RSS
February 27, 2008 | 7:58 PM PST
Dark Sector has been a long time coming. It was the first next-generation game ever shown, well before the release of the Xbox 360 or PS3, but that was back when the game was a stealth-action game set in the distant future. Right around the time next-gen transitioned into current gen with the release of Gears of War and Resistance: Fall of Man (Wii was there too, but that's new gen anyway), developer Digital Extremes emerged from beneath the radar and revealed a completely retooled game that bore little resemblance to its previous identity, and a strong resemblance to Resident Evil 4. The modern space station corridors had been replaced with the down-trodden urban and industrial settings of a fictional Eastern Europe nation, the main character was robbed of his advanced combat armor, and the entire affair now centered around a bladed boomerang called a glaive. That's one hell of a 180 for game to take over the course of development, but considering the abundance of Aliens-inspired space-marine-related content already on store shelves, and given their history for having new IPs overshadowed by bigger names in the same genre, it was probably a smart move for Digital Extremes to try and do something a little different from the norm.
Players take the role of Hayden Tenno, a CIA "cleaner," the guy the agency sends in after an operation to tie up loose ends, erase connections, and make sure nothing can be traced back to the United States. At the onset of Dark Sector, Hayden is sent into to the fictional Soviet State of Lasria to assassinate a CIA agent who had been overseeing the development of biological weapons in the area but recently went rogue. Unfortunately, the assassination attempt fails and Hayden is infected with the product of the illegal research, virus that transforms human beings into powerful, aggressive, and unbelievably ugly creatures. As you might imagine, Hayden's priorities shift from assassination and erasing evidence of the agency's involvement to staying alive and finding a cure. Things get complicated when Hayden discovers that he's not the only one that's been infected - in fact, the area is in the middle of a full-blown war between the infected and non-infected military, and Hayden may be the only hope for halting the spread of the disease across the planet. It's an interesting story, one that plays off of current anxieties many have with the government and the use of power abroad. Harvey Smith and the team that worked on Blacksite: Area 51 had a similar goal for the narrative of that game, but thus far it seems as though Digital Extremes is handling the subject matter with more tact and intelligence.
At the end of the day though, this is a game about killing **** via increasingly cool means, and the developers are certainly putting a lot of effort into ensuring the game delivers in that area. The infection immediately grants Hayden is the ability to manifest a three-pronged blade called the glaive, which is basically the scariest looking ninja throwing star ever imagined. It works in the same vein as a boomerang - throw it at the intended target and it will circle back, slicing, dicing and decapitating enemies along the way. Even if it gets destroyed or stuck in a piece of scenery along the way, Hayden can create another one on the spot. More powerful enemies may survive their encounters with the glaive, but it will still leave them stunned, buying the player time to rush from cover and deliver a sinister melee finishing maneuver. Most involve using the glaive to slice enemies vertically, up some include removing limbs, and a few are so creatively violent they make one question the sanity of the animators that devised them. Each of the enemy types in the game have their own exclusive finish moves, but there are a few that overlap across several types to ensure the player never sees the same damn animation over and over as they take out multiple foes of the same type.
As the game wears on, the disease spreads across more and more of Hayden's body, granting him more and more inhuman abilities, and increasing the combat potential of the glaive. The first upgrade for the boomerang from hell is a timed charge attack that does more damage to enemies and can break open chained doors, unlocking new areas to explore. Later on, the glaive gains the ability to retrieve dropped items and weapons on the battlefield from a distance simply by being thrown at them, an after-touch mechanic that allows players to direct the path of the weapon through the air, and best of all, the ability to conduct elements simply by coming into contact with them. Swipe the glaive through an open flame and it becomes a remote-controlled mutant-toaster, direct through some coolant tanks, and it gains a liquid nitrogen effect that leaves enemies helpless to being shattered at the player's leisure. Hayden himself will get some cool new toys as well, usually Mega Man style by defeating bosses. During one memorable boss encounter against a highly infected monster, players were forced to pinpoint the creature's position by the splashes its legs made in the flooded battle area. The reward for that particular battle, aside from the simple joy of watching Hayden gut the beast in ruthless fashion, was unlocking the invisibility power. By the end of the game Hayden will find a suit that covers his entire body including his face - a spiritual successor to the armor first seen in the original tech demo. The developers drew comparisons between the suit and the Venom symbiote seen in the Spiderman comics, since the suit complements and enhances Hayden's natural (and supernatural) abilities. Plus, like the Venom symbiote, Hayden's suit looks flat out badass.
