My impressions of Perfect Dark Zero for the Xbox 360 are mixed. On the one hand, it’s a nice departure from the torment of a Halo 2 hell. On the other had, the few things it doesn’t do right are glaring and need to be addressed.

I Walk the Line

Movement is slow and the character response when turning, even with the settings set to 100, they still seem too slow. Also, since there is no auto-aim, to prevent your reticle from flying across the screen, you’ll probably want to lower the Y axis sensitivity, which makes looking up and down even slower.

Hit or Miss

The melee attack is also very slow and totally clumsy. Get close and you may hit a guy, but most likely you’ll be too far away, or he’ll get hit and then turn or roll. Since the movement is so slow, by the time you see him and go to melee him again, he’ll be on the other side of your screen. I thought Bungie could have toned it down with melee lunges, but Rare needs to ramp it up and create a buffer for melees, so you actually can hit more than you miss.

The Noob Dance

The noob dance is back folks. Since bullets register almost no damage, and Rare has used some crazy kind of health meter than can replenish itself, the noob dance is back and out in full force. More often than not you’ll find yourself rolling, ducking, reloading, and running in circles around your enemy (well, he’ll be doing the same, so you really don’t run around him, you really move in a sort of noobified orbit).

All the while, you will be unloading all your allotted ammo, then frantically running at him to try and beat him down with your fists. The first lesson you will learn is where all the ammo is located.

Is That a Bird, or a Plane… no it’s a Jet-Jerk!

Jet-Packs are gay. Period. I’ve only played in a few games with them, and hated them all. Since people are getting frustrated shooting a gun, they thing the jets will help them kill people. They may, but they are still totally gayz0r.

Aside from the problems mentioned above, the game is fun, and I’m sure I’ll like it more once my aim and skill increase. Unlike Halo 2, this game rewards you for practicing and skill. A skilled player will all-o-ways kill a noob. No contest. You’ll tell the veterans right from the start, as they’ll be killing all the little Halo 2 converts who just found out you actually have to aim your weapon now on the guy, rather than the vicinity of the guy.

What PDZ and the Xbox 360 worth $900.00? No. But I think with time, and some updates and patches, PDZ can be a much better game than it is now.

Update: I have come to like this game much more than before. It still needs to be updated to fix major health/damage issues, but Dark Ops (Sabatoge) is a real joy to play. So I do like this game much more than I did when I wrote my review.