Walsh451v2
2005
Quake 4 Review
First Quake game in 6 years, first Quake story in 8 years, an Xbox 360 console exclusive, the exactment for this could not be higher. Dose Quake 4 on 360 match its PC counterpart? Or dose it faulter before it starts?
Quake 4 is the 2nd FPS to feature on the 360’s launch lineup behind Perfect Dark Zero. Its arguably a much better franchise than Perfect Dark but both games follow up what have to this point been two fantastic series of games. Quake 2 left off with the Strogg defeated and the macron destroyed. You play as Corporal Kane, a Mariene who is sent to destroy the Strogg on their home planet of Stroggos. Spoiler alert, it dose not go well, that’s hardly a spoiler as within 5 seconds of the game starting this is apparent, you crash land on the planet and spend the rest of the game trying to survive. The story is decent, not Oscar worthy but certainly keeps things moving well, its take cues from Doom 3, with cut sense intermingled with story sections in gameplay that create a nice atmosphere, you really feel the despair and dire situation you find yourselves in.
Gameplay also straddles the line between new and old well, the opening 1/3 of the game plays like a slightly more action heavy Doom 3, less horror here as you run and gun your way from one end of levels to another. Eventually you gain access to the Stroggs abilities and see an increase to movement and increased health, at this point it starts to feel more like Quake 2, darting through levels never stopping as you carve your way through you enemies. The weapons in Quake 2 are excellent, almost all are upgradeable through the story and are all fun to use, on harder difficulties ammo is scarce and you get a real sense of peril at times and wating of conserver it. What helps with this are you allies, for roughly 60% of your playthrough you will have allies by your side, and for the most part they don’t suck. They are more than capable and can at times clear levels for you if you want, they can be killed but they aren’t weak, they can also give you health if they are a medic or increase your amour out of combat if an engineer which is a nice touch.
Level design here is very good, the overall pacing is excellent, levels never get boring are vary the challenge well. They are intermingled with vehicles too which break the action up well. The Doom 3 engine looks great on the 360, its night a day better over Doom 3, lighting is impressive and there are plenty of high res textures, some of the level backdrops are very low res however and quite noticeable the rare times you are outside. It’s a shame the game dose not run better, it struggles to hold a steady frame rate, rarely hitting 30fps. Its never “broken” or unplayable, but on the harder difficulties it did lead to my death a few times.
Multi-player was available on launch but sadly the servers are now shut down now. You can play via system link but there is no way to play them split screen which is a shame, there is also no co-op campaign here, which is odd considering how often you have allies with you. This also means you cannot get 1000g on this game, roughly 40% of the achievements are online MP only, and do on work, even via system link. Single player difficulty achievements also don’t stack, so you will need to play through the campaign 4 times to unlock them all.
Quake 4 swings and mostly hits, the campaign is an expertly paced thrill ride with great weapons and fun level design. It’s a good-looking game that is poorly optimized for the 360, sadly its not backwards compatible with newer systems, so if you want to play Quake 4, the pc is your best bet at present.
8/10
First Quake game in 6 years, first Quake story in 8 years, an Xbox 360 console exclusive, the exactment for this could not be higher. Dose Quake 4 on 360 match its PC counterpart? Or dose it faulter before it starts?
Quake 4 is the 2nd FPS to feature on the 360’s launch lineup behind Perfect Dark Zero. Its arguably a much better franchise than Perfect Dark but both games follow up what have to this point been two fantastic series of games. Quake 2 left off with the Strogg defeated and the macron destroyed. You play as Corporal Kane, a Mariene who is sent to destroy the Strogg on their home planet of Stroggos. Spoiler alert, it dose not go well, that’s hardly a spoiler as within 5 seconds of the game starting this is apparent, you crash land on the planet and spend the rest of the game trying to survive. The story is decent, not Oscar worthy but certainly keeps things moving well, its take cues from Doom 3, with cut sense intermingled with story sections in gameplay that create a nice atmosphere, you really feel the despair and dire situation you find yourselves in.
