Few games have had more anticipation surrounding them than did Perfect Dark Zero for the Xbox 360. Fans of the original Perfect Dark game on the Nintendo 64 wanted a great sequel. Microsoft wanted one of its game studios to supply the killer app game that would sell their new white box. Rare, the development studio, really needed a big hit to reestablish its reputation after a few less than stellar offerings. After all the pressure, did everyone get what they wanted? The short answer is, "Mostly." Perfect Dark Zero is an immensely playable first-person-shooting adventure with a stellar multiplayer component. It is not the killer app like Halo that Microsoft hoped for, but fans and the reputation of Rare are going to be okay with it.

Longtime gamers will recognize Perfect Dark Zero as the sequel to Rare’s Perfect Dark, which was released in 2000 on the Nintendo 64. Of course Perfect Dark itself was the much-anticipated unofficial sequel to 1997’s first really great console first-person shooter, GoldenEye 007. (Seems the Perfect Dark series is just doomed to come out under great pressure to perform.) Without the James Bond 007 license, Rare created a game that kept the best bits of GoldenEye and ramped things up with great weapons and even more spy gadgets. Most radical of all, they changed the bully-boy-for-king-and-country Bond into a lithe young woman named Joanna Dark, an industrial-espionage agent with all the right moves – a straight shooter with plenty of curves.

The events in Perfect Dark Zero take place before the events of the first Perfect Dark. Joanna is just finishing training for her first mission, supervised under the watchful eye of her father, Jack Dark. In Dark’s world of 2020, corporations are the real power in the world. (Is that really so different from now?) Zhang Li’s dataDyne corporation is one of the most powerful in the world. His virtual reality like DeathMatch game is immensely popular. But riches are not enough for Zhang Li, he is after an ancient artifact that holds great power. Joanna and her crew get unwittingly drawn into these events and the effort to stop Li from obtaining the artifact.

I think one of the things that make Perfect Dark Zero (PDZ) so satisfying is the weapons. All of the near-future weapons are instantly recognizable and even the more futuristic ones are easily understandable. Weapons range from pistols to sub-machine guns, assault weapons and heavy weapons. At any one time Joanna may have only those weapons that fit within her allotted weapon slots. So while Joanna may be able to carry a sub-machine gun and a couple of pistols, once she picks up a heavy weapon like an M60 machine gun or rocket launcher she’ll have to shed other weapons in exchange for that awesome firepower. Many of the weapons sport secondary and even tertiary functions like silencers and hi-tech improvements for looking through walls to get a shot. All the weapons pack a visceral punch and just look great, right down to the textured forearm grips.

Joanna herself is also one awesome weapon. Her melee attacks are deadly to the bad guys. She can actually snatch weapons from the hands of her enemies. Joanna can roll out of the line of fire like an acrobat and take cover behind walls to shoot around corners from relative safety. There is no jump function, but the ability to use context-sensitive actions like sliding down a zip line to move between areas tends to make up for it. Each of her spy gadgets involves its own mini game to use. It is all very enjoyable.

The campaign game is made up of levels with a mission briefing to explain objectives. Before starting the mission the player may rebalance his kit, up to the allotted load slots, with weapons and gadgets of his choice. The game generally offers the player a pretty good default load for each mission, but by varying the load of weapons and gadgets, new ways to approach winning the level can be opened up. It adds a bit to the replay value. And as each level completed generally sees Joanna pick up a new weapon to add to the home arsenal, previous levels can be tackled again with new weapon options.

Many of the mission levels are really big. They vary from lush, expansive outdoor environments with snow and jungle terrain to more cramped and maze-like indoor levels in mansions and industrial complexes. No matter where you’re playing, it all looks outstanding. Large firefights leave lots of bodies. This game has enough memory to work with that it actually leaves the bodies where they fall. No magical disappearing. You can even leave, go away for a while, come back, and your handiwork will still be lying around – including their weapons, which is why you might be interested in coming back in the first place.

In addition to the campaign mode played by a single player, PDZ also offers a co-operative mission mode. It is here that Rare actually bested Bungie’s Halo on the options. So listen up, Bungie, here is how we want it in Halo 3. The player may choose to play split screen co-op. He may choose to link two Xbox 360s together and go the Link route. Or he may arrange with a friend to meet him online via Live and take on dataDynes minions together. It is all about choices of how to play and PDZ delivers them all.

Of course Microsoft has made its Live online service one of the cornerstones of the Xbox 360 console, so you just know they demanded of their studio that its game run great on the service. And PDZ does. Getting into a quick match is extremely fast and simple. It naturally also supports all the usual matchmaking options we’ve come to expect from Live. Through Live PDZ players can participate in matches with up to 32 players. But even though PDZ’s multiplayer cooks online, Rare also thoughtfully put in all the bells and whistles for the gamers who like multiplayer offline. Single-system, split-screen play is supported for up to four players. Via Link gaming up to 16 can play, even up to four players per system, which means you’ll only need four consoles and larger TVs to have a full-sized game.

In addition to the traditional deathmatch, team deathmatch and capture the flag options, PDZ also offers a few of its own unique variations. Infection is very similar to a Halo 2 variation that has been making the rounds called Resident Evil or Zombies vs. Humans: infected players are few, but as they kill uninfected players those players join their team until there is only one human left. Sabotage has teams attempting to destroy property belonging to the rival team. If you want to practice your multiplayer skills, AI-controlled bots can be recruited and give a fairly respectable game.