Perfect Dark XBLA Review – “Shedding Light on the Dark”
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Perfect Dark XBLA - Review
As the final game to be released in the Xbox Live House Party series, Perfect Dark is almost certainly the most anticipated. I myself wasted many hours of my life at friends houses and at home playing the multiplayer (though I played and loved Goldeneye more) over and over again. And the single player wasn’t bad either. But how will it translate to Xbox Arcade? Rehashed games can be hit and miss, so which is this?
Gameplay – 6
I'd forgotten about Elvis the alien
Let’s face it, this is not intended to be a game to challenge other FPS out there, it’s a pleasing trip down memory lane and a chance to revisit your lost youth or possibly see what all the fuss is about with the old classics. And at first glance it really did that for me. Running around the familiar places like the Carrington Institute using the weapons of old such as the FarSight XR-20, a weapon which allows you to see and shoot through walls, put a smile on my face and reminded me of a golden age of gaming. But then a few issues started to creep in and ruin everything. For instance you can’t jump. At all. The game is obviously designed so you don’t need to and yet it feels like a draw back, there are times when enemies will be below you and you could just skip over an ankle height wall and massacre them but instead you have to run around for 5 minutes to find and kill them on the ground floor, it’s very frustrating. The auto aim feature can also be irritating, occasionally picking the wrong target or suddenly jerking and causing you to miss an easy shot. I just feel that these could have been ironed out before release and detract from what is essentially still a fun game.
There are plenty of options and game types available for single player consumption, there is obviously the main story game which has a number of objectives and challenges to keep you replaying and looking for the perfect score, there is the Carrington Institute itself which houses firing ranges where you can attempt to break records and complete challenges as well as other mini game type distractions. You can play multiplayer games single player too in the combat simulator fighting ‘bots’ instead of people, but this seems to get boring pretty quickly even with challenges. It’s a shame but aside from the solo missions I didn’t find the other features great, and as much as it pains me to say it it just felt too old.
The solo-missions are still entertaining
Multiplayer – 5
This is tragic it really is. I wanted this to be good and to be just like it was when I was young, and it isn’t. It seems very slow paced, with not a lot going on and at times it seems you’ve been charging around the map for ages without seeing anyone let alone actually entering into a gun fight with them. The ‘bots’ can be used in the multiplayer games as well as single player, but some seem incredibly stupid and never seem to attack or do anything at all of worth or merit. The maps are all there from the original and it was fun to find your old favourite spots and wreak some havoc, but only briefly. There just isn’t much of a life in it and after just a couple of rounds you will probably be bored and want to move on. The targeting and inability to jump both feel like a hindrance here as well as in the single player and the manual targeting just doesn’t seem to work, it’s incredibly difficult to use and super sensitive.
The classic split screen four player game makes a welcome return as this is how those of the old school will remember this title. This is still a giggle, mostly because you don’t find many split screen shooters any more. I think that there is still a lot to be said for actually being in the room with your buddies whilst playing, that way you can administer wedgies, Chinese burns, wet willies and the occasional dead leg to people for shooting you in the back. The closeness makes it much more entertaining than playing online and this is a feature well worth a look particularly if you played it previously. Overall though I must say I thought the multiplayer was a let down, I wasn’t expecting a genre defining FPS but I was expecting it to be better and more fun than it is.
Split screen is still the way to go on multiplayer
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Details
Developer: 4J Studios
Release Date: 17/03/2010
Xbox 360 Exclusive
Publisher: Microsoft Games Studios
Genre: Xbox LIVE Arcade
Console: Xbox 360
800
Perfect
1. Multiplayer split screen is still a delight and proves that it still has something to offer on Xbox 360.
2. Solo Missions are good fun and a challenge.
3. It’s Perfect Dark. . .and to gamers of a certain generation that means something all on it’s own.
Dark
1. Awful auto aiming and manual aiming a real let down.
2. Feels very slow and very outdated, online play is surprisingly dull
3. Not all weapons appear in the multiplayer mode meaning it’s even more of a let down!
Overal then
This is the most painful review I have ever had to write.
I wanted to love this game, I wanted it to be just like it was when I was young and it’s really let me down. Like when you go back to an ex only to discover they’ve gained a lot of weight and the years haven’t been kind, Perfect Dark for the most part is best avoided.
Written & Reviewed by Paul Riley
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