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In this game you play as Hayden Tenno, a CIA agent who is sent to a fictional place in Europe to take out a mad man who wishes to infect the world with a virus, not unlike the Umbrella Corporation in the Resident Evil series. During his confrontation with the mad man known as Robert Mezner he ends up being injected with the virus and left for dead. Luckily though, Hayden reacts to the virus differently from everyone else and his arm becomes metallic and a spiky shuriken like weapon known as the glaive forms in his hand.
This weapon is used in combat to slice enemies in to pieces and it returns like a boomerang. If you just throw the glaive at the enemy it usually takes a few hits to take them out, but you unlock an ability to throw a power glaive by holding the R2 button down for a few seconds before releasing. This usually kills an enemy outright and it is most useful against enemies with riot shields as this move leaves them defenceless for longer.
In the first half of the game I took cover and slowly picked off guards one by one. When I unlocked the bullet deflection shield later in the game it allowed me to be more zealous and charge into groups of enemies which I preferred. However, the AI at times is broken and enemies just stand still without attacking.
The game has only a few variations on enemy types such as a riot shield guy, a heavily armoured Gatling gun guy, helicopters, invisible stalkers and zombie dogs. These manage to provide some variety for a while but it doesn’t hold for the game’s duration.
Later in the game you unlock the ability to control the glaive by tilting the controller using the six axis motion control. This feature is used for mildly interesting environmental puzzles, but I didn’t like how it had to be initiated. In Heavenly Sword you just had to hold down a button, but in Dark Sector you have to throw the glaive and then press the button again which meant that I would sometimes enter the motion control mode too late in flight leaving no room for manoeuvring or it never triggers because it already bounced off a wall. This design choice makes this feature fiddlier than it needs to be.
The glaive can be thrown into flames, electricity and Ice to solve environmental puzzles, but the problem is that they rarely ever change what the elements are used for. Ice freezes water so you can walk to new areas; fire burns black cobwebs which stand in your way and electricity opens locks on certain doors for some reason. To be fair though, robotic enemies are affected by electricity and there is a water boss late in the game that is affected by ice.
The bosses in the game have different behaviours and require observation of your surroundings to overcome. They are decent encounters, but nothing special which is why it isn’t very good that I see them as the highlight of the game. I also didn’t enjoy a couple of the later bosses which had cheap instant death attacks that game without warning.
The story was confusing to me, as I never understood the motivations behind anyone’s actions. Of course it is obvious that the CIA agent wants to stop the evil guy from spreading the virus. Why the evil guy believes that would make the world better is beyond me. The CIA agent has a friend and another enemy and they do things that I didn’t really understand. I’ve finished the game, but I can’t remember much of the story either.
In summary, the decent bosses fail to carry a game with a poor story, repetitive puzzles and inconsistent AI. It’s kind of average and forgettable. I can imagine why this game would have fans as the blade is fairly fun to use and I did like the bosses, but overall I’m hesitant to want to recommend it.
6.0
In this game you play as Hayden Tenno, a CIA agent who is sent to a fictional place in Europe to take out a mad man who wishes to infect the world with a virus, not unlike the Umbrella Corporation in the Resident Evil series. During his confrontation with the mad man known as Robert Mezner he ends up being injected with the virus and left for dead. Luckily though, Hayden reacts to the virus differently from everyone else and his arm becomes metallic and a spiky shuriken like weapon known as the glaive forms in his hand.
This weapon is used in combat to slice enemies in to pieces and it returns like a boomerang. If you just throw the glaive at the enemy it usually takes a few hits to take them out, but you unlock an ability to throw a power glaive by holding the R2 button down for a few seconds before releasing. This usually kills an enemy outright and it is most useful against enemies with riot shields as this move leaves them defenceless for longer.
In the first half of the game I took cover and slowly picked off guards one by one. When I unlocked the bullet deflection shield later in the game it allowed me to be more zealous and charge into groups of enemies which I preferred. However, the AI at times is broken and enemies just stand still without attacking.
The game has only a few variations on enemy types such as a riot shield guy, a heavily armoured Gatling gun guy, helicopters, invisible stalkers and zombie dogs. These manage to provide some variety for a while but it doesn’t hold for the game’s duration.
Later in the game you unlock the ability to control the glaive by tilting the controller using the six axis motion control. This feature is used for mildly interesting environmental puzzles, but I didn’t like how it had to be initiated. In Heavenly Sword you just had to hold down a button, but in Dark Sector you have to throw the glaive and then press the button again which meant that I would sometimes enter the motion control mode too late in flight leaving no room for manoeuvring or it never triggers because it already bounced off a wall. This design choice makes this feature fiddlier than it needs to be.
The glaive can be thrown into flames, electricity and Ice to solve environmental puzzles, but the problem is that they rarely ever change what the elements are used for. Ice freezes water so you can walk to new areas; fire burns black cobwebs which stand in your way and electricity opens locks on certain doors for some reason. To be fair though, robotic enemies are affected by electricity and there is a water boss late in the game that is affected by ice.
The bosses in the game have different behaviours and require observation of your surroundings to overcome. They are decent encounters, but nothing special which is why it isn’t very good that I see them as the highlight of the game. I also didn’t enjoy a couple of the later bosses which had cheap instant death attacks that game without warning.
The story was confusing to me, as I never understood the motivations behind anyone’s actions. Of course it is obvious that the CIA agent wants to stop the evil guy from spreading the virus. Why the evil guy believes that would make the world better is beyond me. The CIA agent has a friend and another enemy and they do things that I didn’t really understand. I’ve finished the game, but I can’t remember much of the story either.
In summary, the decent bosses fail to carry a game with a poor story, repetitive puzzles and inconsistent AI. It’s kind of average and forgettable. I can imagine why this game would have fans as the blade is fairly fun to use and I did like the bosses, but overall I’m hesitant to want to recommend it.
6.0