Metacritic Games

Dark Angel (Xbox)

James Cameron's Dark Angel is a 3rd person action adventure game that delivers intense hand-to-hand fighting and high-octane action reflective of the hit TV series. Set against the backdrop of a post-apocalyptic Seattle, players take on the role of Max, a genetically enhanced super-soldier with attitude to spare, on a quest to reclaim her past by finding her sister and fellow genetically altered escapees. [Sierra]

Sierra Studios / Fox Interactive
Action, Adventure
Players: 1
T (Teen)
Developer: Radical Entertainment
Released November 19, 2002

Overall Metascore

This is a weighted, normalized average of all individual scores given by critics, on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

47 / 100

Critic Reviews

70 Play Magazine
For a game that came out of nowhere Dark Angel delivers the prime time goods and then some. [Jan 2003, p.60]
60 Cheat Code Central
While the fighting engine isn't deep and the action can become repetitive - it's still a solid little action title and quite challenging on the harder difficulty.
60 Electronic Gaming Monthly
Isn't a terrible game; just an unremarkable one, outside a few flashes of cool fighting - much like the show itself. [Feb 2003, p.147]
60 Game Over Online
Just as Dark Angel is guilty of repetitive character models and backgrounds, the game design is guilty of repetitive action, which is unbelievably stagnant.
60 Gamestyle
In the end, it's only the star billing of Alba (by proxy) that can wilfully will a player to continue. Even her character model is unconvincing, with the obligatory "Lara mode" (ie, face player to camera, stand rigid and inspect geekishly for blemishes) and de rigueur costume change throughout levels, doing little to assuage.
59 GameSpy
It's the worst kind of tie-in, combining a feeble license with feeble game design, and expecting gamers to pay $50 for the privilege of suffering through the collective ineptitude.
50 All Game Guide
The lack of two-player support, varied objectives, and its relatively short length keep it from being a must-have title, but the combat is fun and the environments are different enough to keep you interested until the final scene.
50 TotalGames.net
The gameplay is way too limited and repetitive, and you won't have any desire to move to the next level; after all, you know full well it'll just be even more button tapping. Yawn...
50 GameZone
Plenty of cool fighting moves aren’t enough to save Dark Angel from its repetitious and boring cycle of fights and unoriginal design.
45 Official Xbox Magazine
Not only is this not very challenging, it's just plain boring after two or three levels. [Feb 2003, p.70]
45 Media and Games Online Network
The A.I. featured in the game is pretty much an utter embarrassment.
40 G4 TV
Unfortunately, the rather simple controls lack any sort of considerable depth that would keep the game interesting. In fact, most of the time, just hitting random buttons will pull off some pretty impressive punches, kicks, and flips.
39 IGN
Dynamic action elements careened downhill into a muddy bog of repetition, lack of vision and general malaise, leaving gamers with a dummed-down, half-baked game.
38 GameSpot
The unfulfilling combat system and poorly implemented stealth mode turn up the frustration factor to a level where even the most die-hard Alba fan will turn back to reruns rather than finish this game.
38 TeamXbox
Suffers from unforgivable repetitive levels and strikes in the gameplay department that are hard to forget.
33 Game Revolution
The manual actually lists such devastating moves as Punch, Punch, Punch. Or you can top that one with Punch, Punch, Punch, Punch. And even Punch, Punch, Punch, Punch, Punch. (I am not kidding, it's actually in the manual)
20 Xbox Nation Magazine
[Cameron's] going to want to dump every copy of this interactive embarrassment bearing his name into a cold, harsh place that never sees the light of day. [Feb/Mar 2003, p.89]

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