Hidden Gems #43 Perfect Dark Zero
Background: Back in early 2000’s Microsoft purchased Rare, and it had many of their titles exclusively on that console. In the midst though was a lost Perfect Dark sequel that never finished. Instead with the Xbox 360 coming soon in its stages they decided to go for new gen graphics although there was another alpha footage that was different from the final look we will get into. Actually the game is a prequel from Perfect Dark, but it had quite the live up to follow. One thing that bugged me to this day is seeing the Samsung logo above the game your about to play for 2005 that feels very outdated. In the menu you have the mission, Combat Arena, and Options pretty basic isn’t it?Story: You play as Johnna Dark (like previous installment) go from a beginner to more of the expert stealth first person shooter type feel as you proceed. The first few missions involved taking down a Triad gang businessman named Killian. Who you end up taking down in a chopper stand. Afterwards Jack (Her father) is kidnapped and sent to China as a prisoner. You encounter Mai Hem and Zhang Li. You defeat Mai Hem to go on to find your father and get outta the facility extraction point yet Mai Hem recovered from her wounds, and managed to assassinate Jack leaving Johanna virtually all alone as money talk with your main communicator Chandra manipulates to go back to where you were training at only to leave you of two bounty hunters wanting your head. You than encounter her in person where the scientist you escort ends up dead while you also took a bullet seeing Chandra was a double Agent on both sides. You than have to evade outta the facility with a new squad known as Carrington getting you outta there led by Jonathan Steinberg. There on your doing mission for Carrington where your sent from Peru to Africa to find, and put an end to Datadyne. Joanna than avenges her father's death taking down Mai Hem along with defeating Zhang Li with the Graal enhanced and all.
Gameplay: The story is not that bad, but then let’s get into the main controls for this game. I’ll admit there a bit much getting used to after awhile though you just adjust to it. What’s interesting is in the lost footage of the other versions of this there was more characters to play with in the multiplayer aspect whereas you have fewer you can use. You also have different classes named weapons (Heavy, Pistols, SubMachine, Assault, & Close Quarters) in the game my personal favorite is the plasma rifle. This gun has you cloaking, and before you know it you could nail somebody from behind with it. Speaking of the multiplayer aspect I gotta admit Its very decent for that time heck even when the 360 was slowly going down in early 2010 there was a good chunk of the community still playing this game in particular is something. Not anymore, but that actually blew me away at the time as I look back. Just playing some of these modes I could not do locally made the game much more fun I gotta say. Music is decent, but not nearly as good as Perfect Dark clearly.
Verdict: While being a flawed next installment for being considered the prequel Perfect Dark Zero may not nail the most things down most, but I still enjoyed it for what it was even if it does look a bit awkward as I replayed it recently. Had some fun with this game, a very hated game that maybe it doesn’t deserve that much to be honest. I just find the historical portion of this game to be very interesting that it has initially three different versions that could of happened at the same time. The 6th gen version on Xbox (as I found on an old Xbox Magazine), and the other lost Xbox 360 version, and of course this product that I covered. Since then it has had a re-released on the newer Xbox console in the Rare Replay collection. It may not be the game most will wanna revisit, but for me I still find it a solid game for its time strictly.
Final Score: 7/10
‘’Look inside yourself!’’
(C):
Glitter Girl - Evil Side (David Clynick)