December 7, 2005 - In gaming circles, as in regular everyday life, there are always categories to be named which separate seemingly normal individuals. When first person shooters are discussed, for example, there are two very distinct camps. The first is a fanatical, loud, proud bunch who believe that, without question, Halo and Halo 2 are the greatest games every made. You generally recognize this group because of their long-standing oratory skills which generally gravitate around the “just because” logic. The second, more introverted group on the other hand, includes all the unfortunate people who “better not say anything bad about Halo, or else!” Well, I am part of this last group and I’ve long ago given up trying to make sense of the whole mess. I much prefer a good RPG or racing game or tactical shooter over Halo any day of the week and I can explain, in great detail no less, why. But I’m not naive enough to think that I will ever change the mind or attitude of Halo fanatics. I’m glad they have their game and I envy their dedication. In fact, since Halo 2’s release, I’ve yet to go online and not have at least one person on my friends’ list playing Halo 2. That is truly a testament to that game, regardless of how much I like it. And so, to those millions of FPS fans out there, I say this: Even though you can still play Halo 2 in high-res on the 360, you should still consider running, not walking, to get Perfect Dark Zero. This is truly the game that you have been waiting for and may be your best substitute on the 360 until Halo 3 is released. PDZ will amaze you, delight you and entertain you with so many online options and new gameplay mechanics to learn and master. There are tons of achievements to be racked up, lots of stats to keep you happy and plenty of people playing it night and day. PDZ also has an amazing co-op mode, a clever DarkOps Mode reminiscent of Counter-Strike and enough to please all die-hard FPS fans and fanatics alike.

Now that “they” are gone, Perfect Dark Zero (much like Halo 2) is not the be-all and end-all of games, even on the 360. Years in the making, this game has gone through so many cycles of hype and anticipation that many gamers were sick of hearing about it. Released with restrained fanfare by Microsoft (who was more involved with the Kameo push), Rare’s game actually fares better than any cynic could have ever expected. I should know; I’m one of them. Yes, Rare will always have a special place in my heart for having developed Goldeneye 007 and Banjo-Kazooie, but they are never beyond mindful criticisms since they also released many other games (high profile and critically acclaimed games) that I didn’t care for, namely Perfect Dark 64 and Conker’s Bad Fur Day. At its core, Perfect Dark Zero for the 360 is a good launch title that shows off perfectly well what the new Xbox can do both visually, gameplay-wise and with Live as its backbone. It’s a fine game that will entertain all but the most jaded, but it isn’t a game that you should pick up without knowing exactly what you’re getting into.

Perfect Dark Zero takes place a few years before the 64 adventure. Joanna is a bounty hunter working with her father, Jack. The story revolves, again, around dataDyne (in one way or another) and along the way, you will see shadows of the Carrington Institute, DeathMatching software gone terribly awry and a lone female operative kick an awful lot of butt. Unfortunately, the story, which is convoluted and disjointed, barely keeps the narrative together long enough to string the next mission together. What truly doesn’t help matters is that none of the characters are particularly endearing, especially Joanna’s father Jack, and saving them and looking out for them feels very empty. Surprisingly, even Joanna, as a character, comes off as insipid and uninteresting and it’s much more entertaining to try and figure out how Rare is actually trying to portray her. From the box art to the screenshots and even the computer generated renders we’ve seen of her, we are torn between two images; the mature, cold calculating woman who can take on anyone and the diminutive, cute pixie girl who seems wide-eyed about the whole affair. Unfortunately, PDZ continues presenting her as two entities and we are never left with a definite answer.

What truly doesn’t help the characters in PDZ is that they are voiced in a completely over-the-top matter with lines that are eye-rolling bad. The character that we are meant to care about the most, Joanna, rarely chimes in, and Jack and Chandra (intelligence liaison of sorts and mission briefings) seem to explain everything to her (and us) as if she were clueless. The trick to enjoying Chandra’s character, I found, was picturing Salma Hayek or Paz Vega delivering the lines instead, since she definitely sounds a lot like those two actresses. For the other characters however, you’re on your own. And it’s really too bad that the voice acting, story and dialog is so bad because PDZ also features what is hand’s down one of the best musical scores in recent memory. While drawing on the themes of James Bond, the layered and varied instrumentation and musical maturity of the score is compelling enough to sit at the menu screens just to hear it. The game features all sorts of different genres, all pulsing with a back-beat that keeps the blood pumping. The audio mix and weapon sounds are also second to none and will blow away audiophiles everywhere. Perfect Dark Zero has, quite possibly, the finest audio presentation of any next-gen game and that’s saying a lot.