Gameplay also straddles the line between new and old well, the opening 1/3 of the game plays like a slightly more action heavy Doom 3, less horror here as you run and gun your way from one end of levels to another. Eventually you gain access to the Stroggs abilities and see an increase to movement and increased health, at this point it starts to feel more like Quake 2, darting through levels never stopping as you carve your way through you enemies. The weapons in Quake 2 are excellent, almost all are upgradeable through the story and are all fun to use, on harder difficulties ammo is scarce and you get a real sense of peril at times and wating of conserver it. What helps with this are you allies, for roughly 60% of your playthrough you will have allies by your side, and for the most part they don’t suck. They are more than capable and can at times clear levels for you if you want, they can be killed but they aren’t weak, they can also give you health if they are a medic or increase your amour out of combat if an engineer which is a nice touch.
Level design here is very good, the overall pacing is excellent, levels never get boring are vary the challenge well. They are intermingled with vehicles too which break the action up well. The Doom 3 engine looks great on the 360, its night a day better over Doom 3, lighting is impressive and there are plenty of high res textures, some of the level backdrops are very low res however and quite noticeable the rare times you are outside. It’s a shame the game dose not run better, it struggles to hold a steady frame rate, rarely hitting 30fps. Its never “broken” or unplayable, but on the harder difficulties it did lead to my death a few times.
Multi-player was available on launch but sadly the servers are now shut down now. You can play via system link but there is no way to play them split screen which is a shame, there is also no co-op campaign here, which is odd considering how often you have allies with you. This also means you cannot get 1000g on this game, roughly 40% of the achievements are online MP only, and do on work, even via system link. Single player difficulty achievements also don’t stack, so you will need to play through the campaign 4 times to unlock them all.
Quake 4 swings and mostly hits, the campaign is an expertly paced thrill ride with great weapons and fun level design. It’s a good-looking game that is poorly optimized for the 360, sadly its not backwards compatible with newer systems, so if you want to play Quake 4, the pc is your best bet at present.
8/10
Peter Jacksons King Kong Review
Peter Jacksons King Kong was released on all major consoles around the time of the films release. Developed by Ubisoft, they wanted this to be a bigger budget game to match the movie and do it justice. They put the creator of Rayman in charge and asked him to make a game worthy of the movie and not just another quick cash grab.
It’s clear from the onset that King Kong is more than the usual movie to game adaptation. The production value is clear to see, menus look sleek, all the actors from the movie reprise their roles and do a decent job too. Graphicly it’s a decent looking game, its not going to win any awards for its visuals but its more than a simple up-res of a last gen game. High res-textures are abundant and improved lighting over the last gen version really helps to improve the emersion. The game sets a decent atmosphere, skirting the line between horror and action adventure well. Skull island is a foreboding place and the game makes you feel every moment. The game is a first-person shooter 70% of the time as you play as Jack, and a 3rd person view when playing as Kong.
When playing as jack guns and ammo are in short supply and only for emergencies, there is a pistol, rifle and shotgun only, but all useful and fun to use. Most the combat focuses on using the environment to your advantage, sticks and bones that can be thrown at enemies, lit on fire to burn down parts of the environments. You can use bugs to distract enemies, diverting their attention to save ammo. Enemies are varied, large bats, millipedes, drakes, all the creatures seen in the film are here and are tough opponents. You can only take 2 or 3 hits before seeing game over, regenerating health is present, an annoying red hue comes over the screen when close to death, but it obscures your view too much and often will result in certain death because of it. Speaking of views, the field of view is far too zoomed in, this makes melee combat a pain, especially as enemies move quickly around your feet.
When playing as Kong the game switches to a 3rd person view, and becomes a melee brawler. Kong handles rather clunky, due to how he is designed his actions are slightly delayed, the camera also opts for a cinematic view, similar to resident evil games which make him more of a struggle to control. It looks awesome to battle dinosaurs and throw them about when it works, but often these sections where a struggle to get through.
The story starts about a 3rd of the way through the film when you arrive on skull island, scenes from the film are used at times to bridge some large gaps but for the most part, once it starts it’s a liner experience taking you to the end of the film. If you’ve not seen the film you can tell what’s happening but some of the levels don’t blend into one another as seamlessly as you’d like. Theres little re-play value to be had here, all levels are open once you have completed them, but none really stand out and standalone experiences to enjoy. Achievements wise its an easy 1000 Gamerscore that you will get for just completing the game. I had a good time with King Kong, id be in no rush to return but what was here was enjoyable.
7.0/10
Peter Jacksons King Kong was released on all major consoles around the time of the films release. Developed by Ubisoft, they wanted this to be a bigger budget game to match the movie and do it justice. They put the creator of Rayman in charge and asked him to make a game worthy of the movie and not just another quick cash grab.
