Perfect Dark Zero (Xbox 360)

Herald rating: * * * *


Take a grim futuristic cityscape and some villains worthy of a Bond flick and you'd expect to be presented with a game that has every sci-fi thriller cliche in the book. But Perfect Dark Zero, the great green hope for the Xbox 360 machine when it comes to first-person shooters, is a slick, cool game with plenty of original flair.

It's also a great showcase for the 360's processing power, artistically presented with a game play that lets you immerse yourself in a digital world rather than concentrating on the controller buttons.

Joanna Dark, the main player, is a less voluptuous Lara Croft who is more into gadgets and guns than subterranean acrobatics.

Through the various missions, which are introduced with fairly well-thought-out briefings, Dark battles the henchmen of corporate mogul Li Zhang, who controls the popular virtual-reality game Deathmatch.

Zhang's ambitions go much further than making piles of money. He's seeking an ancient artefact, a type of Holy Grail, that will give him immense power.

Agent Dark is the skinny girl standing in his way. The Bond overtones aren't accidental, as the game developers were the original developers of 007: Goldeneye and followed that up with Dark Zero to which Perfect Dark Zero is type of prequel.

Perfect Dark Zero doesn't hold back when it comes to first-person shooting action. There's a huge arsenal of weapons which expands with the addition of a new gun or missile with each successfully completed mission. The body count mounts quickly and the bodies stay where they fall rather than disappearing as they do in less realistic games.

There's a distinctive cinematic feel to Perfect Dark Zero, emphasised by the topnotch artwork and sound effects. This is a flagship game and no corners have been cut in terms of presentation. The plot is epic, the game full of twists but Dark's journey interested me less than the world of the game and its look.

* R16, Price: $100