was on Halo 2. Last of all is Sabotage, where teams try to destroy as much property and kill each other as many times as possible and the team with the most demolition wins.

As if these match-based modes weren't enough, it's possible to go through every single level from the single-player campaign in cooperative play. The levels are actually a little different in this mode, as switches must be activated at the same time and players can strategize to take out enemies without losing as much health. Some of the weapon functions, like the Falcon pistol's Firecracker distraction, come in handy in cooperative play more than they ever do in single-player. I like that it's possible to play cooperatively. Even though PDZ's missions aren't as epic as those found in Halo, the fact that cooperative play is available is a sign that Rare worked hard to incorporate a lot for gamers to play in the game.

Huge, wide-open levels, beautiful textures, and detailed character models are only a few visual feats under PDZ's belt. Details like particle effects, blood spray, muzzle flash, bullet shells, and vision blur are so perfectly done in this game that even without a high-definition television set, you're getting a visual treat. I got a chance to play this game in high-def and I can't even believe how amazing it looks. Surrounding the crisp, clear look is a futuristic art style that fits so well in each of the 13 levels. From the neon-lit port in the Nightclub Stakeout to the huge, open canyon in Bridge Assault, every single level looks fantastic. The physics system is a little buggy when a corpse falls and starts to twitch but that is the only visual complaint I can find to mention here. The music serves as a perfect way to set the pace of the action going on. I don't remember music being so great in a first-person shooter since, well, Halo. The low-key, moody stuff found in the slow, stealthy missions gives you a chance to listen for enemy chatter and footsteps. The electronica-rock that tears out of the speakers when the action gets rough will have your blood pumping hard while you're shredding enemies with your Laptop Gun. If it weren't for the annoying voices of Joanna Dark and a few other characters found in the game, as well as some laughable dialogue, I'd say that PDZ is a sonically flawless title.

The only warning I must give my fellow gamers is that Perfect Dark Zero, despite being looked at as the "Halo 2 of the Xbox 360", isn't this at all. Perfect Dark Zero isn't a revolutionary shooter. It can be easily argued that the single-player missions are a joke and the multiplayer is unimpressive. I simply can't agree with that, but it's important to remember that Perfect Dark Zero is PDZ, not Halo 2. Perfect Dark Zero is a great shooter on its own right but it isn't a game that will redefine first-person shooters and it isn't a game that will redefine the Xbox 360. As a launch title, it's a huge success. As an anticipated launch title, it's simply a success. As a title that some people will instantly compare to Halo 2 and Half-Life 2, it's a disappointment. If you took one of these three routes, I hope you took one of the first two and you check out Perfect Dark Zero. At this point, it's my favorite Xbox 360 title and it is one of the strongest launch games of all time next to the Nintendo 64's Super Mario 64, the Xbox's Halo, and the Dreamcast's NFL 2K. Play this game because it's a great shooter. Play this game because it's got a lot to offer on Xbox Live. Play this game because it's one of the most impressive visual and audio packages of the entire year. But whatever you do, don't play this game because you think it's Halo 3.

[...]

For the same time in my life I wish I had listened to the haters

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 8
Date: December 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game controls pretty bad. The responsiveness is not what we have been accustomed to in the past years while playing the Halos, Quakes, Call of Duties, Farcry, Battlefields, Half Lives, Rainbow Sixes etc, etc. etc. The point is any good game has responsive controls and this one doesn't. I advise you to rent it and see for yourself, this game will make you appreciate what we now take for granted in shooters: Responsive controls. I can see I was not a lucky coincidence to find this game already used at my local games store. There was a good reason for the previous owner to trade it in. I will trade it in today for Call of Duty.

Game suprised me a lot

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: January 09, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game suprised me a lot, in good and bad ways. I thought game play would be um...average. Well the gameplay in my opinion makes this game. Play CO-OP with a friend online or split screen(my fav. part of this game) play tons of different types of games on x box live. You can even bring a guest online!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you and a friend want to play multiplayer and you dont have x box live but dont want to go head to head...NO PROBLEM just add bots and set their difficulty levels. The controls are very good and there is just so much little stuff that made this game awesome. You can dual wield guns, blow holes through walls with demo kits and unlock/lock doors. There are a lot of differents guns ranging from pistols, sub machine guns to rocket launchers and automatic machine guns. Each gun has a secondary function such as a grenade launcher plus many other unique things. Graphics arent as good as I thought they would be but are still "Next Gen" and sharp. The story line is decent but confusing at time. Overall This game is an awesome launch title game.

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