It’s clear from the onset that King Kong is more than the usual movie to game adaptation. The production value is clear to see, menus look sleek, all the actors from the movie reprise their roles and do a decent job too. Graphicly it’s a decent looking game, its not going to win any awards for its visuals but its more than a simple up-res of a last gen game. High res-textures are abundant and improved lighting over the last gen version really helps to improve the emersion. The game sets a decent atmosphere, skirting the line between horror and action adventure well. Skull island is a foreboding place and the game makes you feel every moment. The game is a first-person shooter 70% of the time as you play as Jack, and a 3rd person view when playing as Kong.
When playing as jack guns and ammo are in short supply and only for emergencies, there is a pistol, rifle and shotgun only, but all useful and fun to use. Most the combat focuses on using the environment to your advantage, sticks and bones that can be thrown at enemies, lit on fire to burn down parts of the environments. You can use bugs to distract enemies, diverting their attention to save ammo. Enemies are varied, large bats, millipedes, drakes, all the creatures seen in the film are here and are tough opponents. You can only take 2 or 3 hits before seeing game over, regenerating health is present, an annoying red hue comes over the screen when close to death, but it obscures your view too much and often will result in certain death because of it. Speaking of views, the field of view is far too zoomed in, this makes melee combat a pain, especially as enemies move quickly around your feet.
When playing as Kong the game switches to a 3rd person view, and becomes a melee brawler. Kong handles rather clunky, due to how he is designed his actions are slightly delayed, the camera also opts for a cinematic view, similar to resident evil games which make him more of a struggle to control. It looks awesome to battle dinosaurs and throw them about when it works, but often these sections where a struggle to get through.
The story starts about a 3rd of the way through the film when you arrive on skull island, scenes from the film are used at times to bridge some large gaps but for the most part, once it starts it’s a liner experience taking you to the end of the film. If you’ve not seen the film you can tell what’s happening but some of the levels don’t blend into one another as seamlessly as you’d like. Theres little re-play value to be had here, all levels are open once you have completed them, but none really stand out and standalone experiences to enjoy. Achievements wise its an easy 1000 Gamerscore that you will get for just completing the game. I had a good time with King Kong, id be in no rush to return but what was here was enjoyable.
7.0/10
Released in 2005 as Rare's second launch title for the Xbox 360, alongside Perfect Dark Zero. Kameo: Elements of Power is a Rare game through and through, a 3D platformer, full of bright colours, interesting characters and fun gameplay. It started life as a Gamecube game, then moved to original Xbox and finally Xbox 360. It very much feels like a Nintendo game, it dose feel strange playing it on a Microsoft console. However, it stands out among the launch titles as being very different, further expanding what was a very busy launch lineup for the system.
The story of Kameo revolves around the battle of Elves and Goblins, Kameo is a princess of the land whose father has bestowed the power of the elements onto her. Her sister gets jealous, and teams up with the goblin king to take the powers back. It’s not Oscar worthy, but its good enough to move the game forward. Kameo starts the game with all her powers, looses them all, and you must get them all back to defeat your sister.
To start with, Kameo looks fantastic, for a game that was due to release on the original Xbox and was 80% complete when the decision was made to transfer it to 360, the game looks very impressive. This really would be the game to show off your new console to your friends. Lighting, texture work, is beautiful, and it all runs at a decent framerate.
The gameplay revolves around Kameo an elf who can glide, and use the elemental powers to transform into different elemental forms and use their powers to fight through environments. All of them are well designed and fun to use, unlocking them allows to access parts of the game that you could not before, and you will often need to combine them to achieve your goals, which is great fun. The game is semi open world, with a large battle going on in the middle and various “lands” off of this that you go to, to unlock the various elemental powers. Its impressive stuff, there are hundreds of npcs on screen at one time, we have seen nothing like this on console before. The world reminds me of Ocarina of time, with one large open area, and the various dungeons, surrounding it. Each dungeon is well designed with a final boss fine, they all follow the same routine, and much like Zelda the bosses are never too difficult once you know how to defeat them. It’s a rather linier game, there’s not many hidden or secret areas to discover with your new powers.
