DARK SECTOR
This game is due for release on 4th April, I had the fortunate pleasure of getting a copy of the game on 2nd April and gave is a bit of a play, so this review is based on initial impressions after playing Chapters 1 and 2....
On putting the game in I had wait 5 minutes while it uploaded an update of some sort, the game starts with a free moving video set 20 years or so in the past, in which a sea mariner finds a ship and gets killed by something... Jumping forward 20 years or so, we end up in castle on the coast, with guard doing the rounds, someone comes up behind him and snaps his neck... that person is Hayden, the character you play the game with... After the neck snapping and bit of dialogue with I assume Hayden's superiors you take control of the character, your mission is to set some charges and to find another agent who has been infected with some kind of virus.
Once you've taken him out you are given a second target person to take out so you head back outside and as you get outside you have to take out a helicopter, but lucky for you, there happens to be a weapons stash in the right place at the right time, a few RPG's and the helicopter is sorted, after taking out the chopper another free movie video kicks in which shows your character taking on a large humanoid type thing, you try and take it out with your guns, but to avail due to the heavy armour it seems to be covered in, so you fire a rocket at it, but it stops the rocket in mid air sending it back you way, so you do the sensible and run... but you get caught in the blast....
You awake, still in the free moving video and you are confronted by the a man, who turns out to be the man you needed to take out and also the humanoid thing.... since the beginning of the game, it has been in Black and White, but whilst having this conversation the humanoid thing sticks it's sword into your shoulder blade, it turns out you have just been infected with the virus you had obviously come to stop spreading, as the virus runs through your veins and colour starts to come back into the game, which I think was a nice touch... you pass out...
When you wake up, you are back in control of the character and you start staggering towards the a hut where you find a radio and you contact your superiors, explaining you've been infected, to which they give you directions to a friendly source who may well be able to stop the virus spreading, at this point yet another free movie video kicks in and you get attacked by a guard but suddenly a sharp three pronged type thing sprouts from your arm as a result of your infection and you use the tool to kill the guard, this instrument is called A Glaive and it is your main weapon.
Here is where the game play begins to pick up and you start making your way to the friendly source, but it's not a walk in the park as you have guards to contend with and at one point you come across a massive stone like monster, which attacks you and the guards too, but once all the guards are dead the monster high tails it out off there, but in the back of my mind I'm sure I'll be coming across that monster again and no doubt it will be one on one.... Soon after this I finished my first quick 2 chapter blast and based on that I can say the following...
Gameplay
This for me is all about picking up a game plugging in without reading the instructions, this game was ok on this front, not the best I've come across but def not the worst, the good thing with this game is that when you're being given instructions, you can hear them clearly, where as in other games, you need to put the subtitles up so you can read what is being said by other people, which I think detracts from the game as sometimes you need to stop moving your character so you can read the subtitles. The first chapters I played served as a tutorial and transition between checkpoints as the game saved was very smooth and only noticeable only when the word "Saving..." came up. 9/10
Content:
This for me would be the storyline and for this game, based on initial impressions, the storyline seems ok so far, but until I see how the game pans out I can't really say how great the storyline is, but so far so good. 8/10
Simulation:
This for me is all about game physics and realism where applicable, and here is where there might be flaws in the game. The guards AI seems a little poor and there are a few glitches, for example, I was in a gun fight with a couple guards and to the left of the room was the door for my escape, but every now then I could see grenades come from the door into the room, even though I was no where near the door, the grenade would blow up and take out any nearby guard, coding issue I reckon. Another thing that is a little annoying, if you are in cover and you decide to dive from behind one cover to another, when you land behind the other cover, your character stands up, so is no longer in cover. Also it doesn't seem that you can blind fire whilst behind cove, you have to click the aim button, which then puts you in line of fire. But once you know it does that, then you can compensate. 6/10
Music:
This area speaks for itself, but as yet, I can say the music has inspired me as yet, unlike Drakes Fortune where the music helped set the mode, I can't say it has in Dark Sector, but don't forget I've only played the first two chapters. Can't comment on score out of 10 yet.
Graphics:
Graphics means graphics and I have to say for this game, the graphics are pretty good, though at times there seems to be a lack of detail, especially if a guard is in the distance, unlike other games where you can see detail all the time, but that said the first two chapters are in pretty dark surroundings so I'll leave final judgement, but so the graphics are adequate. 7/10
Pros of Dark:
The Glaive is a massive pro of this game, it is the one thing that makes you want to play this game and I know from previews I've seen, you can do some neat things with the Glaive as you can add aftertouch and steer the Glaive manually, so you could throw it into a room, before you enter and manually control it with aftertouch, thus you get to see what is in the room before you go in. Another pro is that the game has a couple of Online modes, which aren't just deathmatch and capture the flag, though I never sent online so can't say how good these games are.
Cons of Dark:
The simulation glitches and based on the first two chapters the amount of free movie video seems excessive
OVERALL DJTC SCORE
The first couple of sections of this game gets a 7/10