Most Under-rated games on the Xbox 360 Part 1

N.B: Work in progress: Edit dates are at bottom of post
Current revision: Draft 1


Why did you buy an xbox 360? For the games? Because you just wanted to? For the status? Or just because everyone else had? Well I bought mine to follow my favourite game developer since i was a child: Rareware (now called Rare) http://www.rareware.co.uk/ most people remember Rareware on the Nintendo 64 were they seemed to do no wrong. Every game was fantastic, From James Bond Goldeneye to Diddy Kong racing. But during the beginning of the last generation of games consoles (Xbox and Playstation 2) Rareware seemed to go very quiet (more than normal here, Rareware has always been very quiet), Microsoft was entering the games console market and being very aggressive in buying companies to almost FORCE them to make games for the xbox. So M$ bought Rareware.

Now one of the big games that Rare then made for the 360 was Perfect Dark Zero (i know that they made 2 games for the original Xbox but this will focus on Perfect Dark Zero). This would be a launch title for the 360 so basically almost guaranteed that every person who bought a 360 would by a copy. After the success of the First Perfect Dark game on the N64 it was almost taken for granted that it would be fantastic. Put it into perspective: Rare made Goldeneye, which is still seen as one of the best First Person shooters (FPS) ever made(still), followed by Perfect Dark which was just as good and more refined that Goldeneye.

I regard this as one of the most under-rated games currently on the Xbox 360 and with the launch of the new Games on demand service where people can once again buy this game (it has almost completely disappeared from most high streets) want to go over why it became such an overlooked gem and why it is such a classic that will be left forgoten.

The Hype

For the first part of this post, we will look at the hype and publicity that surrounded the build up to the game. I have found most under-rated games are normally because people expected more than they eventually got. Is this true of Perfect Dark Zero? At the time I paid no attention to hype/publicity/M$ waving and screaming in your face but looking at some old articles on Eurogamer.net and reading the comments, you get the sense that the fans really thought it would be something special and that M$ did very little to stop the effect snowballing. Although it should be noted that quite a few pointed out that Rares game quality was lacking somewhat, but most seemed to place their faith in Rare to produce a good game. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/news250405perfectdarkzero. Looking further into it, some of the leaked information that wasn't official, really did over blow the games potential, with one report saying you could scan your self into he game via the (at the time) announced Xbox camera and play with the avatar it created in multiplayer matches. Also an ability to record your matches and share the video (Halo 3 anyone?) seems to have been announced then dropped. This article gives the sense that Rare really were being pushed to get the game ready as the reporter states: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/news270905pdochanges. So the hype continued and Rare even spoke to people saying "Don't expect Halo" mabey a sign saying they new that the game wouldn't be loved by the Xbox fan base at the time (bloody halo lovers.....there are other FPS out there). Then the game came out to some very VERY daming reviews, many stating that after the hype M$ had placed on it what was this....thing? Eurogamer again put it quite rightly that M$ wanted, no NEEDED Perfect Dark Zero to be the next halo for there system, and M$ response was to throw money at advertising.

So overhyped? Definitely, but one could argue; it was more the fans than anyone who overhyped it, and its failure was the death of Rareware for many.

The Game

In the game you assume the role of a bounty hunter: Joanna Dark on her first big adventure.

First of, I must admit the first time I played it, I was open mouthed thinking "What the......". At first I wasn't sure if there was a mistake in how I started the game. You pressed single player and no new game option, just level zero. Ok, click on it and some screen with nothing on it. Hmmmmmmm, back, forwards, back, forwards.....no ive not missed anything. Whats happened? Okay just go forwards. The level loads and johana is infiltrating a Datadyne base, reason? unknown. Location unknown.....Im sure I started this game wrong!!! Once you get into the game you realize you did start the game the correct way, but are left feeling cold for the next few levels. Nice music though.
So I progressed through the game, some levels i was always getting lost in them until I was shown where to go with a nice arrow path along the ground.
The controls where really clunky as well. For example, if you looked up and decided to leave the view there for 5 seconds it would be re-centered for you. While this was a fantastic feature back in the N64 games, I now have dual control sticks! I can do it myself very easily! Also the movement seemed SOOO slow! Why? Why do i feel like im knee deep in jelly? Oh for petes sake lets just finish the game and get this over with! Dam it I died, did i check point......WHAT! All the way back to the beginning of the level! Haven't had that in an FPS for ages!