There is also a co-op mode available for the game where you can invite friends into the game to play co-op states, both of you able to use the powers at the same time, mixing and matching as you go. Its really quite good fun and the DLC stages are still available. Kameo has a score meter, you gain points for combos and not getting hit, and they are all uploaded to the XBL scoreboards, its makes for some good replay ability, despite the linier focus of the main game.
Kameo’s biggest issue is that it lacks a bit of character. Despite being well designed, none of the elemental powers say anything or show any real personality. Kameo herself has few lines of dialog and what is here is nothing great, the case of side characters are nothing to write home about either. Which for my money is a big issue for a 3D platformer.
Despite this I had good fun with Kameo, I enjoyed my playthrough and looked forward to coming back to it, but once it was done I never felt the need to go back to it. The co-op is really good fun and the game is certainly eye-candy for 2005. Overall a solid experience, lacking a bit of character and replay ability.
7.5/10
The story of Kameo revolves around the battle of Elves and Goblins, Kameo is a princess of the land whose father has bestowed the power of the elements onto her. Her sister gets jealous, and teams up with the goblin king to take the powers back. It’s not Oscar worthy, but its good enough to move the game forward. Kameo starts the game with all her powers, looses them all, and you must get them all back to defeat your sister.
To start with, Kameo looks fantastic, for a game that was due to release on the original Xbox and was 80% complete when the decision was made to transfer it to 360, the game looks very impressive. This really would be the game to show off your new console to your friends. Lighting, texture work, is beautiful, and it all runs at a decent framerate.
The gameplay revolves around Kameo an elf who can glide, and use the elemental powers to transform into different elemental forms and use their powers to fight through environments. All of them are well designed and fun to use, unlocking them allows to access parts of the game that you could not before, and you will often need to combine them to achieve your goals, which is great fun. The game is semi open world, with a large battle going on in the middle and various “lands” off of this that you go to, to unlock the various elemental powers. Its impressive stuff, there are hundreds of npcs on screen at one time, we have seen nothing like this on console before. The world reminds me of Ocarina of time, with one large open area, and the various dungeons, surrounding it. Each dungeon is well designed with a final boss fine, they all follow the same routine, and much like Zelda the bosses are never too difficult once you know how to defeat them. It’s a rather linier game, there’s not many hidden or secret areas to discover with your new powers.
There is also a co-op mode available for the game where you can invite friends into the game to play co-op states, both of you able to use the powers at the same time, mixing and matching as you go. Its really quite good fun and the DLC stages are still available. Kameo has a score meter, you gain points for combos and not getting hit, and they are all uploaded to the XBL scoreboards, its makes for some good replay ability, despite the linier focus of the main game.
Kameo’s biggest issue is that it lacks a bit of character. Despite being well designed, none of the elemental powers say anything or show any real personality. Kameo herself has few lines of dialog and what is here is nothing great, the case of side characters are nothing to write home about either. Which for my money is a big issue for a 3D platformer.
Despite this I had good fun with Kameo, I enjoyed my playthrough and looked forward to coming back to it, but once it was done I never felt the need to go back to it. The co-op is really good fun and the game is certainly eye-candy for 2005. Overall a solid experience, lacking a bit of character and replay ability.
7.5/10
Tony Hawks American Wasteland – Review
Its 2005, of course there is a Tony Hawks game available for your brand-new Xbox 360. Dose the 7th console generation give the birdman the love his games deserve?........Not really.
THAW as I will now refer to it as is the first skating game of the 7th console gen. Released on all major platforms at the time it follows on from Underground 2, a game that was praised for its gameplay but many felt did not reach the hights of Underground 1. Thaw leans more into Underground 2’s tropes. The story revolves around your custom skater trying to make it big in L.A., you quickly meet a quirky bunch of skaters who are looking to build the ultimate skatepark, the “American Wasteland”. To do this you go from level to level collecting structures to build up your skatepark. The story is serviceable but nothing memorable, the voice acting is terrible, and because of this the characters are forgettable. It leans heavily into the silliness of Underground 2 rather than the more “realistic” tone of underground 1.
The big change this year is the “open world” aspect, levels are set out like your typical tony hawks’ levels, but with shops to by boards and clothes with NPCs giving out quests and objectives. The open world works by linking these levels together with linier corridors hiding loading screens. It works well, and you could in theory do one massive combo around the entire game which is a cool new feature. The level design is more it and miss than previous games, many feel very similar with a couple of standouts. There is also a classic mode here that brings back a number of levels from previous games, which is a nice change of pace. The online is sadly no longer available but was good fun back in the day.
