Bottom line on top: Good Game. Bad Port.
If you don't want a bunch of technical problems with the game, but still want to know what this is about, I suggest you watch someone else's playthrough on this game, as this port of Dark Sector can really spoil your first impression of the game and hinder your experience.



Given the time the game was released in, Dark Sector is a fairly creative, action-packed game with novel concepts for its time and gives the player interesting insights regarding the inspirations of Digital Extreme's next title, Warframe, and just how similar two separate games each with their own universe and worldbuilding are at a core level.

If you are patient enough with the quirks that this game's port brings, it is still a solid game to pick up and play despite its age. Like most single-player games, it is a nice and fun break from all the rush you may find to be abundantly present in the online video-game scene.

And that's about it on what I can think of the game's positive points, though, just because there are significantly more negative points, does not detract from this game's legacy, nor its importance for what would become Warframe today.

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The game does seem to suffer from more archaic game design standards and a quality bar that was fairly loose in its time.

To point out negative points game-wise:

• No moments of relief and ease in the game narrative and gameplay.

• Abundant and constant influx of enemies in inappropriate places.
‬ • Yes, this is an action game, however, it is not fun to try to scavenge for resources and collectibles while you are being chased by a horde that doesn't seem to diminish. Every time you eliminate a unit, it seems that another one spawns in its stead, forcing you to either actively ignore a chasing horde & search for supplies in spite of it -- or get out of that place as soon as possible, ignoring possible resources such as ammunition, weapon modifications, and currency.
(And frankly just feels like padding artificial game time into the experience)

• Level exploration not rewarded properly.
‬ • It feels frustrating to fully explore levels only to find they are devoid of any substantive collectibles or places that could provide the player with lore & factoids about the game, its universe, worldbuilding, and characters. Instead yielding only weapon modifications and mundane resources such as ammunition and currency for buying weapons, which is still awarded at a low amount, making it nigh impossible for you to experiment with all the weapons at your disposal in a single run.

• Rushed story, scarce in lore.
‬ • To elaborate on a point mentioned before, there seem to be no moments of ease in the game narrative or gameplay, the storytelling and its pace are constantly at a climax, and the lore that this game has is mostly drip-fed from cutscenes - that is, when a cutscene does provide any lore at all. You can find some hints of background on your current situation in a few levels where there are looped recordings being played, but there are far too few of these spread throughout the game.

• Certain units become generic after some time.
‬ • When far enough into the game, the player will find that the ranged infected units behave too similarly to their uninfected counterparts, employing the same tactics, making it feel like you're just fighting the same enemy with a different coat of paint.

• Emplacements (mounted machine-guns) have very low accuracy (which would not be a problem if they weren't placed far away from its intended targets) and tend to have frustrating blind spots, defeating the point of using them as an occasional "spike" in firepower or a fodder unit cleaning tool.

• One-shot bosses feel too cheap.
‬ • Though very few of the bosses can one-shot, the ones that can one-shot you feel very cheap.


This port is very finnicky and has many issues, some even outlandish. Prompting the player to use outside resources and third-party programs to play the game as intended.

Some of the issues that I faced:

• MSI Afterburner/RTSS Overlay not showing up.

• Framerate limiting not working properly.
‬ • Limiting the game's framerate through both NVidia's driver settings and RTSS did not work consistently, making it sometimes run at a limited framerate, and sometimes at an unlimited framerate, making its performance sometimes unreliable.

• The game does not like Alt-Tabbing.
‬ • The game may lock your cursor to the game even if your active tab isn't the game itself, making you unable to use your cursor outside of the game without a workaround.

• Unreasonable amounts of GPU usage that caused throttling, somehow beating Warframe.
‬ • Apparently, decreasing the game's processor affinity seems to make the game not cause throttling so often, but this may be a placebo, as the problem is GPU-related, not CPU-related.


All of these things really make booting this game up a dice roll, which puts into question if shooting some baddies down in this game is really worth all this hassle and setting up.

---

Despite both the game and its port suffering from multiple flaws, the legacy that this game has left behind for the future of Digital Extremes and for what sparked Warframe into being what it is today and has been in its many phases ― is commendable, and makes you wonder what Warframe wouldn't be had Dark Sector not been made.

As said before, just because there is a significant amount negatives and points of friction in the experience, it does not detract from this game's legacy, nor its importance for what Warframe is now.


At the end of the day, Dark Sector is an overall fun game centered about just shooting down baddies and having fun while saving the world with a funny fidget spinner, even if you struggle or experience issues in the process.
Whether or not you should play this, depends on you and how patient you're willing to be with this.

