Just got Perfect Dark 0

[ThaMaskedGamer]

You guys hold off on buying this game. I'm not saying it is bad, but the initial impression i've gotten isn't stunning. So far, I've only played the 1st training level. But the visuals are really a mixed bag and the whole game has the corny feel to it. But you weren't really doing much on the training level. The character model's aren't bad though, they actually look nextgen, along with the guns, but the levels on the otherhand. They chose some funky luminescent techno colors and the textures look funky too. Its almost like they tried to make the game appeal to kiddies. If they had of used like realistic settings kind of like Splinter Cell or Half-life, I think the game would at least look a lot better.

A few other quick items. Cooperative play doesn't look right on one TV, I would save this mode for ONLINE. Difficulty, this game is soooo easy. I had the game on Secret Agent, the second difficultly setting, and you can basically stand out in the open with 5 or 6 enemies shooting at you and it will take them about 5 minutes to kill you. So I moved it to the most difficult setting and the game kind of mimicks Call of Duty 2. If you get hit and take cover, you are fine, if you take a few hits you are dead. Also the enemies drop easily on the other settings. On Perfect Agent, you have to hit them in the head or basically use up a lot of ammo with body shots.

The weapons seem as though they will great. The pistol is really functional with a nice scope, has a nice feel and the sound of the rounds firing is great. I used one rifle and the animations are pretty slick Joanna picks up the rifle and extends the stock. The secondary fire modes are pretty good.

I only had time to start the 2nd mission, but I can see how this game can cause a lot of confusion. Its a recon mission and they tell you to not kill anyone. But you start on the docks and a guy is sitting with his back to you a crate. Since they tell you not to shoot anyone you think there must be a way to sneak past him without alerting him. Well you can't. So if u try he spots you and enemies come out the wood work and you think, this game is effed up, how can this be a stealth recon mission. Now at this point you can continue the game and it turns into a big fire fight and you just don't feel like you are playing the game right. The enemy AI should actually kill you, which they will do on Perfect Agent, to let you know you can't proceed this way. So finally, I restarted the level and decided to kill the guy with a silenced pistol, a la Splinter Cell. And that does the trick, you can continue the mission using stealth tactics and the game makes a lot of sense. Why they tell you not to use your gun is beyond me, it just mixes the player up. Also, I tried hitting the guy to knock him out, nope, you gotta kill him. I didn't finish that level, so hopefully tonight i can give you guys more impressions of the game. Its gonna have to get better though before I will be happy with the purchase.

[Fivespot]

Thanks TMG - I appreciate your feedback on this game. I bought it at launch and haven't played it yet since COD2 is so excellent and I'd prefer to only play one FPS at a time.

I've been thinking about starting PD0 more and more lately as the COD2 veteran difficulty is taking me forever whereas the normal skill level only took me about 10-12 hours. I'm not sure how much longer I want to stick with the same game but COD2 is sure hard to put down :)

I look forward to your additional thoughts/feedback.

[ThaMaskedGamer]

The 2nd level the kid gloves come off. There doesn't seem to be a happy medium in terms of difficulty it took me a lot of tries to finish the 2nd level on Perfect difficulty. The problem is that there are NO save points. The action and fighting is perfect, but it is way hard to finish the mission without save points. But I found out something interesting. I moved the difficulty back down to one knotch and the mission paramters changed greatly. On the easier setting they reduce the amount of objectives and close off entire section of the map!!!!!! Not only that the game is mondo easy. Once I saw that they reduced the objectives and closed off the map, I said forget it and went back to Perfect difficulty.

The animations are good, the enemies scratch their butt and do odd things. The dialogue also changes, you have an audio scope and they say completely different things on Perfect setting when you zoom in and listen to their conversation. The guns are great really great! I guess they are using havok physics you hit a guy in the leg and he limps etc. I also found out there are little grates in the wall if you knock em open u might find a grenade.

This mission gets hard and the enemy really starts coming after you in the 2nd part. You have to use cover and fall back continuously to take them down. The shotgun just rips em apart at close range, it knocks them back with great animations, sometimes they try and get again its pretty cool.

The game looks like it could have been done on XBOX, except of course its not 720p on XBOX. I would compare the game to a highly highly polished Riddick, the character models look better and there is way more polys, but the game has that normal mapped shimmery slick look to everything. They did go out of their way to detail things like the trucks and vehicles in the game, which thus far don't do anything but look nice. You can shoot out the lights a la splinter cell, anything glass, you can cap people through the glass. U can also dual wield guns.

I hear you Five, I needed a change from COD2. I'm finding I like to change up between two games. I am playing COD2 the first time through on veteran, i'm almost done with the brits so i guess i'm getting close to the end, but i'll probably finish PD0 first and trade it in for Condemned.

