Microsoft held an event for Perfect Dark Zero today. It wasn't as impressive as Nintendo's for the original game, which consisted of "kidnapping" a group of journalists and bundling them off in a van to the unveiling, but a warehouse in London's East End did make some kind of sense. But as for the game, I'm still not convinced.
Yes, the environments look great – cobbled streets have never looked so good – but the action itself seems overly simplistic. The AI of the enemies, in particular, felt anything but next-gen as they got easily slaughtered. Of course, this may have only been the section of the game we played, and we were on the easiest skill level, but it didn't feel like a step forward. Roll on review code.
What does deserve praise though is the co-op mode – games generally need more of this - which worked well and is likely to be a hit on Live. Multiplayer generally looked impressive, with the ridiculous amount of options that characterised the original title all present here.
A chat with the visibly exhausted Rare guys at the event confirmed that it was a real rush to get the game finished for launch. As someone well used to sleep deprivation – 3-month old babies, gotta love 'em – I felt their pain. Whether the game was worth their effort remains to be seen, although US reviews suggest it was.
