| Author | Review |
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Tasty Pastry
143,892
TA Score for this game: 1,833
Posted on 26 December 09 at 13:26, Edited on 15 December 11 at 04:09 |
This review has 45 positive votes and 8 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Perfect Dark Zero Review
Tasty pastry
Single Player
Perfect Dark Zero is the prequel to the perfect dark game released on the Nintendo 64. As a result this game only takes place in the near distant future, and the game’s functions circle around that fact. You’re a spy operative who is working in a small “company” that includes your father and the “secretary”. Your basic plot through each level is to kill the bad guys, hoping to, in the end, kill the main boss. The game gives you multiple tools to accomplish this task. First of all there is the obvious gun hardware you become acquainted with. There is the typical pistols, but also shotguns, rifles, and snipers. Beyond that there is some “new technology” weapons. These include a gun that you can attach to the wall that fires automatically. There is also a sniper that can see through objects. You can also use a katana type sword. Each gun has a secondary function that may come of assistance. The katana sword can block bullets from the front when using its secondary function. One of the pistols can shoot out the magazines and have them unload the magazines on the floor, distracting the enemy. You get the point.
Beyond that there is also gadgets to help you get through some of the game. You’ll use a lock breaking technology that will create a little mini-game for you to complete. There is also some binoculars to help you identify important bad guys that you will encounter the use of on one of the first levels. And so on.
In the single player campaign you will unravel the plot of a madman trying to unlock god-like powers from above in an attempt to take over world/become immortal/you get it. You’ll fight the basic henchmen but you’ll also see some robotic spider enemies, guys with jetpacks, hovercrafts, etc. There are multiple difficulties to play on with clever names but they basically range from easy to very hard. To be honest with you, I have only beaten the game on “normal”. I have attempted to beat the first level on hard (not very hard) and I had serious problems with it. You’ll hit checkpoints, but they aren’t quite often enough, but you can keep respawning (no live limit). The bigger problem is that you’ll run out of ammo at one point, especially if you try to do all the mini-objectives the game puts forth for you.
There is an acceptable amount of levels, maybe one too many to be tolerable, but you get your money's worth. The game uses the classic cover method that has become pretty famous throughout the xbox 360. You can also use a roll, and climb over obstacles, but you can’t jump or sprint. There are mini-objectives throughout each mission but these aren’t really necessary to complete the mission, despite how important they may sometimes sound. You can go in shooting most of the time and be fine without ruining much.
The enemies move kind of like they are in slow motion and attempt to roll an excessive amount. A lot of the time you’ll swear that they are infinitely spawning. When they die they will dissolve and evaporate into the air. Yup. The game is on the all time best sellers list for the xbox 360 for two reasons:
• It was one of the original games to come out for the system when selection was limited
• The game on the Nintendo 64 had a very large following, which led to brand labeling as the game being assumed good
Was that blunt enough? In other words, I didn’t like this game very much, and I haven’t found many who consider it worthy of its sales. The gameplay gets boring as guys just constantly flow at you, you run out of ammo, checkpoints are too largely separated, etc. Not to mention the lackluster graphics and obvious plot that is deemed worth for a five year old to understand. Half of this game doesn’t make any sense at all. Plus they only put it in the near distant future (think 15 years) so some of the things that occur are even more lucrative because they can be seen as a near future possibility rather than a science fiction point of intrigue, if you understand what I mean. The guns are at least kind of fun, and I do have a soft spot for shooting constantly respawning bad guys (brings me back to the 007 days on the N64…). The gameplay has only gotten worse over time as even the most pedestrian xbox 360 games incorporate a more in-depth movement and cover system.
Final Single Player Score: 4/10
Multiplayer
Considering this was going to be one of the original games for the xbox 360, the developers put a lot of work into developing the multiplayer of this game. In all honesty it was basically play this or play Halo 2, as all the other games were still non-existent or diminishing quickly with the original xbox. Therefore you’re going to find a local multiplayer, a system link multiplayer, and a xbox live multiplayer. They all operate the same way, despite the difference in connectivity. You can personalize the game settings, which can include gametypes like capture the flag, deathmatch, team deathmatch, infection (zombies), Sabotage (destroy their stuff), Eradiication (kill those zombies), Onslaught. Then you can choose the number of kills to go up to (preset numbers to choose from) and time limit (also preset numbers to choose from). Then you can choose player slots and computer slots. Choose computer difficulties and if you want them to have “personalities” (Attack primarily the player that is in first, the one who killed you last, etc). You can decide who is on what team, the weapons that will be used (either from a preselected set or by creating your own set). If the gametype allows it you can also choose rounds played and what not. Basically there are a lot of options for setting up a game scenario, which is the highpoint of the multiplayer.