So my first reaction to the game was not a very good one! And the multiplayer? Well sufice to say my online career with PDZ was pretty much the same as the single player. But over a year later I decided to complete the game on the higher difficulty settings. I wasn't going to rush through the game like I did the first time. And because of it I noticed many features I don't know why I didn't really pay attention to:

• Health bar: Damage can be one of two types, shock or permanent. Shock damage is where someone hits you, and 5 seconds latter you recover. Permanent is....well im sure you get it, you health is permanently reduced. Now this is an interesting feature when most FPS has moved to the whole 'wait and recover' health systems (although notably not Half Life). But the fact there are two types of damage I think is very novel! When you play though on the easy setting almost every hit you take can be revered from, on hard...boy does it hurt. You also get body armor, which will not always block damage but certainly reduce it greatly.
• Weapons slot: Another great feature. While most other FPS are moving to restricting the player to just carrying a primary weapon and a secondary weapon, PDZ has 'slots' where you have 4 in total. Pistols take up 1 slot, assault rifles take up 2 and heavy weapons (such as a Sniper rifle) take up 3 slots. And when you play though in the more difficult settings, you can choose which weapons to play with. Although this depends on weapons you have finished a level with, almost as if you brought them back to your armory.
• Cover & Roll: PDZ is almost unique in the use of Roll in a FPS, where the camera breifly becomes a third person camera while you make Johanna roll to avoid enemy fire. This feature works seamlessly and is very impressive (although in the single player i really found little use for it). The cover feature is again a good system, but very clunky. You can hover round the corner of a wall for up to 20 seconds before the 'A' button to get into cover is activated. On the harder settings this really becomes frustrating.
• Movement speed: Now this is a killer issue really. While at first I found this annoying. It really does make a hugh amount of sense. The heavier the weapon you have out, the slower you move. While great in theory, but from a first play through perspective...highly annoying.
• Level Design: the level design is almost second to none. There are multiple ways to move though several sections of levels, multiple ways to complete a task and (almost a down fall) plenty of room and places to explore.
• Music: Really great music that goes for the whole guns blazing approach, but this may have been one of the problems. While the game play forced you to sneak and be cautious, the music was saying: go for it! Then the cursed harp would sound when you died.
• Dynamic Loading screens: This feature i almost completely missed it worked so flawlessly. The further you play the game and the more advanced you become, the less simple advice the loading screens give you. For example, a new player will be told how to duck, drop a weapon etc. The more advanced players will be shown loading screens about weapon attributes.
• Weapons: Almost every weapon has a Primary and a secondary function (for example Superdragon is an assault rifle with a secondary grenade launcher)
• Variable Zoom: This I haven't seen in any FPS other than PDZ, when you aim with a scoped weapon, you are able to control the amount the scope magnifies by depending on how far you pull the left trigger on the controller.

All of these features really stack up very well against a standard FPS such as Halo of Duty 56. Because while they give great satisfaction to the player straight away, PDZ really is in there for the long haul and making it different to players playing a second or even tenth time. But one thing that really lets PDZ down so much is the story. It is very lose and not very well implemented compared to almost perfect story execution in a game such as Halo 2. And while you could argue that most people play a game for the game play. These days the story is almost as pivotal in engrossing the player in an FPS world.

Multiplayer

Most FPS have multiplayer elements to them these days. PDZ was no exception, after the xbox fan base was amazed by halo2 on xbox live, FPS on the Xbox have almost always come with Multiplayer. This is were most people agree that PDZ really shines. The amount of options and different playlists are very good. And the fact it is Peer-to-peer connection means virtually no lag and if the host leaves the game can continue. Seeing as how some of the content in this Wikepedia entry was by me, you can read this if you want a bigger break down on the multiplayer aspects: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_Dark_Zero#Multiplayer

Sorry about the music. Good video showing the Multiplyer though

Conclusion

Im going to break this up into two parts:

• Hype: The game most certainly was over hyped, but I believe not so much by the press, Rare or even M$, but by the fan boys sitting in there forums feeding trolls. This therefore left everyone who bought a copy feeling let down and with a bad impression. Most I believe never completed it on more than the easiest setting and just wanted to go and shot there mates without having to think past the simple style of FPS Call of Halo has produced these days.
• Game: When I first played through the game I really was disappointed my self and would have given the game a 7/10. But I am still playing this game and every time enjoying it that little bit more. The more difficult modes really did frustrate me, but in the way the old games used to. Which I loved (but I suspect most people dont).

I would now rate this game in retrospect 9/10 due to its sheer re-playability. What was lacking was the layer of polish that a game needs to have to entice and not fustratrate a gammer into thinking "If the game was like this I wouldn't have just died".

Please note: if you are going to buy this game I recommend several things:

1. Change the control settings. Fiddle around as long as it takes but this will really pay of latter.
2. Set the screen up right other wise you feel the camera position is infront of Johanna Dark, not 'inside'
3. remember the features. This is not just run and gun, despite what the music wants you to do. Think about how to tackle the next wave of enemies.
   

published: 13/08/09