Dark Sector Reviews

  • Zale9342Zale934274,180
    29 Oct 2008 05 May 2009
    53 10 16
    Dark Sector is set in the fictional European country of Lasria. You play as a CIA operative named Hayden Tenno, who is voiced by Michael Rosenbaum of Smallville fame. I got to say the decision to choose Rosenbaum for the role was a wise one. His voice perfectly suits the character of Tenno, who is presented as the ultimate badass. Anyways, back to the story. When Hayden arrives in Lasria, he is told that he must take out a mad man called Mezner. It quickly escalates from there. After a half of hour of playing, Hayden is captured by Mezner who tells Hayden that "they" always say that everyone goes crazy, hence the belief Hayden has that Mezner is indeed, psychotic. From there, Hayden is stabbed in the arm by Mezner's bodyguard that appears to be mutated and encased in a metal suit. This where the game truly begins.

    Apparently, the wound Hayden gets from being stabbed starts to mutate the rest of his arm into a mass of flesh and metal. This has weakened Hayden and makes him believe that he is defenseless against the numerous enemies that lie ahead. He is mistaken. At one point, Hayden attempts to take down an enemy with nothing at his disposal. It is here where his most valuble weapon is revealed, the glaive.

    The glaive is, undeniably, one of the coolest weapons I've ever seen. Over time Hayden will get numerous powers and upgrades that will, provide with more grusome ways to mutilate people. This brings me to my next topic. The action.

    Dark Sector always has something happening in it. There is always someone, or something, trying to kill you. Do not fear, if you use what's at your disposal, it will almost never get overwhelming, but stay extremely fun. For example, if your weapon runs out of ammo, you can simply throw your glaive at an enemy. If done enough times, (usually depends on the toughness of the enemy), the baddie will start to glow red. This is when you can move in for a gruesome finisher. These parts are really varied, and gory. For your visualization needs, let's just say that one involves stabbing a baddie in the stomach and working your way up to the throat, where you then proceed to slice the dude's head off. I was like 'hell yeah!' when I saw it. These finishers are animated fairly well and are very bloody for all you killing machines out there.

    Other aspects of the game that should clearly be mentioned are of course the graphics and music, both of which are amazing. As stated before, the actions are animated fairly well. These are some of the best graphics games can offer at the moment. The only complaint I have is that Hayden's face can get kind of blah during cinematics and that enemies are recycled too much. The music, on the other hand, fits the games well and is kind of spooky.

    The final aspect of the game I will mention are the controls. The controls work just fine. Everything, it seems, is assigned to the proper button, which makes the action flow perfectly as you play through the game. It's all responsive as well. Similar to most 3rd Person Shooter games out now.

    Overall, Dark Sector is simply one of the best games I've played. The graphics, music, and playablity are all there and provide much, much fun for the player. The only complaint is the story which dissapears behind all the action. Still, Dark Sector is a worthy addition to your collection...
    5.0
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    Killerfox UruGood review! I like the game. And there's still people playing online.
    Posted by Killerfox Uru on 29 Jul 11 at 19:01
    LockAndLukeI never played this online, as it seems to me like it was meant to be played single-player, plus I'm a single-player or co-op kind of guy, but none the less I loved this game, it was even quite difficult at times which I loved, easy games are boring and dull.

    Good review =]
    Posted by LockAndLuke on 14 Dec 11 at 17:21
    o DEEVIUS oGood review, this is definitely an underrated game, but only worth 3 stars 6/10 at best. The multiplayer was a still-birth and to no surprise the glaive doesnt fit in MP and the maps and modes are very basic and boring as hell. (Don't mean to be pendantic here neither but according to in-game dialogue 'Lasria is a city in old USSR, not a country in Europe). TU.
    Posted by o DEEVIUS o on 03 Feb 13 at 18:55
  • BrutalSleeperBrutalSleeper288,893
    04 Apr 2011
    18 1 0
    I remember seeing this game mentioned on one of those low budget gaming shows a few years back, if my memory serves me correctly I was going to spend £40 on release day for it but money troubles popped up. So here I am years later finally got round to buying and playing it.

    Dark Sector revolves around the story of one CIA agent sent in to a fictional European country to prevent the release of a biochemical weapon, a short way into the prologue you learn more of the weapons ability to rapidly deform a human into what is basically a heavily armoured zombie. First impressions of the game aren't great it must be said, but after completing the short prologue you meet the games main enemy 'Mezna' and his 'Bodyguard' whom infect you with the bioweapon you were sent to stop and leave you for dead. This is where things get interesting.

