[.ca] Dark Sector

Frooi-Glavien - your head off:
Dark Sector, a 3rd person shooter, and a multiplatform release is a beautifully rendered game, with amazing looking environments, character modelling and just a fun gameplay to it. But somewhat reminiscent of many 3rd person shooters, hey even the quick weapon menu is similar to the Assassin's Creed D-pad, which is good. Playing as a super spy/killer, Hayden Tenno, you are sent into a ruined city, Lasria that has been infected by a virus. As Tenno you are charged with an assassination. However, the mission goes bad when Tenno himself is attacked and infected by the virus, which makes part of his body metallic with a seriously fun weapon, the glaive, a three bladed throwing star that can also be used for quick kills when close up to an enemy. The game itself is a well done one, Hayden Tenno, as well as the enemies all look great and move great. The sounds and music, although sparce at times, are kinda creepy and add to the atmosphere. The game however, does have a flavour of being derivative, not so much in the story or in the character, more within the game itself and what goes on. The environments although very nice to look at are not destructable, you can't shoot out or glaive out lights, you can't cut through walls, or even destroy any of the many biohazard bags that are strewn about the game, the glaive will just bounce right off as if the bags are made from titanium. This game would have been much more fun if the environments were more destructable, like in Stranglehold. Also there is a lack of interactivity with the environment, you can't climb up everything, heck there isn't a jump button, the cover button is kinda like Gears of War, except it doesn't work as well, the 'A' button, also sprinting, and dodging are also based on the 'A' button. Another issue is the linear level design, yes some parts of this game is set more in an arena, but basically you have to stick to the pre-designed path within the game, this game would have been amazing if it took the level design of Assassin's Creed making Lasria massive and fully explorable, you can have the story progress in a linear sense where it is objective based do this then go do then, then this, but there could've been side objectives, for different glaive abilities, weapons and character attributes. There is really no excuse for having levels designed in a next gen game that are linear, as with this game except for laziness. Heck even one of the boss battles is like Gears of War, remember the Beserker in the church? And how you had to dodge him? Yep, Hayden Tenno also has to dodge and lead around a Beserker-esque type creature only this creature is much bigger. Also the movement of the character is sometimes made more frantic and difficult with the clone Gears of War controls, except Gears of War did it better. This game borrows a great many things from pre-existing games, and for the most part does them well. Personally, the whole linear environments and gameplay is something that shouldn't exist anymore, but if there is anything linear then there should be at least destructable environments, or at least interactive enivornments. This games is a perfect example of the horsepower that the next generation consoles have; however, with only nice looking graphics and nothing else, this game falls short in many categories, it still has fun, but it's all muscle and no brains, just a pretty exterior with nothing of true substance, but killing is made fun in the game, but that's about it. Nothing really great or interesting has been done with this game that hasn't been seen or done before, except for the glaive, but really that's just a tool within the game. Dark Sector does what it does well, but not remarkable, this one is a toss up between rental and ownership. If you enjoy 3rd person shooters with ok mechanics, this a great game, however, if you're getting tired of linear environments and similar gameplay and controls then this is a rental.