[Fivespot]

but i'll probably finish PD0 first and trade it in for Condemned.

I heard PD0 is OK on single player but a 10 online! I've read pretty much the same thing everywhere including in my new EGM (just received in the mail today - EGM#200).

So you may want to give that a try before possibly trading it in for Condemned. Hard not to trade games though when they cost so damn much - 59.99 for Cndmnd.

Gamestop and EB are having a deal right now where you can trade any two 360 games and receive any new 360 game so that's out there as well influencing me to trade. I actually took advantage of that deal twice already - trading NBA Live 06, King Kong, NFSMW, & Amped3 for NBA 2K6 (much better than Live on the 360) & DOA4.

[ThaMaskedGamer]

I heard PD0 is OK on single player but a 10 online! I've read pretty much the same thing everywhere including in my new EGM (just received in the mail today - EGM#200).

So you may want to give that a try before possibly trading it in for Condemned. Hard not to trade games though when they cost so damn much - 59.99 for Cndmnd.

Gamestop and EB are having a deal right now where you can trade any two 360 games and receive any new 360 game so that's out there as well influencing me to trade. I actually took advantage of that deal twice already - trading NBA Live 06, King Kong, NFSMW, & Amped3 for NBA 2K6 (much better than Live on the 360) & DOA4.

I don't know that I like the game enough to play it much online. I am definitely not into fragfest so if I do play it online it will be the cooperative missions. But I won't keep the game when I'm finished. I'll keep COD2, but not this.

I'm playing the third mission and you can really really see how the quality of the game is changing. It seems like the early missions were kinda designed for XBOX, but the 3rd mission is a sweet looking level. I don't want to be two quick to judge the game, because I know the majority of enemies and weapons and gadgets I have yet to see. But I don't like the feel of these *kinds* of games. It kinda reminds of Metal Gear 2. I can't really grasp shooters that kind break down in a tactical sense. To me when you are surrounded by enemies and getting shot, you should die. This game kinda breaks apart in the close quarters combat department. A fantasy game is understandable, but in this game Joanna is nothing but human, no suit or armor a la Gordon or Masterchief. So I don't feel right when I get shot and am allowed to continue, in my mind I don't see any reason why I shouldn't be dead. Long-range to medium range the combat is fantastic. I'm also experiencing less trail and error, I played the 3rd level once and almost finished it the first run through. And I got a new rifle that is similar to a spiced up CAR-4. What I don't like is grenades. This game makes grenade use take up a weapon inventory slot. Which is stupid, an individual soldier can carry 20 grenades on him in real life. Plus you can't just throw the grenade in the clutch, you have to equip it. The good thing though is the grenades have a 4 second timer and if you cook it off completely it explodes on impact, kinda like a <i>real</i> grenade. The game has done a lot of smart thing, you can sneak around or shoot out security cameras a la splinter cell, if you shoot em down though it will draw attention.

I also found out you can disarm the enemy its kinda tricky but could come in handy in the clutch. You can taunt the enemy. And there are NPC characters who you can either Threaten or Charm into helping you. This game has a lot of layers to it I didn't realize I still don't know if it will all turn into a great game that justifies its 85% rating. If you see me online again pop in the game and we can do some cooperative play.

[ThaMaskedGamer]

Well missions 3 and 4 have definitely changed my mind about this game. It is definitely a nextgen game. In games like Splinter Cell on XBOX things in the background like cars were non-interactive and looked horrible. In this game the cars are basically built of components that can be destructed and the cars are modeled beautifully. You can't really do anything with them, but they blow up really nice. Air hisses from tires, doors fly off, wheels and rims blow off the cars, even the freaking brake rotors.

The AI for the game is very good. Initially you have doubts, but the game treats different enemy groups with different AI scripts. So thugs aren't very tough, but these corporate mercs you face are pretty tough, they wear bullet proof helmets and kevlar, they use hi-powered weapons and they fight with better tactics. Again, for reference I'm talking about Perfect difficulty can't say if its the same on the other settings. The protective gear is pretty cool because if you hit a guy with a kevlar vest on, the vest will break off his body, I like that little touch. The 3rd level is huge and from beginning to end there is only one load, when kinda realize where start and end that is a pretty phenomenal feat. You start in an underground parking garage go outside through some building then end up in a subway, its a huge level no way this could be done on XBOX. I like the variety of enemies you face there are a lot of different costumes you got biker boyz, corporate goons etc, but there is even variety among the different groups so not all the biker boyz or thugs have the same clothes on. The enemies equip a variety of weapons to, so one guy might come through the door packing two uzi's another a shotgun. They also recognize your weaponry, they know if you are reloading, they take cover well. It is almost night and day the difference between missions 3 and 4 and the first two. The voice acting and music is also really good, Chandra's accent at first annoyed me but i'm used to it. The storyline is pretty good so far and Rare has thrown in some nice little touches here and there to up the level of quality from that of a typical shooter.