Dark Sector
Of course, player's can also use contemporary firearms. They aren't as useful or powerful as the glaive, and nowhere near as much fun to use, but they still come in handy for weakening enemies before finishing them off in visceral showers of gore. Hayden starts off the game with his standard issue sidearm, and that pistol is probably the gun that players will use most throughout the game since it's the only firearm that can be easily used in conjunction with the glaive. Hayden carries the pistol in one hand and throws the glaive from the other, and the one-two combo of bullets and infected blades is effective on both human enemies and the meatier infected enemies. Most of the additional weapons players come across in the game will be dropped by uninfected human enemies, but they can't be used for too long thanks to a safety device built into each one that self-destructs the weapon after 15 seconds in unregistered hands. However, players that demand firepower will be pleased to know that there are unregistered weapons to find throughout the maps that Hayden can keep and use as much as he likes, and those weapons can be swapped out and upgraded at various black-market kiosks throughout the levels. Upgrades include double-shot, which is self-explanatory, as well as increased clips, more damage per round, among others.
The single-player is shaping up into an enjoyable, visceral experience, but unfortunately we can't say the same based on our hands-on with the multiplayer. Obviously the game isn't finished and the multiplayer component could still be tightened up before release, but what we played felt thrown-together. Dark Sector features two gameplay modes and five maps, and obviously there's the potential for more via DLC. The first mode, Infection, plays like a game of tag, where one player is 'it' and plays as Hayden, while the rest of the players use standard troops and try to take Hayden down. Points can only be scored on Hayden or by Hayden, and the round ends when Hayden is killed and possession of Hayden switches from the deceased to his killer. Hayden has all of his powers from the single-player campaign including the powered-up glaive, the energy shield and invisibility, while the troops are armed with only standard shotguns and assault rifles. The soldiers do have some aces up their sleeves though - proximity mines that will kill Hayden instantly if he gets too close, and a ping system that allows players to visually communicate Hayden's position on the map. It seems like good formula for a unique multiplayer experience, but it just wasn't much fun in practice.
Ideally the game would play such that the troops would work together, use cover and play tactfully in order to trap the Hayden player and take him out. Unfortunately, there's absolutely no incentive to play as a team since only the player that finishes Hayden gets any points for their hard work, so matches quickly descend into "every man for himself" affairs, where every man is trying to kill the same guy. Another problem is the fact that Hayden and the troops always spawn in exactly the same place on either side of the map, so it's not as if much strategy is necessary to find him. Rounds are defined by mad rushes from one side of the map to the other, where the first on-site typically die, the last to arrive see no action, and the group of players making up the "happy" median simply pour fire onto Hayden until he falls to his knees and the closest player manages to snag a lucky finishing kill. Finally, troops alternate between spawning with a shotgun and spawning with an assault rifle, and the only way to switch weapons is to pick one up after a fallen comrade. This system prevents players from playing the style they want - if they're armed with a shotgun, then they better hope to find Hayden under up-close-and-personal circumstances, cause firing from cover won't do much good. Likewise, an assault-rifle carrying player cornered by Hayden is pretty much as good as dead. The end result of all these problems is basically a cluster****, with the Hayden character basically racking up as many kills as possible before inevitably dying in a random, chaotic mess of gunfire and melee attacks. Not fun. It should be noted that everyone playing the game was a novice. It's entirely possible that advanced players will be able to make good use of cover, and potentially wipe out entire teams of players in one round as Hayden. It's also possible that teams will learn the intricacies of the maps, make efficient use of the ping system and proximity mines create traps for Hayden. However, chances for the latter seem slim given the nature of the Xbox Live community (no offense) and the fact that the game will use a Gears of War type matchmaking system that will prevent friends or clans from playing together in ranked games.
