Since people have pointed this out: the lack of music is a bug that was introduced on a later patch of the original 360 version of the game; if you play it on a 360 unpatched, you’ll hear music throughout. It seems like this was never fixed when bringing the game to the Xbox One, which is what I was playing on at the time this video was made.
Shoutouts to Kameo: Elements of Power, the OTHER Rare launch title for the 360. That game is really fun and had super-ambitious area and crowd sizes. To be honest between it and PDZ I think Kameo is the better of the two, but I definitely have a soft spot for both.
It's 100% true that the rare fan reaction not very cool-headed. Check out nuts & bolts, the guy in charge of all three banjos is still extremely proud of that game.
Such a shame they broke Perfect Dark Zero with an update, if you notice over half of the game's soundtrack is mute... the 2006 update actually broke a huge portion of the sound. Myself and many others complained to Rare but they never acknowledged it or even responded. I've even spoken to the game's composer David Clynick about it and even he's aware. After downloading the 2006 update the game's music when alarm triggers and many missions now have dead silence, half of the soundtrack is muted... clearing the cache on Xbox360 shows you how it was before... newer versions of the game had this bad patch added to the disc.. same with Rare Replay.. Wish they would make a new update and fix it, can't believe they re-released Rare Replay like this. Perfect Dark Zero is an excellent game, nowehere near as good as the OG but still very fun.. shame it is somewhat broken, Microsoft Studios needs to fix it.
My favourite thing about this game is the bot support in multiplayer. Unlike Halo or cod at the time, you could set up the lobby any way you wanted to and you'd already have a full lobby of bots to play with.
I remember when I bought my 360 got it with Ninja Gaiden 2 and ofcourse Perfect Dark Zero. Needless to I poured hours in this game. But watching this makes me want to jump in and see if I still like it. If one would have asked me a decade ago when I was really into FPS games, this probably would have been my all time favourite video game. Time has definitely passed
Same. Me and my friends played a lot of Infection against bots. It’s clunky but there are some really great features like bots, game modes and secondary functions for guns.
I came to watch this after watching a review that DESTROYED perfect dark zero, completely agree with you though, zero is nowhere near as bad as people said it was. Still think the original is absolutely superb though!
Do not care about what anyone says. Perfect Dark Zero is my favorite Xbox 360 game of all time. For at least 4 years after it came out all I had was the amazing CD soundtrack (still have it and jam to it today) and the steel book version of the game. But I didn't have a 360. I got the game for about $25 bucks brand new. And just started at it for years. Lol most days I would watch TH-cam videos of game play. Man.... When I finally got my Xbox 360 Elite in 2009.... Perfect Dark Zero was the FIRST game I slapped in there! Lol I love that game so much. And on a side note, I love Quake IV too xD hahahaha
Haha I agree! That mission boss fight was awful especially on Perfect Dark Mode, Mei-Hem drove me crazy! She'd instantly kill you and you'd have to redo the entire mission.. I was so aggravated! Me and my nephew finally beat her though, only took like a million tries. I had many family members help me try to beat her and come up with a strategy.. We all kept failing, was near impossible.
I never played Perfect Dark or knew about it's existence when I first got Perfect Dark Zero, and I loved it, it became one of my favorite games still to today, then I found out it was the prequel of another game. I have to say without that nostalgia, I love this game with everything, it has unique things that I wish more games would bring, like a weapon that can disspaear you, or the vehicles you can literally fly and shoot, you have a weapon that can put a shield on you. This game really is amazing, I think that the futuristic technology is the best of the game, and in nowadays game, it would bring a lot of fun and amazing multiplayer content, like I would love to fly on the jetpack and shoot people on the ground, and then being broght to the ground by an explosion, or shooting on the Hovercraft while my friend is driving it.
19:55 Wacky vs. cheesy crap. I'm only 20, but grew up on PD64 since I was 4. Perfect Dark had a charm. Zero had cringey 2005 fashion and vibes. PD64 feels timeless; for ambitious it was, it achieved 95% of the goals it set out to do imo, and the game it intended to be. Whereas Zero... was clumsy in all respects. Dumbed down story/characters, amped up Matrix-like slow-mo cringe... But I can at least tell that's what they were more or less going for. Not clumsy, but that tone. I despise that tone and think it's infinitely worse than PD64's in all respects; but I can respect it well enough. The consensus is Zero a terrible Perfect Dark game, but a fairly alright game. And I agree with that. I enjoy its weapon melee in particular, and flying around on the multiplayer stage Urban. Those are actually my only positive memories with the game, but I loved those particular moments.
'Limelight' was my shit back in the day, still is. I remember playing the nightclub level with a friend over co op on Xbox live, and it sounded like we were outside the club with the muffled music. We jokingly said it sounds like they are getting down in there!! 😆
I never played the original, but I this game is actually quite good when understand how to appreciate it and, more importantly, play it. The higher difficulty is insanely tough and can be frustrating, but I noticed how I went back to replay the missions on Dark Agent to improve my stealth and tactics. Like you said, the missions can play out quite differently depending on your strategy.