New gameplay features are present, with an ability to slow down time with a full special to improve the number of tricks you can pull off. This is the best version of Tony Hawks from a gameplay standpoint, everything here feels tight and efficient.
For a 360 game, THAW looks really poor, it runs in 720p compared to 480i on ps2 and gamecube, and 480p on Xbox. If you’re coming here from the Xbox version, you’ll hardly notice a difference, the framerate is 60fps regardless of version. It in fact looks worse than Underground 2, character models especially looks really bad. Weather they have had to do this to implement the open world, I don’t know but its easily the worse looking launch title on the 360.
Overall THAW swings and hits more than it misses, but its more of a slight refinement of Underground 2, rather than a next gen skate game.
Rating: 6.5/10
Its 2005, of course there is a Tony Hawks game available for your brand-new Xbox 360. Dose the 7th console generation give the birdman the love his games deserve?........Not really.
THAW as I will now refer to it as is the first skating game of the 7th console gen. Released on all major platforms at the time it follows on from Underground 2, a game that was praised for its gameplay but many felt did not reach the hights of Underground 1. Thaw leans more into Underground 2’s tropes. The story revolves around your custom skater trying to make it big in L.A., you quickly meet a quirky bunch of skaters who are looking to build the ultimate skatepark, the “American Wasteland”. To do this you go from level to level collecting structures to build up your skatepark. The story is serviceable but nothing memorable, the voice acting is terrible, and because of this the characters are forgettable. It leans heavily into the silliness of Underground 2 rather than the more “realistic” tone of underground 1.
The big change this year is the “open world” aspect, levels are set out like your typical tony hawks’ levels, but with shops to by boards and clothes with NPCs giving out quests and objectives. The open world works by linking these levels together with linier corridors hiding loading screens. It works well, and you could in theory do one massive combo around the entire game which is a cool new feature. The level design is more it and miss than previous games, many feel very similar with a couple of standouts. There is also a classic mode here that brings back a number of levels from previous games, which is a nice change of pace. The online is sadly no longer available but was good fun back in the day.
New gameplay features are present, with an ability to slow down time with a full special to improve the number of tricks you can pull off. This is the best version of Tony Hawks from a gameplay standpoint, everything here feels tight and efficient.
For a 360 game, THAW looks really poor, it runs in 720p compared to 480i on ps2 and gamecube, and 480p on Xbox. If you’re coming here from the Xbox version, you’ll hardly notice a difference, the framerate is 60fps regardless of version. It in fact looks worse than Underground 2, character models especially looks really bad. Weather they have had to do this to implement the open world, I don’t know but its easily the worse looking launch title on the 360.
Overall THAW swings and hits more than it misses, but its more of a slight refinement of Underground 2, rather than a next gen skate game.
Rating: 6.5/10
FIFA 06: Road To FIFA World Cup
No console launch is complete without a football game, but what makes FIFA 06: Road to FIFA World Cup on the Xbox 360 different is its an exclusive title, not an upgrade on this year’s latest game, FIFA 06. The Xbox 360 version is international teams only and focuses on the upcoming World Cup in Germany (Upcoming in 2006). Dose FIFA start the HD generation with a bang or whimper?
FIFA 06: Road To FIFA World Cup, is not the first FIFA game to be names RTFWC, in 2002 and 98 the main line FIFA games deviated from their naming norms to add a little World Cup spice into the mix. Both games included increased international team numbers and had a qualifying mode included, as well as the normal FIFA club’s teams and modes for the time. Sadly FIFA 06: RTFWC on the Xbox 360 dose not quite reach these levels of content. Just 72 international teams are here, most of Europe, but only the “big” names from other continents are here, meaning only European teams will be able to fully enjoy the RTWC qualifying mode. Some of the teams don’t include their official kits as well, and as mentioned before no club teams are available, which is disappointing.
Game modes include the normal friendly and create a tournament, but the meat of the product is in the Road to World Cup mode, where you can take a team through qualifying for the World Cup in Germany. Despite the lacklustre roster of teams, this mode has had some care put into it, you can play the real fixtures or customise them, randomly generated friendly matches are here as well as two small tournaments in between matches to break it up a bit. All in all, it’s more than just qualifying, which is nice and the official branding of the world cup is a nice touch. Sound track wise it’s the same from FIFA 06 which was already quite decent, commentary is different however with Martyn Tyler and Andy Grey recording original commentary for the game, with lots of nods to the world cup, that helps tie the game even closer to the upcoming world cup.
