In these days of million dollar advertising budgets, gamers have grown accustomed to feeling their interest in a major title build over the months leading up to the celebrated release. Some do their best to ignore the rush in order to maintain realistic expectations, while others are content to enjoy the ride regardless of how it may end, but almost no one is oblivious to the fact that calculated efforts are being made to get the names of certain titles into the collective head of the gaming populous. At least, that’s normally the way things work.

In the case of the promotional effort behind Perfect Dark Zero, you'd think Microsoft was trying to eliminate fan interest in the game altogether. The powerfully ill-conceived one-two punch of the underwhelming MTV Unveiling and the release of dreadfully early media all but crippled anticipation for the game. Instead of using the national platform provided by the year's largest gaming convention to redeem the title in the eyes of the gaming public, Microsoft literally hid Perfect Dark Zero from the masses, providing only a few with eyes-on time of a far more impressive build of the game. Despite the fact that most impressions of the E3 demonstration were positive or at least optimistic, fans were not easily persuaded to forget the initial batch of screenshots. That is, not until a batch of leaked gameplay movies surfaced on the Internet and provided the world with a glimpse of the rather stunning graphics engine in motion. With concerns regarding the visual component of Perfect Dark Zero effectively nullified, the focus of the remaining skeptics has shifted to the gameplay. Seemingly learning their mistake from E3, Microsoft has put Perfect Dark Zero front and center of their recent media blitz, and allowed the merits of the title speak loud and clear.

Regardless of whether directly comparing the two games is fair or not, the gameplay Perfect Dark Zero feels as though it has been influenced by the Halo franchise in regards to its tempo. Like Bungie’s premier FPS franchise (sorry Marathon fans), success in combat is less dependent on reflexes or a simplistic run-n-gun mentality, and more so a matter of positioning and battle tactics. Players are thereby forced to slow down and think about what they are doing rather than instinctively shooting anything that moves across their field of vision. That’s where the similarities in play style end, however. Rare is taking the next logical step in the evolution of console first-person-shooter play mechanics by implementing a fully-realized defensive component – one that allows players who find themselves under attack to utilize sound defensive tactics, rather than resorting to the simplistic and shallow (or in the case of rampant bunny-hopping, ridiculous) self-preservation strategies of today's first-person shooters.

Perfect Dark Zero

Rare revealed Joanna's two new evasive abilities behind closed doors at E3 and despite the fact that the ideas were clearly well thought out and beautifully implemented, the demonstration really didn't impart the sense that these additions would have a massive effect on the fundamental nature of FPS combat. After witnessing a practical application of the various abilities at work within the context of actual gameplay however, it immediately became clear just how much the new mechanics add to the intensity of the action – nevermind the long-standing annoyances they manage to address.

The decisions to replace the standard vertical jump with a low diving roll and implement stealth elements certainly run risk of alienating traditionalists, but all indications point to the benefits of the additions outweighing the negatives – long-time FPS fans will simply need to get over the urge to play Perfect Dark Zero like any other entry in the genre in order to fully appreciate what it brings to the table. Players that try to use the diving roll for the same evasive purposes as the ‘bunny-hop’ are going to find it ineffective due to the fact that Joanna can’t fire her weapon and takes double the 'shock damage' (similar to the shields in the original Halo) while in mid-roll. Thus, performing endless dive rolls will merely serve to turn the player in question into an annoying, but ultimately harmless target. However, using the dive roll sparingly with the immediate environment in mind, players can make a quick escape from the combat zone and land behind cover. From there, they can immediately enter cover mode whereby a reticule allows players to target enemies without providing an open shot, allowing players to fend off enemies from a safe position while replenishing lost ‘shock damage.’ Thus, in one swift sequence of events, a defensive maneuver can have a profound impact on a player's advantage in battle – think of it as the FPS equivalent of counter moves found in various fighting games.