Perfect Dark Zero

"A love or hate experience.... That I loved."

I get home, and start to unwrap everything that the 360 has and then I move to my next decision. Do I play Perfect Dark Zero first or Call of Duty 2. I decided to go with PDZ.

GRAPHICS: 9/10
When I turned on the game I could instantly see the graphical differences between Xbox and Xbox 360. The walls are have many layers of texture on them making them as real looking as possible. When ever you run into a brick wall in the game, you will want to stop and just stare at it because it is so amazing looking. The only gripe I have here is that it's defineitly not as good as it could be. I am 100% sure that the Xbox 360 is capable of so much more than the graphics it puts out in this game. My favorite graphical thing is the guns. They are so polished. I found myself staring at my gun every now and then and getting shot instead of fighting back.

MUSIC: 9/10
Music.... Not what I expected for this game. Then again, music is all about opinion. Most of the tracks are upbeat pop tunes. They aren't really bad but they just aren't my type of songs. They are defineitly listenable. They don't get on my nerves but I would much rather have rock tunes. The good thing about this is that the 360 lets you use Custom Soundtracks in any game. Don't like the music? Don't complain, just pop in a CD and rip it your harddrive.

SOUND: 10/10
The guns all sound amazing. There are many sci-fi guns in the game and each has their own unique sound that makes them seem very realistic. You can hear footsteps as you run and if you are in the snow, you can hear the snow crunching under your army boots. Just overall very good.

GAMEPLAY: 9/10
This is the love or hate experience I was talking about in the title. When I first popped in the game, I couldn't believe I had bought the game. It was slow paced, hard to aim, and I kept getting killed. I decided not to give up on it though. I was so used to Halo 2 and this game is nothing like that. I bumped up the sensitivity on my controller and it made the game seem much more fast paced. For the aiming issue, I just kept at it. It has auto-aim just like Halo 2 but it is far less noticable so it makes it much harder to aim. You just have to practice. After a couple of hours online, I felt like a pro, and was getting headshots left and right.

SINGLE PLAYER/CO-OP: 10/10
This is one of the best parts of the game. Right from the outset of the story you are thrust into a VR mission. It is very entertaining and perfect for getting you ready for the rest of the game. It teaches you everything you need to know, just like any first level should. You play as JoAnna Dark, a bounty hunter in training under her father Jack Dark. Corporations control everything and you are trying to fight back against the MAN. The levels are all thought out very well and there are plot twists abound. Near the end of the game you are so pumped up for revenge against the evil dataDyne corporation that you will forget you are playing a game. The best part of all this is that you can go through the game with a friend too! Offline only however...

ONLINE PLAY: 10/10
This is where the game truly shines. If you have Xbox Live, you owe it to yourself to buy this game. You have about 20 weapons and each weapon has 2 functions. Even your fists. One function punches and the other disarms people so they don't have anything to fight you with. It adds for some very unique gameplay. There are 6 multiplayer maps. Old Town, Tower, Urban, Desert, Temple and Subway. Each level has a unique terrain and all are very good. Their will be more later downloadable via Xbox Live. Each level expands depending on how many people are in your game at the moment. The levels can get bigger if I have 32 people playing and will shrink if half of those people leave, making for more action. And yes, the game supports 32 on a map at the same time, with NO LAG. I have DSL, and I haven't gotten lag one time while playing this game, not even with 32 people. It runs very smooth. There are also very many gametypes such as KillCount, Team KillCount, etc. My favorite it Infection in which infected characters try to infect the uninfected. You have to band together with your teammates for survival and it makes for great teamwork. Overall, online is AMAZING.

OVERALL: 9/10
The game is amazing. If you have a 360, you need this game. Especially if you have Xbox Live. The only reason it doesn't get a 10 from me is because the music and graphics could defineitly be better. The character deaths look stupid too. But overall the game is great. GET IT.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/28/05