Perfect Dark Zero - First Look Preview

Despite promising the unveiling of Xbox 360 at E3â??05, the sad truth is that every demonstration proved only to be a teaser of the final product, largely because of the fact that they were all running on alpha single-core dev kits that represented approximately 30% of the Xbox 360 total performance.

Nowhere was this more evident then the demonstration of Rareâ??s eagerly awaited Perfect Dark Zero, which suffered from a worryingly slow frame-rate but given the promises weâ??re confident that Rare will be able to easily get this to the FPS that was promised. Lead Designers Duncan Botwood and Richard Cousins were on hand to demonstrate the multiplayer aspects in action, with Botwood having reassuringly spent the last ten years of his career working on the likes of Goldeneye 007 and Perfect Dark.

The game takes place three years before the events of the Nintend64 classic, detailing exactly how Joanna Dark became an agent within the . Despite the lack of finalised hardware, the demonstration represented over two years of development and we were assured that everything has been completed, with the team only 8 weeks away from stepping up to a beta-stage, finalising optimisations and applying the typical gloss to a videogame during the latter stages of development.

The only precise details regarding the single-player campaign came in regards to the fact that it will house 15 different stages, with every other question greeted with muted silence and the threat of Botwood being shot by upper management! Backing up TVGâ??s earlier expose of the title, it does seem as though Joannaâ??s father will feature within the game as the story focuses on the pair caught up in a secret war that has begun between shadowy corporations bent on world domination.

Perfect Dark Zero will feature two distinctive multiplayer modes in the final game, with the standard Deathmatch housing a variety of game-types and configurations while the intriguing Dark-Ops promises a closer Counter-Strike experience, placing emphasis on a slower-paced, more tactical experience as players have only one life per round and must purchase new equipment before the start of every one.

Six different game types are promised under each classification, encompassing traditional Capture the Flag modes alongside more unique experiences. The final product will contain 6 multiplayer levels for launch, which may not sound like a grandeur figure but given the size of these maps we can safely say that Rare have spent their time wisely creating maps that give total creative freedom for the player. Although it was hard to get a complete understanding of the size of each map, weâ??re told and were shown that the game divides the map up to five times based on how many players there are, effectively meaning that the total number of levels stands at 30.

Perhaps the best news was that the team were aiming to achieve 64 players possible on each map, and whilst the lack of finalised kits prevented seeing this in action weâ??ll safely assume that the talented guys at Rare can pull this one off. The team at Rare have been working closely with Microsoft Game Studios on an â??Advanced Ranking Systemâ?, which should ensure a balanced set-up when it comes to competing online, although weâ??ll have to wait a little longer before discovering exactly what both of them have in store. Players can choose between â??Rankedâ? or â??Unrankedâ? games, with the former providing few options of choice to the player along similar lines to Halo 2 Matchmaking, while the latter provides complete customisation to the player.

To give some indication of the thought that Rare have applied to the multiplayer stakes, Perfect Dark Zero implements a technique to prevent what the team have rightfully identified as a sole source of frustration â?“ spawn killing. To this extent the game begins and has players respawning in a â??safe roomâ?, where players can tool-up and transport back into the action without having the worry of some 12-year old thinking itâ??s clever to just take people out as soon as theyâ??re back on the map.

Tied into this is a feature Rare describe as â??Advanced Teleportingâ?, which allows you to take control over waypoints to teleport to and thus gain a greater control of the map as you move through it. Having helped to establish first-person-shooters as a multiplayer genre to be reckoned with, the demonstration created the sense that Rare are taking their time to once again push forward what weâ??ve come to expect; as a result various improvements to enhance its accessibility alongside rewarding the hardcore should ensure that Perfect Dark Zero quickly becomes a new benchmark for the genre.

Many of the decisions behind Perfect Dark Zero multiplayer initially appear to simplify the experience, such as the lack of individual team colours, simply presenting foes in red and allies in green; however you can immediately understand that every aspect Rare are currently toying with is order to streamline the experience and create one for everybody to play and not just the fanboys.