On the Gameplay front its quite “as you were” with not allot of difference between the last gen FIFA and this new Gen version, this is the first FIFA to include an arena for players to practice in at start up and between levels, something that would become a staple of the series moving forward. The physics system has been upgraded with players dynamically reacting to each other, tussling for the ball looks good here.
Graphics are the big selling point here, the game looks fantastic when compared to the previous gen versions of FIFA. Player likenesses are much improved, hair looks like hair now and player shirts and shorts move freely of the players which looks impressive. Individual blades of grass can be seen, and the stadiums look top notch. The frame rate suffers a little when the camera moves closer in between plays, but during gameplay its solid.
All in all Fifa 06: Road to FIFA World Cup on the Xbox 360, feels more like a tech demo than a fully-fledged new gen FIFA. What's here is good enough, but just barely. If you love football and football games then its worth picking up, but if its just a passing interesting in the sport, give it a miss.
Rating 6/10
No console launch is complete without a football game, but what makes FIFA 06: Road to FIFA World Cup on the Xbox 360 different is its an exclusive title, not an upgrade on this year’s latest game, FIFA 06. The Xbox 360 version is international teams only and focuses on the upcoming World Cup in Germany (Upcoming in 2006). Dose FIFA start the HD generation with a bang or whimper?
FIFA 06: Road To FIFA World Cup, is not the first FIFA game to be names RTFWC, in 2002 and 98 the main line FIFA games deviated from their naming norms to add a little World Cup spice into the mix. Both games included increased international team numbers and had a qualifying mode included, as well as the normal FIFA club’s teams and modes for the time. Sadly FIFA 06: RTFWC on the Xbox 360 dose not quite reach these levels of content. Just 72 international teams are here, most of Europe, but only the “big” names from other continents are here, meaning only European teams will be able to fully enjoy the RTWC qualifying mode. Some of the teams don’t include their official kits as well, and as mentioned before no club teams are available, which is disappointing.
Game modes include the normal friendly and create a tournament, but the meat of the product is in the Road to World Cup mode, where you can take a team through qualifying for the World Cup in Germany. Despite the lacklustre roster of teams, this mode has had some care put into it, you can play the real fixtures or customise them, randomly generated friendly matches are here as well as two small tournaments in between matches to break it up a bit. All in all, it’s more than just qualifying, which is nice and the official branding of the world cup is a nice touch. Sound track wise it’s the same from FIFA 06 which was already quite decent, commentary is different however with Martyn Tyler and Andy Grey recording original commentary for the game, with lots of nods to the world cup, that helps tie the game even closer to the upcoming world cup.
On the Gameplay front its quite “as you were” with not allot of difference between the last gen FIFA and this new Gen version, this is the first FIFA to include an arena for players to practice in at start up and between levels, something that would become a staple of the series moving forward. The physics system has been upgraded with players dynamically reacting to each other, tussling for the ball looks good here.
Graphics are the big selling point here, the game looks fantastic when compared to the previous gen versions of FIFA. Player likenesses are much improved, hair looks like hair now and player shirts and shorts move freely of the players which looks impressive. Individual blades of grass can be seen, and the stadiums look top notch. The frame rate suffers a little when the camera moves closer in between plays, but during gameplay its solid.
All in all Fifa 06: Road to FIFA World Cup on the Xbox 360, feels more like a tech demo than a fully-fledged new gen FIFA. What's here is good enough, but just barely. If you love football and football games then its worth picking up, but if its just a passing interesting in the sport, give it a miss.
Rating 6/10
2005
Released in 2005 as a launch title for the Xbox 360, Perfect Dark Zero is a prequal to one of the best first-person shooters ever made. The hype for this thing was quite large at the time, everyone wanted to see what the follow up to the N64 original would be like on Microsoft’s newest console. It was the second game to be released by Rare since they were taken over by Microsoft and the first big budget game. But many of the staff who worked on Goldeneye and Perfect Dark on the N64 had left before the development of Perfect Dark Zero began, and with the acquisition from the big N to the big M, the 6th console generation passed Rare by somewhat. Can Rare re-discover their form with these new big budget releases, starting with Perfect Dark Zero?
