17.9.2014

S T O R YYou play as Hayden, an American Special Forces agent, sent to a military compound in the fictional Soviet nation of Lasria. You are on the trail of Mezner, a man responsible for the Technocyte infection spreading across the country. Hayden succumbs to the infection, but embraces its radical effects to produce his all-new weapon, the Glaive. Hayden must find Mezner and stop its devastating outbreak.The story rarely feels like it's moving along with you. Characters come and go without giving you any reason to care about them, you travel between locations killing everything that moves without really knowing why,and new abilities are frequently added to your formidable arsenal without explanation.G R A P H I C S & S O U N DDark Sector brings an incredibly creepy and gothic type atmosphere to its game world. The art direction conveys the abandonment of environments and how strongly the virus has taken its hold. There are crumbling churches to visit, dimly lit cemeteries and underground tunnels to wander through. The environments do alter between day and night transitions, which breathes life into the surroundings.The character model of Hayden is meticulously detailed, the infection has been crafted onto his arm, and the metallic areas have been carefully twisted and woven into his flesh. The design is brilliant and further compliments the stylistic look of the glaive. The glaive is a thing of beauty,from Hazmat soldiers to freaky infected dwarves. The dynamic lighting makes a very positive impact, fire and electricity flicker onto surfaces, casting shadows and bringing decayed environments to life. Hayden is the only character to add any kind of emotional depth, despite how very little he is given to work with.Visually, Dark Sector rarely fails to impress, though you‘ll occasionally stumble upon low-resolution textures while searching with a flashlight in darkened corners for pickups.G A M E P L A YOnce you acquire the glaive, it becomes a whole new ball game. Throwing this tri-blade boomerang around never gets old. The glaive does have a limited throwing distance, it’s wise to get closer to targets and only then unleash its fury. If you wish to use firearms then that is entirely up to you, it’s a slower process and nowhere near as fun as using the glaive. A bullet will leave a wound in an enemy soldier; the glaive will easily decapitate and sever limbs in a flash. The ‘aftertouch’ ability puts a new spin on the glaive, you can steer it around corners and take out multiple enemies with one throw. The PS3 game supports sixaxis functionality, letting you manoeuvre the motion-sensitive controller, but the right analogue does a better job. The glaive does have some other tricks up its sleeve, it can be used to unlock doors, open ammo crates and pick up items out of reach.Want to give your glaive a little more kick? You will have opportunities to imbue it with electricity, ice or fire for a short time. Once you absorb any of these powers, killing enemies becomes more satisfying than ever. Access to the three aforementioned elements is a rarity, more often than not, the elements are needed to overcome environments or solve puzzles. Hayden can also get into cover and use evasive techniques to get to safety. Staying behind cover is essential, the enemy AL issmart enough to try and flank your position. The human soldiers can throw grenades and use cover as often as possible. The mutated creatures range from brainless cannon fodder to smarter andagile enemies.You can also collect rubles that represent money; this can be used to buy new weapons on the black market, which is conveniently located under every manhole you come across. It's important to buy and upgrade a pistol (which you wield simultaneously with the glaive), and either a rifle or shotgun at some point. Weapons that you pick up from slain enemies function only for a short time before they‘re automatically disabled. Weapons on the black market are extremely expensive, so despite the range of options to choose from, you shouldn‘t expect to own even half-of them by the time you reach the boss at the end of your first play-through. There are several boss battles in Dark Sector, and all of them are very different.Puzzles crop up a little too frequently in Dark Sector and, given that you don't even have to think about them after the first occurrence, it doesn‘t take long for them to feel like chores that you have to complete before you're allowed to progress and have fun playing with enemies again.O V E R A L LDark Sector is a title that will be overlooked by many, taking inspiration from some highly acclaimed shooters. The story could have been interesting, if not for some truly shoddy writing. The visuals are gorgeous and detailed. The gameplay owes a huge debt to how fun it is to use the glaive.

