Dark Sector Preview

Dark Sector looks to be one of the most promising online massively multiplayer games currently in development...

It's the first game to truly bring solid game design concepts into a genre that is still suffering from growing pains. Games like Everquest, Ultima and Asheron's Call have been nothing more than an experiment, in which players got to familiarize themselves with the idea of huge, persistent online worlds. Dark Sector (along with Anarchy Online) looks to be the turning point that will carry the massively multiplayer idea a step beyond the novelty status. The game is being developed by Digital Extremes, the team partly responsible, alongside Epic for games like, Unreal and Unreal Tournament. Situated in London, Canada, the boys are now coding away on their new game. There are still no screenshots, just some concept art, but from what I could gather, the whole thing appears to be truly amazing.

Dark Sector is of course based around the modified Epic's brainchild --- Unreal Tournament engine. Digital Extreme guys were mostly responsible for level designing duties on both Unreal and UT, while the code monkeys at Epic bore the load of 3D technology development (God knows who exactly did what actually). Naturally, DE team became somewhat versed in the usage of the engine, consequently deciding to develop their own, UT-based game. Since then, they've modified the original UT code to include a new hardware-only renderer exploiting the latest advances in graphics technology such as T&L, skeletal deformation, multi-texturing, inverse kinematics, advanced surface lighting and a myriad of other improvements...

That's how the idea for an online massively multiplayer FPS/space combat was born. Yes, you read right --- space flight combat too. According to DE, UT engine is 100% suited towards space flight dynamics --- the world of Dark Sector will not be limited to a FPS gameplay experience, the players will actually be able to choose their unique lifestyle. They can choose the life of gun smuggling and dogfights, or decide to become gladiator/gunslinger-like, outlaws. They can become bounty hunters, or even bookmakers, for that matter. Because of its innovative game design, Dark Sector presents gamers with numerous possibilities. Players can pick from eight different classes to play as. "Players carve out their destiny in a violent struggle for fortune and fame. Begin your career as a bounty hunter tracking your target from Mars to the moons of Jupiter and then face off in an ice mine on Europa. Or choose the darker path by hunting the law-abiding citizens around you; build an infamous reputation as an assassin, the growing price on your head turning your own friends against you."

The Dark World system is pretty much based on player skill level, and other, "gray areas". The players battle it out in huge, server-based worlds capable of supporting up to 3000 players. The best players will have the highest prices on their heads, and the small-time newbies will be eager to go for the gold. Apart from the obvious reward of scoring a large bounty, the reward system allows players to loot corpses of dead enemies, gain experience and even capture economically vital locations, through syndicates (DS equivalents of clans). They need to be careful though. "Dying" is not a simple matter of respawning in Dark Sector. It's not an immediate process, your killer will get to loot your remains, and the bounty price for your head will be reset back to 0. According to James Schmalz, Lead Designer and founder of Digital Extremes "the guys with massive bounties on their heads will still probably get killed and their bounty will reset to 0, but since they have a large track record of previous criminal activity, once they start doing evil deeds, the bounty will ramp up very quickly to where it once was and beyond..." Such a concept actually lead to a differentiation between the "physical" and "virtual" in-game worlds. Worlds inside worlds, if you like. The players will be able to flex their fragging skills in the Dark Sector Challenge Arenas, which they will access through terminals --- matches presumably similar to UT, while having to watch their back in the Dark Sector "physical" world. The deadlier the player, the more of his posters will be spread across the DS world, making him a well-known and lucrative target, even for his friends. His presence in the "physical" world will therefore present a very "volatile matter" for himself and those around him.

There will be, security bots stationed around the levels, if the bad-boy starts causing havoc, security will jump in and "deal" with the matter. Further more, the introduction of a currency and a large number of players constitutes two very important things.

The player will be able to achieve higher quality of communication, and form more elaborate organizations. The introduction of money will lead to the selling of goods and trade. Although we've seen all of this in games like Everquest already, we mustn't forget the most important premise of Dark Sector --- the introduction and the need for FPS, and space flight combat skills. The complexity level of the FPS online sport has exploded from an innocent "bragging issue" to $100,000 tournament competitions. Introducing "the skill" into a persistent online world with its own specific structure... Well, you realize the potential, don't you? And let us not forget the space combat element. Depending on how far Digital Extremes decides to take the whole idea, the introduction of a two different types of gameplay into an online world can lead to fantastic variety and high levels of addictiveness. As I have mentioned earlier, the rest of the world operates by the laws of "gray areas" --- smuggling guns, betting on favorite gladiators (the game will feature an advanced wager engine for those of you eager to bet on fighters in Challenge Arenas), or simply getting involved in honest trading. God knows what else will people come up with, if given the proper chance. DE plans to add even more dynamics by staging large, in-game events:

"We want huge dramatic events to unfold after the product is released. We are laying the groundwork for what we want to happen right now, but it wont be entirely defined until later."

In Conclusion...

This is a very early preview, the game is still in its early phases. We are sure to cover Dark Sector a lot more in the future, but for now, let me just say that this is the first mature-sounding project in the MMO sub-genre. DE is yet to announce the important stuff, like the environments, models, weapons, vehicles... Well, pretty much everything really... If they deliver though, we could be looking at one of the industry's trendsetters.