History VideoGame / DarkSector

''darkSector'' is a ThirdPersonShooter developed by Creator/DigitalExtremes, and released for UsefulNotes/PS3 and UsefulNotes/Xbox360 on March 25th, 2008, with a [[UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer PC]] version following exactly a year later.

* AnArmAndALeg: Doing a perfectly-charged throw with the Glaive can dismember enemies.

* CursedWithAwesome: Hayden, even upon learning how useful his powers are, does ''not'' like them, and thinks they are what he "deserves" for being what he is: a state-sanctioned psychopathic killer.

* ObviousBeta: The rather broken plot is the most obvious flag, but there's also some weird graphical glitches; sometimes metallic surfaces (including Hayden's arm) will have only their normal map applied but not their texture, and enemies occasionally glide along the ground instead of walking (it's actually rather disturbing). Also, the game frequently crashes during the cutscene after defeating the Stalker.

* CamelCase: How the game's title is formatted.

* PowerCopying: Many of Hayden's powers wind up being similar to the Nemesis that infected him, but there's a few times where he copies the abilities of another enemy he's defeated, most specifically the giant Stalker that turns invisible.

* RecurringBossTemplate: Many highlights of the stalker -- spying on you as you try to catch fleeting glimpses in the shadows, turning invisible and sneaking up on you for devastating melee attacks, stealing its tools for yourself after you kill it -- would later get reused by the boss of the same name in ''Warframe''.

* AllThereInTheManual: The developers came clean about the game's plot; apparently, as they were editing the game down, the only people they had to run the plot past were already familiar with it, so the huge omissions (Hayden having congenital analgesia, explaining why he alone isn't driven mad by the infection; his history with Nadia; Nadia and Viktor being related; the Stalker being Yargo's daughter, who was infected in the first outbreak in the 80s, which is why he knows it's "very old" and why [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes it doesn't kill him while waiting for Hayden]]; etc.) were never picked up on.

* GodzillaThreshold: Perhaps the only thing more horrifying than [[ObligatoryWarCrimeScene what the Lasrian military does in response to the infection]] (a slideshow you can find early on mentions that eliminating the civilian population around an infection site is one of their ''first'' priorities) is the strong possibility that it is actually ''justified'' considering the danger of said infection.

* CursedWithAwesome: Hayden, even upon learning how useful his powers are, does ''not'' like them, and thinks they are what he "deserves" for being what he is.

* EnemyCivilWar: Hayden is targeted by other infected and the Lasrian army, both of whom work for Mezner. But they don't like each other. In fact, they are just as likely to kill each other as they are to try and kill Hayden.

* ImpossiblyCoolWeapon: The Glaive, a three-pronged blade that grows out of Hayden's infected arm, can be thrown with ludicrous precision, and eventually gets upgrades that let him [[PrecisionGuidedBoomerang guide it after throwing]], throw out temporary energy shields, and absorb energy from extreme heat, cold or electricity to immolate/freeze/electrocute what it hits or hit everything in a certain radius with a blast of that energy.

* KryptoniteFactor: Enferon, a chemical which is only a minor irritant to humans but will kill infected Technocyte creatures quite quickly. You can find weapon add-ons to lace your own bullets with Enferon, which nearly doubles the power of your bullets and poisons infected enemies. Human enemies will also occasionally hurl Enferon grenades at you after the first chapter.

* NoodleIncident: Large chunks of the backstory are treated this way, on account of the issue listed under AllThereInTheManual. It's mentioned the infection got out and was contained in the past, but no details are given. Hayden went psycho and killed a bunch of people in a previous mission, but no details are given. Nadia and Hayden have history, but no details are given. In fact, everyone in the facility seems to know Hayden personally, with Mezner having looked up Hayden's record specifically.
* ObviousBeta: The rather broken plot is the key, but there's also some weird graphical glitches; sometimes metallic surfaces (including Hayden's arm) will have only their normal map applied but not their texture, and enemies occasionally glide along the ground instead of walking (it's actually rather disturbing). Also, the game frequently crashes during the cutscene after defeating the Stalker.