    Being infected has its ups and downs. It means that as well as using your standard pistol in you're left hand to dispatch enemies you now have 'The Glaive'.The Glaive has been perfectly described in another review as a Frisbee-O-Death. It works as the key gameplay mechanic as a tool to stun, kill and distract enemies as well as a key to help solve some simple puzzle type areas throughout the game. Another rather nifty thing about being infected is growing as the game progresses. Not only does character aesthetically change as his arm develops more cool armour plating but your abilities grow from start to finish which helps the game constantly seem fresh.

    My intial worry was that Dark Sector would be one of those games that draws you in with an interesting gameplay mechanic but fails to deliver on the more basic aspects ( Imagine a car with guns on it, but someone forgot to put on the wheels). But in all honesty my fears were a little misplaced. It did have an interesting game mechanic within 'The Glaive', but also managed to deliver a solid gameplay experience throughout the game. The controls, graphics and even the basic movement of your character seem just about perfect.

    However the 'The Glaive' may be the maker of the game, it's also the breaker. It's more powerful than most weapons, more fun, more accurate and has unlimited ammo. it's not long before you throw The Glaive at every problem, and it will solve them without fail.

    When I realised this I found most of the great features in the game are over shadowed.For example there is a great gun purchasing and upgrading element in Dark Sector. But why would you need to upgrade a gun you will never use. And as I was faced with a great variety of special enemies and bosses half way through I realised that while many if them are invulrable to bullets, The Glaive can always find a weak point.

    If I go back to my metaphor earlier where I said it could to turn out to be a car with guns but no wheels. I was wrong. Dark Sector is a great car, with some kick ass guns on it and superb wheels, But imagine entering that car in a race and having the guns destroy your opposition... Where's the fun in the race then.
    4.0
  • CrimsonGaidinCrimsonGaidin202,573
    06 Jun 2011 08 Jun 2011
    18 3 2
    Dark Sector Review

    (I'll do my best to avoid any spoilers.)

    Story

    Dark Sector's story follows an American agent named Hayden. He has been sent to stop a man named Mezner from releaseing a virus. Along the way, events occur that end with Hayden being infected and gaining special abilities that further develop as the story progresses. Hayden then uses his new powers to carry on his mission as the story and its twists unfold. There are cutscenes that break down the story but they only show enough to let you understand what the story is about, not enough to actually care about any of the characters.

    Single Player Gameplay

    Dark Sector plays as a cover based, third person shooter. The controls are very similar to Gears of War as far as the cover and shooting system but much less refined which causes them to feel clunky at times. Although clunky, the system still works pretty well. Tap A to go into cover and you can rest while your health regenerates. Hold LT to pop from cover and RT to fire. Pretty much your standard.

    Where Dark Sector's gameplay becomes unique is with the glaive. It is a multi bladed boomerang of sorts. Although the game includes your standard weapons (handguns, shotguns, rifles, and missile launcher) you never really need them outside of a few bossfights if you utilize the glaive. It can be thrown as many times as you like. Headshots kill 90% of the enemies in the game with one throw, even on the hardest difficulty. If that wasn't enough, it also has the ability to be controlled in flight, the ability to imbue it with the elements (fire, ice, electricity), and the ability to explode at the press of a button when imbued with an element. The glaive is a force to be reckond with, which is awesome to a degree, but will also get very stale if it is all you use.

    This leads me to the guns and other combat mechanics. I mentioned the standard guns earlier but there is a small twist to the norm. The only way to permanantly have a gun is to buy it at the black market (sewer lids throughout the game lead to them) You find money and upgades throughout the game which you use to make purchases and improve your purchased weapons. This has been done in many other games. What is new (I think) is that you can also pick up your enemies weapons for 30 seconds. After 30 seconds, the weapons detects your infection and explodes in your hand causing a small amount of damage.

    There is also the standard melee gun swing. If done from behind an enemy or from the front of a near death enemy it activates a brutal finishing move. There are also energy shields and invisibility mechanics thrown in at later parts in the game.

    The last gameplay mechanic is mech mode. There are a few instances in the game where you take over a slow walking, four legged mech. It has 3 weapons which are machine gun, missiles, and decoy flares to draw away enemy missiles. You pretty much just fight your way through 5 - 10 minute strips of enemies in these parts. I'm not typically a fan of mechs but this was pretty fun since it was so short and sweet, A nice break from the norm.

