Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Keith Schleicher

Dark Sector has the distinction about being the first game that was announced for “next-gen” consoles.  When the trailer first came out, it spread like wildfire online.  It looked like Dark Sector could be a stealth-shooter set in space, but details weren’t exactly forthcoming.

Now Dark Sector has been released roughly two and a half years after the launch of the Xbox 360 and one and a half years after the launch of the PS3.  Since then the look of the game has changed quite significantly since the initial videos.  Has the long development time helped Dark Sector, or do we just find another average game laying in wait?

Dark Sector features you in the role of Hayden Tenno.  Hayden is a government agent sent into the small Soviet country of Lasria.  Hayden is sent to stop a toxin discovered by the villian Mezner that turns any living thing it touches into monsters.  Instead of stopping the toxin, Hayden is infected with the toxin by Mezner's bodyguard.  This is when Hayden's arm turns metalic and gains his powers.

When you first start Dark Sector, the action is all in black and white.  At first it seems like there is a malfunction with the graphics processing, but shortly into the game you the colors come back.  The environments are dark, but you almost expect that from a game with the name Dark Sector, but there are a few rays of sunshine in the game.  Outdoor environments are much brighter and vivid than others.  Inside buildings is rather dark and sets up some adrenaline-pumping surprises along the way.

Eventually you gain a power where you can control where the glaive moves.  When you do this, the camera focuses on the glaive.  The backgrounds blur during the glaive throw, making this almost feel cinematic.

If you were looking for variety in the enemies, you’ll be sorely disappointed.  While there are some very cool-looking boses, you’ll encounter only a few hazmat-wearing enemies, a couple of zombies, and dogs to fight against.  The repeated enemies aren’t unique enough to draw you in.

Michael Rosenbaum from Smallville does the voice acting for Hayden.  He does a good job with the dialogue that he has.  Unfortunately some of the voice acting sounds like it might come from a B-movie.  The script could use a little work or else it goes a bit into the cheese factor.

Most of Dark Sector is surprisingly silent.  Occasionally ominous sounds are heard, but you’ll probably hear it more while at the menu screens.  While this can be used to heighten the experience, there could have been some kind of variety during the game.

Movement is typical of a third-person perspective game, although there are a few differences.  Movement is controlled with the left stick while the right stick controls aiming.    The D-pad selects your weapon or other items in your inventory.  The left trigger gets a better aim and the right trigger to fire your weapon.  Since you can dual wield, throwing the Glaive is assigned to the right bumper.  The left  bumper throws a grenade if you have any.

Hitting A will enter into cover or let you sprint across the area.  Hitting B will use a melee or finishing attack.  Using Y will use the Glaive as a shield.  Hitting X reloads your weapon.  These work alright, but you won’t use them that often except for the cover button.  The finisher doesn’t work that well though, and often a melee attack leaves you open for attack from someone else.  The configuration works pretty well, but the configuration will take some getting used to.

The first couple of levels you use conventional weapons.  Then you end up getting infected with this toxin that the main bad guy named Mezner has acquired.  This causes your arm to get infected and form the Glaive.  The Glaive is what separates Dark Sector from other games.

Dark Sector has some similarities to Gears of War where you engage a certain amount of enemies, clear them out, and move to the next area.  You’ll utilize coverage as you need to, and using the Glaive most of the time to take down enemies.  Unfortunately the levels are very linear.  While there are a few side areas to explore, you mostly go from point A to point B.

You are almost forced to use the Glaive exclusively for a while and learn its abilities.  The upgrades to the Glaive help you feel like you are the powerful secret agent at the beginning.  The upgrades come fairly quickly as well, constantly giving you more options as you play.

These upgrades are a good thing because you won’t be able to use most weapons because they have a built-in sensor that detects that you are infected.  You can use the Glaive to capture them and use them for a short burst of time.  They will burn out shortly thereafter and leave you to the Glaive.

The Glaive powers add a lot to the gameplay.  You can charge up the Glaive to do a super powerful strike.  This can also be used to open locks you can’t destroy with a regular attack.  The Glaive can be used to pick up other weapons and other items from enemies.  You can throw it into fire, ice, or electricity to charge the Glaive with the element.  This can be used to damage enemies more or to solve some simple puzzles.  Using the Aftertouch lets you direct the Glaive towards the enemies, even allowing you to hit two with one throw.  The Glaive is a powerful weapon, allowing you to chop enemies in half or decapitate them.

There is little as far as screen overlay.  As you take damage the screen goes red.  The redder the screen gets, the more injured you are.  Resting will recover your health automatically.  It seems like many shooters are heading into this direction with their damage model.

You can get guns to use later in the game by collecting cash scattered throughout the levels inside wooden boxes.  You can find upgrades for the weapons as well, and they add some serious power to your arsenal.

While Dark Sector has some promise, it has several issues.  Other than a few interesting boss battles, you will encounter the same enemies over and over again.  The story seems interesting at the beginning, but there isn’t much follow through later in the game to explain what happened and why.  There are some characters with connections with both Mezner and Hayden that is hinted at throughout the game, but you never find out enough about them to care.  If there was more emphasis on the story, it might be compelling to finish the game to see what happens.

Towards the end there aren’t as many powers, so the repetitive nature of the gameplay rears its ugly head.  When you get a new power to master it masks this well.  Once you are at full strength though, you feel like you are going through the same motions over and over again.

There are also certain triggered events.  Most of the time you are going through the levels you’ll shoot an enemy and they won’t come back.  However, there are times when waves upon waves of enemies come at you until you reach a specific checkpoint in the game.  When the enemies are managed well throughout most of Dark Sector, these things really stand out.

Dark Sector is not a long game, but it’s not as short as some of the other shooters we’ve seen these days.  That still doesn’t mean that you can excuse the ten hour play time in the singleplayer, making it a game you can easily complete in a weekend.

There are two multiplayer modes included in Dark Sector.  Infection has one player in the role of Hayden with all glaive upgrades and evolution powers.  Other players spawn as Hazmat troopers with regular weapons and ability to plant proximity mines.  They can communicate the location of Hayden to others on their team.  Troopers win by killing Hayden and the player who kills Hayden they take over as Hayden and battle the troopers.  In Epidemic two teams compete.  Each team has a Hayden character.  The teams try to kill the other team’s Hayden.  These games are cool if you are playing as Hayden, but the Hazmat soldiers are seriously overmatched, making the multiplayer frustrating for everyone else.  The multiplayer matches can handle up to ten players using online or system link.

Dark Sector has a lot going for it, the most obvious being the Glaive.  The Glaive works on all levels and really makes the game a lot of fun.  Unfortunately, there are enough issues to hamper the score.  With a bit more diversity in the environments and enemies, more weapons to use, and a longer running time, Dark Sector could be a real contender.  If you are looking for a fun game to rent for a weekend, you could do much worse than Dark Sector.

Gaming Trend Score

76

1. Graphics: 74
2. Audio: 70
3. Controls: 78
4. Gameplay: 82
5. Value/Replay: 72
6. OVERALL:76