Dark Sector has been a long time coming. What started out as a PS3 launch title is now available on both Sony’s console and the Xbox 360. You assume the role of Hayden Tenno, an elite black-ops agent sent to Lasria, a remote Eastern European country. Hayden is there to take down a former colleague and now enemy named Mezner, who has unleashed a bio-terrorist attack on Lasria that turns infected people into overpowered monsters. Sounds interesting, but does the game provide enough to keep you excited? Here is a breakdown of some of the facets of Dark Sector for the Xbox 360:

Presentation & Graphics: Dark Sector is a dark game. Are you surprised? The game is definitely pretty, though. Environments and characters are all highly detailed. Dismembering enemies looks fantastic with the glaive, which I’ll touch more on later. However, there are a few glaring issues with the game. There will be times when you’ll find some big graphical bugs. For example, you’ll find an enemy just floating in mid air and you can’t interact with them at all. A few other places you’ll see some clipping issues where enemies are stuck in walls or other areas. It’s these types of glitches, which are mainly found in the first half of the game, that take you away from the experience. 8 of 10

Sound & Music: While sound effects are great in Dark Sector, voice acting is spotty. In some areas, you’ll be truly enveloped by the great voice over work, while other areas you’ll think it was done by someone who’s never spoken before. The glaive has some of the coolest sound effects you’ll hear. Slicing off limbs, heads or just slicing an enemy in half sounds eerie and gross, just as it should. Hearing your enemy’s blood-curdling screams as his arm gets sliced off is priceless. 8 of 10

Gameplay: Dark Sector has been compared a lot to Gears of War, which is fairly fitting comparison. The controls are almost exactly the same as Gears, with the Glaive and grenades being the exception. It’s an over-the-shoulder third person view where you use the left trigger to aim. You need to utilize a duck and cover mentality to survive in Dark Sector. Just like in Gears, there’s no HUD to show you where enemies are in the game. Overall the controls feel very solid.

You start the game as Hayden enters Lasria to try and find out what’s going on. Your former black-ops colleague, Mezner, was sent in a while ago and no one has heard what’s from him, so Hayden is there to find out. Shortly into the game, you get infected with the virus that’s plaguing the entire country and turning most people into monsters. Since Hayden was inoculated before entering Lasria, the infection is slow to take over him, but does give him awesome powers. The first power is the Glaive, a bladed disc that grows out of Hayden’s infected hand. In what could be one of the coolest weapons in a game in the past 5 years, you use the glaive as a projectile to throw at enemies to slice them up. As you progress through the game, your powers evolve and you gain Aftertouch for the glaive. This allows you to control the trajectory after the throw for some amazing kills on multiple enemies. You also gain the ability to collect fire, electricity and ice with the glaive to use against your foes. Finally, you gain a power throw which makes the glaive a one hit kill, slicing your enemies in half many times. I have to say, the glaive really makes this game. Without it, it’s just another third person shooter. But the genius of the weapon and the multiple ways you can use it really make Dark Sector fun.

Other power ups you earn in the game include a shield which radiates from Hayden’s arm which can be used in 10 second spurts. Don’t worry, it auto regenerates over a period of time after you use the shield, so you don’t need to worry about picking up items to make it work again. Finally, you gain the ability of Shifting, which allows you to turn invisible for short periods of time to move through the environment undetected and get some nice stealth kills. Again, this regenerates for you. I really liked how the powers evolve over time in the game. It gives you more reason to keep playing through as you get more and better abilities.

There are some downsides, however. In quite a few places in the game, you’ll find a lot of trigger points. By that, I mean you will encounter endless enemies in an area until you move on. As soon as you cross one checkpoint, you will be bombarded until you move on to the next. This is something that was seen a lot in previous generations, but gets annoying seeing it in current day games. 8.5 of 10

Multiplayer: There are only two multiplayer modes in Dark Sector, which makes you think it was on afterthought for the developers. You have Infection and Epidemic. Infection is like your standard VIP game type, with up to 10 total players. One starts as Hayden (with all of his powers) and the remaining players are Hazmat troopers trying to take Hayden down. The player that ends up killing Hayden will become him the next round. While this is fun if you get to play as Hayden, it gets boring and repetitive if you’re stuck as the Hazmat troopers for a few rounds at a time. The other mode, Epidemic, is an extension of Infection, but a team based game. Each team has one Hayden and the rest Hazmat troopers, with the goal being to kill the other team’s Hayden. Again, this is fun if you get to be Hayden and if you have players who understand team play. However, a lot of time you’re going to get people who want to act like it’s standard Deathmatch and just try to kill the Hazmat troopers on the other team and neglect Hayden, ending the round quickly. 7 of 10

Lasting Appeal: Solid gameplay isn’t enough to keep Dark Sector in your console, unfortunately. A more in-depth story would have turned this into a must play title, but as it is, you’ll find a lot of loose ends. In the press pack we received, there was a prequel comic book which explained some of the story, but most consumers won’t see this. Also, the tacked on multiplayer modes aren’t something you’ll keep coming back to play. 7 of 10

Final Word: Dark Sector got a lot of things right, most importantly the gameplay. However, the lack of quality story and more multiplayer modes can’t be overlooked. Had Digital Extremes put in a little more polish to fix bugs and give the game a more in-depth back story, the game would have been even more enjoyable. As it is, it’s probably a rental, but one that should be near the top of your list. There is a lot to build on here, and I hope D3Publisher and Digital Extremes add some more to a sequel. I’d definitely be interested.

Overall: 7.75 of 10

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