Dark Sector Preview

Publisher D3 was nice enough recently to allow me the chance to preview a new game still in development by Digital Extremes, called Dark Sector. Let me tell you what we know so far. Now, I did not actually get to play the game. Not surprising, considering this game is still a year out. I did, however, get to watch one of the devs play through a section of the game. So I was able to view the game in action, albeit, it was in a very controlled environment.

Glaive in action, baby.

Off with his head! (In a next few milliseconds.)

First off the game is an over-the-shoulder FPS. If you have played Resident Evil, it "looks" similar to that (not to be confused with "plays" similar to that). Anyways, during some questionable experiments in Russia, something goes wrong and now all these people are mutated and killing or infecting everybody in the area. In this game Cleaners are specialists for handling difficult situations. You are a Cleaner, named Hayden, sent to Lazria to take care of things. And by take care of things, I mean kill people and blow stuff up.

In the process, you become partially mutated yourself. For some reason (they said you find out as the plot develops) you are not fully infected like everyone else. Instead, the infection gives you some special powers and a cool little thing called a Glaive (a "Frisbee" like three-pronged blade) which is central to your powers. As the game progresses, you become more infected but also evolve new powers along the way.

It was also stated that the story and the gameplay are in parallel. As the story develops, so will your powers. They even hinted you might end up being able to fly, super-hero-like. Very cool, fun stuff. But don't quote them on it (like I just did), because the game is still a year out.

This Glaive is central to your powers. It can be used it in many different ways. Primarily, you can throw it like a boomerang-type weapon. If you throw it right, it will cut the head off the enemy. It gives new meaning to the definition "Head Shot". You can also use it as a hand weapon and sneak up on people to slit there throats. And if you don't want to sneak up behind them and slit their throat, you can put away the Glaive and just break their neck instead.

This game is brutal.

The blade weapon also absorbs different types of energy, which they dubbed its "energy trap properties". For example, if you throw the blade into a flame, it absorbs the fire temporarily and uses it to light a baddy on fire. Similarly, you can absorb electricity from a light bulb and also electrocute some unfortunate soul. They said there are more energy trap properties to be found, but we would have to wait and see how it turned out (more on the uses of those energy properties in a second).

In addition to blade they are going to have numerous weapons: pistols, machines guns and much more. I saw the gun and machine gun in action and it all looked pretty smooth. They had head shots, targeting reticules, laser sighting and the likes. Nothing drastically new with the weapons side of things but it all appeared to be done well, nonetheless. And if you feel so inclined, you can use the weapons to melee as well. They have also included a cover system. They stated that this is primarily for viewing the next area while you decide how to proceed. It will not be your primary means of defense and will not be integral to the game; rather it is something they use to let you study a situation without revealing yourself to the bad guys.

The puzzle elements of this game are directly tied to the energy trap properties. At one point there was a huge wooden crate blocking the doorway. The dev found a car burning down the street, threw the Glaive through it to ignite the Glaive and then threw it into the crate. A few seconds and a pile of ashes later, the problem was solved. Later there was a doorway with "tentacles" growing across it and thereby impeding you progress. One light socket and an electric Glaive applied to the problem, and the doorway opened up. I also observed him use a fired up Glaive to light a gas spewing pipe on fire. Learning all the aspects of the Glaive will be paramount to progressing through the game.

In addition to the infected enemies you face, there is also a Russian team with gas masks running around trying to kill everything infected and of course, you happen to be one of the infected. If they happen to spray you with their "special sauce", you will temporally lose all your super powers, your screen will go weird on you (inverted colors, etc.) and you'll basically be screwed until you're able to recover.

Flaming boomerang-like thingies for the win!

Nice light play.

At the title screen I noticed you could select multiplayer. When I asked them about it, I got, "No comment". When I asked about co-op (yeah, I know, I'm a little pushy), I got a more firm, "No comment". They went on to say they couldn't talk about certain aspects for two reasons. One of which is the surprise factor, they want to keep some stuff secret. The other is, there is still a lot of development time left. A lot can change in a year.

That being said, graphically speaking the game looks pretty damn good right now. The graphics themselves were on par with the best the 360 has offered so far (GoW, R6, etc)
They were very realistic, smooth and the game itself was dark, very atmospheric and "gritty".

When I preview a game I can usually get a good indication of the game by its level of polish. Now, there are a lot of factors that go into this: how much development time is left, how big the dev team is, how much the company is invested in it. But I must say, this game is looking really good and they still have a year to work on it. The development group and publisher seem to be fully supportive of making it a hit. The devs who previewed the game for us seemed genuinely excited about the different aspects of the game. Here is hoping we have another classic in the pipeline.