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Good: Inclusion of co-op, multiplayer options, weapons

Bad: So-so graphics, analog sensitivity, voice acting, first half of campaign, multiplayer bugs

Does it feel "next gen": At times

Perfect Dark was the ideal spiritual sequel to Goldeneye for the Nintendo 64. It had more weapons, more levels and more multiplayer options to become the best console shooter of its day. Once developed for the Gamecube and then the original Xbox, the prequel Perfect Dark Zero finally debuts alongside the 360. Was it worth the overly-long wait?

Games like Call of Duty 2, Darkwatch, the Halos and various other solid games would have been a shadow of what they were if the basic aiming controls suffered. But those games control so responsively that looking and aiming feel like an extension of your mind. Not so in Perfect Dark Zero. For the first several hours you will fight with the sluggish feel of aiming. Turning the sensitivity up to its highest level only masks the problem. In twitch firefights, it still reacts too slow and when trying to line up headshots or any pinpoint action it's too erratic without going into "aiming mode" which also is not a solution for intense battles.

Unfortunately the entire single and multiplayer experience is colored by the controls. It also doesn't help that the first nine missions (zero through eight) are pretty lame with a lot of boring backtracking, uninteresting and sometimes confusing level design and a disjointed and poorly presented story.

Missions nine through thirteen take a complete 180 degree turn. The scope of the battles increases greatly. The geometry, architecture and objectives become noticeably more sophisticated. It's as if it was strikingly clear which levels were developed on the Xbox and then ported and which ones were built specifically for the 360. Still, the better of the missions don't do anything we haven't seen in superior shooters.

Joanna gets to pair off with her Dad in this prequel to take down quasi-mysterious baddies in an overarching conspiracy involving DataDyne. The story flails about in unconvincing fashion due to awful voice acting and disjointed transitions from level to level.

At the beginning of each mission, Joanna gets to fill four weapon slots with the boomsticks of her choice. Some guns take up two or three slots, making your choices a little more strategic. Frankly, the weapons are awesome. Every gun features a secondary and sometimes tertiary function, increasing the usability of even the seemingly weaker weapons. Each weapon "feels" great and gives a great sense of power depending on the function. The Laptop gun still doubles as a sentry and the CMP still doubles as an explosive decoy. New items like a mystical sword and Psychosis gun are welcome, but don't trump the tried and true PD originals. It also helps that enemies go down with a nice blood splatter, complemented with varying smooth animations (most of the time.)

Joanna also has a gaggle of gadgets to aid her progress. She has a Locktopus that can get through locked doors. If that's not your style, you have a demo kit at your disposal to blow through walls. The gadgets can be suited to your style of play, but don't expect to have any brainy challenges with what to use and when.

There are plenty of ledges and small obstacles where you would normally be able to jump over. Instead, a context-sensitive "A" button will appear on screen prompting a scripted solution. Also instead of implementing a jump function, Joanna gets to roll. The mechanic works well for the most part and does seem to get you out of trouble when you're low on health. Joanna's health meter works a little like Halo's where your initial hit will cause "shock," but if you retreat for a short amount of time most of it, if not all, will regenerate.

Taking a cue from kill.switch and various Splinter Cell games, you can find cover behind walls, crates and other obstructions along the way. You are able to pop out for split seconds at a time to get a few rounds off then automatically retreat behind cover. Using this feature liberally is a necessity if you are to ink the majority of enjoyment out of Zero's level design. Since the controls can be cumbersome, especially in wild firefights, it's not advisable to run out with guns blazing. The best thing to do in almost every multiple-enemy situation is to find cover and develop a slower-paced rhythm of attack.

The enemy AI seems to not only get more accurate as you increase the difficulty level, but the routines change and become more varied. Finding that rhythm becomes more critical as your advancement depends purely on your efficiency to do so.

The hovercraft and jetpack are two vehicles you'll get to pilot on your adventure. Both instances are pretty short lived, but do feature smooth control and are a decent diversion from the ordinary happenings in the single player campaign. Thankfully the PDZ pill is easier to swallow if you team up with a buddy in the cooperative mode. In fact, the vehicle sequences don't seem to be nearly as pleasing without someone you know gunning, or you as the gunner.

If you decide to make Zero your hero, Xbox Live is where the bulk of your time will be spent. There are two main modes of play: Deathmatch and Dark Ops. Confusingly, Deathmatch features more than Killcount, as it includes CTF variants and a boring Territories knock-off as well. While online play is virtually lag-free, playing for kills must be taken with a grain of salt since the controls don't offer the amount of precision to be taken seriously. CTF tends to be the best "Deathmatch" mode, but with only six maps to choose from, three worth playing at all, even CTF can get old fairly fast due to the lack of variety, even though the maps are scalable depending on the amount of players.

Dark Ops features Eradication, Infection, Sabotage and Onslaught modes. In Onslaught you have to hold an area without dying for longer than the other team which is ordered by rounds. Infection has one infected player trying to convert the rest of the players by killing them once. When killed, you also become infected and you have to infect everyone before time runs out. The other variants provide a decent amount of fun, but there isn't really enough difference to warrant modes being "Deathmatch" versus "Dark Ops" other than there are no bots allowed in "Dark Ops."

Speaking of bots, they're well done. They're much harder than the single player enemies, especially when you increase their difficulty. In large Deathmatch modes, you can get up to 15 bots and 32 human players in one map. That's a big battle.

Multiplayer bugs abound, however. Headshots are easy to get with the mega overcompensating auto aim that tries to make up for the erratic controls. Also, you can cheat weapon reload times by rolling. When rolling, your reload still continues and keeps you virtually impervious to fire.

On the good side, finding a game is a breeze whether you want to *gasp* browse open servers or play in ranked games. When setting up your custom game, there are a plethora of options akin to the original Perfect Dark. Zealots will be satisfied.

The entire graphic presentation suffers from an identity crisis. Most of the campaign consists of levels that look as if they were developed on the original Xbox, then sent through a "shiny" filter to make it pass as a next-generation offering. In addition, the character models are a mess. I think we're supposed to believe that the low-polygon, low-detail approach was an "artistic" angle they were going for. Really? Then why don't the objects, weapons, buildings and landscapes follow suit? Once you get into the ninth mission and above, the characters really don't look like they belong with such splendid looking backdrops. But some death animations, especially in multiplayer, look wonky, taking the player right out of the universe. Many times a dying enemy will look like it's suspended by an invisible rope right at the torso while shaking violently or doing a bad impression of slow-motion bullet time.

The music is great. The techno-rock with a dash of British brat pervades every aural pore and fits the themes to a tee. The sound effects also whiz and bang well, especially in explosions. The voice acting always sucks and is book-ended by the most annoying multiplayer announcer ever to grace gaming.

There are potentially redemptive qualities in Perfect Dark Zero in every aspect, but are all thwarted by suspect aiming controls. What results is a campaign only worth playing through once with a buddy and a multiplayer component that falls short of expectations, stranding great weapons and gadgets in a super-average void.

Graphics: B-

Sound: B+

First Play: C-

Last Play: C+

Gameplay: C

Overall: 77% C