Finally we were able to see the game in action and a number of new features that the game contains. Initially toying with a third-person camera to provide a better vantage of the character models, Rare wisely decided against this, however the game does switch over on a number of occasions. Performing a combat roll engages this switch and allows complete control, even for rolling around corners or completely changing direction. This technique was introduced to decrease the advantage of those with good sniper skills, although the downside is that if you do get hit youâ??ll suffer from significantly more damage. Another technique designed to prevent the snipers from getting too much of an advantage and taking use of the third-person perspective, is the ability to crouch against walls putting the balance back into equation and providing the means to take out a sniper when pinned down.

Naturally a first-person-shooter is only as good as the weapons to be found within, and in this regard Rare look to be excelling themselves with a thoroughly balanced system. Players have 4 slots for weapons, with each individual gun requiring a varied number of slots; examples include Pistols taking up 1 slot, Assault Rifles requiring 2 while a Rocket Launcher would need all 4 slots â?“ in addition itâ??s also possible to dual-fire certain types of weapons, with the cost coming in double the required slot space and no longer being able to use grenades or secondary features. Managing your inventory and switching between weapons is intuitively handled via the Y button, which should ensure the whole system is expertly balanced and accessible to all.

Fan favourites such as the Laptop Gun are all set to make a return alongside all-new weapons, with each one featuring a secondary fire of some sorts; examples include the Laptopâ??s ability to isolate hazards in red against a black backdrop or the X-Ray functions of the Shockwave Rifle. Equally as useful and highlighting the visual effects at work is the stealth camouflage afforded by the Plasma Rifle; the typical refracting style is incorporated to disguise the player, however movement into a smoke cloud or other debris will form against the figure of the player thus potentially revealing their location â?“ while Iâ??m at it the smoke effects and explosions featured within Perfect Dark Zero are nothing short of spectacular.

Further touches of brilliance continued through to the radar system found within Perfect Dark Zero, taking on an almost stealth like quality with indicators prominence based on sound elements â?“ shoot a pistol and youâ??ll hardly show up, however a rocket launcher blast will light up everywhere and ensure everybody knows where you are on the map.

Melee combat within the game is fully functional, allowing the player to run faster without a gun equipped and also able to pull off some stunning disarm techniques similar to those found in the excellent Chronicles of Riddick. Players can climb up chest-mounted objects across the environment, which combined with the intuitive roll system suggests that aimless jumping has all but been eradicated.

In keeping with the theme of focussing on the gameplay and ensuring its accessible to everyone, players can immediately identify the armour rating of opponents thanks to degradation appearing as an increasingly black layer on top of the character model. The game features two types of weapon damage, with minor damage replenishing in a similar way to Halo while lethal damage will never recover unless you collect health-kits.

Three different types of vehicles will be on-hand to the player, although the demonstration only featured on the Jet-Pack which switched between mech-walker and the typical fly-around modes complete with a chain-gun. Again specifics are shrouded in secrecy, however one thingâ??s for sure the absolute gargantuan size of the maps makes these all but a necessity.

Visually the game is coming along nicely, although the huge, barren desert wastelands in which the multiplayer demonstration took place made it slightly hard to get an overall judgement. Thankfully a brief scene inside a metro station of some sorts highlighted what type of quality to expect, identifying a new technique to be found in all of Rareâ??s titles known as â??Parallax Mappingâ?. Effectively this is the same as bump mapping, in so far that it appears to give depth to a flat texture, however thereâ??s little doubt that the term â??super bump-mappingâ? is justly applied as cobbles leap out of the screen and make it impossible to distinguish the difference between a real 3D object with depth and a flat texture with this technique. The various character models on display appeared to sport the type of detail weâ??ve now come to expect from a next-gen title, although the demonstration never really veered close enough to get a true indication.