Finally, someone else who doesn't blindly hate this game! And I agree, Rare fans have a habit of wearing the thickest nostalgia goggles known to man! Plenty of their games released after the N64 are fantastic! I absolutely love Grabbed by the Ghoulies and Nuts and Bolts
I can't believe it's been nearly 20 years since PDZ. I was 17 in 2005 and working a gas station job at the time that often had long periods nothing to do in between daily chores and dealing with customers. I had (still have) the Prima strategy guide for this game, I used to read it behind the counter when things we're slow back then, I remember being so hyped for this game because the original Perfect Dark was one of my favorite N64 games, I remember being blown away by how good the graphics looked in PDZ at the time lol, when it was all said and done, I enjoyed PDZ for what it was worth but it never came close to the greatness the original Perfect Dark had on the N64. Damn, where does time go though.
I like this take on the game a lot and it makes me want to try it for myself. Your production quality is top notch for a channel of your size, this video's great.
Imagine doing a review of half of a game and not even mentioning it. This is a CAMPAIGN review. If you werent playing the multi player online in its heyday you missed out. The 16 vs 16 on massive maps really made use of the weapon variety more than the campaign ever could. Its still the most variety in game modes of any online multiplayer i've ever played. Just think of playing split screen with your friend, you both have laptop sentry guns up on the walls of the enemies spawn room and one person is in a jetpack. An enemy spawns with zero spawn shield, 2 laptops firing at them from opposite directions, a jetpack shooting full auto with no reloads, there are mines covering the exits, and one player is running up to them to steal their weapon leaving them with nothing but their fists. And all this back before game companies cared about trash talk... the amount of raw butthurt was off the charts. Hit a 30 killstreak and hear all the noobs telling you about their encounters with your mother, it really could not be beat.
I wish I could go back to the heydays of Xbox 360 multiplayer. They were so much fun and the salt you could farm off kids was hilarious, there was a community feeling to it that nobody had really noticed until it was gone.
Great video! I honestly really enjoyed the campaign and thought the online multiplayer was underrated for its time. I’m probably biased as I played this as a kid and it was one of the very first shooters I picked up. But for me, it holds many memories and I had a blast with it! I thought Zero did a fantastic job of keeping the style/vibe of the original Perfect Dark while adding its own little modern flair on top. And now there’s a new Perfect Dark coming!
YUP! Thank you so much for this video! I almost certainly just got algorithmed from the video you're referencing (which I skipped once I realized they were over-extending their criticisms) and ended up here. And this video is much more fair.
Holy crap! A review of PDZ that isn't just "It's not Perfect Dark, so bad." I vastly prefer PDZ over PD, and it is so annoying seeing nearly everyone shit on it. It's a good FPS that deserves a play.
Perfect Dark had a near instant linear curve to running and button pressing. Zero has a weird aiming algorithm. There is a delay when strafing left to right. It just feels less instant and clunky. That being said. The weapon models and secondary functions were great and the online had some great game modes and returning features.
wish i played this game back in its heyday, i actually used to watch videos on it all of the time but was occupied with playing halo 3 and cod 4. also back in original perfect dark i loved how the president pronounced evidenssssssssssssssss and asshuuume instead of evidence and assume, made me laugh. Besides pdzeros slow movement speed the game still looks and feels pretty modern to this day
I started playing this game for the first time a few nights ago. I went into it not expecting anything, just feeling very interested in how the game is going to be since it's a prequel to the original game which I love which came out several years later on a more powerful console. Plus since I was aware of how much hate this game gets I was also interested in what I was going to think of it. Well, I actually really like it I find it very fun to play. I can't see what's so wrong with it apart from the characters movement feels a bit sluggish, the environments feel a bit empty, but that could just be because there doesn't seem to be that many enemies around, and that could be because of me playing it on the easiest difficulty. And the game kind of feels a bit unfinished somehow. But these things aren't enough to ruin the game for me. Maybe the reason why so many people hate it is because they're massive fans of the original and hyped up the sequel so much in their minds, that when playing it and it not quite living up to the hype, it just felt like a major disappointment?
well i have to admit it, th campiagn is a good if not better than timesplitters 3 campaing.... but timesplitters 3 have a ton of content after the campaign than campaign and multiplayer bots, (it has arenas, trails, challenge maps, local multiplayer that fucking works). thats why people prefer timesplitter 3, and timesplitters in general as better perfect dark or goldeneye succesors than perfect dark zero itself
Duuude this review was on point. I just hfinised PDZ and this is the only review on youtube that acknowledges that the level design unravels based on your gadgets and your playstyle, the enjoyable music and how both games have "similar" tones about the story but only PDZ gets so much shit. Oh and PDZ does have music throughout is just that the Rare Replay version has a bug that silences music most of the time, I played the original release on a 360 and it has no problems there which is a shame since most people will play that version of the game. th-cam.com/video/YdE6oR0XrOM/w-d-xo.html
when the original was so ground breaking, this being just 'fine' wasn't enough for me back then. Was hugely disappointed. I think what bothers us so much is the waste of potential.
Although i never owned the game myself, This was the game me and my friends would spend many many many hours playing split screen multiplayer around my friends house, I can still hear the menu music and remember the smell of weed in my imprinted memories, Good times lol
Timesplitters Future Perfect was the real Perfect Dark sequel, and is still is the true sequel to the N64 classic. Its got fast paced gameplay, no weapon carrying limit, its own version of the Far Sight called the Mag Charger, the goofy ness, and more. It was also made by former members of Rareware.
Only just now realized I put together this whole video and never mentioned the Samsung endorsement www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/samsung-microsoft-unleash-consumer-promotion-to-mark-launch-of-perfect-dark-zero
I couldn’t have put it better myself. Yes, it’s not as good a follow up to the original, but it’s not a bad game. I still play split screen Darkops with bots to this day.
