Hayden Tenno is a agent for the agency, an American group involved in biological weapons. At the start of the game Hayden is sent to assassinate a scientist and ascertain if there has been an outbreak of a virus. The setting for the game is Larissa in Russia. The virus has escaped into the civilian population and there are teams of soldiers culling the infected. Hayden is confronted by a man named Mezzner who also works for the agency and seems to have gone rogue. Mezzner infects Hayden with the virus and leaves him for dead. Hayden begins to change and his infected arm grows a metal armor skin and a throwing weapon called the glaive grows out of his hand, an extension of himself that he can use as a deadly boomerang to slice and dice the soldiers who shoot on sight.
Hayden is thrown into this situation feeling guilty about an unexplained event in his past where it seems everything went wrong and he was responsible for a few deaths. He makes contact with other agency people and finds that Mezzner and his bodyguard named the nemesis are controlling events for their own ends and Hayden must stop Mezzner's madness from spreading the virus around the world. For every one person who gets infected and has wonderful abilities gifted to them there are another thousand who go mad with agony and become deformed shambling zombies.
The story is intriguing, however the way in which it is told is over concerned with being stylish and moody. The past is never explained, possibly there will be a prequel. We are never sure if Mezzner is worse than the agency Hayden works for. The only person who seems to be on the level is Hayden and he doesn't really seem to have an agenda or know what he is doing. The story moves along through various cut scenes and the ten levels are linked to the story in that we understand why Hayden is going wherever he is fighting towards. The game seems to be setting up the character of Hayden for big things, however most of his supporting cast are bumped of during the game only really leaving one other supporting cast member alive when the credits roll. If Hayden is going on to another game with all his new found super powers then he is going to have to have a new set of antagonists because he slaughtered everyone he had issues with this game.
The game borrows heavily from others in it's genre, it owes much to Gears of War, and yes I know that Gears of War wasn't the only game to use over the shoulder third person and cover mechanics but it is the most recognized example of the genre at present time. The controls are very similar, and the cover and roadie run are ripped straight from Gears. The game has more that just shooting at it's heart however, while gears was primarily a shooter Dark Sector wants to involve many other elements, as shown by Hayden's virus induced superpowers, he can throw the glaive and direct it in mid flight, he can shoot the glaive into fire, ice and electricity to charge it and double it's effectiveness, shocking, burning and freezing enemies accordingly. The glaive is also used as a melee weapon. Good timing unleashes a power throw which chops enemies in half first hit. Other powers include the ability to throw up a protective shield which also reflects back enemy fire. Finally Hayden can become invisible and sneak up on his foes stealthily. When you get used to the abilities Hayden becomes formidable and conventional weapons for me became a bit of an afterthought.
This seems to have been a design choice that I was funneled into. The games weapons that are dropped by soldiers can't be used by Hayden for more than about thirty seconds due to an anti-infected device set into them, presumably to prevent the infected civilian population gaining any firepower to fight back or possibly to prevent infected soldiers turning on their former allies. This means that guns dropped can be picked up and used but only for a limited time. To gain a weapon you can keep you have to pick up money littered around the levels and buy guns at the black market. The market is in the form of manholes which when activated take you to a shop where you can buy and sell weapons and upgrade and store previously bought weapons. Hayden can only carry two guns at a time so choices need to be made.
You start with small arms and when you gain enough money you can buy some formidable firepower. This system makes the game feel almost rpg like in your character development, I know it's pretty basic but the fact remains that the Hayden who starts the game is nothing like as powerful as the Hayden who finishes it. Money is fairly scarce and I tended to save money and make do with the glaive and it's powers to progress and bought the best weapons at about the seventh level of the game. The upgrade system merits criticism in my eyes as once you apply the powers you find in briefcases around the levels you can't remove them, I applied things willy nilly to start with and then ended up regretting it later when I couldn't change bigger magazine and rapid fire for enfron shells and double damage etc. I tended to sell the upgrades as I got them and save for guns instead, the same with grenades, i just forgot about them and sold them whenever i found a black market manhole.
