Dark Sector is yet another 3rd-person shooter for the Xbox 360 and PS3 but this one does have something a little different about it which I’ll go into in a second. In the game you play as a reluctant assassin-type-soldier-bloke called Hayden as you infiltrate an old fortress in Russia to destroy a weaponised virus. Unfortunately, in the first level, your right arm gets infected by the very virus you’re trying to stop and you get a very cool power which you’ll you’ll use for most of the rest of the game.
Combat is nicked straight from Gears of War. You press a button to take cover, then pop out and fire at enemies as you advance. Even running has been nicked as you hold a button and steer left and right as you dash for cover. As well as using a pistol, machine guns and shotguns, your fancy new weapon is a razor-sharp disc which grows out of your hand called the Glaive. You can chuck this at enemies to cut off arms, legs and heads complete with lots of lovely claret splashing all over the place.
Soon into the game you can also apply after-touch and steer it towards frightened enemies, taking down more than one at a time. On the PS3 you can use the sixaxis to steer it and for once, it’s suited here. You can even throw the thing into fire, ice and electricity to give it new powers, then use it to solve puzzles and fight bosses.
The game’s fun but inconsistent. You may get bored of running through similar levels before you reach the end of the game and the graphics vary from eye-bleedingly great to mediocre. Also, there’s no real sense of progression as you play. You can upgrade some weapons but strangely these aren’t available from the off if you want to replay the game.
Two multiplayer modes have also been thrown in, one where you play as Hayden and everyone else, as a normal human with a gun, tries to put you down.
It’s good and may fill a hole before Metal Gear Solid 4 and Gears of War 2. So for that reason, my review of Dark Sector gets 7 out of 10.