Your video was the best review. Every other video just shits on it and overlooks the many good parts. "Limelight" is also a cool song. "Datacore Demolition: Escape" and "Datacore Demolition: Training" are also really cool tracks from the soundtrack. I remember playing this with my younger siblings back at the end of December 2005 on their Xbox 360 so there's nostalgia, but it's your video clearly acknowledges the many cool parts like the customization of weapons. Maybe the nostalgia thing will kick in for the mid 2000's soon and provoke Microsoft or someone else's interest in a new game.
One of the issues of PDZ is the horrific thumbstick controls, there was huge deadzones in the inputs that it felt like some of the failed EA Goldeneye attempts of the late 90s, gunplay and control wise. I thinknwe expected Halo shooting responsiveness with the sandbox mission approach.
MS should have let rare release PD0 and Kameo on the OG Xbox both were products of that time. Moving to 360 gave them extra polish but both played like last gen games. I loved them tbf
8:30 Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate Perfect Dark Zero, but I think the two weapon limitation stuff is boring in modern FPSes. Additionally, because you can select a weapon before a mission, you'd always end up selecting the plasma rifle lol. I think that is what it was called... so the two weapon limitation argument isn't really solid here.
when PDZ first came out I hated it. I was one of those Rare fanboys that didn't understand the game. Years later I realized how spoiled I was. Compared to modern shooters, PDZ is a masterpiece. There just isn't games like this anymore, with such care for level design, multiple objectives, hidden stuff, multiplayer options and so on. It's not on par with the original PD, but it's a great game noneless, and I still play it till this day.
I really liked Perfect Dark on N64, but I did enjoy PDZ despite its flaws. For me its main problem are the ugly graphisms and the clunky controls. There's something really weird going on with tbe aiming, and the faxt that I absolutely love the N64's game aiming did not help. That said the game has lots of qualities like this video explains. One thing that I really enjoyed was the challenge of the single player campaign. I really like the mission structure with a good mix of linearity and openness of the levels with multiple objectives. It's just more interesting than the linear levels of the others shooters of that era. The problem is, the levels aren't that well designed, but I still had tons of funs. The loadout system was pretty neat and definitely a added to the replay value. Another interesting aspect of the game is its health system. It's a rip off from fighting games like Street Fighter and I think it works pretty well in shooters. Your health refill but not to 100%. Whenever you get hit, your maximum HP lowers a bit. That way yiu can get killed is you stay too much exposed, and you regen a bit, but getting hit definitely impacts you. It's a nice compromise between the full health regen of most other shooter and the brutally of no regen which can put the player in tricky situations when you have very few HP left. And it also works well with the long level design, with very few checkpoints and the armor that you can find here and there. It's such a shame that Perfect Dark has not been received better. I would hace loved to see more episodes. Thankfully Microsoft finally has revived the franchise as a new episode is in the making. It's not being made by Rare but the original staff isnt working at Rare anymore so it's not a big deal to me despite the affection I have for Rare as a studio.
Nice video, but I can't believe you didn't mention the voice acting. That's as important as the music. Like or hate Perfect Dark Zero, there's no denying that changing Joanna's voice actress from British to American was a colossal mistake. Especially when you consider there's only three years between the games in the story's timeline. It's beyond me why they didn't just rehire the original VA, even if it was a bit more costly. I know it might not seem like much, but I know there'd be so many complaints if this happened with other more noteworthy characters. Imagine if Ryo sounded completely different in Shenmue III. Almost two decades later yet they still managed to get the voice back, same (bad but good) quality.
That's a pretty good point and I don't have a solid reason why I kind of forgot that. I think I just wanted to focus on things people hadn't already brought up, so it never crossed my mind? Thank you for pointing it out.
Well I definitely will give it a second try, when I played for the first time i went in going by what everyone said that it sucks, but never really gave it a chance, now im pretty interested. Imma play it. Thanks for the awesome review.
Having played this at the launch of the 360, I have fond memories playing it. I hadn’t played or even heard of the OG game and being a 12/13 year old kid at the time, PDZ just appealed to me (obviously that was intentional lol). It’s not an amazing game and while I feel like it looks very dated by todays standards, it was a good game for the time.
I remember playing this the 1st time and mostly I disliked this because of the controllers were touchy and couldn't change the options that I wanted. I remember halo and goldeneye had good controls and new PD did not so it was unplayable for me
At the time I enjoyed it but it wasn't perfect Dark. Joanna was now American teen for some reason. She was a british Spy in the original. I think the hype blinded me and many reviewers. It was fine and many of the points you make are right. It lost a lot of that Blade Runner feel from the original game had. It needed to be a Dark Noir cyberpunk spy game.