Dark Sector
The second game type, Epidemic, was more fun since it actually encouraged some semblance of communication and team play. The mode plays like rebalanced VIP mode, where the VIP plays as Hayden, once again complete with all of his powerful abilities. The rest of the team are standard soldiers, some with shotguns, others with assault rifles, and rounds end when one team's Hayden is eliminated. Taking out soldiers doesn't earn any points for the team, but it does lower the other team's resistance since it takes at least a few seconds to respawn - precious seconds that can be used to provide supporting fire for the almost inevitable Hayden-on-Hayden duel. The fact that Hayden is both the primary weapon and a liability gives rounds of Epidemic and ebb and flow that the mass chaos of infection just doesn't have, since Hayden will have to switch back and forth between dishing out offense and retreating to ensure he stays alive. Since victory isn't a personal affair, our thrown-together team was communicating and working to back up our Hayden player within minutes, calling out positions, using the ping mechanic, and placing proximity mines at crucial points on the map. We were still the same selfish bastards that refused to work together in infection, but now we were all selfish for the same goal - that one point for killing Hayden. Since Epidemic had less conceptual problems than Infection, playing it shed some more light on the mechanical problems in Dark Sector's multiplayer. The controls feel noticeably loose, enough so that it's difficult to keep the rather large reticule that appears in aim mode on another player - particularly the Hayden character. Whereas games like Gears of War provide a great deal of audio, visual, and rumble feedback to make the player 'feel' every bullet they put into an enemy, the damage dealt by the weapons in Dark Sector felt disappointingly weak. Most disappointing, though, was how little fun the inevitable Hayden-vs.-Hayden duels were. Melee strikes with the glaive against another powerful player gave almost no feedback as to whether a hit was landed. The final kills were usually surprising to both the victor and the loser, and not particularly satisfying.
Playing the multiplayer component of Dark Sector, it's easy to get the impression that the game was never intended to have a multiplayer mode, but it was somehow deemed necessary to the titles success. Quite frankly, if the final product ships with the same problems, we would rather have had the developers put the extra time, effort and money into make the single-player that much better, rather that throwing together a multiplayer mode that not that many people are likely to tear themselves away from Halo, Call of Duty or Gears of War to play anyway.
Players take the role of Hayden Tenno, a CIA "cleaner," the guy the agency sends in after an operation to tie up loose ends, erase connections, and make sure nothing can be traced back to the United States. At the onset of Dark Sector, Hayden is sent into to the fictional Soviet State of Lasria to assassinate a CIA agent who had been overseeing the development of biological weapons in the area but recently went rogue. Unfortunately, the assassination attempt fails and Hayden is infected with the product of the illegal research, virus that transforms human beings into powerful, aggressive, and unbelievably ugly creatures. As you might imagine, Hayden's priorities shift from assassination and erasing evidence of the agency's involvement to staying alive and finding a cure. Things get complicated when Hayden discovers that he's not the only one that's been infected - in fact, the area is in the middle of a full-blown war between the infected and non-infected military, and Hayden may be the only hope for halting the spread of the disease across the planet. It's an interesting story, one that plays off of current anxieties many have with the government and the use of power abroad. Harvey Smith and the team that worked on Blacksite: Area 51 had a similar goal for the narrative of that game, but thus far it seems as though Digital Extremes is handling the subject matter with more tact and intelligence.
