Dark Sector is a game that manages to pluck a chord with fans of the
Gears of War style third-person shooter with that familiar
over-right-shoulder camera viewpoint. Unfortunately, being a clone
often means that doing something new is out of the question. Dark
Sector manages to take an old style, bring new game-play to it, but
fails to do much more than that.
Immediately after putting the game in, one will notice the breathtaking
graphics of what you can only assume is the latest build of the Unreal
Engine. The prologue takes place entirely in black and white, just like
an old film. Adding context to the feeling of it being non-color is the
fact the series of events takes place in an alternate reality Russia in
the 1980's. During a deep-sea excavation a mysterious, yet highly
infectious plague has come back with the naval team and has infected
most of what we would consider the Soviet Union.
Since the game struggles so hard to be the new Gears of War, you'll
find that all the cover mechanics work pretty much the same, just less
elegantly. Instead of being able to run directly into cover you have to
stop and hit up on the analog stick + A, this just slows things down
and can cost you a life or two when playing on the harder difficulties.
The other controls are borrowed from other places and there's no real
issue with any single one of them apart from the cover system.
The new idea that Dark Sector uses to set itself apart from the (now)
highly over-mentioned Gears of War is a weapon called "The Glaive."
This is a cross between a boomerang and a knife. Curved into a circle
this highly destructive weapon can cut limbs off of enemies as well as
retrieve distant items and power-ups. After a while your character
gains the ability to control the Glaive in mid-flight. This can be
useful for hitting specific points on a boss creature or decapitating
an enemy for a quick kill. Unfortunately, in the night levels, the
overuse of blur effects makes hitting a target near impossible.
The worst part about Dark Sector's controls is that apart from the
Glaive, there is no tutorial telling you which buttons do what, so for
the first part of the game if you didn't know better, you wouldn't know
there was even a cover system in place. This can be highly annoying
once you realize you have to test every button and figure it out. This
isn't to say there aren't sequences later on when you acquire new
powers, there is just nothing upfront in the first level like you would
expect to find in a Gears of War or similar title.
For the moments you can't hit targets with the Glaive, there are guns
in Dark Sector that you can use. These are armed with a device called
"governors" which will destroy the weapon within around 30 seconds
after you pick them up. This is because at some point during the game
you become infected and the device prevents the use of weapons by
infected people. You can buy guns without governors in the black market
(for a price of course) but most of the time if this happens you'll be
trying to melee the enemies. Due to the inclusion of a finishing system
you can pull off brutal kills in short cinematics after you damage an
enemy a certain amount. The bad part is that it is never quite clear
how much damage is required until an enemy turns red indicating you can
do a finisher. Most of the time you'll simply kill off the attacker in
your attempts.
However, usually when these annoyances occur you'll be overwhelmed by a
sense of immersion and anticipation because the graphics carry this
title a long way. Unreal Engine 3's latest update contains some of the
best visuals ever seen on consoles. It doesn't make the same leap as
the original Gears of War did, but it certainly makes vast and
noticeable differences right from the first level. Color correction and
particle effects are all highly elegant and realistic. During the game
you can add elements to your Glaive by running it through fire or an
open electrical field to get the desired effect. In fact, some of the
fun of Dark Sector is taking these new elements like ice and fire and
using it on enemies and the environment just to see how it looks and
affects other things around it.
The game's real flaw isn't where it copies from or where it tries to
go. It's the complete lack of a story coupled with waves of enemies
over and over again in every level. Mainly the waves of enemies are
controlled and not completely ridiculous, but the lack of story really
gets in the way, and when new characters are introduced it is almost
never clear who they are, why they are important, and where they belong
in the back-story. In fact, the story is so lacking, that if there was
one the game would've enjoyed a ton more success and been a really
interesting place to explore.
Overall Dark Sector isn't a bad game, but if you're looking for a
really new experience or an interesting story you won't find it here.
Instead of being a blatant copy, this title manages to introduce a lot
of new elements that, if you're a fan of third-person shooters and you
don't mind a bit of repetition, is definitely worth a look at the very
least.