In short I loved the premise of PDZ, but I hated the execution. To add detail, I absolutely loved the art style, and all the bump mapping just works with it! the story is a bit weird, but the level design was solid and I really wanted to love the game, but that came crashing down with it being a launch title. It wasn't the lack of hardware as later titles showed that the Xbox 360 had the goods, but the resolution sucked, the 30fps framerate didn't suit, and that motion blur made both the garbage resolution and the framerate just look so much bloody worse! And to top it off, it handled like a bus... I tried playing it again more recently on the one x, and whilst that improvement in resolution doesn't go unnoticed, the combination of that framerate and motion blur coupled with the heavy and lethargic controls make it almost unplayable in the campaign, and downright nauseating as far as the multiplayer goes. I'm half tempted to see if the series x helps perk up the camera response a little, but I'd imagine it still plays like having a concussion, and that would be a damn shame
Another major complaint I hear is the the controls are sluggish. I have to agree. Despite putting probably over +1000 hours in this game, I can safely say the controls are very sluggish, even delayed in some cases. It always felt like I was moving through knee-deep mud, and the turning on the right thumbstick was just awful. The tone of the game doesn't really bother me in either case, though Joanna's design in Zero I really don't like. She looks like a rejected Jet Set Radio character. Though I loved the weapons, the settings, and I was there when the multiplayer was banging. I can see why people like it, but I can also see why a lot of reviewers give it shit. But there's far...FAR worse games out there. I'm looking at you, 'Jurassic Park: The Game' made by Telltales, you shit show.
I played PDZ on my Xbox One S recently, and while of course falling far short of GE and PD, it wasn't so much more awful than EA published Bond games or most of the TimeSplitters series. It had enough good stuff in it for me to recognise a better game in there, but if they refined the good stuff in a improved sequel, with a less clunky and cartoonish overall tone to it.
I remember this game back when it launched and I did never played the original until 2 years ago and I loved both I see the problems and what they were trying to go for but I loved both and when you try zeroes objectives it's actually fun it might not be perfect but I love it this game and with a new game coming I can't just can't wait and plus you make a good point on all of this
Interesting critique. I personally dislike this game, but this review almost made me want to give it another shot. Also, Halo 4 is not bad. There, I said it.
Dont think they will ever do something good with perfect dark, cause the narrative is kinda similar to halo, the guns and everything, if they do something good it will overshadow their beloved franchise
Seriously, I could never get over the fact that her British accent disappeared. I stopped playing after the first couple of levels. For someone who had dumped hours and hours into the original game, it didn't even feel like the same character anymore. And, yes, I know they explained it in the comics or something (which is really stupid and lazy) but this one detail completely soured the game for me.
I wanted to love PDZ but it was a step backwards in nearly every way imo, still play the original multiplayer to this day but couldn’t stand multiplayer in PDZ, conker remaster on Xbox had the same problem also, the loss of challenge mode and the customisation was disappointing
i just finished this game and i honestly hated it. It was probably the worst fps i've ever played and the story is so bad that it made me never want to see a pd game ever again. edit: Oh and im not a rare fanboy with rose tinted.... i only played the original pd last week for the first time and i have just finished pdz today and i agree that the original pd story isn't great or amazing in any way but it is at least the minimum of story you need to make a player care or be the slightest interested. PDZ for me was just a long slog that i wanted to quit but i had to give it a chance. There are moments of hope in pdz but they are all ruined by terrible mission design and ai. Pd is just way more enjoyable in everyway than pdz
@Virtuous Gamer yo this game has literally drained my body from ever feelings emotions again. Drugs be the only thing that keep me awake because of this game.
Since people have pointed this out: the lack of music is a bug that was introduced on a later patch of the original 360 version of the game; if you play it on a 360 unpatched, you’ll hear music throughout.
It seems like this was never fixed when bringing the game to the Xbox One, which is what I was playing on at the time this video was made.
Shoutouts to Kameo: Elements of Power, the OTHER Rare launch title for the 360. That game is really fun and had super-ambitious area and crowd sizes. To be honest between it and PDZ I think Kameo is the better of the two, but I definitely have a soft spot for both.
Kameo is a great game a truly underrated classic honestly
It's 100% true that the rare fan reaction not very cool-headed. Check out nuts & bolts, the guy in charge of all three banjos is still extremely proud of that game.
Such a shame they broke Perfect Dark Zero with an update, if you notice over half of the game's soundtrack is mute... the 2006 update actually broke a huge portion of the sound. Myself and many others complained to Rare but they never acknowledged it or even responded. I've even spoken to the game's composer David Clynick about it and even he's aware. After downloading the 2006 update the game's music when alarm triggers and many missions now have dead silence, half of the soundtrack is muted... clearing the cache on Xbox360 shows you how it was before... newer versions of the game had this bad patch added to the disc.. same with Rare Replay.. Wish they would make a new update and fix it, can't believe they re-released Rare Replay like this. Perfect Dark Zero is an excellent game, nowehere near as good as the OG but still very fun.. shame it is somewhat broken, Microsoft Studios needs to fix it.
Wow I noticed that too after recently replaying it, and most of the music is enjoyable in this game.. what a shame!!
@@PandorasTmrw Yeah it is sad, was an excellent soundtrack
My favourite thing about this game is the bot support in multiplayer. Unlike Halo or cod at the time, you could set up the lobby any way you wanted to and you'd already have a full lobby of bots to play with.
its a crime that games that also have a multiplayer mode dont give us the option to add bots to our matches
I remember when I bought my 360 got it with Ninja Gaiden 2 and ofcourse Perfect Dark Zero. Needless to I poured hours in this game. But watching this makes me want to jump in and see if I still like it. If one would have asked me a decade ago when I was really into FPS games, this probably would have been my all time favourite video game. Time has definitely passed
As one of the only speedrunners of this game I have a love/hate relationship with it lol. It has its faults for sure, but I've got a soft spot for it.
I actually love the art style for it. I’m going to give it another go.
Same. Me and my friends played a lot of Infection against bots. It’s clunky but there are some really great features like bots, game modes and secondary functions for guns.
