While being an anticipated launch title, the critically acclaimed Perfect Dark series takes a spin at next-gen and turns
GAMEPLAY- Being a first person shooter, the genre is mainly judged on gameplay. In this case, the combat in this game can provide intense scenes whether it may be located at a night club, desert, mansion, underwater base, or a subway platform. The thing is, most of the action you will get is from Joanna's nice body. You are usually a lone wolf throughout the whole game battling often stupid enemies, getting headshotted out of nowhere, or just blowing things up. The linear combat in the game does get really old...However, there is plenty of good sides to the game. The numerous weapons give you a great deal of possibilities for killing your enemies. You can blow someone up, slash someone with a sword, headshot your enemies with a sniper, or blow your enemies away with the famous Superdragon which reappears in PDZ after making a great first performance in the original. You also cant say anything bad about the multiplayer gameplay, usually people turn all the explosives off to make a really fun game. But what needs a very honorable mention here is the gameplay mode "Infection". Where a group of survivors face off against a group of zombies, the humans get to buy weapons and the zombies are stuck with a pistol. It gets really fun and intense when there are 2 or 3 survivors left and their only chance is to camp somewhere, and whats even better is when the zombies overflow the base and the humans have to run for their lives to another place to camp. Other gameplay modes are fun as well, like Sabotage and the control point capturing mode (i forgot the name). The multiplayer can be very fun, plus there are numerous achievements that can be obtained in every game mode, so this game is an easy 400 or so points at the least. What else makes the multiplayer so special is that the host has basically total advantage at changing any option and making a perfect game with the right rules, few other games provide that many choices for customization. The host could include bots, vehicles, and disable weapons just to name a few. The multiplayer is a lot better than Halo 2's just to tell you...
GRAPHICS- The plastic models can be a draw-back at first sight. But when you see that there's more to that than the characters, you start to appreciate the power of the 360. The level detail on many maps, including the Temple map, have amazing detail and quality. And you remember the sweet screen effects from the first game? Well, the motion blur is really well made. Its not too blurry and not too light, so you get a great effect on the screen. Another plus in the graphics department is the jaw dropping detail on the weapons. Remember when all your guns seem to be a bunch of boxes with textures on it? Well, now the guns are amazingly made with a lot of extra detail with credit going to the 360's abilities. Yes, I know, i made this a short section, since you could really sum everything up in a couple sentences...
SOUND- The muffled sound of the blaring music in the nightclub on your first real mission was great, and even better on surround sound. The small percentage of time the developers put into the sound increased now that the capabilities increased with all of the extra space on the disc. Each gun has a unique sound, with realistic sound detail, rather than merely fake sounds for reloading etc. One of the few things in the game that the developers really nailed was the sound. Voice acting, gun sounds, sound effects, and other small details that the developers can put in there really came alive with the extra disc space, and it gets even better with the built in surround sound! This is one of the better sound performances on the 360, but undoubtedly bowing down to Call of Duty 2's performance with layer upon layer of excellence.
From the shorter - but definitely replayable - campaign, to the endless fun of the multiplayer, the value can be great for some Xbox 360 owners, while others will be left in a whirlwind of thoughts trying to figure out why Rare even bothered making this prequel. Well, we all have to admit it, it does have some value, but not that much - on an average. I do admit, there are other games that are more worth your while and I guess its safe to say you wont get as much time out of it with all of the other great games coming out... Well, here's the end of this review. One quick note, co-op is really fun so try it :D