PD0 Reviews

Reviews are in:

Gamerankings - 90% Average
http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/516508.asp

Gamespot - 9.0
http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/perfectdarkzero/review.html?sid=6140242

Team XBOX - 8.8
http://reviews.teamxbox.com/xbox-360/1072/Perfect-Dark-Zero/p1/

Gamers Reports - 8.8
http://www.gamersreports.com/review/27/

Gamespy review 4/5 stars:
http://xbox.gamespy.com/xbox-360/per.../669392p1.html

What a roller coaster ride this game has been! Looks like it actually turned out to be good, I'd actually given up on it.
 
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scooby_dooby said:
Well I'm starting this a bit early, but we have our first tentative review:

According to this poster UK OXM Gives it a 9/10
http://forums.xbox.com/438343/ShowPost.aspx
  • Superb Replay Value
  • Colossally addictive on Xbox Live
  • More weapons than Charlton Heston
  • Better-than-high-end PC visuals
The only minus was
  • Embarrassingly Wacky Voiceovers
Hearing that it's "colossally addictive on Xbox Live" is a good sign for those of us who wanted this game to be something like the original PD on the N64. Sure, the single-player in that game was fun but I certainly logged the vast majority of my play time in the multiplayer modes where I think that game really shined brightest. At least we're starting to have a few glimmers of hope about this one considering the past few weeks have been marred by conspiracy theories and dimming expectations in light of the lack of new information about the game.
 
scooby_dooby said:
Embarrassingly Wacky Voiceovers

This adds some somewhat credibility to the review, the voice overs are horrible on the videos I've seen. I'm a little skeptical of trusting OXM on a 1st party game, I hope everything else they stated turns out true though :p
 
Ya OXM has given out some strange 9+ in their day, but in the last couple years they've been solid.

I just hope they've implemented the SP campaign like goldeneye, where the final missiosn can only be unlocked after completing the previous missions on Secret Agent, that's what really added replay value to GE.

Anyone know if PD does it along the same lines? I never played the original...
 
I would rather see games like Kameo and PDO get underscored than have games like Wreckless on the Xbox getting 9+ in reviews.

I think it's better to ahve people pick up the game and think "Damn, this is better than I thought it would be" than it is for them to be thinking "Damn, this sucks."
 
Powderkeg said:
I would rather see games like Kameo and PDO get underscored than have games like Wreckless on the Xbox getting 9+ in reviews.

I think it's better to ahve people pick up the game and think "Damn, this is better than I thought it would be" than it is for them to be thinking "Damn, this sucks."
There are lots of games with scores in the "8" range on sites like IGN that are certainly considered to be classics by many. Mariocart 64's 8.4 rating on IGN comes to mind first since I played that game to death in multiplayer back when it first came out and loved every minute of it. It was one of the best multiplayer games on the system and in retrospect I think it deserved a better rating.
 
They did really write that?

Graphics:First impressions being what they are, I also want to talk a little about how good it looks. Aesthetics aside (because that's a whole 'nother can of worms), and from what I've seen so far (which is really what we've already played at X05), the game is a strong technical accomplishment. Lots of screen rocking explosions, thick layers of particles waffling through the air with every shot fired... PDZ really thunders with the action. The character models definitely have that uncanny valley feel about them where they're all soulless automatons who move more like action figures than people. But it does make you pause to think -- "Hey wait a sec, maybe we will see Toy Story-like real-time graphics in the coming generation." Of course, I don't expect the slick visuals to hold up... mostly because I don't want to jinx myself.
Talk about diplomatic non-opinion.
But that's "Videogaming Journalism" for you.
 
He sounds impressed to me. In the first paragraph he writes "PDZ looks fantastic and moves even better."

It's only after 20minutes of gameplay, so I'm sure he doesn't want to gush about GFX too much after seeing so little. BUt overall, it's sounding positive.
 
1.5 Hour Update
Total playtime: 1.5 hours
The sci-fi urgency of the first level, where rockets and jetpacks ruled the day, is replaced by the bouncy purple glow of a Hong Kong disco. The shift is a little jarring, and the music... well, it's bad Euro-diva-trance. And it loops over and over again. I think Jane will kill me soon if I keep it up at this volume. And whereas the first level was all-out action, the game sees its first stealth bits, where Joanna is supposed to sneak around spying on these "enforcers." The game still feels incredibly solid. Out of playfulness, I went around the dock area smacking various objects with the butt of my gun. I love how everything moves when the collision detection kicks in. Knocking a crate tipped the bottle that was sitting on top of it, causing it to roll and shatter on the pavement. Sure, the game looks a little too shiney at times -- plasticy, for lack of a better word -- but the world in which it resides makes a lot of physical sense.

