Perfect Dark Zero for the Xbox 360 was touted as the game that was going to show the world what the Xbox 360 could really do. And in some ways, it truly lived up to that reputation. While in other ways it fell a bit short.

Perfect Dark Zero is the prequel to Perfect Dark for the Nintendo 64. In its time Perfect Dark was an impressive game. PDZ had been in development for years, literally. Originally it was meant to be for the current generation of systems, but mid-way through its development cycle it found its new home as an Xbox 360 release title.

PDZ follows Joanna Dark, her father Jack Dark, and their young associate Chandra who is a bit of a hacker. These three form a small mercenary group called Dark Bail Bonds. Dark Bail Bonds perform various mercenary acts such as intel work for the highest bidder. You will play through the story mode of the game as Joanna and you will have a chance to meet several interesting characters along the way.

The game’s story was decent, but at times it felt a little lacking in depth. There was not much character development for anyone except Joanna. Half the time people’s motives aren’t exactly clear, even once they have been explained. I did enjoy the story, but I felt it could have been much more than what it was.

When you play in co-op mode the story becomes a little convoluted. You will find yourself talking to Chandra on the radio when your friend is playing as her and she is standing right next to you. To put it bluntly, the co-op mode feels forced and probably could have been implemented better.

The graphics in Perfect Dark Zero are pretty impressive, and give us a good taste of the new generation of console gaming power. Expect to find smooth detailed textures and character models along with an impressive amount of enemies on the screen at the same time. The level of detail almost rivals what we have come to expect in digitally animated videos, or FMV’s.

The real graphical gems are in the details. When your character picks up armor, then it actually shows them wearing the armor (you can see it in the multiplayer modes). As your character gets hit, the armor falls off your character in pieces as it’s damaged. The guns also sport a good level of detail, and look authentic and realistic enough to be believable in that near-future kind of way.

I have yet to experience any lag, even on-line. The game’s engine handles explosions, multiple enemies and advanced lighting effects well, even in the co-op mode. And when you are playing in HD everything looks even more vibrant and almost photo-realistic, but you will even be able to tell a world of difference from the current generation of games even on a standard resolution television.

Now don’t expect anything all that memorable from the game’s sounds. The music is good, and fits the quick pace of the game, but it just wasn’t memorable. The various gun shots sound authentic and add to the believability of the selection of weapons. Luckily the voice acting is done well, even if the dialogue is a little corny at times.

Now controlling Joanna around the various levels is done with ease. You have your standard console style first person shooter setup. You move her around with the left stick, and aim with the right one. You fire with the right trigger and the right shoulder button lets you switch to your weapons secondary function. All pretty standard, but it felt comfortable and worked well with the game’s options.

In addition to the wide array of weapons, the game also has a couple of vehicles. You can jump on the back of a hovercraft and man the big gun to take out countless enemies. The other vehicle is a jetpack that also transforms into a robotic walker. The jetpack is a blast to fly, and has unlimited ammo. Neither vehicle was used to its full potential in the story mode, but they do make appearances. The best place to use vehicles is in any of the multiplayer modes.

The multiplayer modes are where Perfect Dark Zero truly shines. Whether you are playing on-line or off you have plenty of options. Off line you can play using a split screen or via system link. On-line, via Xbox Live, you play against the world in ranked and un-ranked matches. You have your standard assortment of choices such as deathmatches, capture the flag and territory gains. Each of which are a blast in their own ways.

You also have full control over how long the matches last, what types of weapons are used, and if vehicles can be used. There are also multiple spawning areas that can be found. And they gave us the option to add bots to make the battles feel a little more epic.

If you have Xbox Live and an Xbox 360 you will be doing yourself a favor by getting PDZ. With its wide array of online multiplayer options you won’t find this title gathering dust any time soon. There are also plenty of reasons to keep playing offline. There are dozens of achievements to unlock, multiple difficulties, and a bunch of weapons to unlock as you go.

If the story mode and the co-op modes could have lived up to the multiplayer modes, then Perfect Dark Zero would’ve gone down in history as an unforgettable title. But even as it stands it is a great title game deserves to be played.