At the end of the day though, this is a game about killing **** via increasingly cool means, and the developers are certainly putting a lot of effort into ensuring the game delivers in that area. The infection immediately grants Hayden is the ability to manifest a three-pronged blade called the glaive, which is basically the scariest looking ninja throwing star ever imagined. It works in the same vein as a boomerang - throw it at the intended target and it will circle back, slicing, dicing and decapitating enemies along the way. Even if it gets destroyed or stuck in a piece of scenery along the way, Hayden can create another one on the spot. More powerful enemies may survive their encounters with the glaive, but it will still leave them stunned, buying the player time to rush from cover and deliver a sinister melee finishing maneuver. Most involve using the glaive to slice enemies vertically, up some include removing limbs, and a few are so creatively violent they make one question the sanity of the animators that devised them. Each of the enemy types in the game have their own exclusive finish moves, but there are a few that overlap across several types to ensure the player never sees the same damn animation over and over as they take out multiple foes of the same type.
As the game wears on, the disease spreads across more and more of Hayden's body, granting him more and more inhuman abilities, and increasing the combat potential of the glaive. The first upgrade for the boomerang from hell is a timed charge attack that does more damage to enemies and can break open chained doors, unlocking new areas to explore. Later on, the glaive gains the ability to retrieve dropped items and weapons on the battlefield from a distance simply by being thrown at them, an after-touch mechanic that allows players to direct the path of the weapon through the air, and best of all, the ability to conduct elements simply by coming into contact with them. Swipe the glaive through an open flame and it becomes a remote-controlled mutant-toaster, direct through some coolant tanks, and it gains a liquid nitrogen effect that leaves enemies helpless to being shattered at the player's leisure. Hayden himself will get some cool new toys as well, usually Mega Man style by defeating bosses. During one memorable boss encounter against a highly infected monster, players were forced to pinpoint the creature's position by the splashes its legs made in the flooded battle area. The reward for that particular battle, aside from the simple joy of watching Hayden gut the beast in ruthless fashion, was unlocking the invisibility power. By the end of the game Hayden will find a suit that covers his entire body including his face - a spiritual successor to the armor first seen in the original tech demo. The developers drew comparisons between the suit and the Venom symbiote seen in the Spiderman comics, since the suit complements and enhances Hayden's natural (and supernatural) abilities. Plus, like the Venom symbiote, Hayden's suit looks flat out badass.
Dark Sector
Of course, player's can also use contemporary firearms. They aren't as useful or powerful as the glaive, and nowhere near as much fun to use, but they still come in handy for weakening enemies before finishing them off in visceral showers of gore. Hayden starts off the game with his standard issue sidearm, and that pistol is probably the gun that players will use most throughout the game since it's the only firearm that can be easily used in conjunction with the glaive. Hayden carries the pistol in one hand and throws the glaive from the other, and the one-two combo of bullets and infected blades is effective on both human enemies and the meatier infected enemies. Most of the additional weapons players come across in the game will be dropped by uninfected human enemies, but they can't be used for too long thanks to a safety device built into each one that self-destructs the weapon after 15 seconds in unregistered hands. However, players that demand firepower will be pleased to know that there are unregistered weapons to find throughout the maps that Hayden can keep and use as much as he likes, and those weapons can be swapped out and upgraded at various black-market kiosks throughout the levels. Upgrades include double-shot, which is self-explanatory, as well as increased clips, more damage per round, among others.
The single-player is shaping up into an enjoyable, visceral experience, but unfortunately we can't say the same based on our hands-on with the multiplayer. Obviously the game isn't finished and the multiplayer component could still be tightened up before release, but what we played felt thrown-together. Dark Sector features two gameplay modes and five maps, and obviously there's the potential for more via DLC. The first mode, Infection, plays like a game of tag, where one player is 'it' and plays as Hayden, while the rest of the players use standard troops and try to take Hayden down. Points can only be scored on Hayden or by Hayden, and the round ends when Hayden is killed and possession of Hayden switches from the deceased to his killer. Hayden has all of his powers from the single-player campaign including the powered-up glaive, the energy shield and invisibility, while the troops are armed with only standard shotguns and assault rifles. The soldiers do have some aces up their sleeves though - proximity mines that will kill Hayden instantly if he gets too close, and a ping system that allows players to visually communicate Hayden's position on the map. It seems like good formula for a unique multiplayer experience, but it just wasn't much fun in practice.
