Dark Sector has been a long time in the making and any glimpses that have been shown of the game have been looking pretty impressive, however with lots of other shooters on the market does this game do enough different to stand out from the crowd?
In Dark Sector you play as Hayden Tenno who is on the trail of someone called Mezner, the bad guy who is intent on infecting everyone with a virus he has managed to get hold of. The thing is this is one nasty virus, you will first experience it in the first level where you will meet for the first time, Mezners bodyguard who is one tough cookie and has a rather nasty blade to match. Without spoiling too much when you do meet the bodyguard you also meet Mezner and you don’t come out very well, as you eventually end up being infected with the virus you are trying to put an end to.
The game plays in the guise of a Third Person Shooter, throughout you will find yourself ducking and rolling around for cover as this is essential for taking out enemies, the environments are fragile though so bullets will soon take down any crates or other breakable items you have used for cover.
The first level itself is quite unusual in that it takes part in Black & White, only when you have killed a few enemies, stolen their weapons for yourself and then took down a helicopter will you then meet the bodyguard, go through the scene mentioned above and then start to see things in colour.
As well as starting to see things in colour once your body is infected with the virus you begin to change, no longer are you able to hold enemies weapons, well not for long anyway because they are fitted with a sensor and will deactivate after a short time should they be used by one of the infected, later on you will also gain some rather good abilities such as being able to turn invisible or use a telekinetic shield, however by far the coolest thing about being infected is your Glaive.
The Glaive appears in your hand soon after being infected, the best way to describe it is to call it a giant shuriken which acts like a boomerang, so in other words throw it at the attacking enemies and watch it cut through them before coming back, cutting through them again (providing they don’t duck) and returning to your hand. The glaive is quite simple to use, pressing L1 to aim and the R2 to throw makes things easy, you can also press R1 instead of R2 should you wish to stick to more conventional ways and shoot at your enemies with your handgun.
As you get more into the game, the more powerful you and your glaive will become, allowing you better moves and even giving you the ability to pick up items, such as weapons or equipment simply by aiming the glaive at the item you are after. There are many other things you can do with the weapon as you progress which are really inventive, however I don’t want to spoil things too much by telling you what they are. One of the features of the glaive I do need to mention however is Aftertouch, this gives you the ability to follow the glaive in slow motion and direct it to your enemies neck using either the right stick or Sixaxis motion, although other games on the PS3 using this feature have been criticised, it does seem to work quite well in Dark Sector once you get used to it.
During the game you will find cash lying about on tables and elsewhere, you can then use this to upgrade and purchase new weapons, allowing you access to Uzi’s, Shotguns and more. Of course all of this makes you one hard bloke, with your glaive in one hand and a magnum in the other those enemies better watch out.
The gameplay in Dark Sector works really well, throughout you will be constantly learning new moves and tearing your enemies apart and although it can get a bit repetitive, it does keep you challenged and gripped long enough to make sure you do not lose interest. There are a few flaws such as the frustrating melee combat which has you slashing at nothing half the time due to the angle of the camera and you will also have this issue when swinging at the ammo crates you will find lying around, in fact at one point I must have slashed at a crate four times before eventually being able to hit it, however there are ways around this, and hey maybe it was just me being rubbish.
Dark Sector also includes a multiplayer mode, this is actually quite fun and comes in the guise of two modes over five maps. First up is the infected mode, here one of the players is Haden and the others the guards, the objective is to be the first to take down Haden and then become him yourself. The second mode is called Epidemic, this divides players into two teams with one player taking the role of Haden on each side, again anyone killing Haden will become him. The multiplayer mode is really good fun, however I wasn’t much good, it seems that the people I was playing with had much more practice than me.
Graphically I was quite impressed by Dark Sector, the name describes it perfectly really because it is a very dark game, all the environments seem to be constantly cast in a shadow, however they do look great, as do the finishing moves during melee combat. The only criticism I have as far as graphics go are for cutscenes, to me not as much effort has went into these as the rest of the game.
Dark Sector is quite an impressive game, it is no Gears of War but it does offer an interesting take on the Third Person shooter, oh and the Glaive is fantastic. If you are in the market for a new game this month you won’t go wrong with this as it is great entertainment, it’s just not perfect that’s all.