9.4.2008

So by the title here it is! First off lets just add this is a very gory game and parents please unless you want your child sitting in a dark corner crying to themselves because they thinks they sees a man in Black with a Glaive in his hands please by all means show them this.Gameplay: First in gameplay you notice that there is a lack to cover system e.g standing by cover constantly hitting the cover button just to be hailed by bullets. Also when enemies cover you do notice that it seems the designers decided to go back 10 years in gaming by putting the same enemy behind cover but when shooting from behind cover he pops out like a whack a mole game.However in all fairness when controlling the charater the designers did put in a few nice touches such as the running system, this shows the game realism as you run you notice the blur off the side off the tv screen, nice touch but shown on many games in past.I will be nice now and say the Glaive is one of the coolest weapons in the last ten years with the touch of sixaxis this completed it for me with the aid of its trusty torch (even though this disappears after a while, whats wrong no batteries!). The weapons system is in fairness really good i do like the the third person over the soldier feel of the game maybe bit too resident evil 4, but that game did win nearly every award they were nominated for so i think good choice in copying the idea.The weapons themselves are a good mix of starting picstol then upgrading to the spraying pistol, the to an automatic rifle, to a shotgun and then to a nice rocket launcher, which by the way the designers really shocked me with the first real boss battle (a massive mutated king kong on the loose) and the way the shooting and the dodging coould of been some sort of movie scene pure genius!Graphics: The graphics in the opening and following scenes did startle me it looked so real I thought it was going to start raining out the tv screen, and on the normal gaming system as said previous did seem quite good with blur of screen when character is running, But by far the best touch is the way the glaive seems to slice your enemy like it was actually Darth Vaders light saber cutting into Obi Wan body. NIICCEE!!Story: Set from past to near future the story is based on Hayden Tenno the poor man is tortured by the amazing ability to bring out glaives from his hands (Amazing power Hayden stop whining about it)the story is based in lasria where Agent Hayden is sent to find out about the infection which then you are infected by and you must defend yourself while making yourself through the cities streets while being met by an army of thousands.The story line does seem to fade after the seventh hundreth soldier who dies from your glaive, but hey as long as you keep cutting the story keeps going(You do start to feel like this should have been a simulator on amputating after a while). This did have potential to be one of the best storylines in recent times but I believe that the games lead designer was more intrested in its gameplay than this.Some other things to cover: If this has a sequel then it has a buyer but what I would like to see is a bit more weapons choice as of blades actions than its gunplay, a bit better cover system especially for the pop out enemies, the grenades should be looked at again and keeping with the resident evil 4 theme of third person shooting, I believe and many probaly agree that would be one of the games of the year!.For its value of puchase this is well worth it even though I did slash it a bit, the goryness is genius and the shooting and the Glaives Sixaxis control is also pure to its heart of a trully amazing game, however with the let down of its storyline I give this 4/5. Sorry Hayden please dont use that glaive on me!!

5.4.2008

Dark Sector is basically Resident Evil 4 and Gears of War combined into one game but with it's own edgy style on top of that and one of the coolest weapons in a game yet - the Glaive.Unless you've played the above mentioned games you wouldn't know what I meant by that but if you have and you love those games, then you're going to love Dark Sector.The duck and cover system is a breeze to use and the Glaive, after some quick practice becomes alot of fun. The Glaive just doesn't come in useful for taking the heads or legs off of your enemies but it can also be used with electricity and fire, turning it into a completely different kind of weapon which can be used to solve puzzles and help you proceed further into the game.For example, you may need fire to light a statue which is near a door guarded by something you need to burn before you can open it, the Glaive can be used to complete these puzzles and let you continue on your way.Not only that but you can use the Glaive with these elements to electrocute or set fire to enemies for instant satisfying kills. Aswell as the Glaive you get a selection of guns which you can buy with money that you find and trade. You are able to aim and hold your weapon at the same time as using the Glaive which can be used on enemies that hold a shield (use the glaive to break the shield then the gun to hit them).The look and feel to Dark Sector is incredible. The environments are stunning and the detail really draws you into the game. Hayden can also run just like the characters in Gears of War which looks brilliant and his Glaive will reflect light or rain and blood with run from it. The sounds are also very satisfying and the music gives the game a fast paced tense feeling.Where Dark Sector lacks is in the plot. There hardly is one, with not that much story to the game but lots of gameplay. You meet characters that you don't know anything about and you never get the feeling of being drawn into the story at any point throughout the game, you're just thrust into the action from the beginning and it gets better as you go along.Although a good plot would have made the game that much better, Dark Sector gets it right in every other way. The gameplay is so much fun and easy to use. The Glaive can also use the sixaxis motion aftertouch which can be controlled to take out multiple enemies. It's easy to use and a nice touch in large battle areas. As you progress through the game your abilities grow and you become stronger and the Glaive becomes more powerful. The sense of building up from the beginning keeps the game fresh as you get further in and the gameplay doesn't get boring.Boss battles are fun and can use a number of strategies to complete. Some of the animations and final end battle scenes are great to watch and some of the large enemies can be alot of fun to beat.Dark Sector is a great game. Great graphics, fantastic gameplay, sound, design, easy to use and a solid well produced feeling to the overall product. Just don't expect a very deep or hollywood style plot as with Dark Sector it's more about good fun gameplay.