Yes and no, Perfect Dark Zero has been though quite a change since the original, Joanna has had a complete re-design and is no longer a smooth-talking British agent and is now a trash talking American. To go with this, she now dresses in pure mid-2000’s attitude clothing with bright ginger hair. The cyberpunk aesthetic is still here, but its more near future than cyberpunk and certainly loses some of its charm in the transition. The story revolves around Joanna and her dad working independently before being hired by the Carrington Institute to fight the nefarious Dayta-Dyne. The story is awful in all honesty and is completely forgettable, the dialog and voice acting are terrible. Perfect Dark trod the line between campy and serious well, reminded me of No One Lives Forever. Sadly, Perfect Dark Zero misses all that and sticks strictly to the silly and outlandish. That’s not to say the single player campaign is not fun, it is for the most part, the levels are varied, as are the objectives, mixing on foot and vehicle sections nicely. It can also be played in co-op with differing objectives depending on the difficulty, like the original. Some of the levels here do offer various ways to play and alternate routes, and playing on different difficulties opens extra areas of levels which adds to the replay value.
Multiplayer is the other side of Perfect Dark Zero and its where the meat of the game is, only six maps come with the original, but two map packs have since been released. Maps vary in size depending on player count, up to 32 players can play in a variety of game types, DM, TDS, CTF are all here, bots can also be added in to increase numbers which is a nice touch but their A.I. leaves allot to be desired. The level design on the maps is decent with lots of traversal options and ways to get around. Some vehicles are also available and are all fun to drive. In MP is where you can get to grips with the large arsenal of weapons Perfect Dark Zero has to offer and they are all fantastic to use. Returning favourites are here from the original with new additions, all have alternate fire and really are fun to use, none are duds at all and it’s a high point of the game.
What is not a high point however is the gameplay, Joanna feels like a tank on ice, she moves so slowly, and the sensitivity is low, add to that the fact the FOV is too zoomed in, and it can be a struggle at times to get things moving well here. Sensitivity sliders are available and alleviate some of the issues, but you are stuck with that terrible FOV, which makes close quarters combat a struggle. It’s very difficult to know if you have hit someone accurately at all. Joanna also takes a while to get up to speed from still, and her max is a light jog, it makes some MP matches feel quite slow and lethargic, there is no run button here. The game also includes a rather poor cover system in that you have to move to the edge of a wall or window and wait for a button prompt to snap into cover, Joanna will then go into 3rd person for the cover option, but you have to press the prompt again to leave, and there is a slight delay when doing this. This makes the system a handicap in multi-player, its only helpful slightly in single player. Players can also utilise a dodge roll that also uses 3rd person to execute, and it makes it harder for the AI to hit Joanna, this works better and even in MP it’s a handy tool. One thing I did notice is that players tend to have lots of hit points, you can empty an entire clip of an AK into someone, and they still won’t be dead, or even close. Add body Armor to this and players are quite tanky, which is odd for an FPS game.
Now it's not all bad news as graphicly, Perfect Dark Zero is fantastic, it’s clearly been made as a game to show off to your friends. It shows off the power of the Xbox 360, and for 2005 it looks great. Its colourful, textures gleam and are very detailed, lots of bloom effects, shadows are dynamic, it’s a great looking experience. It also runs well, maintains an ok 30fps most of the time with slight dips here and there, only noticeably bad dips when big explosions are happening. Joanna moves so slowly though you’ll hardly notice it anyway!
It sounds like I’ve bashed this game more than praise it and my final score might surprise you but that’s only based off of what’s come before it. Perfect Dark Zero does not live up to the game that came before it, not even close. The gameplay is clunky at times, the story, dialog and voice acting are terrible. It’s completely lost the vibe the first game had for a more generic video game feel. But I still had fun, both in SP and MP, I kept coming back to this game while playing others. The single player levels are still fun, despite the clunky controls, split screen SP and MP is a blast. The MP is fun too with well-designed levels and a fantastically fun arsenal of guns to play with. The AI is lacking but it's nice to have the option of bots. All the achievements still being fully unlockable in 2023 is great as you can unlock them with Bots also.
Perfect Dark Zero is a letdown, only because of what came before it. But on its own it’s a decent time. We have seen better shooters on the last gen and during the 360’s launch window, however.
