The game's story is almost completely inconsequential except that it sets the basic premise for the game. You play the role of Anna, the Dark Angel of retribution, who must protect the villagers against the armies of the Shadow Lord and help prepare them for his forthcoming attack that is supposed to happen in one year's time. Okay so far, right? Well, that's pretty much all that there is and you'll only get this if you read the manual as this isn't something that's really told in the game, as there's no cut-scenes and talking to townspeople to find out more about the story will get you nowhere.
Gameplay
Then again, the game's creators don't even pretend to have created a story-driven role-playing game and that's just not what Dark Angel is all about. What we have here is a very simple hack 'n slash role-playing game that's pretty much Diablo minus the online elements and a lot of the character progression. After playing about 10 minutes of the game, you'll pretty much know what to expect with the next 300 or so hours, assuming you'll play long enough to actually beat it.
For instance, when you first start the game you are immediately thrust into a town that's being attacked by some enemy creatures and your job is to get rid of them. Afterwards, you can talk to the half-dozen or so townspeople, with most of them having nothing at all to say of importance with others that have items, weapons and armor for sale and a quest that you can choose to do.
That right there really sums up the game. Sure, there are a multitude of different quests that can be taken, but while they may differ in goal and premise, they all require you to do exactly the same thing -- go to a dungeon and keep killing monsters or running away from them until you get the object that you're looking for, save the person or persons that you're looking for or kill the monster that you've been asked to destroy. And the three towns that you see at the beginning of the game, Westhaven, Rygard, and Hom, are all that you'll see throughout the entire game.
That said, Dark Angel does have some addictive qualities and is a game that we'd highly suggest renting if you're dying for a Diablo-type game on your PlayStation 2. While the quests aren't all that enticing and the story is just completely non-existent, the game does have some merits at the most basic of levels. I'd often lose myself in the game for five or six hours just trying to earn more money and find more powerful weapons and armor.
And at this level, the game is actually fairly deep. The weapons that can be used include a multitude of melee and projectile weapons that includes axes, broad swords, maces, rune swords, sabers, scythes, vampire swords, pistols, repeaters, bombs and so on. Each weapon will have its on strengths and weakness against different enemy character types and have a seemingly infinite number of levels.
If you're the type of gamer that gets enjoyment out of spending hours roaming through randomly generated dungeons just so you can find the level 9 broad sword to replace your level 8 sword, and we know that there are people out there like this, then Dark Angel is most definitely a game that'll be to your liking.
Graphics
The backgrounds are mostly empty and you can't really tell much about most of the character models because the camera is pretty far away from the action, but the game does get some kudos for its excellent use of lighting and other special effects. The main character has a light around her that actually shines on objects and creatures around her which then cast a seemingly realtime shadow.
The game's strongest point in this area, though, would have to be the wondrous special effects such as the smoke and sparks from the gun fire and all of the light sourcing coming from various spell attacks that are done by the enemy creatures. Nevertheless, this isn't a game that showcases the power of the system and it's not pushing the hardware to any of its limits by any means. It does serve its purpose for this game, but that's it.
Sound
Just like the rest of the game, we do have some good stuff in the audio department, but just not enough. There are a lot of good background and environmental effects, but most of it gets pretty old after about an hour of playtime with the game. And the same goes for the soundtrack, which consists of just a handful of tunes that you seemingly cycle through over and over again. Let's just say that the music gets very annoying after a while and we don't quite understand while it'll just stop for a while and then start back up for no reason.