I will so say though, this Hong Kong level is kind of a level design disaster. Lots of similar looking areas will cause you to scratch your head as you look for your next checkpoint, possibly, even trick you into backtracking to look for that next cutscene "trigger." The fact that there are literally arrows on the ground pointing you to your next destination, shows just how much confidence Rare had in their own level designs. But every firefight so far has been a good blend of straight Rambo and some hard-ass battles with an overwhelming force. Oh, and the shotgun rocks.

The comments about PDZ's terrible voice-acting hold true, I'm afraid. It appears Joanna's lost that womanly confidence she had in the N64 version. But then again, she's supposed to be younger in this game, right? I guess it makes some sort of sense.
Microsoft wants to play multi-player in 40 minutes. Gotta get some more single-player in there before I face ruthless MS testers!

Looks like I'll be using my own soundtrack in this game,
 
ahh yes the multiplayer on LIVE! :p

Total playtime: 3.5 hours
Where did the day go? I stepped away from PDZ's singleplayer missions to hop online against Microsoft on Xbox Live an hour ago. Now I look out my window and it's dark as night outside. In short, PDZ is a blast online. We only played free-for-all and team deathmatch, as well as capture-the-flag with a bunch of editors, testers, and bots.
What's immediately impressive about the multiplayer mode (and I imagine this stands for the game in offline, splitscreen as well) is that the bots behave mostly realistically. They hang back in groups at choke points on maps and take shots from behind cover, as well as take plenty of aggressive opportunity to rush objectives, especially if they see little in the way of defense. I've even had a bot creep up behind me while sniping and whack me on the back of the head. Since there aren't a whole lot of "real" PDZ players online at the moment, we mostly had to resort to creating large 16 player games with a mix of bots and humans. At one time, we put all player characters on the Dark team against all bots as Datadyne on the hardest difficulty, and we got a royal spanking from the A.I. From my hands-on time so far, the bots don't appear to be too cheap with their tactics or shoot with amazing accuracy.
What also surfaces during these multiplayer sessions is the desire to jump over small obstacles (y'know, so you can get down to a platform faster). Since you can't jump, you find yourself taking the long way around to get to places. It all feels a little restrictive for my liking. Also, by the way these bots move in multiplayer, it's clear that Rare knows how to program A.I. suited for combat. It's strange then, that they couldn't use any of that code in PDZ's single-player levels, which feature decent, but not stellar enemy A.I. Unlike their multiplayer counterparts, these enemies are true to their fodder roots and would rather charge you (and get shot at) than pick you off from afar. But recognizing that single-player and multiplayer modes serve different purposes, I think the move to make the A.I. more simplistic during missions does make hte game more fun and accessible.
Other stuff I've noticed are the graphics. While they can be hit or miss during cutscenes in single-player, they're mostly awesome when playing deathmatch over Xbox Live. There was worry from fans that Rare would downscale the graphics when it came to multiplayer. Well, they'll be happy to know the game looks just as good to the naked eye in multiplayer as it does single. Combat effects during deathmatch retain the same over-the-top particle-filled explosions, dust clouds and debris. And some of the levels we've been playing in (the desert stage seen in EGM's PDZ debut article, for instance, or the subway level where we first met Wallace Guyford) are downright huge (as they should support 32 players). In one CTF game, it took literally several minutes just to trudge back to base. I think the secret behind PDZ's good looks actually has a lot to do with artistry and textures (character designs notwithstanding). Like the Halo games, the maps and objects in PDZ take on a sort of hyperrealism that's neither photographic nor cartoony. It's a stylized reality all its own and it makes a lot of visual sense.
So does it feel like Halo 2 multiplayer? Not really. It feels more like a faster, crazier version of Perfect Dark on N64, this time with near-perfect framerates and not a slowdown hiccup in sight.
But enough talk! I'm going back to single-player
 
Gamespot impressions are in
http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/perfectdarkzero/news.html?sid=6140131&page=1

Except for a couple of the IGN editors everyone is liking the game so far, almost gauranteed to be 8+ at this point

Is Perfect Dark Zero the Xbox 360's Halo? We don't know yet, but what we do know is that we like what we've played of this highly anticipated first-person shooter so far. Rare's fully-featured game offers up a story-driven single-player campaign, a cooperative option, and multiplayer modes playable both online and in split-screen (as well as using a system link). More importantly, perhaps, it seems to have plenty of personality and original touches to it, despite the fairly conventional first-person-shooter mechanics and controls. And we just love what we've heard of the funky dance-music soundtrack so far.
 
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