Dark Sector

Dark Sector has the bones of a great game but it never really delivers. Its basic skeleton is that of a Resident Evil 4/Gears of War clone, and that template is kinda hard to screw up. Yet, it never becomes more than average. While the story isn't terrible, it's absolutely underdeveloped and gives us no interesting characters to root for. I actually like the atmosphere and graphic design, yet it's another area that could certainly have gained from taking more clues from Stalker, the game, or even Stalker, the movie. They should have taken the time to create a more intriguing dark sector. To be repetitive, the gameplay is also average. Waves upon waves of enemies fail to create that much of a challenge. That said, the game's bright spot is the glaive, using it is always a lot of fun and brings a much needed spark of variety. It's too bad Dark Sector never really got a sequel, the basic concept behind the game is sound, it just wasn't sufficiently expanded in the right areas.

For a long time, i had Dark Sector in my mind as the perfect mediocre game, the 2.5 reference point. Unfortunatly, as years went on and steam greenlight offered me some really abysmal experiences, my opinion on this game gradually increase. Now i think it is a good, if yet very bland and dull game.

Its a third person shooter, which rellies a bit too much on cover mechanics and regenerating health. You will battle through a lot of soldiers and zombie like enemies, and the there is a glaive that you can throw to decapitate enemies that acts like a boomerang. Its really fun to use as you can slow down time and maneuver it mid throw. Thats really the main gimmick of the game. You can also light the blade on fire, use it to snatch enemy weapons and solve some basic puzzles in order to advance through the story. The shooting is actually a little clunky, and so are the cover mechanics. It feels like a janky budget games at times. But i dont deny that its fun to kill waves of enemies in brutal ways. Its a gory ways, and despite the shooting could be better, the reaction the enemies have to the gunfire is satisfying.

It features a dark and grim visual aesthetic. I dont remember a single thing about its story other than it wasnt very interesting. The level design is mostly very linear, except for some not so hidden cash supplies, which can be used to purchase better weapons.

For such an average game its fun to say that i actually beat it twice, once on normal and then on hard mode, because i was in such a big gaming drought and no access to the internet at the time.