Beyond that you’ll play on simplistic maps that force you to know the spawn points if you ever want to find anyone. You can’t jump in this game, so there are no “fun” spots to get to without walking up a ramp of some sort. You’ll have to know where the weapons spawn as well if you want to compete. You’ll b e fighting the same type of bots you would be fighting in single player, except now with your own settings for the gametype. And you know, it really is a well put together multiplayer, if the gameplay itself wasn’t so disappointing. Again you’ll be using simplistic cover techniques, bots will be excessively rolling all over the place, and the game will be just missing that “thing”, that one item that separates itself from all the generic shooters that seem to exist on the xbox 360.
As a sidenote there are many maps to choose from, and there are map packs available on the DLC, and they are still coming out with more despite the games age. I wouldn’t say the community is dead, but you won’t find anyone online at 2 am, that’s for sure. Oh, by the way, if you do decide to play some system link you’ll find a funny little thing. The host’s game will load first. If there is bots they will be loaded. That means the host can get about 3 kills before the other people even load into the game. Just a fun fact for you…*sigh*
There is a co-op you can play if you feel the desire. It makes the single player a little more bearable if you’re doing it with a friend, and maybe a little more capable of being done. It should be noted that if you are going to 100% the game you need to beat the game in both anyway though, so, ya know.
Final Multiplayer Score: 6/10
Graphics
I almost feel bad on bashing this game’s graphics considering when it was produced, but it truly is an embarrassment to the xbox 360’s processing power. The cutscenes are often times not cinematic, which means you’ll just see what you would see in regular gameplay. When it is cinematic it is lackluster at best, with unrealistic looking blood and injuries and overemphasized slow motion. The bots “run” will make you giggle to yourself as it looks like they are using robotic legs. Each person is basically a cookie cutter face with odd shaped legs. It doesn’t even look like they spent much time on the boss at the end of the game, which is a real disappointment. They often just have flashes of light to show items “malfunctioning” rather than something more believable. They spent the most time on your character, Dark, who wears the same outfit throughout the game that consists of too short a shirt, tipped pants, and a belt that touches the skin with dyed hair. Although it is supposed to be, you know, interesting to the fourteen year old male, it just makes it less believable that the whole spy scenario is actually viable. To be fair, they did have to stick with the model from previous games. It should also be noted in here that there will be extremely long loading times throughout the game.
Final Graphics Score: 4/10
Sound
I don’t think there was a bigger disappointment than the sound in this game. The gun fire sounds obviously computer created. When people get shot they let out a “UGH” that gets pretty repetitive. The voice acting would be okay except the dialogue is so horrible that it amplifies any fault. When you are playing a multiplayer game there isn’t any background music to entertain you while you’re slowly walking from your spawn point to the fight.
Final Sound score: 3/10
Achievements
I changed my mind. There was a bigger disappointment than the sound. It’s the achievements. To be fair first of all, I don’t like the game, so beating the game is a chore in itself, which directly relates to the achievement problems. That being said, I’ve looked all over, and the majority of people don’t have many if any of the achievements since they are so hard to get and not proportional to the amount of time they take.
• Although the online multiplayer had a decent display at the game’s release, they greatly overshot the multiplayer achievement play expectancy. You’ll see achievements like “play 1000 deathmatch games”. Did I mention that all games are divided into two subcategories deathmatch and darkops? Yea, that means if you want to 100% the game you have to play 2000 mutliplayer matches.
• Beyond them just being greatly overshot, those multiplayer achievements, which are a compounded statistic (get 1000 sniper kills is through all multiplayer games played) only counts if you finish the game. That means you have to have a time limit or kill limit for the game to end if you want any of those to count towards you.