This game is different that a typical PC FPS. For one the mission setup is a plus, being able to go and play and select an individual mission is great. I remember playing the single player of some Splinter Cell games and I would think on some of the better levels, wow I'd love to replay this, but unless you save the beginning of each level you really can't do that. In this game, you can go back and play any mission from the beginning nothing new in fact it is old school console gaming, but different than PC shooters. There is also a good mix of scripted action in the game, but you can deviate from it if you choose to or if you fail to complete an objective. For example you can cause the thugs and corporate goons in one area to go to war against each other, its an objective, but if you fail(if your spotted) then both groups come after you.

I definitely believe the game was done piecemeal and the early stages leave a lot to be desired, but don't judge the game until you do level 3.

[Darwin]

I remember playing the single player of some Splinter Cell games and I would think on some of the better levels, wow I'd love to replay this, but unless you save the beginning of each level you really can't do that.

Yes, you can. You can go back to any mission you previously played in Splinter Cell.

[Gadfly2317]

Sorry to go off-topic, but I just noticed your new sig-line, Darwin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Desert_Sessions

Have you been listening to these recordings? I picked up volume 9 with Dean Wean, Jeordie White, and PJ Harvey because I read about it out the website of the record label that put it out (Ipecac records, I buy damn near everything that record label puts out.) and I really like all three of those musicians.

It's really cool to hear something that is just so purely and openly fun and non-commercial, a bunch of musicians partying in the desert, jamming, and at the end, putting it out there for people to hear.

I think they do this at the home of one of the guys from Queens of the Stone Age. I did not know this band at all, but saw them live a few weeks ago opening for NIN, and they blew me away. One of the best live bands I've ever seen.

[ThaMaskedGamer]

I finally finished my first 360 game. Although it was my 2nd game I wanted to hurry up and finish it because I wasn't enjoying it much. The main problem with the game is it doesn't know what it wants to be, is it a serious shooter or a simple shooter. Is it a stealth game or a run and gun game. Everything about the game is a mix of highs and lows. The graphics and visual presentation can be great on one hand then very average on the other hand. The music is the one thing that is consistent unfortunately it is consistently bad! There are twelve levels not including the final boss fight. I swear about half of the missions are good and half suck and the final boss battle is super stupid.

There are a lot of problems with the game. It needs some type of map, either a real time overlay or a map you can access via some kind of gadget. In a lot of the missions you simply don't know where to go. On Perfect Agent difficulty it makes a hard map especially a timed map impossible. On the Secret Agent difficulty the game overlays arrows on the map to show you where you need to go. It kinda sucks because you feel like you are being led like a dog on the leash. I was forced to finish the last half of the game on Secret Agent difficulty because of the stupid structure of the game I just couldn't advance any further without retrying a map dozens of times on Perfect difficulty. Its a shame too because the gun battles are much better and challenging on Perfect difficulty.

Story ended up being really dumb. I swear these guys spend millions of dollars on these games you would think they can hire some talented writers to come up with a story.

Even though the game doesn't portray itself to be a fantasy shooter, it is. Though it uses replicas of real military weapons, with a few exceptions, the shooting and action is all fantasy based. There are so many weapons in the game, most of them are great both in looks and feel and effect, but there is a lot of duplication. There are two kinds of assault rifles FAC-16 and SuperDragon, then a third really that they put under the SMG category. There are two types of UZIs, a million handguns. The gadgets are all contrived and you never have to figure anything out on your own, except where to navigate. But with the gadgets whenever you come to an objective your mission operator will tell you, "pull out your data thief ...."

This game is a pure console shooter as contrasted to a PC shooter. RARE is not at all making any attempt to be influenced by the PC-esque shooters. Nothing makes sense your character can take loads of damage and take out 20 guys at once as you duck and roll. Stealth is an absolute joke and it reminds me of the way stealth is done in MetalGear2. So it is hokey and full of holes. The game does have some AI scripts which do a good job though, it isn't completely mindless, just not well and completely thought out. Also some things in the don't add up. Some vehicles can be completely demolished, others can't be scratched. You can shoot off some locks on door, but most doors without visible locks must be open with your locktopus, well why can't you blast the door open? You can take about a hundred bullets in a row before you die, but some times if you get to the end of a map(mission 12) if you take one or two hits you die. There are a lot of gun emplacements and odd things like jet-packs, but never any real reason to use them.

If you are deciding on whether you want to get this game I would say base it on your preference for shooters. If you like Splinter Cell and Rainbow6 and military shooters or even shooters like Unreal or CounterStrike, I'd say avoid this game. If you like shooters like GoldenEye, MetalGear, then you'd probably like this game a lot.