I came to watch this after watching a review that DESTROYED perfect dark zero, completely agree with you though, zero is nowhere near as bad as people said it was.
Still think the original is absolutely superb though!
I skipped this game for years due to the negative reception and recently played it. It’s way better than I expected.
Same for me man. I adore the original and only just now played Zero and it's pretty good.
Do not care about what anyone says. Perfect Dark Zero is my favorite Xbox 360 game of all time. For at least 4 years after it came out all I had was the amazing CD soundtrack (still have it and jam to it today) and the steel book version of the game. But I didn't have a 360. I got the game for about $25 bucks brand new. And just started at it for years. Lol most days I would watch TH-cam videos of game play. Man.... When I finally got my Xbox 360 Elite in 2009.... Perfect Dark Zero was the FIRST game I slapped in there! Lol I love that game so much. And on a side note, I love Quake IV too xD hahahaha
18 years later I am playing it for the first time
"deathmatch with mayhem" sounds straight outta tony hawk's pro skater
Haha I agree! That mission boss fight was awful especially on Perfect Dark Mode, Mei-Hem drove me crazy! She'd instantly kill you and you'd have to redo the entire mission.. I was so aggravated! Me and my nephew finally beat her though, only took like a million tries. I had many family members help me try to beat her and come up with a strategy.. We all kept failing, was near impossible.
I never played Perfect Dark or knew about it's existence when I first got Perfect Dark Zero, and I loved it, it became one of my favorite games still to today, then I found out it was the prequel of another game. I have to say without that nostalgia, I love this game with everything, it has unique things that I wish more games would bring, like a weapon that can disspaear you, or the vehicles you can literally fly and shoot, you have a weapon that can put a shield on you. This game really is amazing, I think that the futuristic technology is the best of the game, and in nowadays game, it would bring a lot of fun and amazing multiplayer content, like I would love to fly on the jetpack and shoot people on the ground, and then being broght to the ground by an explosion, or shooting on the Hovercraft while my friend is driving it.
This and Kameo need to come back BOTH ARE AMAZING
I still love this game. It takes me back to the old rare games.
19:55 Wacky vs. cheesy crap. I'm only 20, but grew up on PD64 since I was 4. Perfect Dark had a charm. Zero had cringey 2005 fashion and vibes. PD64 feels timeless; for ambitious it was, it achieved 95% of the goals it set out to do imo, and the game it intended to be. Whereas Zero... was clumsy in all respects. Dumbed down story/characters, amped up Matrix-like slow-mo cringe... But I can at least tell that's what they were more or less going for. Not clumsy, but that tone. I despise that tone and think it's infinitely worse than PD64's in all respects; but I can respect it well enough. The consensus is Zero a terrible Perfect Dark game, but a fairly alright game. And I agree with that. I enjoy its weapon melee in particular, and flying around on the multiplayer stage Urban. Those are actually my only positive memories with the game, but I loved those particular moments.
'Limelight' was my shit back in the day, still is. I remember playing the nightclub level with a friend over co op on Xbox live, and it sounded like we were outside the club with the muffled music. We jokingly said it sounds like they are getting down in there!! 😆
Yeah that song was sick, that's my favorite level because of that
I never played the original, but I this game is actually quite good when understand how to appreciate it and, more importantly, play it. The higher difficulty is insanely tough and can be frustrating, but I noticed how I went back to replay the missions on Dark Agent to improve my stealth and tactics. Like you said, the missions can play out quite differently depending on your strategy.
Finally, someone else who doesn't blindly hate this game!
And I agree, Rare fans have a habit of wearing the thickest nostalgia goggles known to man! Plenty of their games released after the N64 are fantastic! I absolutely love Grabbed by the Ghoulies and Nuts and Bolts
I can't believe it's been nearly 20 years since PDZ. I was 17 in 2005 and working a gas station job at the time that often had long periods nothing to do in between daily chores and dealing with customers. I had (still have) the Prima strategy guide for this game, I used to read it behind the counter when things we're slow back then, I remember being so hyped for this game because the original Perfect Dark was one of my favorite N64 games, I remember being blown away by how good the graphics looked in PDZ at the time lol, when it was all said and done, I enjoyed PDZ for what it was worth but it never came close to the greatness the original Perfect Dark had on the N64. Damn, where does time go though.
Me and my brother loved this game
I like this take on the game a lot and it makes me want to try it for myself. Your production quality is top notch for a channel of your size, this video's great.
Imagine doing a review of half of a game and not even mentioning it. This is a CAMPAIGN review. If you werent playing the multi player online in its heyday you missed out. The 16 vs 16 on massive maps really made use of the weapon variety more than the campaign ever could. Its still the most variety in game modes of any online multiplayer i've ever played. Just think of playing split screen with your friend, you both have laptop sentry guns up on the walls of the enemies spawn room and one person is in a jetpack. An enemy spawns with zero spawn shield, 2 laptops firing at them from opposite directions, a jetpack shooting full auto with no reloads, there are mines covering the exits, and one player is running up to them to steal their weapon leaving them with nothing but their fists. And all this back before game companies cared about trash talk... the amount of raw butthurt was off the charts. Hit a 30 killstreak and hear all the noobs telling you about their encounters with your mother, it really could not be beat.
I wish I could go back to the heydays of Xbox 360 multiplayer. They were so much fun and the salt you could farm off kids was hilarious, there was a community feeling to it that nobody had really noticed until it was gone.
