I don't want to get a reputation as someone who only reviews titles that have been out for ages, but I'm stuck in the PAL regions and thus have to wait until everyone has spoilered every detail of a decent game on the net before I even see it advertised in the shops, so shut up and sit down because today I'm going to talk to you about a game called Dark Sector.
Lets get the plot out of the way first: You play an American secret operative with a silly parting and snowy skin, dropped into a dirty, smelly European nation to blow seven shades of hell out of the locals and deal with a mysterious contagion that appears to be afflicting some of the population. If this sounds familiar to you, it's because you've played Resident Evil 4. Okay so this time he's called Hayden Tenno rather than Leon Kennedy, but my point stands. The comparisons to RE 4 don't end here, oh no. The entirety of the game is spent in the exact same camera angle, using the same context sensitive buttons to interact with the enviroment, deliver blows to close up foes and.. well, thats about all, actually.
Now, one thing that makes this game different from Resident Evil 4 is that you don't JUST fight hordes of infected goons who run up to bite chunks out of your face, you also have to content with the local military, who also have guns and are keen to use them on you. Does this make the game different from Resi 4? Yes, because instead these sections are from Gears of Wars cover-heavy system practically verbatim. Thankfully enemies are at least sufficiently accurate to make it seem like a challenge but really most firefights involve standing in one position while spraying the locale with lead until the bad people fall down, and of course when the enemy only sticks their top half out to shoot you, headshots become drastically more likely and that has to be redeemed with stupid numbers of soldiers - as well as obligatory melee goons with riot sheilds made of concentrated, bulletproof bullshit.
A big factor in the gameplay, marketting and flimsy plot is the Glaive. Early on, Hayden gets some freaky shit happening to him and finds his left arm covered in a metallic substance, and he finds he has a symbiotic relationship with this sort of bladed frisbee thing. This is pretty much the best thing about the game as its where the developers showed the most imagination. Unfortunately, thats still not a lot of imagination. It serves first as your melee weapon, but you also chuck it like a boomerang. It serves as a key element in what could be called "puzzle solving" if you were being diplomatic, and can also be used to pick up items from afar, which comes in handy if you're pinned down.. which happens quite a lot.
Now, one of the things I really did like about the game was a mechanic where you could pick up an enemies weapon using either your hands or your glaive, but there was a device that would disable the weapon after a certain time. It gave a good element of tension to the fire fights, but this only lasts until you earn enough money to buy one without that little disabler in it, and when ammo scarcity gets to the point where you feel the need for it again, you're still outfitted with the infinte use Glaive as well as a clutter of other useful super powers that don't really make you feel as vulnerable.
Dark Sector is an action game pure and simple. It tries to be sci fi and horror with a couple of hints every now and then, such as an obligatory graveyard level, but it remains firmly rooted in third person shooter territory. Not that theres anything wrong with that, but as I said above, its not really doing anything original. The graphics are pretty nice but it suffers from too much brown and grey, which inevitably comes with its solely urban and industrial setting. It's very much reminscent of an action film where the plot is really only added begrudgingly and most people know they aren't here for that, they're here for the sexy violence, and the combat feels pretty good, but thats because it's just been done before. And better. A decent rental but thats about all I would reccomend from it.
Lets get the plot out of the way first: You play an American secret operative with a silly parting and snowy skin, dropped into a dirty, smelly European nation to blow seven shades of hell out of the locals and deal with a mysterious contagion that appears to be afflicting some of the population. If this sounds familiar to you, it's because you've played Resident Evil 4. Okay so this time he's called Hayden Tenno rather than Leon Kennedy, but my point stands. The comparisons to RE 4 don't end here, oh no. The entirety of the game is spent in the exact same camera angle, using the same context sensitive buttons to interact with the enviroment, deliver blows to close up foes and.. well, thats about all, actually.
Now, one thing that makes this game different from Resident Evil 4 is that you don't JUST fight hordes of infected goons who run up to bite chunks out of your face, you also have to content with the local military, who also have guns and are keen to use them on you. Does this make the game different from Resi 4? Yes, because instead these sections are from Gears of Wars cover-heavy system practically verbatim. Thankfully enemies are at least sufficiently accurate to make it seem like a challenge but really most firefights involve standing in one position while spraying the locale with lead until the bad people fall down, and of course when the enemy only sticks their top half out to shoot you, headshots become drastically more likely and that has to be redeemed with stupid numbers of soldiers - as well as obligatory melee goons with riot sheilds made of concentrated, bulletproof bullshit.
A big factor in the gameplay, marketting and flimsy plot is the Glaive. Early on, Hayden gets some freaky shit happening to him and finds his left arm covered in a metallic substance, and he finds he has a symbiotic relationship with this sort of bladed frisbee thing. This is pretty much the best thing about the game as its where the developers showed the most imagination. Unfortunately, thats still not a lot of imagination. It serves first as your melee weapon, but you also chuck it like a boomerang. It serves as a key element in what could be called "puzzle solving" if you were being diplomatic, and can also be used to pick up items from afar, which comes in handy if you're pinned down.. which happens quite a lot.
Now, one of the things I really did like about the game was a mechanic where you could pick up an enemies weapon using either your hands or your glaive, but there was a device that would disable the weapon after a certain time. It gave a good element of tension to the fire fights, but this only lasts until you earn enough money to buy one without that little disabler in it, and when ammo scarcity gets to the point where you feel the need for it again, you're still outfitted with the infinte use Glaive as well as a clutter of other useful super powers that don't really make you feel as vulnerable.
Dark Sector is an action game pure and simple. It tries to be sci fi and horror with a couple of hints every now and then, such as an obligatory graveyard level, but it remains firmly rooted in third person shooter territory. Not that theres anything wrong with that, but as I said above, its not really doing anything original. The graphics are pretty nice but it suffers from too much brown and grey, which inevitably comes with its solely urban and industrial setting. It's very much reminscent of an action film where the plot is really only added begrudgingly and most people know they aren't here for that, they're here for the sexy violence, and the combat feels pretty good, but thats because it's just been done before. And better. A decent rental but thats about all I would reccomend from it.
