Hands On: Perfect Dark Zero Is A Bizarre Time Capsule Of The Early Xbox 360 Days
By As we commemorate the Xbox 360’s 20th anniversary this week, I’ve revisited one of its debut titles in the form of Perfect Dark Zero to assess how it fares and whether its mixed feedback over the years has been warranted.
My personal experience with Perfect Dark is somewhat unclear – my earliest memory of the N64 edition is observing my friends play it and rave about how it was “like GoldenEye, but superior”. I naturally ended up trying the Xbox Live Arcade version years later and found it enjoyable, but I believe some of the impact from its launch was lost on me.
Perfect Dark Zero, on the other hand, has simply been sitting on my shelf, primarily untouched for the previous 15 years or so. I had always heard it was underwhelming compared to the original, and while I recall enjoying the multiplayer, I completely disregarded the campaign. This week, however, it was time to launch it — through backward compatibility on Xbox Series X to gain the best possible experience — and determine whether it’s genuinely worth playing in 2025.
One thing I must mention about Perfect Dark Zero is that it’s definitely a time capsule of those early Xbox 360 days. There’s a James Bond-like introduction that seems to desperately try to entice the MTV generation (think Die Another Day), and a menu interface complete with flashy 2000s presentation featuring an old-school Samsung logo in the upper corner. You can easily see how this merged with the classic Xbox 360 “Blades” dashboard at that time.
Once the campaign started, I certainly felt how outdated the game is too. Movement is agonizingly slow at first, even in regards to how swiftly the crosshair moves around the screen, while the gameplay resembles a mixture of old-school FPS controls from titles like Perfect Dark 1, GoldenEye, and even TimeSplitters, alongside more contemporary interpretations of the formula that we had seen in Halo 1 and 2. The cover mechanic is clumsy at best and would be refined by titles like Uncharted just a couple of years later, and the AI (particularly the friendly AI) can behave somewhat peculiarly at times.
So, indeed… in many aspects, Perfect Dark Zero immediately comes across as a game from two decades ago. The way it unfolds reminds me of 007: Agent Under Fire – the first James Bond title from the PS2 and original Xbox era that attempted ambitious things but ultimately didn’t fully realize its potential (whereas 2002’s 007: Nightfire certainly did).
Nevertheless, despite all of that, I’m presently enjoying Perfect Dark Zero on my Xbox Series X. The campaign is convoluted, and I have little understanding of what’s happening in the narrative (they don’t provide you with much info), but the moment-to-moment FPS gameplay is at least decent and feels quite enjoyable to engage with once you’ve adjusted to the pace and controls.
It’s rather common for significant console launch titles to possess a sense of “tech demo” rather than being fully developed releases (even Ryse: Son of Rome has that to some extent), and Perfect Dark Zero sort of exemplifies this, but it also endeavors to try some ambitious concepts. There are various gadgets at your disposal, a robust selection of weaponry, well-crafted maps and objectives to fulfill, and even a vehicle-based segment at one point.
These levels still remain genuinely enjoyable to experience here in 2025, and they carry a strong sense of nostalgia for those early Xbox 360 days. It genuinely feels like stepping back in time to another generation while playing PDZ, but not to the extent that you can’t still have fun with it on a modern-day platform.
I also genuinely appreciate how it provides you with the ideal level of guidance. It’s not a game that aims to lead you too much, but if you lose track for any reason, it seems to quickly detect what’s happening and begins offering you subtle arrows and hints for where you should head. Many of today’s titles could learn from this!
Speaking of a contemporary system, Perfect Dark Zero can appear breathtaking at times on Xbox Series X. Certain environments are particularly stunning, and when you reflect on how games appeared 20 years prior to PDZ’s release (Super Mario Bros., Excitebike, etc.), it is quite astonishing how technology progressed in such a short span. The Series X enhances everything and permits Perfect Dark Zero to shine its brightest here in 2025.
The real disappointment is that Perfect Dark Zero’s exceptional and surprisingly intricate multiplayer suite seems to be defunct these days. You have a multitude of maps to select from, a wealth of customization options, the capability to play with up to 16 bots, an astonishing number of game modes including fan favorites like Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, and Infection, yet there appears to be no one playing anymore.
Why? Well, Halo 3‘s launch in 2007 seemed to extinguish the Perfect Dark Zero community, and that’s probably no shock given how fantastic that game’s multiplayer turned out to be. There simply wasn’t room for PDZ anymore as the years progressed, but at least it’s still playable to this day – perhaps there could be a minor revival for it someday?!
This has been an enjoyable little nostalgic journey to celebrate the Xbox 360’s 20th anniversary this week, and I’m far from finished with the campaign just yet, so I can envision returning to attempt to complete it as soon as possible. The disc version operates just fine on Series X, but keep in mind that it’s available on Game Pass and is part of the Rare Replay collection.
If nothing else, it’s a captivating and rather strange stroll down memory lane – a pre-Halo 3 era when the Xbox 360 was just starting out and its eventual collection of remarkable games was only beginning to form.
It’s a pity that Perfect Dark Zero will remain the most recent entry in the franchise for seemingly a lengthy period, as there is evidently so much potential within it. The glimpses we caught of the Perfect Dark reboot hinted at something that could have been quite special, and PDZ does make me yearn for a sequel, but perhaps it’s simply not meant to be.
Have you experienced Perfect Dark Zero? What are your thoughts on it? Share with us in the comments below.