11.8.2014

I bought Dark Sector because I had played everything else I wanted to play, and this was in the bargain bin for a few pounds. Well, I was pleasantly surprised. The marketing of this game was almost non existent, or at least it was never featured in any "best of" reviews or recommendations that I ever read. But it was fun.The gameplay is exactly like Resident Evil (4 onwards), so anyone who has played that will feel at home here. But there really isn't any story to speak of - you play as a soldier carrying out a mission in Russia, when all of a sudden you are attacked by someone wielding a bio weapon, which infects you with a kind of demonic ability to use a kind of throwing star,that the game calls a "the glaive". This is the prologue. From here, you make your way through sewers, tunnels, town squares, factories and the like, until you've killed everything and reached the end of the game. That's really all can remember about the story, it's just one long fight against marauding enemies. There are a few (very few) cut scenes with some plot exposition, but I can't really remember anything significant in them, expect some people threatening you (can't even remembers the main characters name), and you getting angry, and moving on to do more killing.However despite this shallowness, gameplay is fun. The glaive is a good gimmick, you throw it like a boomerang and with a good aim you can cut off limbs or heads. Even better is the guided flight where you see and steer the direction of the flying glaive in slow motion to aim it exactly where you want it. This was tricky but fun. Actually the controls are not great, I found them very slow to respond sometimes, and the sometimes multiple actions are mapped to the same button - for example triangle is both shield and stealth mode - tap or hold down was the difference, but I couldn't get it to work a lot of the time. Same goes for the explosion which was to press R3 while the glaive was in flight, this only seemed to work 50% of the time for me.The game looks pretty drab, I was wondering if I would ever get out of sewers and tunnels for a while, The city parts when they happen, are much more fun to play, but on the whole the scenery is very repetitive, as are the enemies. Character models are ok, although the main hero (you) looks ridiculous, like a cross between Tom Cruise and a gorilla. There are some additional weapons and some customisation is allowed (this is really poorly implemented).There are bosses too, which, unless you know what you are doing, are sometimes insanely difficult. I needed online help to see what to do - it's really not handed to you on a plate in this game. The final boss is a satisfying challenge, again though, I doubt I would have worked out what to do without help.So all in all, this is a fairly simple and repetitive game but fairly solidly made, except for niggly controls and poor explanations of what to do. I enjoyed it, and for the price I paid, I am satisfied

5.6.2008

This game has been described as a mix of Resident Evil and Gears of War, now I've never played Gears of War but this is a hell of a lot better than Resident Evil! One big let down for me in Resident Evil was the control system i.e. it was slow, cumbersome and generally crap. When I read that Dark Sector was like Resident Evil I was anticipating a similar annoyance but thankfully the controls in this game are far superior and a breeze to use.This game, right from the very beginning is a lot of fun. Even before you get the glaive the duck and cover system and gunplay is really well done. Once the glaive arrives then the fun really begins!

18.4.2008

After commenting on a couple of reviews here...and possibly not making any friends I felt compelled to write my own review. In a nut shell, Dark Sector is an action horror game with a few puzzles in third person view with a cover and shoot system similar to that in Drakes Fortune. These three features alone had me convinced that I had to try this game and I am far from disappointed.Add in a very very cool and original weapon (the glaive) somebody mentioned the classic 80's movie Krull as being a possible inspiration, and some very cool finishing moves and you are well on your way to a very entertaining game. As the cherry on the cake you can remove your enemies limbs with this rather kick a** glaive,

19.6.2010

I am a gamer of over 30 years standing. I can recall playing games on my cousin's orange Grandstand console, circa 1978, and playing Space Invaders in greasy Greek-owned cafes during the early 1980s (Aah! Sweet memories). So, I think I know by now, what constitutes a good or bad game. This is definitely the former! When playing, it became obvious to me that it's been heavily influenced by games such as Metal Gear Solid, which is not a bad thing. But what the developers have done, is minimize the length of the FMVs. So you won't have to sit through long pretentious sections, without using your joypad. Another influence, is the 1983 film Krull, which featured a Glave weapon comprised of 5 spring-loaded blades.