    Now for enemies. The smaller enemies are well varied but they do get a little tedious by the time you reach the end of the game. They can be broken down into 3 main groups. Soldiers, infected, and mechs. You will fight ALOT of soldiers and infected as the game unfolds and they come in several shapes and sizes with different fighting techniques/weapons. The mechs are rarer and more difficult which is a good thing that forces you to change tactics a bit.

    Bosses are all unique (unless you consider the mechs bosses) and quite fun. There are bosses near the end of a majority (not all) of the levels. Each one has weaknesses you have to learn to exploit. They are all a decent challenge but non are really hard enough to be rage inducing.

    All in all, the gameplay is pretty well done.

    Multiplayer Gameplay

    As enjoyable as the single player is, sadly the multiplayer does not follow suit. It has all the gameplay that makes the single player fun but is put together in an unbalanced mess. There are 2 gametypes. They are Infected and Epidimic.

    In Infected, one player plays as the infected person (all the powers you gain in the single player) while everyone else is a standard soldier with a gun, grenades, a mine, and no powers. They soldiers also have much less health. It plays out as a typical juggernaut gametype where all the poor little soldiers ban together to take down the all powerful infected. Unfortunately it is easy to wipe every soldier off the map in under 5 seconds with little skill when playing as the infected. Unless their is a huge skill difference, the infected is near unstoppable making the game very irritating. If by some chance the infected is killed, the person with the killing blow takes over as infected and the slaughter starts over. The goal is to get X amount of kills as the infected.

    Epidimic plays similar except each team has an infected person on their side and a point is awarded each time a teamm kills the opposing team's infected player. This gametype is fun for infected players but everyone else in the game is essentially worthless minus the lucky grenade or mine to help your infected brother. This leads to irritating gameplay once again for anyone not infected.

    None of this really matter though, because at the time I am writing this, the online community is dead. After 2 weeks of boosting the multiplayer (which I will cover later) I only ran into 2 stragglers (also trying to boost) playing the game outside of my boosting group.

    Graphics

    The graphics for Dark Sector are suprisingly good. There are solid textures, environments, and character models. Some of the single player areas get repetetive in their look but there are many areas in between that have their own unique look and feel so I found the visuals to typically be new and stimulating. The element effects are also well done. It looks great when you throw a fire glaive into an infected and watch them catch fire and explode. For a game that went as low under the radar as Dark Sector, the graphics are very impressive. Nowhere near the best out there, but very impressive none the less.

    Sound

    The sound is hit or miss depending on the part of the game. Music is well done. The voice acting is above par. Many superhero geeks like myself will recognize Michael Rosenbaum's (Lex Luthor in Smallville, The Flash in Justice League cartoons) voice as Hayden. Him and the rest of the cast do an amazing job. There are some sounds that get old quickly though. The glaive cutting through the air will haunt your dreams by the end of the campaign but then again it's worth it when it's followed by the panicked screams of a soldier who sees his impending death flying at him. Also in the multiplayer, soldiers have the option to tap Y and call out enemies with an alarm like beeping sound. It gets VERY annoying, very quickly. Myself and a few buddies drove each other crazy with this after weeks of achievement boosting! (don't judge, I guarantee boredom will bring it out of you too if you decide to boost :P)

    Achievements

    Now the part that everyone reading this probably cares about the most...ACHIEVEMENTS! If you are looking for a quick 1000 GS, THIS IS NOT THE GAME FOR YOU! The campaign is about 10 hours long, maybe longer depending on your play style and it has to be completed twice for all the single player achievements. Brutal difficulty has it's own achievement but you can't play on brutal until you've beat the campaign once on any other difficulty. Also something worth noting is that Brutal difficulty is said to have a glitch that lowers the difficulty on it's own mid playthrough which has screwed a lot of people over. It's good practice to quit after every chapter and load back up to make sure it doesn't happen to you. There are also upgrade collectibles you have to find for another achievement which means a lot of searching or a guide. Sadly, that was the easy part!

    Multiplayer is a grindfest and it requires a boosting party! Each gametype has an achievement for 2000 points. Infected requires atleast 4 people to boost efficiently and Epidimic requires 2 or 3. With infected, you can get about 400 points every 3 hours (1 point per kill) . With Epidemic, you can get about 750 points every 3 hours (up to 3 points per kill). It's not as bad as Gears 1 Seriously by any means, but it's quite the grind. I wish anyone luck who decides to try for it.

