Perfect Dark Zero

Against my better judgment - or even my previous judgment - I decided to take a shot at the full PDZ campaign. Unsurprisingly, it was a pretty stupid idea. Three missions in (including the tutorial), I have absolutely no compulsion to try it again.

It's not that Perfect Dark Zero is a terrible game -- its shooting works relatively well, unlike some modern flops. Rather, it's disappointing that Perfect Dark Zero isn't just behind the times it was released in: it fails to surpass its N64 predecessor. From the year 2000.

The only real improvement PDZ can boast over the original is high-resolution graphics. Perfect Dark on XBLA was a stark reminder of last decade's archaic shooter design, with no maps, unclear objectives, transparent AI, parodic storylines, and laughable voice acting and animations; and PDZ has all of the same faults. It tries to implement a cover system, but it's done so poorly, that you may as well completely forget about it.

While there are certainly worse offenses to game design than Perfect Dark Zero, it's downright inexcusable how little progress it managed to make in five years.

Progress: Gave Up -- Finished Mission 2