Review: Dark Sector

Looks like: What you get when you cross Gears of War, Resident Evil 4 and a tin of black paint
Feels like: Something that surpasses its allotted time slot
Sounds like: Somebody groaning over and over and over and over and over and...
Smells like: Melted tires
Tastes like: Something with too much salt so you have to spit it out

Sometimes when you review a game, the thing that you’re playing just gets too much for you so you have to get rid of it. That’s exactly what happened to me when I tried to play through Dark Sector for this review – and I just couldn’t put myself playing through the second half of the game. If you think I’m a bad person because of it then fine, but if you want this review to be from the heart then you’re going to get it.

A billion reviewers use the phrase “attempts to do too much, and fails because of a lack of dedication”, and I think that that’s really the only way to describe Digital Extremes’ Dark Sector. If you can imagine the cover and run mechanics of Gears of War, the Merchant and view-point from Resident Evil 4, elemental puzzles, Mechs, zombies and futuristic solders all wrapped up into one title, then you’re right on your way to visualising Dark Sector. The problem with all of that stuff is that separately, each one of those things on that little summative list are really great features to include in any game, but where Digital Extremes have gone wrong, is that they’ve tried to impress too many people, and as a result, they’ve failed, which is unfortunate because Sector’s not got that bad ideas.

Are you ready for the first major criticism? Here it comes, and it’s in the form of the game’s Protagonist Hayden Tenno. Hayden is not your typical one-man-takes-on-the-whole-world type shooter protagonist. Why? Because he’s an emo. And you know what I think of emos? I think they should all have their retarded little fringes ripped out of their bony white heads. However, on reflection, I don’t want to be playing as an American Slap-head either, so really we’re all screwed whatever they do, because they’re never going to let you play as anybody reasonably normal anyway. The second criticism I have is much more simple and to the point. The game has no story whatsoever. From what I remember it’s something to do with mutations and killing fools but that’s all I can recall without looking at Wikipedia.

What’s so frustrating about Dark Sector is that, on the surface, it doesn’t appear to have very many problems (despite the guys stupid hair). In fact, it seems to have quite a few great ideas, like, for example, your main weapon – the glaive, which is sort of like a boomerang, but it has three blades attached to it. If you could find me a cooler weapon I’d have sex with you, so I guess you’re lucky that we’ve got one right here. The “cool” factor gets a + 10 because of your ability to slow down time when it’s in mid-flight which enables you to guide it around corners and be more precise, allowing for more dismembering and decapitating. At various points throughout the game you’ll be able to apply different elements such as fire, electricity and ice to the glaive as well. However, all of these extra abilities become stale when you start having to use them in puzzles.

The puzzles are, in my humble opinion, the worst part about the game, and were a large part of my decision to discontinue playing. They start out sure enough, as small introductory puzzles which acquaint you with the basic concept of setting your glaive on fire and throwing it at an obstacle to allow you to pass. I can manage these generic, simple ideas, but when after playing the game for four or five hours and you realise you’ve been doing the same environmental puzzles over and over again, you realise that you’re on the downward-spiral and it’s soon after that, when you’re fully aware of the game’s lapses, that you too, will decide to remove the disk from the drive.

That’s really the most awful thing about this though, because Dark Sector has any other number of good features which are unfortunately countered by their overuse, however, you won’t begin to notice this until you’re a few chapters in. One of the best is your ability to pull off finishers on your enemies, which becomes extremely helpful when you’re tackling the zombies in the game. There are a couple of different animations for these finishers and depending on where you get the kill from in relation to your enemy depend on the animation you’ll get. For example, if you run up and get a kill from behind you’ll grab their neck and rip it back, with copious amounts of blood, a good amount of rumble from the controller and an extremely satisfying “crack” from your speakers. This is definitely one of the reasons why the game deserves it’s ‘18’ rating, but whatever, they’re seriously fucking awesome!

If only the guns in Sector were as good as the finishers...Which, unfortunately they aren’t. When you start the game you’ll be stuck with a crappy little pistol, and you’ll stick with it until you can afford to buy something better from the Merchant, Resident Evil 4’s most awesome character. Yep, this game features a similar Buy, Sell and Upgrade system to RE4 which I think sucks, because if you don’t find hunting around for money crates interesting then you’re screwed. You do have the option to pick up your enemies weapons once you’ve killed them but they somehow seem to evaporate after ten seconds use, which is highly unfair.

Now, before I took the disk out I managed to force myself through some of the game’s multiplayer features. There are two modes and they both suck. That’s all you really need to know really, and if you’d like to know more about that I suggest you go to Wikipedia because I’m not going to describe them. If I were in your position and you decide to go out and buy Dark Sector, firstly I wouldn’t, I’d rent it, and secondly I’d keep way clear of the multiplayer portion because It just feels too tacked on and would be putting a multiplayer section onto Resident Evil 4.

So, in conclusion, and I really don’t want to say this because these guys have been working so very hard on this, but I don’t think this game’s worth your money. Not even a rent. Period.

--Tom Rhodes, 360Stage Editor--

Update: Our review scale

A lot of talking has been going down at 360Stage and we have decided that the 10 point scale was a bit boring, a bit generic, a bit run-in-the-mill, you get it? So before you freak out we are putting a review up in a bit for Dark Sector; our review scale is now on a scale of "foolish" to "insane" shown in a graphic format. Moreover, instead of reviewing these games on gameplay, graphics, value, sound and an overall score we are rating them on our senses. Senses? This is madness! (don't even think about it!), yeah so how a game smells, how it tastes and all that.

As 360Stage is fairly new we are still experimenting. Please, we invite tell us what you think of it in the comments box below, we appreciate it.

Also if you didn't see our old review policy you can look at it here and the scoring policy here.

--360Stage--