Dark Sector

DARK SECTOR

Glaive. Glaaiive! GLAAAIIIIVE!!!!

Glaive is one word that will be rememered for a long time between me and a friend as a great weapon and one that another friend now resents. One afternoon at his, watching him playing Dark Sector my friend and I started making up reasons for why the Glaive was so awesome. Eventually we decided to make the Glaive a fake religion and start preaching about how great it is to each other(with extra emphasis on the word Glaive) and managed to cause the person who invited us up a bit of trouble. While we were having fun and laughing while shouting things about the Glaive, we had no idea the window was open and dispite the fact that we were in a flat on the top floor two policemen had heard us and came knocking at the door to warn our friend to stop the noise or he'd get arrested. Good time that.

Dark Sector is a third person shooter where like many others you follow a preset path taking out enemies with your varioius weapons and taking cover when necessary. The game has a fairly dark atmosphere and a story to match. You play as the main character - Hayden Tenno who in a mission gets exposed to the technocyte infection which causes his right arm to mutate and gains the ability to grow a three-bladed weapon in the hand of said arm. He then goes on a mission to track down the source of the infection and fights various enemies along the way both people and creatures infected which have also been mutated by the technocyte infection (the mutation process is so painful that the victims go mad. Hayden has a disease called congenital analgia which protects him from this side effect) and non infected enemies.

The gameplay is decent, you take cover, shoot all the enemies and move on to the next area. however while you can't help but feel that the game seems like a watered down version of Gears Of War. The cover is done is a similar fashon to Gears, with the player pressing a button to take cover and peeking out to take shots at enemies but the clean and efficient gameplay of gears is missing. You can't jump of over cover or dive to avoid fire and movement feels a little slow and clunky. Don't get me wrong, the gameplays not terrible, far from it but when you've been treated to the sophisticated gameplay of Gears of war then it becomes a little dissapointing and hard to get used to. There could have done with being a few more varied weapons as well. There are a good few types of guns and grenades but more than a few feel like the same gun with a different look.

The atmosphere is dark and gloomy to suit the story of the game. This is mostly made up of a good mixture of brown, grey and occasionally green. The scenery is similarly suited with the game mostly spent inside linear buildings and the outside bits feeling a little linear and rarely having the player with a feeling of exploration. While this suit's the needs of the game, it would have been nice to have seen some more varied areas and some brighter and more colourful areas. The audio of the game is quite decent, while theres no epic music and the sounds are for the most part restricted to hearing yout enemies, it's clear and seems to be of high quality and helps keep the player focused on the game and sense the games gloomy atmosphere.

One thing that sets this game apart from all others though and one that anyone who has played this game will remember is the Glaive. The Glaive is the three-bladed weapon that grows from Hayden's arm which he can use as a powerful melee weapon to either slice enemies apart or knock them back or as a throwing weapon where the player can control what direction to throw it and can manipulate it in mid air to fine tune the direction which allows for some nice dismemberment action. Hayden also has the ability to throw the weapon at an element (e.g. electricity or fire) and capture it allowing it to be used to increase the damage delt to enemies (and depending on the element captured, the effect will differ when used on enemies) and solve puzzles.

Dark Sector also has an online multiplayer mode which includes the two modes: Infection and Epidemic. Infection places one randomly selected player(who plays as Hayden) against all other players in the game. The infected player scores points killing the other players in the game while all the other players attempt to kill the infected player with the player successful taking over the role as infected - similar to Halo's Juggernaught mode. Epidemic is similar to Infection except that it places two teams against each other with a randomly chosen player as "leader"(Hayden). Teams score points by killing the enemy team's leader. This may not seem like much but stick with it and there's an enjoyable experience to be had. Infection is fun all out frantic action as players compete to become infected and the infected try to survive which leads to fast and hectic games. Epidemic is great for having some teamwork going on and allows strategy to be implemented as your team tries to find an effective way of protecting the leader while simultaniosly taking out the enemies leader. This can also end up in abosolute chaos with everyone charging head first into the battlefield but the times where the teams work out a plan and try to sneak behind the enemy are some of the best games you'll have on live.

Although there are better third person shooter games out there and dispite the fact that it has been compared to Gears Of War several times in this review, Dark Sector is a fairly enjoyable game to play. It has a Dark atmosphere, decent story, good multiplayer and good gameplay - which, is enough for what most people want in a game. If you can forgive the flaws in the game and ignore comparisons with other games you'll find this game fairly enjoyable and considering you can pick the game up very cheap in game shops now your getting more than your monneys worth.

Overview
Dark Section is a third-person shooter where you play as the main character armed with a three bladed weapon called a Glaive. You make your way through areas taking out enemies to make your way to a goal. You the gameplay focuses on using a cover system for battles and the glaive is used to throw at enemies and capture elements to add an effect to attacks or solve puzzles. A multiplayer option is also included with two modes: Infection - where one player competes against alll other players and Epidemic - where two teams compete to take out the opposing team's leader.

Graphics
Dark and Gloomy. Decent graphics which help to make a nice atmosphere. Be prepared to see several shades of grey and brown with the occasional bit of green mixed in. Linear paths and inside of buildings a plenty. Could do with varying in both colour and environment more but it does the job.

7

Sound
Not much in the way of music and sounds mostly consist of weapon fire and and enemy noises but what there is, is good quality and helps keep the dark atmosphere of the game.

7

Gameplay
Cover system that occasionally feels a little clunky but generally works well, a good multiplayer mode, Glaive and and some good uses of the glaive. Comparisons to Gear Of War and the like are unavoidable but ignore them and you'll have no problem with it.

8

Longevity
The game is fairly enjoyable if played with an open mind although there are some parts which feel boring after a while. After the single player is finished, apart from unlocking a higher difficulty setting and achievements there is little to make the player go back to it. The multiplayer is enjoyable but apart from this there is little replay value.

6

Innovation
Although the Glaive was a nice feature and being able to capture elements inside it, there wasn't anything besides this that hasn't been seen before in other similar games.

2


Summary
Dark Sector is a linear game with some nice features. If you can forgive it's flaws, there's an enjoyable experience waiting for you.

Positive and Negative Points
+Glaive
+Glaive is used in some unique ways
+Good Multiplayer
-Cover system could be better
-Movement feels clunky at times
-Not much to keep you going back after you've finished the single player
-Areas feel too linear and are all the same colours

Overall Score
82%