Dark Sector

Dark Sector Interview

Sinister, gory and influenced by Zelda

Words: Mike Jackson, CVG UK

Dark Sector looks special. The sinister third-person action game packs a moody atmosphere and the intriguing, power-absorbent, triple-bladed glaive puts a unique twist on the fighting and puzzles.

Despite the game having been in development since 2004, Digital Extremes has remained secretive with its progress - until now.

We sat down for a chat with product manager, Josh Austin, who told us all about the structure of his innovative new quest, and how he looks to music, film and, bizarrely, Legend of Zelda as his inspiration for his violent and sinister creation.

Dark Sector has been in development for some time - since 2004 we believe. In that time it has transformed completely. Has its development been directly influenced by other games that have released since it was announced?

Josh Austin: Well, we loved the camera in Resident Evil 4, and it's a really well paced game too so that was a really huge influence. The other major influence for Dark Secktor was Zelda, for the puzzles and for another example of great pacing. Those are the main ones, although there are loads of smaller touches from other games in there.

Gears of War, maybe?

Josh Austin: We were working on this before Gears of War came out so it hasn't really been a direct influence, but it definitely upped the scale for graphical content and production values. So that set the bar and we're doing our best to keep ours up high.

You previously discussed much of your inspiration coming from movies as well as games. It would seem that the film Krull - with its similar glaive weapon - is an enormous influence for Dark Sector...

Josh Austin:
Well, it's kind of funny because we were messing around prototyping towards the beginning in pre-production and they showed this concept to us. We were like "holy crap, that's awesome." Then we realized that it reminded us of Krull, so we went back and watched the movie and realized, despite our clouded memories, it looked quite terrible *laughs*.

Related Games
Dark Sector
Xbox 360
20 Most Rabidly Patriotic Games
Xbox Feature
Jul 4, 2008
Directory of hotness
360 Feature
Jul 4, 2008
Genre Blender
PC Feature
Jul 3, 2008
The Incredible Hulk now has online multiplayer N4G
360 News from N4G
Jul 6, 2008
Anime Expo: Namco Bandai On Display N4G
360 News from N4G
Jul 6, 2008
Mortal Kombat vs DC To Be Rated Teen N4G
360 News from N4G
Jul 6, 2008
Game Releases for the Week of July 6, 2008 N4G
360 News from N4G
Jul 5, 2008
Burnout Paradise To Introduce Planes N4G
360 News from N4G
Jul 5, 2008