Perfect Dark Zero - Xbox 360
Slinky black cat suit, beautifully polished nails, a sexy swagger, peachy soft skin and sensuality oozing out of every vein, Joanna Dark is not your average woman. Xbox 360 has finally arrived and Joanna is the pistol-packing heroine in the long awaited shoot em up from RARE, Perfect Dark Zero. This young, ambitious would-be secret agent finally arrives back on our consoles, be prepared to be grabbed around the throat and hurtled into the intense, powerful, high tech game play that was prominent in the original eye-popping game.
Click for larger imageThe first mission allows you to become accustom to the controls, the initial controller settings may be confusing to the newer gamer but, pop into options, change your controls to standard and they become almost identical to Halo 2, no jump button though I’m afraid! The tutorial sees you navigating a number of underground tunnels, practising your aiming on Spider bots, diving under infra red beams and smashing crates with your melee attack (press B). The tutorial is uninspiring, graphically average compared to previous Xbox titles and lacks the oomph to make you sit up and take notice. Near the end of the level you navigate your camspy, a small camera. Viewing the screen through the camera lens, as you try and navigate it through a number of vents is frustrating and hard to control or see the pathway that you have to follow. The aim is to reach the CPU and destroy it. Your initial impression may be to turn the game off in favour of one of the other 360 launch titles. Don’t, it gets better.
Click for larger imageThe action really begins in your first real mission, Night-club Stakeout. Character’s faces are strewn with fine detail as you blast your way through gun-wielding triads utilising a variety of weapons pilfered from their dead bodies. The music pounding from inside the night-club adds to the sense of reality and the closer you move to the building the louder it gets. Exploding barrels spiral into the air in a dazzling display of graphic superiority and the fightout inside the night-club leaves you begging for more. Diving across the dancefloor whilst simultaneously wrecking the bar with a sub-machine gun is top class fun. The ability to hide behind cover whilst shooting at the enemy is crucial and adds to the tension of this scene. It's always fun to kill an innocent night club goer and there are plenty of them to choose from. You literally take on dozens of triads with an arsenal of great weapons including assault rifles and sub-machine guns. The carnage to be caused is limitless.
Amend the controls to suit you and head into the Perfect Dark World, it’s gonna be a rough ride!