The gameplay seems similar to Gears of war in some areas and yet never seems quite as fluid. There is a stop start progression which sees you moving from one set piece area to another. With puzzle areas in between. I found myself stuck several times during the game, at a loss as to what to do next and having to actually go online and research how to progress. When you find out what you have to do then you kick yourself and see the obvious. However that is also a problem, I am sure some people saw what was meant to be done straight away while others like me will struggle. For example near the start of the game you encounter heavy resistance in a large open area. Once you have killed everyone I spent literally an hour wandering this small square shaped area trying to figure out where to go next, there were two cellars, and several scaffolds and doors, all of which looked promising, there was also a cracked looking wall which seemed to be sticking out like it wanted to be blown up. Nothing seemed to work though. I kept looking at a locked gate, but there were other similar locked doors so I thought it might have something to do with it , so there I was stuck, a quick look online shows me that I have to use the glaive to hit a switch which is behind the gate, the switch wasn't flashing like most other interactive objects in the game however. I felt stupid and a hint to developers, making your audience feel stupid isn't helping them buy your next game.
Another example saw me pounding away on a boss until my ammo ran dry. Only by going online did I find out i had to set fire to a truck, light some infected goo on fire to expose some electricity and then use electricity on the back of the boss to get at it's driver. I hadn't even seen the driver because the thing never turns it's face away from you. I know it's a cliche to paint huge targets on bosses where you should hit them but in this case an electrify here sign would have been most helpful. The point I am trying to make here is that the game is less than intuitive in my eyes, far too often I was left wondering what to do next or how to proceed.
Mention must be made of two scenes where you control a vehicle called the jackal. The jackal is one of the early bosses and once you defeat it you can get in and control it. It moves like a mechanical horse and is built like a tank. With a machine gun and rocket launcher it is quite fun to control. When you are shot at with rockets you must launch chaff to divert incoming fire. I enjoyed these sections though they were quite short, though possibly the Jackal would have been boring if it's sections were much longer.
The a.i. is a little dumb in places. The soldiers especially seem to be a bit dull and usually just sit behind cover and pop up now and again. Too many times you are left waiting with your cursor over the spot you know they are going to appear, waiting to send the glaive spinning into their skull. The further into the game you go you begin to meet infected who have gained powers like yourself, and they tend to jump around like fleas and flank and use invisibility. Their a.i. is passable. There are some annoying riot shield soldiers who come at you relentlessly and have to be stunned by banging the glaive off their shield and looking for an opening at head or feet to shoot them down.
There are several boss fights in this game, large mechanical beasts and huge infected, along with the Nemesis and Mezzner himself. All the boss battles are different and quite fun. The last one with Mezzner got a bit repetitive. The bosses were all satisfying and there is a plot twist revelation with one boss battle that I won't spoil, though I will admit it was one I could see coming. The boss fights do tend to suffer from the player not having a clear goal however.
The areas looked and felt lived in and dirty, the buildings seemed functional. Level design was very good. The only criticism here is that the color scheme was drab. The graphics were excellent throughout. Dark Sector uses the evolution engine and the game seemed smooth and glitch free with some impressive textures. I have to say I was more impressed that I thought I would be, having seen some early footage almost a year ago that never looked as good as the finished game.
The sound is minimal with sparse music and lots of eerie sound effects. Guns and explosions sound like well guns and explosions. The sound is adequate.
The game employs the now standard screen going red and eventually you die if you take too much damage in a row format. There are checkpoints and I never once found myself going back too far after dying. The menu presentation is good with a good artistic style. If you want gothic, dark and moody then this game is for you.
The achievements are well balanced. I have played the game through once on normal difficulty which unlocks the brutal difficulty mode. I gained 550 points from a first play through. The game gives out another 110 for completing it on brutal and I am sure I will gain some of the kill 30 enemies with fire, electricity etc achievements on a second play-through. There is one achievement that i kept trying for and has still eluded me, double decappe latte asks you to lop off two heads in a row. I am still trying for this one. Maybe on that second play-through.
There is a reasonable stab at multiplayer. I haven't played it much yet as Rainbow six vegas is taking up my time with all my friends list asking me to join them for terrorist hunts. I might give Dark Sector a go, but in all honesty I can't really see it happening, ranking systems are the in thing in multiplayer at present.
Scoring
Graphics 9
Gameplay 8
Story 6
Level Design 6
A.i. 6
Total score 7
