Dark Sector was one of the very first games for “next-gen” consoles ever seen by the public. When it was revealed in 2004, everyone was saying, “Oh, man. Look at those hot, hot graphics.” They were also saying, “What’s up with all the idiotic Guyver rejects hanging out in space?” Yes, despite its bleeding edge technology, Dark Sector was looking generic from the start.
It’s cool though. Digital Extremes spent the next few years playing a ton of Resident Evil 4 and made some important changes to Dark Sector’s look and play before it came out this past March. First on the list of changes, dark-and-tortured protagonist Hayden only looks like the Guyver for half the game. Instead, he looks, controls, and moves exactly like Leon from Resident Evil 4 (he’s got darker hair and no leather jacket. Big differences!) Second, Dark Sector would no longer take place in space but in an evil future Russia overrun with some techno-plague that makes regular dudes into zombies (making it Easter Europe instead of Western Europe is hugely innovative. Hugely.) Finally, they added a smear of kill.switch’s duck and cover mechanics that are all the rage these days to compliment the Resident Evil controls. The final result of all these changes? Dark Sector came out as what it looked like: a silly generic mess of a game.
But what a silly generic mess it is! Sector’s big hook is that Hayden’s got himself a glaive, a giant triple-bladed boomerang that grows out of his arm (see the film Krull, an original Up All Night classic, for more on glaives.) He controls it with his mind and uses it to take off zombie and/or evil soldier limbs. Speaking of the evil soldiers, it’s not especially clear why they’re trying to kill Hayden. Of course, it’s not very clear why he’s in scary future Russia in the first place or why he’s trying to kill evil-fake-Jeff-Bridges. But who cares? Generic mess and messy aiming aside, Dark Sector’s fun. Next time it’s raining on Sunday morning, pop this baby in and let your brain take a nap.