Believe it or not Dark Sector was the first ‘next-gen’ game actually announced, set for the PS3 and Xbox 2 (what it was known as then). So with such a long development time one would expect this to be one of the best games around, yet for some reason, Dark Sector has just sneaked out to release. No huge fan-fair was made, and I have to admit, the game even fell of my radar. So much so that I had no idea what to expect from Dark Sector, other than the obvious clues which the name offers, that this game is Dark!
The story line of Dark Sector is one of its weaker elements; at times it seemed unnecessarily complicated, while at others I had no idea how what I was doing related to the story. It may seen intriguing at first, but the story soon loses its appeal and will not be a reason you keep playing, but there will be others. This story sets you down in a fictional Soviet State in Eastern Europe called Lasria, your name is Hayden Tenno, originally sent in on some secret government work, Hayden soon becomes infected by a virus in possession of the main bad guy Mezner.
This is where the game gets interesting, after this, and throughout the rest of the game, you gain special powers which help you face waves of ever changing enemies, and which are actually quite fun to play with. Your main addition is a three-pronged blade, which appears from your right hand, called the Glaive. The Glaive can be thrown and, like a boomerang, will always return to you. Correct timing will initiate a ‘power’ shot, yet its best feature is an ‘aftertouch’ feature, exactly the same as when you were playing twing-twang with Kia in Heavenly Sword, remember that? Using this feature the camera follows the Glaive and, using the Six Axis motion controls, the Glaive can be directed to the heads of enemies. When the Glaive hits, you can see the blood splatter and hear the screams of those it hits. With particularly good shots you can also see heads and other body parts come flying off, all very satisfying.
Don’t worry; you carry guns as well, in fact the Glaive is duel-wielded with your pistol, firing the gun with R1 and the Glaive with R2. You are additionally allowed to carry one other gun, in the form of either a shotgun or an assault rifle. The Glaive/pistol combo is selected by right on the d-pad and the other weapon with the left button. An interesting feature is that you are unable just to pick guns up from the people you kill and expect to use them for very long. They cannot be used by anyone infected, so as soon as you pick them up a little alarm starts and they soon become unusable. Any weapon upgrades have to be attained via the ‘black market’, this aspect is very similar to the guy you buy stuff of in Resident Evil 4. He is a mysterious figure, activated by pressing O over manhole covers, and has a variety of safe weapons to buy. As is expected in almost any game, money can be found just lying around, waiting for you to pick it up.
The similarities with Resident Evil 4 don’t end there; the game-play seems a mix of Res Evil with the cover system used in Uncharted. It’s true that this game does borrow many aspects from other games, it certainly is noticeable. However it’s all solidly done and for the most part, works very well. The game is played in the 3rd person, and pressing X near cover makes you go up against it, here the usual trick of leaping out to fire is available. Additionally the Glaive can be powered up with different elements, fire, ice or electricity. These offer some fun ways of killing foes, however are usually used for completing the games easy puzzles encountered. They usually just involve finding a supply of one of these elements, then transporting it via the Glaive to the required target. Their simplicity is a bonus though, never really taking away anything from the flow of the game.
Fresh foes and powers are thrown at you through the game, meaning there is often something new to fight or some new way to beat it. Foes range from men, men with shields, zombies, bigger zombies, infected dogs, crawlers including some who turn invisible, among others. There were problems with the AI however, sometimes its fine, enemies are flanking and making good use of grenades, though at other times they will just leave cover and run right at you, making themselves a very easy target. There are several bosses, which can be fun to fight, but which are also very old school. In the fact that they have a series of set attack patterns and stick religiously to them. As soon as you manage to figure them out, they soon become very easy. That is another flaw of this game, it is easy, ammo is plentiful and Hayden can take a lot of damage before eventually dyeing. After first completion a harder setting is unlocked, however from the off there is only the one difficulty.
The multiplayer is online only and features two different game types; one is similar to a standard team death match. Whereas the other, Infection, features one person wielding the Glaive, while the others attempt to track him down. The multiplayer is fun initially but will soon lose its appeal, especially as better alternatives have been available for quite some time now.
One area which has received a lot of attention during its long development time is in the graphics, this game does look good, at least for the most part. Dark Sector uses the Evolution Engine, which in many aspects actually looks better then the Unreal Engine 3. There is quite a bit of repetition of environments, mainly through dark buildings, tunnels or sewers. However these are broken up by very bright outside settings, which do not disappoint. A solid frame rate is provided with only the very occasional screen tearing. This may be because there is a lot of blurring in effect, anything over a certain distance is usually blurred, while this is a nice effect to have in games, I feel in Dark Sector it is perhaps overused.
The sound is also very good, the guns sound and feel strong and powerful, you can hear in nice detail the cries and screams of the soldiers as well as the disturbing noises made by the other creatures. Again the star of the show is the noise made by the Glaive itself; you will not soon forget this. In fact as the Glaive is used so often in the game it’s a good job it has a good sound. You hear it spinning, slowing down when using the ‘aftertouch’ feature, reflecting of walls as well as slicing into people. The voice acting sounds well done, even if a little quiet, I had to listen very carefully to what the people were saying sometimes as they were being drowned out by the music. Also there is a lack of variety of the sounds coming from the guards, the screams are very nice, but after you’ve heard a few, you’ve heard them all.
There is a mandatory install process for Dark Sector, taking only a few minutes and weighing in at just over 1 GB, it doesn’t cause to much damage. Having said this load time as very short, if quite frequent, however importantly they don’t take anything away from flow of the game. Dark Sector will take about 10 hours to complete, as mentioned there is a harder difficulty to unlock, but not much else. There is a number of ‘entitlements’ very similar to 360 style ‘achievements’, they flash up on screen when you achieve them, no points are offered for these though and there is no way of knowing what they are, a nice surprise when unlocked though.
Dark Sector provides a good single player game, if somewhat limited in length. Its similarity to other game might make you feel like you’ve played it before, however it does just enough to differentiate itself. There is lots of fun to be had with the Glaive, slicing off heads never gets old, which is definitely the games main feature. Impressive graphics and sounds, if limited in places, just form a bonus. Limited multiplayer and replay value however ultimately mean Dark Sector just misses out on achieving an excellent 80%.
Chris Needham writes: "With the launch of both the PS4 and the Xbox One now a fading memory, the current generation of gaming consoles has well and truly established itself, with games such as The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Batman: Arkham Knight and, of course, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, all justifiably taking the limelight. Here at Power Up Gaming, however, we’re not so keen to let go of the past. Originally starting out our coverage as primarily a retro games outlet, we take great pleasure in revelling in the titles of yesteryear."
Bulletstorm, Folklore, and 3D Dot Heroes are just a few of the great hidden gems on PS3
"ZL: Before we knew of the Xbox 360, or anything concrete about the PlayStation 3, we had heard the name Dark Sector. This was a time when what would become the Wii was known only as the mysterious “Revolution.” The 7th Generation of video game consoles hadn’t even begun and we already received a taste of what was on the horizon with a video released by Digital Extremes."
Great article. Great game. Man I wish they'd make a sequel or just re release it or something.
OPM: Digital Extremes’ game director Steve Sinclair has, “lifted the kimono” (his words) on the history behind Dark Sector and how publishing pressure took the game away from its original vision. A vision that the set to return with the free-to-play Warframe on PS4.
That's interesting, They approached Sony with ideas several times, since they are independent, I wished Sony would have published one of their ideas as an exclusive! I loved Dark Sector, even the original concept of the game! Going to see about Warframe at launch.