31.5.2008

Dark Sector is a funny old game. Playing as a secret opps agent called Hayden Tenno, you're sent to a Russian state on one final mission, but are infected with a deadly virus that has been ravaging the locals. Somehow, it has served to make you stronger, including metalising your body and giving you a triple bladed boomerang potruding from your hand called a glaive. Your basic quest is to shoot and slash your way through the story, separating as many limbs from your enmies as possible and causing as much destruction as you can along the way.There's no need to go too much in depth with the story, because it really isnt all that great. It never fully explores itself,

12.8.2009

Upon watching the review of this game and the picture on the case, I cannot help but think the idea of the glaive has been lifted from the film Krull. Anyone with me on this?That said, the game does look good and I have just ordered my copy, I will write a proper review when I have played it some. :)I can't change my previous star settings, but I give this game 5 STARS for fun and enjoyment!!!I have now been playing this game for a couple of days and I have to say that I am hooked!!! This is a great game, the storyline is so so but the gameplay is excellent. As you progress through the game you aquire new powers and ways to use the Glaive. An exampe of this is when you can manually control the flight of the Glaive so you can decapitate enemies,

19.4.2008

When i read reviews on this game people stated it was gears of war combined with resident evil and i was skeptical to believe that any game could combine aspects from 2 legendary franchises and be of any good. I bit the bullet went out and bought it and have to say one of the best decisions i have made!Word of warning this game is no way suitible for kids, very gory and very violent...and im not just saying that. The main weapon in the game is one of the best and most original weapons ever in a video game its called the Glaive, a 3 bladed throwing weapon that beats any gun!One of the coolest aspects of dark sector is when throwing the glaive you can manually control it by entering a camera angle after the glaive has been thrown.

16.5.2008

I'm at a loss to explain the hatred many people seem to harbour for this game. They must have either played it for 10 minutes or had impossible expectations. The complaints are completely unjustified. There are no control issues. None. There are no glitches that I encountered either. What I encountered in actual fact was a beautiful looking game with stunning sound and breathless action.It is correct to call it a blend of Gears Of War and Resident Evil 4 and while not quite scaling the heights of those games it manages capture the basic elements that made them fun. It has bags of atmosphere and some sweet levels. The start is actually the most boring. When the game gets darker it gets better,

29.5.2008

After completing Army of Two, I was looking for something else to play, similar gameplay to Gears of War. Dark sector is definately that.I have found it easy to pick up and play, just like GoW or Ao2. It can be frustrating at times, not knowing what to do to kill some of the bosses, but perceverance gets you there in the end.There isn't as large a variety of weapons as in must other games but, of the ones you do have, these can be upgraded with items found in the field.One weapon that is unique to Dark Sector is the glaive. This is like a bladed frisbie that can cause some serious damage. It is a great creation, and I love using it.Overall I give this a 5 star,

14.9.2008

After reading other reviews i thought i would have to leave one as well. Firstly the game is slightly repetative, but arnt nearly all shoot em games? The glaive is just a fabulous weapon, and if this was not created it would only get a 3 stars from me and not 4 because without it it could get a bit boring, bur credit to the creators as it really is the best weapon to date on any game. The graphics are good which i would give about 3.5/5 basing on graphics such as Drakes Fortune whice are truly amazing. Another good aspect of this game i like is that it can give me goose bumps. Sneaking through grave yards with the church bell ringing slowly in the back ground can be quite creepy and even more so if you play this in the dark...then pops out a zombie unexpectedly....brilliant.

3.4.2008

Those familiar with the above games will notice the similarities straight away, this of course in no bad thing, they are amazing games.The real Unique Selling point is the Glaive, thrown using R2 it takes heads off, collects items and can utilise environmental elements such as fire and electricity. This is a lot of fun and when used with the hand guns some very stylish kills are achieved.There is a shop option similar to Res 4 where you can purchase new weapons and upgrade existing ones and the save function is well implemented.The only negative is at times the close quarters combat with the infected can be sloppy,you'll find yourself running away to throw the glaive as they swarm round you.Overall an excellent game at an attractive launch price,

21.4.2008

get this second hand for about twenty odd quid and its a bargain it really is good. theres not many games i play through twice the last one was gears of war and that was ages ago but dark sector i finished on normal then played again on hard why? because slicing off human heads is amazing and you never get bored of it. theres a few puzzles in it, driving bits were you have tanks and third person shooter so its not the same thing all the way through. ive had my ps3 since day 1 and this is one of the best games ive played on it. the only reason gamespot and ign didnt rate it higher is because d3 publisher didnt pay them to get a good score. halo 3 got a ten out of ten because microsoft gave them a little pocket money so it would sell millions.

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