Online inadequacy
All games developed for the Xbox 360 will have objectives to achieve and PDZ has around 20 objectives to complete. Once completed you gain points that are then added to your gamercard. Objectives include completing 10 headshot kills, completing 10 explosion kills and playing 10 games of Dark Ops online. These objectives give the game replay value and you’ll find yourself starting from scratch in order to get those crucial gamer points to boast to friends about.
Whilst the gameplay is great it doesn’t really add anything new to the FPS genre, it’s a standard first person shooter, and there’s nothing wrong with that. The graphics on the other hand reach a whole new dimension. Your first mission, set around a Hong Kong night-club shows the power of the Xbox 360 in all its glory. Everything in PDZ shines with polished glaze. The manga-style colourful backdrops are easy on the eye and you’ll often find yourself staring at the glorious visuals. The sea feels alive and sparkles in the sweltering Eastern Sun, whilst the fine details of buildings, from brickwork to the gleaming interiors, are scintillatingly brilliant. The character models are somewhat cartoon-ish but are equally glossy, just check out Joanna’s beautifully polished nails – ouch!
Click for larger imageThe sound of the game is equally impressive. At the HongKong night-club you can hear the muffled music from outside the building, as you get closer it increases until you are right inside the building where the music hits you full pelt. The sound of gun shots rattle around your surround sound and the sharpness of the sounds of breaking glass or exploding barrels are extremely accurate. The music drifts between a futuristic pop style to the sort of music you’d hear whilst in a lift. Lift music isn’t all bad though and it all adds to a dreamy, surreal, futuristic type of atmosphere.
The game physics are also superb. Enemies drop to the floor like rag dolls or get thrown across the landscape with the unpredictability that you would expect from an exploding barrel. Shoot the glasses from behind the bar in the night-club scene and watch them shatter faultlessly, or marvel at how the environment takes a battering from the frantic battle scenes.
Click for larger imageOnline Mutiplayer mode is where the game falters. There are plenty of modes to choose from, from Capture the flag to Eradication, but lag severely spoils what could have been a great online experience. Lag is widespread and not limited to those with a bad connection, you’ll struggle to open doors, pick up weapons and killing an opponent can take forever. The lag issues may be being sorted out as we speak so I still hold hope
Online is also where you will use your L1 button the most. You will walk into an area and see half a dozen gamers gambolling like a bunch of Judo experts in order to avoid their foe’s gunfire. On the smaller maps you will need to master this art otherwise you will not survive. It becomes annoying, makes you dizzy and the experience would be 100% better if this action had been omitted.
Click for larger imagePerfect Dark Zero combines almost everything that you’d wish to see from a modern day first person shooter. Take away the lock picking, dodgy zoom, gambolling and inadequate online mode and you’re left with a great single player campaign to rival any FPS.
Pros
Gorgeous graphics
Fast paced
Atmospheric
Funky Weapons
Cons
Dodgy zoom function on weapons
Poor online play
Lock Picking (grrrrrrr!)
PDZ is a better than average first person shooter with dazzling visuals and impressve gameplay.Online multiplayer is totally frustrating.If you are buying this game solely for online play I'd stick with Halo 2.