    Final Rating

    Story: 7/10
    SP Gameplay: 8/10
    MP Gameplay: 3/10
    Graphics: 9/10
    Sound: 9/10
    Achievements: 3/10
    3.0
  • Wildboy WileyWildboy Wiley626,763 626,763 GamerScore
    19 Apr 2009
    24 9 2
    Every now and then, you come across a game thats so great, you want to play it ten or more times over, until you can remember every bit of detail that it has to offer. Sadly, Dark Sector really doesn't fit into that catagory. It fits more into the catagory of either pissing you off so bad you frisbee the disc into the wall, or making you so frustrated you go apply your hand to your little sisters elmo doll....pending you have a little sister.

    Dark Sector starts with Hayden Tenno (according to Wikipedia, though his last name is never mentioned in the game.) Hayden is an American Special Forces Agent sent to a U.S.S.R. nation of Lasria, which from research, doesn't exist. He's there to stop something...err....do something, really it's somewhat unclear of what he's sent to Lasria to do, as the game has no backstory. Crap happens, Hayden gets infected with some blade stabbed into his arm, and his arm is granted special powers. (YAY!)

    Some other characters are involved into the story as well, a girl named Nadia, who really doesn't have any backstory at all, and made me think of the Nadia Yassar from the show 24 every time I heard her name.

    The main antagonist is named Robert Mezner, he's the evil genius who's mind is set on spreading the virus all over the world.

    Thats the basics of the game, now onto some other things.

    The gameplay is solid, but that's an understatement. The game plays like a crippled version of Gears of War. There is a cover system, but for most times, its usually just used for regenerating health, or reloading, as most of the enemies rush Hayden when he is in cover.

    The variety of regular enemies isn't that unique. You have the guys with guns, the guys with riot shields, some wierd silent hill looking deformed monsters with melee weapons, a zombie like monster, and some wierd alien type guys, that shoot red things at you.

    There are guns in the game, but sadly, you must buy them if you want to keep them forever. The enemies guns are equipped with a module that detects if you are infected, which explodes, disinigrating the gun after about 20 seconds. There is a GIANT HOLE in this method, as it's never really explained why Hayden can't just take the ammo clip out of the gun, and leave the gun there. It's clear you can take the ammo clip out as you can reload an enemies gun.....

    Most times you are relying on your Glaive (Shuriken more or less) which has the ability of equipping elements such as fire, lightning, and Ice for short periods of time. It's a pretty handy weapon, and will kill most enemies instantly with a slice to the neck or legs. It does not however, work great against the guys with the shields. The slow motion glaive ability is garbage, sure you can direct the glaive where to go, but you can only do it for a short time. Now sure, they wanted to make it so I wouldn't abuse it, but all they really needed to do was add some sort of distance module and it would have been a lot better.

    The level design is crap. Most areas of a level are so bad, that the game will actually keep spawning enemies unless you reach a certain area that triggers it to stop doing that. This I found out, only after defeating about 25 enemies in one area...

    The sound of the game is alright. There is some creepiness to it, such as random sounds that might scare the crap out of you, but for the most part, talking is usually pertained to story elements such as cutscenes, or if hayden has to talk to his buddy Yargo.

    There are crates and suitcases scattered all around the levels. The Suitcases contain upgrades for the guns, such as accuracy, shooting speed, reload time, clip extension.....they're great as they make really inaccurate weak weapons much more powerful. The crates around the levels ALL contain ammo, which is funny and makes me ask what the point was of putting an ammo crate into a box....why not just put the ammo crate there....I can understand maybe if the crates had other stuff than just ammo, but since it's one item in every crate, they made more work for themselves just doing that.

    Overall the game is bland, and very repetitive. For the most part, you are just running from room to room in each sub-level (1.1, 1.2, 1.3, etc) until you get to the final sub level where you have to fight a boss or reach the next story element. I wouldn't have minded some objectives such as "Do this...." or "Do that....", and the black market could have been much better if I was able to actually buy ammo.... The bosses were somewhat challenging, as I died on all of them at least once, except for the last boss, who was insanely easy and didn't really invite much challenge.......disappointing game overall. 3 stars.
    3.0
  • Silent DirgeSilent Dirge145,917
    07 Jan 2012
    11 5 0
    Dark Sector at first seems like a typical third person shooter until the protagonist Hayden becomes infuses with a strange virus that gives him the power to wield the glaive.