• There are extensive single player achievements. Yes, they are stackable, but the hardest difficulty wont unlock until you beat a hard difficulty itself, so have fun playing through the game twice, when I could barely bring myself to get through it once. Oh, not to mention, you then have to rebeat it on at least those two difficulties, in co-op.
• Know what that means? It means the first time you play the game, you pick it up, put it in your xbox, and pick single player? You’ll get one achievement. After many levels. That means you’ll probably save and quit at some point. That means you wont have an achievement after 2 hours. That annoys me, I don’t know about you.
I have 360 out of the 1000 points, but that is a significant amount. I’ve been chugging through them like crazy recently I just feel I have to get some value out of it (bought it for 60 new way back when), so I’m going to try to get at least 800 of those points. As of 2011, this game having come out with the Xbox 360's release, I have 800 of the gamerscore and do not intend to get any more. If you’ve ever thought you’ve seen tediously annoying achievements, try getting 1000 headshot kills.
Final Achievement Score: 1/10
DLC
There is DLC for this game, and it is going to get my highest score of all the categories so far! Honestly, I think it’s the category that is least responsible for making a game good, but it is the most responsible for making a good game great. However, this game is neither of those, but it should still be mentioned. There is a couple of map packs for download, and one of them is actually free. I heard reports recently that they were even working on another one, years after its creation. You can also get the generic gamer pictures and themes if that is your thing. Maybe a guns downloadable pack would be a cool idea for the future? We’ll see.
Final DLC score: 9/10
Pros/Cons:
Pros:
• A decent amount of weapons to choose from for gameplay, including some interesting ones with secondary functions.
• There is an adequate amount of levels in the single player campaign.
• There are multiple difficulties to choose from in the single player campaign.
• You can really get into customizing your game options in your multiplayer menu.
• You can play offline, online, or system link multiplayer. In there you can have up to 16 players (including bots). You can also use bots, unlike many games that have online multiplayer (Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, etc)
Cons:
• Achievements are extremely tedious for the amount of points they distribute.
• Graphics are pretty lame, as are cutscenes.
• You run out of ammo often in the single player campaign
• There is no penalty or reward for not doing any of the side-missions
• The plot is extremely predictable, and doesn’t really make sense
• Doesn’t hold a torch to the game on the N64
• Checkpoints are often too spread out
• The hardest difficulty I consider impossible
• The bots roll every time you shoot at them, which gets annoying really fast
Final Score: 4.75/10
Other Comments:
I think this is one game you should absolutely avoid. If you’re a gamerpoint junkie you might think about picking this up for its cheap price since it has been out for so long, but I even advise against that, since getting any points at all in itself is a hassle. The only thing I really consider the game good for is if you’re bored and just want unrelenting bots to run at you while you snipe them in the face to take out some anger issues. If my review didn’t stop you from buying the game, I’m going to say it here. Don’t buy. Don’t buy. Don’t buy. This isn’t the N64 game that was good. This was the largest disappointment video game I’ve ever tried.
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xX EL DlABLO Xx
134,250
TA Score for this game: 3,438
Posted on 17 May 10 at 08:12, Edited on 21 May 10 at 08:09 |
This review has 13 positive votes and 3 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
A near-futuristic setting, heavy firepower, kickass explosions and a hot babe; most would find this to be a winning combination of strong selling points when searching for their next video game purchase. Indeed, when the original Perfect Dark hit store shelves in 2000 for the Nintendo 64, the game had a lot going for it. It provided a fresh and amusing single player experience and countless hours of fun while playing head-to-head against friends, and that the experience Rare tried to capture once again with its prequel to the original game, Perfect Dark Zero, a title that accompanied the Xbox 360 launch on November 22.
For newcomers to the series who haven't had the opportunity to play the original Perfect Dark, fear not, you needn't be familiar with the original installment to be able to enjoy the title. It's meant to serve as a prequel of sorts to the events of the N64 version, even though there are very few parallels between both games. Aside from the single-player story mode, there is also the very strong multiplayer aspect, where most of the fun resides. Featuring the ability to play over Xbox Live or System Link, there are a myriad of assorted game modes to choose from, which will keep players far from boredom.