I love the into sing used to rock out to it so much
Great video!
I honestly really enjoyed the campaign and thought the online multiplayer was underrated for its time. I’m probably biased as I played this as a kid and it was one of the very first shooters I picked up. But for me, it holds many memories and I had a blast with it! I thought Zero did a fantastic job of keeping the style/vibe of the original Perfect Dark while adding its own little modern flair on top.
And now there’s a new Perfect Dark coming!
YUP! Thank you so much for this video! I almost certainly just got algorithmed from the video you're referencing (which I skipped once I realized they were over-extending their criticisms) and ended up here. And this video is much more fair.
Holy crap! A review of PDZ that isn't just "It's not Perfect Dark, so bad."
I vastly prefer PDZ over PD, and it is so annoying seeing nearly everyone shit on it. It's a good FPS that deserves a play.
Perfect Dark had a near instant linear curve to running and button pressing. Zero has a weird aiming algorithm. There is a delay when strafing left to right. It just feels less instant and clunky. That being said. The weapon models and secondary functions were great and the online had some great game modes and returning features.
wish i played this game back in its heyday, i actually used to watch videos on it all of the time but was occupied with playing halo 3 and cod 4. also back in original perfect dark i loved how the president pronounced evidenssssssssssssssss and asshuuume instead of evidence and assume, made me laugh. Besides pdzeros slow movement speed the game still looks and feels pretty modern to this day
I started playing this game for the first time a few nights ago. I went into it not expecting anything, just feeling very interested in how the game is going to be since it's a prequel to the original game which I love which came out several years later on a more powerful console. Plus since I was aware of how much hate this game gets I was also interested in what I was going to think of it.
Well, I actually really like it I find it very fun to play. I can't see what's so wrong with it apart from the characters movement feels a bit sluggish, the environments feel a bit empty, but that could just be because there doesn't seem to be that many enemies around, and that could be because of me playing it on the easiest difficulty. And the game kind of feels a bit unfinished somehow. But these things aren't enough to ruin the game for me.
Maybe the reason why so many people hate it is because they're massive fans of the original and hyped up the sequel so much in their minds, that when playing it and it not quite living up to the hype, it just felt like a major disappointment?
Between this game, Oblivion & Halo , Fallout 3 - gaming heaven for me
This was Cyberpunk before Cyberpunk, an absolutely under appreciated classic.
Cyberpunk was fucken shit too
Im starting to see a trend
I love this game. As a die hard fan of goldeneye and perfect dark on 64
well i have to admit it, th campiagn is a good if not better than timesplitters 3 campaing.... but timesplitters 3 have a ton of content after the campaign than campaign and multiplayer bots, (it has arenas, trails, challenge maps, local multiplayer that fucking works). thats why people prefer timesplitter 3, and timesplitters in general as better perfect dark or goldeneye succesors than perfect dark zero itself
this game definetly has some weird scaling all your enemies look like giants, 10/10 soundtrack thoe
Duuude this review was on point. I just hfinised PDZ and this is the only review on youtube that acknowledges that the level design unravels based on your gadgets and your playstyle, the enjoyable music and how both games have "similar" tones about the story but only PDZ gets so much shit. Oh and PDZ does have music throughout is just that the Rare Replay version has a bug that silences music most of the time, I played the original release on a 360 and it has no problems there which is a shame since most people will play that version of the game. th-cam.com/video/YdE6oR0XrOM/w-d-xo.html
I love the game
when the original was so ground breaking, this being just 'fine' wasn't enough for me back then. Was hugely disappointed. I think what bothers us so much is the waste of potential.
Although i never owned the game myself, This was the game me and my friends would spend many many many hours playing split screen multiplayer around my friends house, I can still hear the menu music and remember the smell of weed in my imprinted memories, Good times lol
This was a great retrospective. Been playing dark zero since day 1
Timesplitters Future Perfect was the real Perfect Dark sequel, and is still is the true sequel to the N64 classic. Its got fast paced gameplay, no weapon carrying limit, its own version of the Far Sight called the Mag Charger, the goofy ness, and more. It was also made by former members of Rareware.
16:31 you were saying… I feel the same way about MGS4 on the ps3, which was a, technologically, really well made game (or movie) for the time.
On the topic of additional games to Rare's N64 shooters, when do we expect the Goldeneye 007 Reloaded video?
Nice work as always dad.
Nick H oh god is that still active? I actually floated the idea of a Timesplitters retrospective, but I need to rest
@@VonisV If you mean Goldeneye Source then maaaaaybe? Probably has at least one server up with regulars.
@@NickH There's also a Sourcemod for Perfect Dark multi
Yeah, you're right I am thinking of GE: Source. I actually own the Goldeneye remake for the Wii so that isn't impossible...
@@VonisV if we can get a server running, it's possible to cover both sourcemods
Excellent! I’d love a port of this to the Switch!
You should review Rare games 2005- to current. Great review
Awesome video and great perspective. Really enjoyed it and got me wanting to go back to play zero again.
Only just now realized I put together this whole video and never mentioned the Samsung endorsement
www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/samsung-microsoft-unleash-consumer-promotion-to-mark-launch-of-perfect-dark-zero
I couldn’t have put it better myself. Yes, it’s not as good a follow up to the original, but it’s not a bad game. I still play split screen Darkops with bots to this day.
I loved this game
yeah in your memory.
