Dark Sector-360/PS3-Review

[MesoZombie]

Dark Sector

Review by MesoZombie

Sections:

1. Story
2. Game play
3. Visuals and Sound
4. Verdict

Story

While I enjoyed this game I cant say the story was anything overly new. If you strip it down to the bare bones your left with another hero thrown into world where a zombie creating infection is taking over and asking him to stop the main boss from spreading it even farther. Nothing to new save a few pearls.

The main character for this zombie fest is a broken man by the name of Hayden Tenno. He is a former CIA operative that is best described as a “cleaner”. When the other agents drop the ball and spill the punch at the party he is sent in to get the game rolling and clean up the mess. That was until he had a vaguely mentioned break and seemed to take out the wrong guys on his last outing. However, the government body needed the job to get done again and were left with no one else that might be crazy or qualified enough to send into the infection zone. So they get Hayden to go in and give him a “booster” to keep him from being infected to clean up what is quickly becoming a very bad situation. A side note that is not really covered anywhere in the game, Hayden suffers from Congenital Analgia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congenital_insensitivity_to_pain) which plays a major part later in the game and explains a few things.

With his mission set, body drugged, and guns loaded we get dropped into the middle of what is a great looking broken castle in time to dispatch a guard and get cold feet. Sadly, the chopper has flown and we are now in for the long haul. A few hop, skips, and a jump later we are planting bombs and looking for the main antagonist by the name of Mezner. Very quick, it is shown that our main hero has a very dark side. One room we enter finds us a man bound to a chair and asking us to save him. In what can only be describe as how a great white shark would sound if saying everything will be okay Hayden reassures the guy that he is fine and will be safe. A bullet follows this to the poor guys head and a block of c-4 being tossed casually into his lap.

It is at this point we see how broken our guy is, with all the warmth of snow cone on Pluto her removes a bound man from the story, chilling. After a quick touch base with the guy in charge we advance a little further looking for Mezner so we can get the hell out of this infection zone. And go home to what I can only assume will be a bottle of Jim Bean and a few rounds of punching babies for fun, a person of this level of empathy really does not strike me as the knitting type.

This is where the story really takes a turn. You have just gotten done blasting a enemy chopper down when a thing comes out of the shadows and leave no mixed signals as to its intents for you. In a true shoot now and ask question later you empty your clip towards the advancing goon only to watch them bounce off with all the stopping power of a spitball gun. With a “screw this gesture” Hayden rolls back grabs the rocket launcher used to bring down the aforementioned chopper and fires one away. Nonchalantly the baddies creates a force bubble and not only stops the rocket spins it around and lets it fly right back at you.

You escape death but when you come to you find Mezner standing over you talking like he is the only one to understand you, after all your both broken men like all the great evil villains. What the heck you were here to kill him anyways so you go to grab your gun only to be impaled in the shoulder by the very baddie that just bent space to play rocket tag with you. Hayden is now part of the infection. The last part of this little friend’s reunion is a middle finger salute in all but the gesture, with a smile on his face Hayden pulls out the detonator to the c-4 planted earlier and blows the ruins to sky high. Only escaping with little to spare our hero stumbles into a fishing shed further away to find a radio and call for help.

His arm is now blackened and looking rather, well infected, ammo less, and worse for wear. After a quick little tit for tat with HQ he is informed he will have to go further into the infection zone and meet up with a contact who will have a booster that will help stave off the infection until he can be evacuated and given a proper “cleaning”. Bracing himself for what is going to be a rough time he is surprised by a guard and quickly hides hoping to get the jump on him, he fails. But when all hope seems lost and your about to die your infection has a pleasant surprise, enter the glaive, think of a boomerang with razor sharp blades, and you quickly dispatch this guard and when his buddy comes thru the door you toss the glaive at his head leaving him a few inches shorter then when he arrived.

From here you proceeded to run, gun, and cover your way thru the remaining levels leading up to the climatic fight between an old friend and the demigod power wanting Mezner. You evolve with the disease gaining new powers and maturing in both mind and body. Your character grows from the broken man he started the game as into a dark hero with some great potential to work with. Here is also where his disease comes into play. the infection creates the zombies you fight due to the fact they have all been driven mad from the infection turning the skin to a metallic substance. Since Hayden feels no pain he is able to keep his mind thru the process.

Gameplay

Here is an area with a few bumps. You are given a great cover system and a nice selection of standard guns to start with. Then as if to say happy birthday you infected freak you get one of the most refreshing weapons since sticky grenades became popular ,the glaive. It is a weapon that after a few level you gain the ability to control in flight. You can steer it around corners, over cover, thru gaps, and into the meaty flesh of the neck for a nice death gurgle and easy kill. Not to mention the ability to charge up different elements for some added rewards. But here is the kicker even thou you are playing is some very pretty level s they start to blend together and become more of run to point a, kill a horde or two, run to point b repeat to point z.

Now there is some online play but I did not take it there


Visuals and Sound

This game looks amazing. There is no way around it the colors are fantastic the enemies are detailed and the levels are great. The town you are in really shows its age well. With body bags heaped at times in corners blood in the streets and caution tape aplenty. One of the main boss battles involves this mighty beast and I was caught at times just stunned fluid his animations were and how detailed his body looked. Truly this town has been fighting this infection and losing for a while. Not to mention the art style they tried and pulled off near the beginning. It is almost all black and white with shades of decay in between. The glaive also gets its own tender loving care with some fantastic motion blur when you take the point of view to steer the thing. The motion blur does not stop there, it is also evident when you sprint as well as pan the camera.

This is not to say there are not a few hiccups. Some of the dismemberments while nicely gory are not very real looking and if you look close, the stumps do not seem to match up. In one scene I took an arm off and could see where the guy was standing was not where the arm left the body. Moreover, I did notice that some of the wind swept debris seems to pop up out of thin air before taking flight on the breeze.

The sound in the game is just fantastic the splotchy sound of glaive on fleshy, the plinkety sounds of gunfire hitting metals, and the thuds of it hitting wood or stone. Each will leave your ears drooling for more. I doubt I will ever forget the satisfaction of charging a thug to kick his legs out and sitting in rapt attention as I sunk the glaive deep into his gushy sounding midsection. It was a great gaming moment.

Verdict

I give this one a four cat out of five and would gladly pass it on to my friends. With it hitting the discount bin now there is almost no reason not to add it to your libraryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congenital_insensitivity_to_pain

[PDF]

I'm anticipating it.
At one point in time I thought about getting this game

[MesoZombie]

will have it up probably by the end of the week, i just figured it would claim it now---also i am now working on dons Mario comic

[MesoZombie]

bump so people know it is up now

[Don Ramón]

nice review... now send the game to me!!

[Kenzomatic]

great Review, I was actually waiting to see what you had to say because it is in the bargin ben a walmart right now and I was debating about picking it up. Looks like I will be getting it for sure.

[MesoZombie]

it is a blast, you combine power throw with after touch and steer right for the throat of guys lined up…pop,pop,pop my best is four heads with one throw

The 360 version has an achievement for getting two

[hunter_alien]

Looks pretty damn cool Great review btw

[Dgc1808]

Just got it from my Cousin, not the greatest game of all time. But really fun way to pass the time.

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