In the story mode, players will take the role of the fiery redhead, Joanna Dark. Accompanied by her father, the duo acts as a pair of bounty hunters, although there is more of a superspy feel to the game, which veterans of the series will distinguish. Sadly, Perfect Dark Zero's plot feels rather tacky and like a cheap setup leading up to the action, much like old Kung Fu movies, which can be a good thing, depending on how you look at it. There's mention of a vile, power hungry businessman on a quest for some sort of artifact and Joanna and her father hunting him down. Really, if you're playing PDZ for a deep and engaging story, you'll be thoroughly disappointed.
Seeing as how the game is focused heavily around its first-person combat, Rare made sure they refined their gameplay mechanics as much as possible, and there are certain areas where this really shows. The firefights and explosions are top notch, and there's even motion blur when moving and heat effects emanating from fire to boot! Another highly important part is the title's impressive roster of firepower; it wouldn't be a Perfect Dark title without it. Throughout Joanna's journey spanning 12 big levels, players will come across a plethora of weapons, ranging from pistols, assault rifles, sniper rifles all the way up to rocket launchers. Each firearm has a secondary function, and a few even have a tertiary one, such as the M4-like assault rifle that sports the typical grenade launcher, and a silencer as a 3rd function. Pistols and most SMGs can be dual-wielded and each gun will affect your character's running speed, depending on the size and weight of it. A good example of this would be someone running around with a pistol as opposed to the rocket launcher; the speed will be vastly different.
Over the course of each level, you/ll face hordes of enemies, all of which usually get promptly cut down unless you get lost in the annoyingly designed levels and end up running in circles. While the AI isn't bad, it isn't very good either and provides little in the way of a challenge on the lower difficulty levels. In the rare occasion that you are killed, the chances are high that you'll be forced to restart from the beginning of the level due to the lack of quick saving, although there are a few checkpoints that are far and few apart.
Another major gripe I have with the game is the controls; there's an annoying, sluggish, and clunky feeling that you can't help but shake when moving or trying to aim. Even after tweaking with the sensitivity and control scheme, there was still something that just didn't feel quite right when playing. In addition, characters appear to move slowly, as if they're wading through shallow water, which can sound quite silly when described as so, but it's something that needs to be seen to fully understand.
While some may finish the single player storyline fairly quickly, or just get bored of it, the real fun to be had is on Xbox Live, System Link or against a bunch of friends in split-screen mode. The multiplayer aspect supports the typical variants everyone has become accustomed to, such as: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture The Flag and territorial gain-style matches. Additionally, there's a section titled "Dark Ops" featuring a variety of Counter-Strike inspired, round-based matches, where players can gain money to purchase gear and may only respawn at the beginning of each round. For each game mode, bots can also be assigned to replace players. An irritation I have with the multiplayer though is that it seems to take a very copious amount of ammunition to kill your opponents, which can be quite annoying at times, especially since headshots are difficult to achieve.
Visually, Perfect Dark Zero definitely does not disappoint, unless you have no choice but to play the game on a non-HDTV television set, in which case many parts of the game look a little above a current-generation Xbox title. When you do unleash the power of the 360 with a high definition television, or the HD/AV VGA cables, the game looks incredible. The explosions are some of the best to date and the special effects are superb. While some of the generic models for Joanna's foes can be ugly up close, the important characters in the game look impressive and the exotic locales that players will visit are even more stunning. Ranging from a nightclub, laboratories, an alpine fortress, urban rooftops and even a jungle, there certainly is enough variety for anyone in here. The framerate is usually consistent, although there are a few occasional slowdowns, but these usually occur in massive firefights while playing online.
In the aural department, PDZ is rather a mixed bag. To begin, the sound effects are great. Most of the guns sound exactly as you'd expect them too, although a few do sound underpowered and weak. The explosions are splendid and fierce firefights are a lot more engrossing thanks to the sound. What really drags the game down in this aspect is the horribly cheesy voice acting. It sounds so forced and unbelievable, much like the dialogue found in a bad western or kung fu movie before a big fight scene. The musical score is also well varied and fits nicely with the context of the game and each level.
