Reviews

    Perfect Dark was Rare's unofficial successor to the immensely popular Goldeneye on the Nintendo 64 back in 2000.  The game featured Joanna Dark, an Agent with the Carrington Institute also knows as Perfect Dark.  The original Perfect Dark was very popular and its prequel, Perfect Dark Zero, has been in development for quite some time, first for Gamecube, but after Microsoft bought Rare it was initially planned for XBOX, then finally was moved to the XBOX 360 launch lineup.  Despite the long wait, Perfect Dark Zero is well worth it.  The game features a young Joanna Dark still in training, and takes her through many action packed missions!

Don't mess with a Perfect Agent.

    The graphics in Perfect Dark Zero are outstanding, roads are textured just like roads, chipped paint, cracks, and all.  If you shoot a wall the bullets put realistic looking holes in the walls, glass shatters like glass, and the characters look pretty good as well.  Explosions look realistic and the physics effects when something blows are are great too.  The sound in the game is also good, featuring surround sound support you can hear enemies talking and even shots being fired at you, and with a surround sound setup you will know where to turn and look for an enemy without needing an on-screen display to tell you because the sound is that good.  The game has pretty good voice acting and a decent soundtrack as well.

Outstanding textures, water, and particle effects are all featured in Perfect Dark Zero.

    The gameplay in Perfect Dark Zero is similar to the original, but some improvements have been made.  Most notable is the addition of waypoints.  If you get frustrated in first person shooters by not always knowing where to go next, waypoints are the answer to this.  If you wander around too long and you've enabled the waypoints option some light blue arrows will appear on the ground giving you a path to where you need to go next.  In addition some gadgets have been added in addition to Joanna's arsenal of weapons, giving the game a little bit of a James Bond feel.  You get a lock pick, a demolition kit, and a device that unlocks doors that are secured with a keypad, bypassing the code.  In addition, Joanna now has the option for cover, where you can have her hide behind a wall, shielding herself from danger, but she can still see around it to aim at enemies, and she can jump from behind the wall to fire, then get back to cover when they fire back.

Joanna Dark causes some mayhem and chaos!

    If you're a fan of the Perfect Dark series or just want a good first person shooter to play on the XBOX 360, then Perfect Dark Zero is the game for you.  It features great gameplay, outstanding graphics and sound, and it's a nice continuation of the Perfect Dark story.