SCORE: 7/10
Yes and no, Perfect Dark Zero has been though quite a change since the original, Joanna has had a complete re-design and is no longer a smooth-talking British agent and is now a trash talking American. To go with this, she now dresses in pure mid-2000’s attitude clothing with bright ginger hair. The cyberpunk aesthetic is still here, but its more near future than cyberpunk and certainly loses some of its charm in the transition. The story revolves around Joanna and her dad working independently before being hired by the Carrington Institute to fight the nefarious Dayta-Dyne. The story is awful in all honesty and is completely forgettable, the dialog and voice acting are terrible. Perfect Dark trod the line between campy and serious well, reminded me of No One Lives Forever. Sadly, Perfect Dark Zero misses all that and sticks strictly to the silly and outlandish. That’s not to say the single player campaign is not fun, it is for the most part, the levels are varied, as are the objectives, mixing on foot and vehicle sections nicely. It can also be played in co-op with differing objectives depending on the difficulty, like the original. Some of the levels here do offer various ways to play and alternate routes, and playing on different difficulties opens extra areas of levels which adds to the replay value.
Multiplayer is the other side of Perfect Dark Zero and its where the meat of the game is, only six maps come with the original, but two map packs have since been released. Maps vary in size depending on player count, up to 32 players can play in a variety of game types, DM, TDS, CTF are all here, bots can also be added in to increase numbers which is a nice touch but their A.I. leaves allot to be desired. The level design on the maps is decent with lots of traversal options and ways to get around. Some vehicles are also available and are all fun to drive. In MP is where you can get to grips with the large arsenal of weapons Perfect Dark Zero has to offer and they are all fantastic to use. Returning favourites are here from the original with new additions, all have alternate fire and really are fun to use, none are duds at all and it’s a high point of the game.
What is not a high point however is the gameplay, Joanna feels like a tank on ice, she moves so slowly, and the sensitivity is low, add to that the fact the FOV is too zoomed in, and it can be a struggle at times to get things moving well here. Sensitivity sliders are available and alleviate some of the issues, but you are stuck with that terrible FOV, which makes close quarters combat a struggle. It’s very difficult to know if you have hit someone accurately at all. Joanna also takes a while to get up to speed from still, and her max is a light jog, it makes some MP matches feel quite slow and lethargic, there is no run button here. The game also includes a rather poor cover system in that you have to move to the edge of a wall or window and wait for a button prompt to snap into cover, Joanna will then go into 3rd person for the cover option, but you have to press the prompt again to leave, and there is a slight delay when doing this. This makes the system a handicap in multi-player, its only helpful slightly in single player. Players can also utilise a dodge roll that also uses 3rd person to execute, and it makes it harder for the AI to hit Joanna, this works better and even in MP it’s a handy tool. One thing I did notice is that players tend to have lots of hit points, you can empty an entire clip of an AK into someone, and they still won’t be dead, or even close. Add body Armor to this and players are quite tanky, which is odd for an FPS game.
Now it's not all bad news as graphicly, Perfect Dark Zero is fantastic, it’s clearly been made as a game to show off to your friends. It shows off the power of the Xbox 360, and for 2005 it looks great. Its colourful, textures gleam and are very detailed, lots of bloom effects, shadows are dynamic, it’s a great looking experience. It also runs well, maintains an ok 30fps most of the time with slight dips here and there, only noticeably bad dips when big explosions are happening. Joanna moves so slowly though you’ll hardly notice it anyway!
It sounds like I’ve bashed this game more than praise it and my final score might surprise you but that’s only based off of what’s come before it. Perfect Dark Zero does not live up to the game that came before it, not even close. The gameplay is clunky at times, the story, dialog and voice acting are terrible. It’s completely lost the vibe the first game had for a more generic video game feel. But I still had fun, both in SP and MP, I kept coming back to this game while playing others. The single player levels are still fun, despite the clunky controls, split screen SP and MP is a blast. The MP is fun too with well-designed levels and a fantastically fun arsenal of guns to play with. The AI is lacking but it's nice to have the option of bots. All the achievements still being fully unlockable in 2023 is great as you can unlock them with Bots also.
Perfect Dark Zero is a letdown, only because of what came before it. But on its own it’s a decent time. We have seen better shooters on the last gen and during the 360’s launch window, however.
SCORE: 7/10