Overall, Perfect Dark Zero may be disappointing to some, but this doesn't mean it's a bad game by any means. Although it does have its fair share of shortcomings, there's also a lot of fun to be had, specifically in 32-player matches over Xbox Live. Having been under pressure to make the launch of the 360, PDZ does feel a little rushed in certain areas, which is disappointing as it had a lot to live up to thanks to the original installment for Nintendo 64. The audio-visual department of the game is certainly impressive, even more so if you're the owner of a HDTV and a good sound system, but the voice acting is just downright tacky.
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FittedCab
76,567
TA Score for this game: 3,438
Posted on 13 March 13 at 11:16, Edited on 21 March 13 at 05:57 |
This review has 3 positive votes and 17 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Perfect dark zero is a prequel to an arguable classic FPS game Perfect dark.
PDZ was a launch game for the Xbox 360 in November of 2005. Therefore it's
the first FPS game of this console generation. Graphics and gameplay was at focus
for the common gamer and for a brief minute it could've been something... Better than this turd!
PDZ campaign contains 14 missions that vary from stealth (infiltration) and shooting (escape).Joanna Dark, our main protagonist, is a rookie spy which explains why every op she goes turn into mayhem. Plot is irrelevant since cut scenes are boring stupid and voice acting could've been left out and spend that money on making a playable game instead. You can also share you're pain in co-op and ruin your friends day aswell.
Missions do change a bit depending on difficulty and number of players. This means the harder the difficulty the more mission objectives there is.Some missions have a hidden time limit that if it expires mission fails and it's game over.
My main grudge with the campaign is that it's trial and error type of gamestyle. You will fail missions just because you don't understand what it is you're suppose to do and in what order. Go to the right place wrong time it can glitch the rest of the mission and sometimes there's a long delay before the game even realises that you screw'd something up. PDZ looks like a shooter but plays as a stelth game go guns blazing and you'll die for sure (not on easy though but might ruin mission objective). So stealth is the way to go but taking your time still requires you to know the map and the random enemies that spawn behind(!) you. There's atleast two mission where two enemies appear from nowhere and will suprise you because you were sure you've killed everything in the previous rooms. Many times you will feel that the game is unfair because of cheap deaths and a lousy cover system. Enemies reaction and aiming is something that the terminator would be jealous of. On the hardest difficulty enemies are always shooting you in the head so it usually takes one shot for you to die. On those playthroughs knowing enemy spawn is crucial and carrying a powerful weapon is recommendable. Oh and there's no checkpoints on Dark agent difficulty so getting to the end and dying on the last guy is fun like cancer.
Gameplay is familiar but clunky. Sometimes in combat you might drop a weapon or accindentally trade your main weapon for whatever is lying on the ground because you swap weapons in your inventory with the same button(Y). This can cause panic and death but is more of a get use to mechanic than a game breaker. Shooting isn't simply fun and enemies seem to be immune to bullets even when headshotting them. If you shoot an enemy in the head from cover undetected it's one shot kill but if they're engaging you it can take three to four bullets to the head with pistol to get the job done. Machineguns can feed a clip to a bad guy and he just puts you to his shit list. How nice 
Graphics are decent at best. There's alot of stories about this games development and one is that ths game was supposed to be on the original Xbox but got delayed so they decided to make it a launch game for 360. So the graphics are scaled up to be HD but it's really not. Some areas look ok but over all everything looks like plastic and shiny (my precious). Frame rate drops like it's doing the eagle when there's stuff happening i.e mission 12 on the brigde with I'd say 12-15 enemies shooting at you and your company of 10 AIs. Also mission 09 is a jungle mission so there's alot of plants and bushes(where this game should be) that really affect your view of seeing the enemies but obviously they can see you through everything so if one shot kills you and you can't really see shit you can understand knowing where the spawns are helping alot. You can use RC-90s secondary function to show surrounding grey and enemies red but if theyre behing a bush you still can't see them!
Multiplayer has bots. That's all you need to know. Seriously there's no point talking about since there's nobody playing this shit online!!!
So achievements in this game are... Challenging. Most are easy specially the MP ones and there's great guides on this site for those. Hard ones are the campaign related high difficulty achievements. Playing this game on the hardest difficulty is like having sex with limp dick it can be done but nobody is gonna enjoy it. So good luck with that if you started this game and want to complete it because you're gonna needed it.
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