Dark Sector is a game that was announced well before its final release. In fact many of the games that have inspired this game where announced and developed before this game could get a release. Whether or not this game was worth the wait is debatable. At times it is highly enjoyable and others, bitterly disappointing.
Dark Sector is a third person shooter. It tells the story of Hayden. An American operative who is somewhere, killing people, for some reason...or another. In fact the games story is very poorly told and is the biggest blemish on this otherwise decent title. It opens with a revealing and atmospheric prologue chapter depicted all in black and white. It explains the details of some events that happened some years earlier relevant to the current situation.
Luckily for Dark Sector though the short comings of the story telling will not affect the enjoyment of the game play too greatly. And the major contributor to this is the tirelessly fun game play feature that is the Glaive, your characters main weapon through out the game. Still it is disappointing that the story is not there to back up the other components of the game.
Early on Hayden is infected with a virus. This infection causes a very large triangular type blade to sprouts from his hand. Something like a boomerang. Even though you always maintain the use of weapons and powerful upgrades for them they inevitably take a back seat to the Glaive. Aside from being a very poweraful weapon, the glaive is a very handy tool for reaching out of the way items and unlocking doors and burning obstacles. Having the glaive gives you access to a series of strong finishing moves. And although they are repetitive, they never get tiresome.
Standard gun play is reminiscent of the cover system style of play popularized by Gears of War though it is not nearly as in depth or well executed. Other features of the game show traces of inspirations from other titles such as Splinter Cell, though none nearly so heavily as Gears.
Visually Dark Sector is a success. Its on screen presence really goes a long way to creating the intensity and atmosphere that is left lacking by the narrative. The Wizard of Oz-esque black and white prologue was a real master stroke in creating a big impact at a critical in the game as color leaches in and brings you back to the reality of the situation.
Graphics don't do the job alone though and the games audio component really makes up a lot of the ground as well. This is largely in part to the impressive sound track made from the ground up for the game and strong sound effects. These effects convey the strength of the weapons and the run down industrial/ cold war era Eastern European theme of the game.
A shallow but interesting multiplayer adds some replay value to the game, but not significantly so. The simplistic Gears style of game play does not really hold up in the multiplayer arena. And over all while Dark Sector is not the next big thing in the third person shooter genre, there is still enough there to please. And the relatively low import cost involved for those who need to make this a title worth checking out.
Brendon.