    I see Dark Sector as a hidden gem which most gamers are unfamiliar with. Though during the exposition of the game it seems slow and like the entire will follow in that way once you obtain the glaive Dark Sector really shines. It puts an interesting twist on the third person genre and gives you many different options about how you play. The game plays quite smoothly and the controls, especially when maneuvering the glaive are comfortable and responsive.

    Though Dark Sector was released a few years ago graphics are surprisingly good as is the sound. The Multiplayer in Dark Sector is dead but I'm not sure if it ever took off in the first place.

    Overall though at times Dark Sector can be repetitive I found it to be a unique and refreshing twist on the third person shooter genre and I highly recommend it. 4 out of 5.
    4.0
  • KizwizKizwiz200,825
    18 Apr 2009
    2 5 0
    Dark Sector has a really enjoyable and fascinating story mode. You get a primary gun which you can upgrade or buy new ones, secondary gun which you can also upgrade and buy new ones and you get this really...kick-ass Glaive which is so sweet cos you can set it on fire,electricity,ice and make it super strong and then control the way you throw it with what's called an "Aftertouch" so If I threw the Glaive forwards I could give it an Aftertouch to move it towards and enemy and..well...Cut their head off wink Along the way on the story line, Hayden (That's you!) get's really cool upgrades himself but I won't ruin it for you. So the storyline is great smile but the Multiplayer is a big FAT no-nowarning..well achievement wise anyway, it takes...hours just to get one stupid achievement which needs 4 stupid players and online is..DEAD so you'll need to find a boosting partner for those achievements. Overall Dark Sector is entertaining and you can buy this game for such a low price it's seriously worth it. Anyway enough of reading this silly ol' review and buy the game. wave
    4.0
  • BleakdestinyBleakdestiny191,009
    16 Apr 2009
    12 17 3
    First off I have to say this game is absolutly beautiful....in a real gritty and grimey post-Cold War kinda way. I'll admit I didn't play through the entire game but it follows the main protaganist, Hayden, on an infiltration mission in Russia, where he gets infected by the "Technocyte Virus", and thus gaining his "Glave" or as I like to call it, his "Frisbee-O-Death".

    To me this was your basic Stop-and-Pop Run-and-Gun shooter with a few small RPG elements of "Evolving". The opening mission of the game blew me away, it was like MGS on some screwed up mixture of Steroids and Acid. Yet is was all thrown out the window after that and became a watered down "Gears of War" with no direction. I often found myself lost trying to find out where to go or how to activate a switch with the new, hard to use, ability i just recieved.

    The "Glave", which is your primary weapon through the game, recieves many upgrades such as controling it's flight path, stealing weapons (which makes no sense because enemy weapons have an anti-infection device on them), and also conductivity. All while fighting off a mass of Russian troops and the Hillbillies from "The Hills Have Eyes"

    I give DarkSector a RENT
    3.0
  • AcidSTARHUNTERAcidSTARHUNTER491,452
    23 Jun 2012 23 Jun 2012
    2 9 0
    well another review this time its for dark sector you play the character Hayden Tenno a CIA agent whos mission is to destroy a bio agent which you get infected with along with a whole city.

    Graphics
    8/10
    The game looks great quite dark and gritty along with a lot of flames and explosives which looks great

    Audio
    9/10
    Good sounds from gun fire explosions and the glave sounds great the voice overs are also top rate. some sections have some annoying bits

    Gameplay
    8/10
    Well this is based on a gears of war game engine so its all pretty easy to pick up if you played anything like this I have only one real complaint if it can be called that the action key for opening doors vaulting over objects etc happens to be the same key as the meele attack which in a pinch may cause a little frustion.

    After the infection you can hold 2 weapons a pistol \ sub machine pistol and a rifle\ shotgun along with greandes all weapons that you can buy from the black market can be upgraded via cases hidden throughout the level ( the only collectable in the game)

    another problem i had is the way when you meet the bosses theres really one way to kill them which can be very vey frusting if you dont have youtube lol

    all in all a good game which i feel is overlooked by the gaming community

    Mulitiplayer
    7/10
    I can assume in its hay day this game was buzzing and the mp works quite well it only has two game modes but really how many do you need.

    can be boosted quite quickly but i would of like this mode to be removed and extra chapters put on instead

    Conslusion

    It was a good play would say give it a go you can get it very cheap now days and its not a hard 1000g but the mp is a grind but the story and the game has made me look at some other games of this type.

    9/10
    4.0
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