The glaive is the source of your power, and also the provider for intense limb dismembering bloodbaths!
Conatins: Very Strong Bloody Violence and Strong Threat
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Dark Sector is a bloodthirsty over-the-shoulder, third-person action game where you become infected by a deadly virus which is planned to be spread across the globe by a merciless and sadistic mad-man.
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STORY - 3/5
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Set in the crumbling infrastructure of a fictional Soviet-bloc country in the near future, you play as Hayden Tenno, an elite black-ops agent who's mission is to prevent a cruel and ruthless man named Robert Mezner who is responsible for the Technocyte infection that has been ravaging the country of Lasria. You make your way through a compound in an attempt to eliminate Mezner, but come up against a creature called the "Nemesis". The creature overpowers you, and you are forced to jump off a cliff to escape, but upon waking up find yourself face to face with your target - Mezner. You are injected with the virus, and Mezner says he'll kill you, but then you pull out a device to detonate the C4 charges you planted earlier, and then make an escape.
The plot alludes far too early, and thrusts you straight into your mission, but its an entertaining story, even if it is a bit far fetched. After escaping Mezner you are giving new orders into tracking him down to prevent the virus from infecting the entire world, because he believes he'll be creating a new utopia. Cutscenes are rare and brief, and aren't well told, but the premise for the plot is good and provides a promising threshold for the violence you dish out.
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CHARACTERS - 3/5
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If you step into the boots of elite black-ops agent Hayden Tenno solely for satisfying combat, then you won't be disappointed, and as the protagonist for the duration of the game, he proves a cool and likeable one. A provider of information along your way is Yargo, a "sleeper agent" and a scientist who knows the origin of the Technocyte virus, and Dixon, your CIA superior who gives you objectives through the course of the game.
The game's antagonist is Robert Mezner, a psychotic and ruthless man who plans to infect the whole world with the technocyte virus. There are a few other characters along the way, which re usually shown in infrequent and brief cutscenes, but each one comes and goes without giving you any reason to care about them. Despite some weak character integrations to the story, there are some twists and powerful dramatic moments which give you satisfaction to see Hayden enraged and exacting violence upon the perpetrators.
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GAMEPLAY - 5/5
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In Dark Sector the gameplay revolves around the use of the glaive - a three-pronged boomerang-esque weapon that has grown out of your hand because of the technocyte infection, and returns to you after every throw. The glaive can be used for long-distance dismemberment, solving environmental puzzles, and picking up various items which may possibly be out of reach, or just to quickly snap up an enemies fallen weapon. Initially, the glaive is used simply as a projectile weapon that comes back to you like a boomerang after every throw, making enemy decapitations and severed limbs a rare treat, but after acquiring the ability to do aftertouch, you have the ability to steer the glaive around corners and over obstacles. What makes this ability so thrilling, is the fact that the camera follows the glaive where you wish to direct it, allowing you to precisely target certain limbs in slow-motion, which then produce gory results and screams of agony.
Dark Sector is an ultra-brutal game as you'd expect, as the glaive not only cuts off limbs, but showcases plenty of blood spurting from the severed body part. You can also perform finishing moves when up close to an enemy, which are viciously brutal too. Unfortunately there aren't much variety in the finishing moves you can do, and it won't be long before executing finishers gets repetitive and feels like they're lacking in impact.
Hayden Tenno is an anti-hero killing machine, that kills anything that moves. The skills with conventional firearms that you learn in the prologue mission stay with you for the entire game, but even as increasingly powerful weapons become available to you, you'll find that you spend far less time using them. The glaive can be duel-wielded with a pistol in your left hand, which can often be used tactically against certain enemies. You can explore your surroundings and find upgrades for weapons and money which can be of use in the black market. The Black market Dealer is an arms dealer who supplies weapons and equipment to Hayden for a number of Rubles. He hides in the Lasrian sewers all over the city. Its convenient to have certain weapons purchased and upgraded though, as enemy weapons have a time limit until they self-destruct in your hands, rendering them useless. The upgrade system seems underdeveloped though. There's some variation in the upgrades you can put on guns, but the layout is all a bit too simplistic and basic to keep you interested for long.
But, for the most part of the game, you'll be using the glaive, as its a much more satisfying way to dispatch enemies than any gun, and when using aftertouch, limbs are extremely vulnerable for dismemberment. There are sometimes elements in the environment which the glaive can make use of, most of the time for solving puzzles, but also to add a new dimension to enemy terrorisation. Fire, Electricity and Ice can all be of use when the glaive interacts with them, but only for a limited time.