Ideally the game would play such that the troops would work together, use cover and play tactfully in order to trap the Hayden player and take him out. Unfortunately, there's absolutely no incentive to play as a team since only the player that finishes Hayden gets any points for their hard work, so matches quickly descend into "every man for himself" affairs, where every man is trying to kill the same guy. Another problem is the fact that Hayden and the troops always spawn in exactly the same place on either side of the map, so it's not as if much strategy is necessary to find him. Rounds are defined by mad rushes from one side of the map to the other, where the first on-site typically die, the last to arrive see no action, and the group of players making up the "happy" median simply pour fire onto Hayden until he falls to his knees and the closest player manages to snag a lucky finishing kill. Finally, troops alternate between spawning with a shotgun and spawning with an assault rifle, and the only way to switch weapons is to pick one up after a fallen comrade. This system prevents players from playing the style they want - if they're armed with a shotgun, then they better hope to find Hayden under up-close-and-personal circumstances, cause firing from cover won't do much good. Likewise, an assault-rifle carrying player cornered by Hayden is pretty much as good as dead. The end result of all these problems is basically a cluster****, with the Hayden character basically racking up as many kills as possible before inevitably dying in a random, chaotic mess of gunfire and melee attacks. Not fun. It should be noted that everyone playing the game was a novice. It's entirely possible that advanced players will be able to make good use of cover, and potentially wipe out entire teams of players in one round as Hayden. It's also possible that teams will learn the intricacies of the maps, make efficient use of the ping system and proximity mines create traps for Hayden. However, chances for the latter seem slim given the nature of the Xbox Live community (no offense) and the fact that the game will use a Gears of War type matchmaking system that will prevent friends or clans from playing together in ranked games.
Dark Sector
The second game type, Epidemic, was more fun since it actually encouraged some semblance of communication and team play. The mode plays like rebalanced VIP mode, where the VIP plays as Hayden, once again complete with all of his powerful abilities. The rest of the team are standard soldiers, some with shotguns, others with assault rifles, and rounds end when one team's Hayden is eliminated. Taking out soldiers doesn't earn any points for the team, but it does lower the other team's resistance since it takes at least a few seconds to respawn - precious seconds that can be used to provide supporting fire for the almost inevitable Hayden-on-Hayden duel. The fact that Hayden is both the primary weapon and a liability gives rounds of Epidemic and ebb and flow that the mass chaos of infection just doesn't have, since Hayden will have to switch back and forth between dishing out offense and retreating to ensure he stays alive. Since victory isn't a personal affair, our thrown-together team was communicating and working to back up our Hayden player within minutes, calling out positions, using the ping mechanic, and placing proximity mines at crucial points on the map. We were still the same selfish bastards that refused to work together in infection, but now we were all selfish for the same goal - that one point for killing Hayden. Since Epidemic had less conceptual problems than Infection, playing it shed some more light on the mechanical problems in Dark Sector's multiplayer. The controls feel noticeably loose, enough so that it's difficult to keep the rather large reticule that appears in aim mode on another player - particularly the Hayden character. Whereas games like Gears of War provide a great deal of audio, visual, and rumble feedback to make the player 'feel' every bullet they put into an enemy, the damage dealt by the weapons in Dark Sector felt disappointingly weak. Most disappointing, though, was how little fun the inevitable Hayden-vs.-Hayden duels were. Melee strikes with the glaive against another powerful player gave almost no feedback as to whether a hit was landed. The final kills were usually surprising to both the victor and the loser, and not particularly satisfying.
Playing the multiplayer component of Dark Sector, it's easy to get the impression that the game was never intended to have a multiplayer mode, but it was somehow deemed necessary to the titles success. Quite frankly, if the final product ships with the same problems, we would rather have had the developers put the extra time, effort and money into make the single-player that much better, rather that throwing together a multiplayer mode that not that many people are likely to tear themselves away from Halo, Call of Duty or Gears of War to play anyway.
February 8, 2010