[h1]Dark Sector[/h1] [h2]Fate foretold in a work of old[/h2] Bottom line on top: [i]Good[/i] [b]Game[/b]. [b]Bad[/b] [i]Port[/i]. If you don't want a bunch of technical problems with the game, but still want to know what this is about, I suggest you watch someone else's playthrough on this game, as this port of Dark Sector can really spoil your first impression of the game and hinder your experience. [h3]Positive Points[/h3] Given the time the game was released in, Dark Sector is a fairly creative, action-packed game with novel concepts for its time and gives the player interesting insights regarding the inspirations of Digital Extreme's next title, Warframe, and just how similar two separate games each with their own universe and worldbuilding are at a core level. If you are patient enough with the quirks that this game's port brings, it is still a solid game to pick up and play despite its age. Like most single-player games, it is a nice and fun break from all the rush you may find to be abundantly present in the online video-game scene. And that's about it on what I can think of the game's positive points, though, just because there are significantly more negative points, does not detract from this game's legacy, nor its importance for what would become Warframe today. [hr][/hr] [h3]Negative Points and Nitpicks[/h3] The game does seem to suffer from more archaic game design standards and a quality bar that was fairly loose in its time. To point out negative points game-wise: • No moments of relief and ease in the game narrative and gameplay. • Abundant and constant influx of enemies in inappropriate places. ‬ • Yes, this is an action game, however, it is not fun to try to scavenge for resources and collectibles while you are being chased by a horde that doesn't seem to diminish. Every time you eliminate a unit, it seems that another one spawns in its stead, forcing you to either actively ignore a chasing horde & search for supplies in spite of it -- or get out of that place as soon as possible, ignoring possible resources such as ammunition, weapon modifications, and currency. (And frankly just feels like padding artificial game time into the experience) • Level exploration not rewarded properly. ‬ • It feels frustrating to fully explore levels only to find they are devoid of any substantive collectibles or places that could provide the player with lore & factoids about the game, its universe, worldbuilding, and characters. Instead yielding only weapon modifications and mundane resources such as ammunition and currency for buying weapons, which is still awarded at a low amount, making it nigh impossible for you to experiment with all the weapons at your disposal in a single run. • Rushed story, scarce in lore. ‬ • To elaborate on a point mentioned before, there seem to be no moments of ease in the game narrative or gameplay, the storytelling and its pace are constantly at a climax, and the lore that this game has is mostly drip-fed from cutscenes - that is, when a cutscene does provide any lore at all. You can find some hints of background on your current situation in a few levels where there are looped recordings being played, but there are far too few of these spread throughout the game. • Certain units become generic after some time. ‬ • When far enough into the game, the player will find that the ranged infected units behave too similarly to their uninfected counterparts, employing the same tactics, making it feel like you're just fighting the same enemy with a different coat of paint. • Emplacements (mounted machine-guns) have very low accuracy (which would not be a problem if they weren't placed far away from its intended targets) and tend to have frustrating blind spots, defeating the point of using them as an occasional "spike" in firepower or a fodder unit cleaning tool. • One-shot bosses feel too cheap. ‬ • Though very few of the bosses can one-shot, the ones that [i]can[/i] one-shot you feel very cheap. [h3]Negative Points (Port-wise)[/h3] This port is very finnicky and has many issues, some even outlandish. Prompting the player to use outside resources and third-party programs to play the game as intended. Some of the issues that I faced: • MSI Afterburner/RTSS Overlay not showing up. • Framerate limiting not working properly. ‬ • Limiting the game's framerate through [i]both[/i] NVidia's driver settings [i]and[/i] RTSS did not work consistently, making it sometimes run at a limited framerate, and sometimes at an unlimited framerate, making its performance sometimes unreliable. • The game does not like Alt-Tabbing. ‬ • The game may lock your cursor to the game even if your active tab isn't the game itself, making you unable to use your cursor outside of the game without a workaround. [code] > The workaround > I had to use the Steam Overlay every time I wanted to tab out of the game so my cursor could be free to use on other tabs.[/code] • Unreasonable amounts of GPU usage that caused throttling, somehow beating Warframe. ‬ • Apparently, decreasing the game's processor affinity seems to make the game not cause throttling so often, but this may be a placebo, as the problem is GPU-related, not CPU-related. All of these things really make booting this game up a dice roll, which puts into question if shooting some baddies down in this game is really worth all this hassle and setting up. [h3]Final Port-Wise Info:[/h3] [code]Delete defbind.cfg before rebinding functions to your desired keys and applying community-curated fixes, as defbind.cfg stores the game's default keybinds and will always apply them once you boot up the game for as long as the file exists in that folder, thus overriding your customized keybinds.[/code] [hr][/hr] [h2]Final Considerations[/h2] Despite both the game and its port suffering from multiple flaws, the legacy that this game has left behind for the future of Digital Extremes and for what sparked Warframe into being what it is today and has been in its many phases ― is commendable, and makes you wonder what Warframe [i]wouldn't[/i] be had Dark Sector not been made. As said before, just because there is a significant amount negatives and points of friction in the experience, it does not detract from this game's legacy, nor its importance for what Warframe is now. [h1]Conclusion[/h1] At the end of the day, Dark Sector is an overall fun game centered about just shooting down baddies and having fun while saving the world with a funny fidget spinner, even if you struggle or experience issues in the process. Whether or not you should play this, depends on you and how patient you're willing to be with this.