* ImpossiblyCoolWeapon: The Glaive, a three-pronged blade that grows out of Hayden's infected arm, can be thrown with ludicrous precision, and eventually gets upgrades that let him [[PrecisionGuidedBoomerang guide it after throwing]], throw out temporary energy shields, and absorb energy from extreme heat or cold to immolate/freeze what it hits or hit everything in a certain radius with a blast of that energy.

* DeliberatelyMonochrome: The first level is in black and white. It's not really all that clear why; color immediately comes in after Hayden takes the hit that infects him in the cutscene at the end of it.

''darkSector'' is a third-person ActionGame developed by Creator/DigitalExtremes, and released for UsefulNotes/PS3 and UsefulNotes/Xbox360 on March 25th, 2008, with a [[UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer PC]] version following exactly a year later.

''darkSector'' is a third-person ActionGame developed by Creator/DigitalExtremes.

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* BigBadEnsemble: Mezner and the A.D., both acting as some combination of the GreaterScopeVillain and TheManBehindTheMan (Mezner having control of the active Technocyte infectees and planning on waking up ancient ones, the A.D. cutting a deal with him to keep doing his thing under Agency supervision).

* OurZombiesAreDifferent: Whilst the older technocyte infected tend to be superhuman type things, superpowered animals or {{Eldritch Abomination}}s, the basic infected enemies are essentially metal-skinned zombies, complete with {{zombie gait}}, moaning and the occasional scene of them seemingly eating corpses.

You play Hayden Tenno, an operative for an unnamed American intelligence agency. He is sent to the fictional Soviet nation of Lasria to gather information on a mysterious [[TheVirus epidemic]]. Of course Hayden has a DarkAndTroubledPast, and is [[TrueArtIsAngsty angsting]] about his current assignment, afraid of being infected or reliving his past misdeeds. Obviously, TheVirus is on hand to give him superpowers (as viruses that infect the protagonist are prone to doing).

[[quoteright:256:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Darksector_4482.jpg]]

* AKA47: An odd example; almost all the weapons are modeled after one weapon but named as if they're giving this treatment to a ''different'' weapon that would fill the same role, as if the names were settled on long before the models- and, interestingly, almost all of the fake names are based on Russian weapons in particular. Hayden's Heckler & Koch Mark 23 is called the "Tekna 9mm" after the SR-1 Vektor pistol, the "Vekesk Micro" is a Klin PP-9 named after the SR-2 Veresk submachine gun, the Hammer 1895 is a Webley Mark IV named after the Nagant Model 1895, and so on. Exceptions to the usual rule are the two shotguns, a cut-down Mossberg and a full-size H&K FABARM, which are both named after different variants of the Armsel Striker, and exceptions to the trope itself are the AKS-74U (mostly - the in-game name cuts off the last U) and the RPG-7.
* AwesomeButImpractical: The Trooper Gun. Also the magnum and sniper rifle; they both deal heavy damage but draw from an absolutely tiny pool of rare ammo and are relatively inaccurate, even with upgrades (the sniper rifle in particular due to SniperScopeSway).

* CutscenePowerToTheMax: Hayden's C4. The block he throws in Viktor's lap is enough to destroy a sprawling complex that takes up most of an island (you're supposed to place more, but the game only gives this a passing mention and doesn't actually force you to do so). A block of it you later find during actual gameplay barely destroys a single door.
* CursedWithAwesome: Hayden, even upon learning how useful his powers are, does ''not'' like them, and thinks they are what he "deserves" for what he is.

** The "Clip Extender" upgrade works on anything - even the break-open, breech-loading shotgun that very clearly could not hold more than two shells in reality.

* UnusableEnemyEquipment: To begin with, Hayden can pick up any enemy weapons he likes; however, once infected the sensors on the weapons destroy them after a brief period (about fifteen seconds, with one weapon later on having one that lasts for a minute) if he uses them. Fortunately, weapons grabbed in this manner have separate ammo pools from what's available for your normal weapons, so it's not entirely pointless to avoid them in favor of your personal weapons bought from the black market.