Brevity
11-05-2005, 04:56 PM
http://www.talkxbox.com/preview745.html
Link has full article, some snippets:
Forget everything you know about Perfect Dark Zero.
Seriously. Right now.
We good?
Good.
Let’s just start with some good old fashioned hype. Perfect Dark Zero is the premier multiplayer title on the Xbox 360 and will be the most fun Live game you have ever played before. No, that isn’t a marketing tagline. That’s what I’m telling you now, having played it in an Xbox 360 preview session. While I tried out the single player mode for a bit, I primarily played the co-op mode. It was, in a word, godly.
I’ve been following Perfect Dark Zero from the beginning, through the system changes, disastrous MTV Unveiling, screenshots from hell, uninspiring X05 cam footage, and everything in-between. To be honest, I was expecting mediocrity taken to all-new highs. Fortunately, I was dead wrong. This game has quite a bit of bad buzz surrounding it. As it turns out, that buzz is just plain incorrect.
First things first. Perfect Dark Zero’s graphics will be among the best on the market come November 22nd. Characters are all painstakingly modeled with top-notch animations, creating a very fluid experience. Frame rate remained steady regardless of the action on screen. Explosions are the best I have ever seen and the lighting beats out most everything else out there. Most all lights can be shot out, or at least caused to flicker in and out, F.E.A.R. style. Everything casts its own shadow. Imagine Doom 3's lighting minus the ridiculous amount of darkness. The night maps especially have some gorgeous lighting, with billboards and neon signs lighting up their adjacent walls. Also, muzzle flashes look great against the wall, and on the ground. Water effects look as next-gen as they come, with waterfalls that you truly have to see to believe. Particle effects abound, as do the enemies, which are far more plentiful than in current-generation games. There is also quite a bit of blood. Each time you shoot someone a spurt of blood comes out, especially when you get a headshot. Bullet holes are also a great effect, if only in that they are still there if you come back 5 minutes later. It's things like that that really set apart Xbox 360 games.
Quote:
Opponents in PDZ take cover, rush, fall back, and snipe at you according to what the situation necessitates. If you run into a room without thinking ahead you will be killed and earn yourself a quick trip back to the last checkpoint, your teammate’s revive kit, or the restart menu.
Co-op in Perfect Dark Zero has you playing through the regular set of missions, but many of the levels have a twist. For instance, in one mission the first player takes to the rooftops covering the second player who must fight their way down on the ground floor. There are no checkpoints in co-op, which makes the entire experience all the more tense. You must depend on your teammate for cover and for revival. If you are killed, the only way for you to come back to life is for your teammate to use their revival tool by walking next to you and pressing right on the d-pad. That takes out the revival tool and automatically begins the revival, which takes about 5 seconds. Five seconds may not seem like much, but when you have gunfire surrounding you, it’s an eternity.
Quote:
Physics in PD0 in general are outstanding, with enemies gorily collapsing just as you would expect an enemy to gorily collapse. One of my favorite physics touches was related to the body armor most opponents wear. After you shoot the body armor a couple of times, the body armor will shatter. The cool thing, though, is that each individual shard of the body armor will fall to the ground and bounce along on its own. Touches like that really bring the world of Perfect Dark Zero to life. This is truly a next-generation title.
Quote:
On the whole, I couldn’t be more impressed with Perfect Dark Zero.
Link has full article, some snippets:
Forget everything you know about Perfect Dark Zero.
Seriously. Right now.
We good?
Good.
Let’s just start with some good old fashioned hype. Perfect Dark Zero is the premier multiplayer title on the Xbox 360 and will be the most fun Live game you have ever played before. No, that isn’t a marketing tagline. That’s what I’m telling you now, having played it in an Xbox 360 preview session. While I tried out the single player mode for a bit, I primarily played the co-op mode. It was, in a word, godly.
I’ve been following Perfect Dark Zero from the beginning, through the system changes, disastrous MTV Unveiling, screenshots from hell, uninspiring X05 cam footage, and everything in-between. To be honest, I was expecting mediocrity taken to all-new highs. Fortunately, I was dead wrong. This game has quite a bit of bad buzz surrounding it. As it turns out, that buzz is just plain incorrect.
First things first. Perfect Dark Zero’s graphics will be among the best on the market come November 22nd. Characters are all painstakingly modeled with top-notch animations, creating a very fluid experience. Frame rate remained steady regardless of the action on screen. Explosions are the best I have ever seen and the lighting beats out most everything else out there. Most all lights can be shot out, or at least caused to flicker in and out, F.E.A.R. style. Everything casts its own shadow. Imagine Doom 3's lighting minus the ridiculous amount of darkness. The night maps especially have some gorgeous lighting, with billboards and neon signs lighting up their adjacent walls. Also, muzzle flashes look great against the wall, and on the ground. Water effects look as next-gen as they come, with waterfalls that you truly have to see to believe. Particle effects abound, as do the enemies, which are far more plentiful than in current-generation games. There is also quite a bit of blood. Each time you shoot someone a spurt of blood comes out, especially when you get a headshot. Bullet holes are also a great effect, if only in that they are still there if you come back 5 minutes later. It's things like that that really set apart Xbox 360 games.
Quote:
Opponents in PDZ take cover, rush, fall back, and snipe at you according to what the situation necessitates. If you run into a room without thinking ahead you will be killed and earn yourself a quick trip back to the last checkpoint, your teammate’s revive kit, or the restart menu.
Co-op in Perfect Dark Zero has you playing through the regular set of missions, but many of the levels have a twist. For instance, in one mission the first player takes to the rooftops covering the second player who must fight their way down on the ground floor. There are no checkpoints in co-op, which makes the entire experience all the more tense. You must depend on your teammate for cover and for revival. If you are killed, the only way for you to come back to life is for your teammate to use their revival tool by walking next to you and pressing right on the d-pad. That takes out the revival tool and automatically begins the revival, which takes about 5 seconds. Five seconds may not seem like much, but when you have gunfire surrounding you, it’s an eternity.
Quote:
Physics in PD0 in general are outstanding, with enemies gorily collapsing just as you would expect an enemy to gorily collapse. One of my favorite physics touches was related to the body armor most opponents wear. After you shoot the body armor a couple of times, the body armor will shatter. The cool thing, though, is that each individual shard of the body armor will fall to the ground and bounce along on its own. Touches like that really bring the world of Perfect Dark Zero to life. This is truly a next-generation title.
Quote:
On the whole, I couldn’t be more impressed with Perfect Dark Zero.