Perfect Dark Zero

After so many years in development you'd expect PDZ to be the ultimate Xbox 360 launch title. Well, it's not. But is it still worth a look?

	Version Xbox 360	Developer Rare	Publisher Microsoft	Genre FPS

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Xbox Live co-operative modes also add an amazing level of fun to the singleplayer campaign. No matter what my qualms are with the level design, I cannot deny the pure, undiluted shooter experience that is on offer when you grab a pal and weave through the missions as a cohesive team.

Perhaps I could even fool myself into believing that in part, the singleplayer game's faults are down to the levels mainly being designed for co-operative play.

Covering your friend from the rooftops with a sniper rifle while he completes a mission objective down bellow all while situated in different ends of the world from each other is a truly definitive gaming experience. If the Xbox 360 has something special to offer the gaming public, this is probably it.

Perfect Dark Zero's saving grace, as it always was with its less technically able forefathers, is its fantastic multiplayer mode. The epic proportions of customisation from the original Perfect Dark are back with even more miniscule detail, the weapons are balanced to hell and back, the maps are huge and dynamic, and most importantly, the game modes are ridiculously good fun.

Take Infection for example - a devilishly tactical game mode that pits players in a free-for-all deathmatch with two factions: Infected and Uninfected. If you die, you respawn as an infected player, and if any uninfected are left at the end of the round only they will receive points. If the infected wipe them all out, they're the ones who score. This is just as stupidly wonderful and addictive as it sounds.

Perfect Dark Zero is not an experience that should be taken too seriously. I am a huge fan of both Goldeneye and Perfect Dark, and I can see that it is not the definitive sequel most fans of the original game may have been hoping for.

But the core gameplay is there, and it's still special, it still works, and the new features are wonderfully balanced and implemented. The mission structure and pacing is questionable, to say the least, but this is the biggest fault in an otherwise fantastic FPS game.

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