@@George_the_gun_walker true
Maybe this game is old but still gold
Your video was the best review. Every other video just shits on it and overlooks the many good parts. "Limelight" is also a cool song. "Datacore Demolition: Escape" and "Datacore Demolition: Training" are also really cool tracks from the soundtrack. I remember playing this with my younger siblings back at the end of December 2005 on their Xbox 360 so there's nostalgia, but it's your video clearly acknowledges the many cool parts like the customization of weapons. Maybe the nostalgia thing will kick in for the mid 2000's soon and provoke Microsoft or someone else's interest in a new game.
Woah you got something to say about Fusion Frenzy??
One of the issues of PDZ is the horrific thumbstick controls, there was huge deadzones in the inputs that it felt like some of the failed EA Goldeneye attempts of the late 90s, gunplay and control wise. I thinknwe expected Halo shooting responsiveness with the sandbox mission approach.
So looking forward for the new one. Cool review. I also always thought, people were way to harsch on this game.
It’s shit tho
MS should have let rare release PD0 and Kameo on the OG Xbox both were products of that time. Moving to 360 gave them extra polish but both played like last gen games. I loved them tbf
This game feels like it takes place in the killer instinct universe
I love this game wierd visual style, it is soo unique
8:30 Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate Perfect Dark Zero, but I think the two weapon limitation stuff is boring in modern FPSes. Additionally, because you can select a weapon before a mission, you'd always end up selecting the plasma rifle lol. I think that is what it was called... so the two weapon limitation argument isn't really solid here.
when PDZ first came out I hated it. I was one of those Rare fanboys that didn't understand the game. Years later I realized how spoiled I was. Compared to modern shooters, PDZ is a masterpiece. There just isn't games like this anymore, with such care for level design, multiple objectives, hidden stuff, multiplayer options and so on. It's not on par with the original PD, but it's a great game noneless, and I still play it till this day.
It has music throughout. You need to play it unpatched on 360. If you can't live without the Series X enhancements, just emulate the game.
I really liked Perfect Dark on N64, but I did enjoy PDZ despite its flaws. For me its main problem are the ugly graphisms and the clunky controls. There's something really weird going on with tbe aiming, and the faxt that I absolutely love the N64's game aiming did not help.
That said the game has lots of qualities like this video explains. One thing that I really enjoyed was the challenge of the single player campaign. I really like the mission structure with a good mix of linearity and openness of the levels with multiple objectives. It's just more interesting than the linear levels of the others shooters of that era. The problem is, the levels aren't that well designed, but I still had tons of funs. The loadout system was pretty neat and definitely a added to the replay value.
Another interesting aspect of the game is its health system. It's a rip off from fighting games like Street Fighter and I think it works pretty well in shooters. Your health refill but not to 100%. Whenever you get hit, your maximum HP lowers a bit. That way yiu can get killed is you stay too much exposed, and you regen a bit, but getting hit definitely impacts you. It's a nice compromise between the full health regen of most other shooter and the brutally of no regen which can put the player in tricky situations when you have very few HP left.
And it also works well with the long level design, with very few checkpoints and the armor that you can find here and there.
It's such a shame that Perfect Dark has not been received better. I would hace loved to see more episodes. Thankfully Microsoft finally has revived the franchise as a new episode is in the making. It's not being made by Rare but the original staff isnt working at Rare anymore so it's not a big deal to me despite the affection I have for Rare as a studio.
Nice video, but I can't believe you didn't mention the voice acting. That's as important as the music. Like or hate Perfect Dark Zero, there's no denying that changing Joanna's voice actress from British to American was a colossal mistake. Especially when you consider there's only three years between the games in the story's timeline. It's beyond me why they didn't just rehire the original VA, even if it was a bit more costly.
I know it might not seem like much, but I know there'd be so many complaints if this happened with other more noteworthy characters. Imagine if Ryo sounded completely different in Shenmue III. Almost two decades later yet they still managed to get the voice back, same (bad but good) quality.
That's a pretty good point and I don't have a solid reason why I kind of forgot that. I think I just wanted to focus on things people hadn't already brought up, so it never crossed my mind? Thank you for pointing it out.
@@VonisV You're welcome. You've made some good videos so I'm not sure why you don't have more subs. Here's another. 👍
This is 007 night fire version of PD zero.. Tbh
Well I definitely will give it a second try, when I played for the first time i went in going by what everyone said that it sucks, but never really gave it a chance, now im pretty interested. Imma play it. Thanks for the awesome review.
15th Anniversary of Perfect Dark Zero (2005-2020)
Having played this at the launch of the 360, I have fond memories playing it.
I hadn’t played or even heard of the OG game and being a 12/13 year old kid at the time, PDZ just appealed to me (obviously that was intentional lol).
It’s not an amazing game and while I feel like it looks very dated by todays standards, it was a good game for the time.
Great review bro
"Rare's CHRIST-EN-ING of a new generation."
*smiles* Uhm.../CHRIS-en-ing/.
PD Zero always felt to me like a bitsy crippled child of PD and FEAR (minus the scary parts of that one).
I played the crap out of this game. I got the achievement for 1000 deathmatches played and I beat the singleplayer on the hardest difficulty.
I remember playing this the 1st time and mostly I disliked this because of the controllers were touchy and couldn't change the options that I wanted.