For unknown reasons, you will also acquire upgrades for the glaive, which will randomly occur during different parts of the game, which give you even more reason to utilise the power of the glaive instead of a firearm. Some of these include: Aftertouch (already mentioned), which allows control over the direction of the glaive giving you opportunities to kill more than one enemy at a time; a charged attack that, when correctly charged, quadruples the damage of the glaive, and a shield function, which deflects incoming bullets. Its no doubt that your sharp-bladed primary weapon is the source of your power to unleash devastating, bloodthirsty attacks, and as it never gets repetitive to use, will keep you entertained for the whole game.
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GRAPHICS - 4/5
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The visuals in Dark Sector are impressive, and display a good amount of detail into the various environments you navigate, although you'll occasionally stumble upon low-resolution textures while searching with the glaive's flashlight function in darkened corners for pickups. But its nothing horrible to distract you from the great graphics showcased throughout the game. The glaive chops of enemies limbs with ease, and while it looks great from distance, when you inspect separated limbs from bodies, you'll notice no detail in the clean cut that the glaive produced apart from a flat, blood-red surface where the glaive impacted on the flesh, and no pools of blood at the stem of the limb. Obviously its a difficult procedure to do, to make bone and flesh distortions, but some games this generation have pulled it off. But like I mentioned above, its not a big deal, and in the end, the graphics are nothing but impressive.
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SOUND - 5/5
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The game's audio is integrated very well in the game, and the musical score does a neat job of letting you know when danger is present, and when all enemies in the area have been killed. As well as some tense audio, there are some truly vicious and satisfying sound effects, whether your throwing the glaive in slow-motion and hearing the blades swish round and round as it closes in on your target, or when you severe off a limb and hear the believably horrifying screams of agony from your foe as he rolls around on the floor in distress, there is no wrong in the sound department, and the effects sound savage and merciless, displaying your edge of power over all your opponents.
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CONTROLS - 5/5
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The prologue mission settles you into all the basic controls in combat and how to take cover, and with an easy to remember set of control configurations, it won't be before too long before your wreaking havoc and making no mistakes in how you execute your abilities upon plenty of helpless human foes. The PS3 version supports the option to steer the glaive with the motion-sensitive Sixaxis controller when aftertouch on the glaive is activated. However, its a bit harder to use, so the using the left stick to control the flight of the glaive is more advisable and precise.
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ATMOSPHERE - 4/5
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The buildings and sewer networks you enter are dark and creepy, and with the abandoned feel and awkward silence placed on the area it doesn't take much effort to make you feel cautious and uneasy. To make matters more tense, you will have to deal with zombie-like people who have been fully taken over by the virus and deformed beyond the possibility of description. They gradually move towards you, sometimes carrying a melee weapon, but there strength is also unmatched by their short bursts of incredible speed, which can occasionally catch you off guard. You'll often be relaxed once you find a more bright area, and leave the sewer system far behind from the mutated creatures that now inhabit a lot of the city.
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ENEMY AI - 3/5
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Throughout the game you will encounter many different forms of enemies, from human soldiers, to mutant zombies, and each one of these forces you to evaluate their threat and change tactics in order to defeat them. Humans are clever, and will take cover where ever possible, and will fire seemingly endless magazines of ammo at your position until your heart stops beating and blood is pouring from bullet wounds. But, you have one advantage all these enemies don't - the glaive. To overcome the odds, you'll have to put your physical mutation into action, and perform moves no human can, as all the enemy variations in Dark Sector have unique strategies of their own, and its your duty to prevent them from succeeding.
There are several boss fights, each containing a different set of attacks, and varying in their shape and size. They are challenging, but mainly because you have to assess their attacks in order to defeat them, instead of just throwing the glaive in their direction, and hoping for them to fall. Many enemies leave you vulnerable more because of the fact that they look so intimidating, when actually, all it takes is a quick assessment of their weaknesses, and then to exploit the elements in the surroundings.
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LENGTH - 3/5
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Dark Sector will keep you entertained for the length of the single player campaign, which is roughly 10-12 hours long. In that time you would have used the glaive to its full extent and unravelled some of the story's cleverly concealed mysteries and twists, which should hopefully arrive unexpectedly and provide a sense of satisfaction in conclusion to your efforts.
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REPLAY VALUE - 4/5
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I thoroughly enjoyed my experience with Dark Sector, and even though there isn't any intelligence documents to gather to encourage players back to complete the game to the maximum, its a game which is thrilling and bloodthirsty beyond belief, and is worthy of more playthroughs if you enjoy it. Dark Sector is a game which features one of the best weapons invented for the genre, and uses the glaive to its full potential.
The virus. The source of your pain... your enemy... your power!
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OVERALL SUMMARY - 8.5/10
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Good Points: Great audio and sound effects, Satisfyingly brutal and bloodthirsty, Plenty of enemy variation to mix things up and force you to change tactics, The glaive is a unique primary weapon that will never get repetitive to use, Short load times, Cool bosses of all shapes and sizes, Impressive graphics.
Bad Points: Underdeveloped upgrade system, Needed more variety in finishing moves.