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Dark Sector, the ‘original version’ of Warframe, is currently free on SteamReturning from the glaive

Returning from the glaive

Image credit:Digital Extremes

Image credit:Digital Extremes

A man in a mutant suit with a three-bladed boomerang in Dark Sector

Back when Digital Extremes were largely known for collaborating with Epic Games on the Unreal Tournament series, they made a little game called Dark Sector. Released in 2008, it’s part of the fine tradition of post-Gears double-A actioners that basically consist of taking a gruff man, throwing him into a world of grit, gravel and burning oil drums, and handing him a murderous gimmick. Dark Sector’s gimmick was the glaive, a pointy boomerang you could use to scoop up objects, solve puzzles, and kill stuff in third-person view.

The result? A pretty forgettable video game. This is the first time anybody at Rock Paper Shotgun has ever posted specifically about Dark Sector, in fact. But Dark Sector’s stature, if not its quality, has swelled in hindsight - for it’s sort of the ‘original version’ ofWarframe, the absurdly over-dressed free-to-play shooter that hopefully needs no introduction. If you’re a Warframer who’s up for a roady-run down memory lane, Digital Extremes arecurrently giving Dark Sector away on Steam.

Dark Sector takes place in an approximately real-world, present-day setting, albeit one full of “Technocyte” bioweapons, but it was once envisaged as a sci-fi, outer-space affair in which you’d play a character with an exotic mechsuit.

Digital Extremes eventually dialled the sci-fi elements back to make the story more relatable to players of the era - this was the mid-noughties, don’t forget, when every game had to vaguely resemble a less-good Bruce Willis film. But after releasing Dark Sector, they dug up their original notes and spun them out into the concept for Warframe. There are a few reverential nods to Dark Sector in the latter, including a fancier species of glaive.