I remember halo and goldeneye had good controls and new PD did not so it was unplayable for me
At the time I enjoyed it but it wasn't perfect Dark. Joanna was now American teen for some reason. She was a british Spy in the original. I think the hype blinded me and many reviewers. It was fine and many of the points you make are right. It lost a lot of that Blade Runner feel from the original game had. It needed to be a Dark Noir cyberpunk spy game.
In short I loved the premise of PDZ, but I hated the execution.
To add detail, I absolutely loved the art style, and all the bump mapping just works with it! the story is a bit weird, but the level design was solid and I really wanted to love the game, but that came crashing down with it being a launch title. It wasn't the lack of hardware as later titles showed that the Xbox 360 had the goods, but the resolution sucked, the 30fps framerate didn't suit, and that motion blur made both the garbage resolution and the framerate just look so much bloody worse! And to top it off, it handled like a bus...
I tried playing it again more recently on the one x, and whilst that improvement in resolution doesn't go unnoticed, the combination of that framerate and motion blur coupled with the heavy and lethargic controls make it almost unplayable in the campaign, and downright nauseating as far as the multiplayer goes.
I'm half tempted to see if the series x helps perk up the camera response a little, but I'd imagine it still plays like having a concussion, and that would be a damn shame
Another major complaint I hear is the the controls are sluggish. I have to agree. Despite putting probably over +1000 hours in this game, I can safely say the controls are very sluggish, even delayed in some cases. It always felt like I was moving through knee-deep mud, and the turning on the right thumbstick was just awful. The tone of the game doesn't really bother me in either case, though Joanna's design in Zero I really don't like. She looks like a rejected Jet Set Radio character. Though I loved the weapons, the settings, and I was there when the multiplayer was banging.
I can see why people like it, but I can also see why a lot of reviewers give it shit. But there's far...FAR worse games out there.
I'm looking at you, 'Jurassic Park: The Game' made by Telltales, you shit show.
I love Jet Set Radio so I love the aesthetic
It's a solid game. Feels like a holdover from the Xbox og era.
It was as solid as bath bubbles
This is just my opinion, but I like Perfect Dark Zero soundtrack a lot better than Perfect Dark.
I played PDZ on my Xbox One S recently, and while of course falling far short of GE and PD, it wasn't so much more awful than EA published Bond games or most of the TimeSplitters series.
It had enough good stuff in it for me to recognise a better game in there, but if they refined the good stuff in a improved sequel, with a less clunky and cartoonish overall tone to it.
You seriously think the Timesplitters games are awful?! Wtf 🤦🏻♂️
@@Weather_Nerd The Timesplitters was OK.
THE TOTEM POED?
I remember having the choose btw this, COD 2, and Oblivion...though i completed this game the OG will ALWAYS be better, superior
I remember this game back when it launched and I did never played the original until 2 years ago and I loved both I see the problems and what they were trying to go for but I loved both and when you try zeroes objectives it's actually fun it might not be perfect but I love it this game and with a new game coming I can't just can't wait and plus you make a good point on all of this
Interesting critique. I personally dislike this game, but this review almost made me want to give it another shot. Also, Halo 4 is not bad. There, I said it.
don't give it another shot game's dog shit.
I can't get through the first mission its so bad....mutiplayer is OK.though...nothing legendary like PD was
This video was 6 months early lol
best xbox games ever made
An absolute stinker for sure 😑
Dont think they will ever do something good with perfect dark, cause the narrative is kinda similar to halo, the guns and everything, if they do something good it will overshadow their beloved franchise
Probably cuz the game was designed for a different console generation
Seriously, I could never get over the fact that her British accent disappeared. I stopped playing after the first couple of levels. For someone who had dumped hours and hours into the original game, it didn't even feel like the same character anymore. And, yes, I know they explained it in the comics or something (which is really stupid and lazy) but this one detail completely soured the game for me.
I wanted to love PDZ but it was a step backwards in nearly every way imo, still play the original multiplayer to this day but couldn’t stand multiplayer in PDZ, conker remaster on Xbox had the same problem also, the loss of challenge mode and the customisation was disappointing
Sorry, you dont convince me, the game sucks balls! xD, nice try tough.
i just finished this game and i honestly hated it. It was probably the worst fps i've ever played and the story is so bad that it made me never want to see a pd game ever again.
edit: Oh and im not a rare fanboy with rose tinted.... i only played the original pd last week for the first time and i have just finished pdz today and i agree that the original pd story isn't great or amazing in any way but it is at least the minimum of story you need to make a player care or be the slightest interested. PDZ for me was just a long slog that i wanted to quit but i had to give it a chance. There are moments of hope in pdz but they are all ruined by terrible mission design and ai. Pd is just way more enjoyable in everyway than pdz
@Virtuous Gamer yo this game has literally drained my body from ever feelings emotions again. Drugs be the only thing that keep me awake because of this game.
So awesome game
Good review. I love this game.
Cool!
Zero sucked so much. everything from the graphics, to sound, to especially low-gravity movement
Stop meat riding rare this game was hot 💩no way around it
This game is massively disappointing, completely failed to live up to both the original perfect dark and goldeneye 64
What is that fucking noise?
Awesome game, just as much fun as the OG and it’s 2 player co-op! Love the limited edition that comes with a physical comic book.
23 mins what the fuck
Perfect dark zero was not good. They butchered Joanna’s Character
HUHHH? IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE ON GAMECUBE? God damn it Microsoft buying Rare
This shit was ass nothing beats the first