I had meant to get into an RPG or RTS after finishing HAWX, but nothing in my backlog was really appealing to me. I seem to be a sucker for simple and short games that seem they are going to be fun. So the game that fit this bill was a recently PC released TPS called “Dark Sector”. I’d played the PS3 demo of this game, and wasn’t impressed, but my main gripe was really with trying to aim and move with the analogue stick, I wanted to give the game another shot with the accuracy and ease of use of the mouse. Like my HAWX review, this is another “on the fly” post that will be updated as I play the game.

I’ll be playing this game on this PC:

CPU: Intel E8500 4Ghz dual core
RAM: OCZ 8GB PC2-8000 DDRII
GFX: ATI 4870×2 overclocked
HDD: OCZ 128GB SSD SATAII
OS: Vista Ultimate x64 SP1

Update 1 – 22/04/09: Nothing new, but entertaining

So I installed this game on the PC. Install time was about 20 minutes. Once finished I tried starting the game and ran into my first issue. When I tried to change the resolution in game and apply it the game would crash to the desktop. A quick 5 minutes of googling and I found I needed to manually set the resolution by editing a config file in the games install directory. Anyway, after fixing this annoyance I was able to start the game with my desired resolution (i.e. 1920×1200) I started the game and noticed that the load times are incredibly short (it might be my SSD drive doing that though)

I’m a few levels in now and still liking it. It feels like a cross between Gears of War, Resident Evil 4 and Infernal. All of my gripes about the PS3 demo are gone, having the accuracy of the mouse  makes the game a lot better and graphically the PC version is superior (even though it doesn’t support DX10) After a few tutorial levels where the story is set up and you are introduced to your abilities and the dynamics of the game it really picks up in pace. What separates this game from your garden variety TPS is the protagonists “glaive” or boomerang blade that he can wield along with a selection of single-handed weapons (i.e. pistol, uzi… etc) At first I thought it was just going to be a gimmick that would wear thin but so far it is actually quite fun. You can use it as a melee weapon and perform take down moves with it. You can throw it blind and also use your pistol along with it, or, my favourite option so far, is to throw it and enable a sort of “glaive cam” mode where you can follow its course and change its trajectory. It’s very handy for getting enemies around corners or ones that are in cover. So, so far I’m liking it. We’ll see if this is still the case by my next update.

Update 2 – 27/04/09: Just keeps getting better… surprisingly

I’m pretty close to the end of this game. Finished quite a few chapters of it over the weekend. The gameplay just keeps getting better. I mean the objectives are fairly straight forward, but the changing level design and the abilities you are given keep the gameplay fresh and interesting. Without the glaive, this would be just another over the shoulder shooter. But the glaive, and it’s abilities really make this game stand out. Consistantly new abilities have been unlocked throughout the game. When I wrote the previous update I had unlocked the glaive and it’s after touch abilities. I now have the ability of charging the glaive with fire, ice or electricity (if a source is close to me that I can throw the glaive into). This has a much more damaging effect on enemies. You can also use it to solve certain puzzles to progress in the level. After this I also got the ability of discharging the glaive when it was near an enemy (i.e. if I had charged it with fire, I could throw the glaive at a bunch of enemies and then discharge it all at once, causing a fireball to take out everyone within range) on top of this I now also have the ability of creating a transparent shield in front of me for a short period of time or turning myself invisible so I can sneak up on baddies and perform 1 hit takedowns. All in all they have really done a great job with the gameplay.

Update 3 – 28/04/09: Finished it!

Turns out where I saved yesterday was only around half an hour from the end of the game. The end boss needed a few retries to completely beat, but unlike some games it was a pretty good crescendo. I think all end bosses should be huge and seem insurmountable at first. Like the other bosses in this game, there was some thought involved in figuring out how to defeat this enemy. You couldn’t just unload all your lead into it and expect it to fall over. It also wasn’t easy and I’d say people playing this game on a console would have a much harder time as you need to be accurate with your shots (something made a lot more difficult with an analogue controller) Still overall I enjoyed the game. In fact you’d probably need a play through it again to get more use out of the varying abilities you unlock as you have barely had them for a level before you are given a new ability to try out.

I really hope they make a sequel to this. It feels like the original Resistance: Fall of Man game on the PS3 or even Half-Life 1. It has a lot going for it, but the world it is in and the scale of the levels needs to be greatly increased. The gameplay is there and solid, now they just need to flesh out the story and have much more expansive environments. Play this game, finish it, and let it surprise you in how good it is.

**Stay tuned, I’ll try and piece together some captured game footage showcasing some of the abilities in the game**