A game let down by its lack publicity surprisingly has a fun and great single player Campaign
Dark Sector is a third person shooter for both the 360 and PS3, and although most gamers will never have heard of this game, and few will play it, this should not deter you from what at heart is a great third person shooter.
You play Hayden, a Special Forces agent on a mission to kill an infected agent captured by Mezner, a scientist gone mad…
While planting the C4 to blow up the island Mezner is located on, and try to escape, he encounters an infected beast that works with Mezner, and infects Hayden.
Now, with Hayden infected, super powers are inadvertently at your whim, and you intend to use them well.
So story line isn't one of the main assets of this game, but its story if far better than most First person shooters for sale at the moment, and will definitely have you intrigued to find out more about your character and how he develops.
The gameplay in Dark Sector is a lot like that to Gears of War. You play over the shoulder of Hayden, while being able to go in cover, run and roll using only the A button, which although can be finicky, works a good 90% of the time, and should not be put down, as this is one of the better uses of cover in a game I have seen. Much like Gears of War again, you will need to use the cover system to survive, you cannot just run through all the game shooting all the time, and expect to live. You use the left trigger to aim more precisely, which is both brilliant for more long ranged attacks, and even up close when using the Glaive, but is nothing new to the genre, nor does it improve on ranged fighting, as there is no weapons like snipers or guns with sights to see if the zoom would work more effectively there too.
However, the Glaive is one of the many aspects of this game that make it unique. This is a pinwheel-shaped weapon attached to his arm through the infection, which allows you to throw it and have it return to you like a boomerang. The Glaive deals massive amounts of damage to the enemy, and is truly fun to use. You can use it in many different ways; bash with it up close, throw it and slice your enemies up, achieve power-ups with it, deal quadruple damage with it by charging the Glaive up, and control it while you move it through the air. This variety is very useful, as a lot of the time, the Glaive will be your first protocol when fighting, as a lot of the 'standard weapons' in this game are not as good. This is not to say they are bad, it is just without the Glaive, this game does become very much like a run-of-the-mill third person game.
The power ups consist of 3 main types; fire, frost and shock. All of these give damage in that form, so fire will cause the enemy to burn, allowing easier finisher moves and prolonged damage. Frost will actually freeze them, allowing you to grab your trusty shotgun, and blow the enemy into a million little shard of ice. My favourite, shock, sends thousands of volts through the enemy, while getting to then watch the enemies' corpse shake, shudder, and finally collapse to the ground in almost a comical form. Truly Brilliant!
To accompany the Glaive, you can do something called After Touch, a brilliant aspect of the game that becomes available early in the game. It allows you to control the flight of the glaive by compensating for how far you can throw it. This allows power ups to be obtained through gaps in the walls (intentional not a glitch), and means you can kill enemies quivering behind walls at the mere thought of you…
If, you managed to not kill the enemies from range, or you are overcrowded by hordes of mutants, you can do something called a finisher, which means you kill the enemy in style, while giving yourself a breather from the other enemies. This is a nice add in to the games long range fighting style. The up close combat/melee is unfortunately fairly weak, and the bashing with the Glaive or your weapon is hit and miss, but the Finisher moves adds some certainty to finish off the enemy in front of you, making up for the otherwise slightly poor melee system. But as this game is really intended for fights further away, you will hardly notice this slight blemish on an otherwise consistently glitch-free game.
You have a few other superhuman abilities to accompany the glaive, probably two that you will use. One is a shield, activated by pressing the Y button, which is used to deflect gun shots (from bosses most of the time). In normal combat, you probably will not use it, as it doesn't last very long, and you could just get cover behind a crate.
The other more useful skill is invisibility, which like it sounds, sends you invisible for a short amount of time. This means you can easily kill an enemy from behind, without worry of damage. Unfortunately, this is not unlocked until the end of chapter 7, which is quite late into the game, and therefore you do not get to enjoy this skill as much as possible. This skill is really good in online however, as you can disguise yourself past the normal players, and go for the leader.
You can also use normal style weapons, like any other shooter, such as machine guns, shotguns and revolvers. All of these can be upgraded with countless briefcases you can pick up throughout the game, which offer increased damage, more accuracy, the ability to shoot through enemies to hit more than one at a time, and loads of others. As good as the weapons are, and they are highly effective, you will find yourself getting bored while using them, and will finally just resort to using the glaive again, which is so much more fun. As stated the guns are not bad, but very much feel like have just been put into the game with not much thought. If they had concentrated on these guns as much as they had the Glaive, then we would be looking at a gamer far more accomplished, and worthy of a higher score.
There is an online mode, which is really unique, and fun to play. There are two modes you can pick from, epidemic and infection. The invisibility is really good in online, and can be used in either mode. The Epidemic style does take most advantage of it though, as when both Superhumans go invisible, they can just about see each other, making it an invisible fight, with just one mistake costing you your invisibility, with your opponent still creeping about…This sort of great feature is one that makes the game so enjoyable, and the developers clearly did not overpower the abilities either, making these constant invisible fights both fun and skill based at heart.
Epidemic is the same sort of 4-v-4 style killing many third person shooters commonly have used. However, only one of the players is superhuman on each team, everyone else is the simple enemies you have to kill, who either carry machine guns or a shotgun. The objective is to kill the opposing enemy's leader in any way possible. Most of the time it will be leader on leader to finish the fight, but sometimes you can get a kill if you are a normal player, from performing a Finisher from behind. When I say it feels rewarding, I mean it feels rewarding! The balance of superhuman to normal enemies is just right, making it a challenge for everyone, with obviously a slight favour to the superhuman. The other mode is Infection, where one person is invisible, and up to eight other people are normal, trying to kill the superhuman. This is great with mates, and is fun for the superhuman, as kills can be; quick, easy, and highly rewarding.
But, and this is a big one, there are hardly any online matches at all (and at this point, I highly doubt there are any). With no one online in the ranked matches, it means online achievements are scarce, and even if you can find a game, the amount of people in the match will be minimal, and not as enjoyable as 4-v-4 or 1-v-7. There are a few more player matches being played, but these do not hold the achievements you may be missing.
The achievements are actually surprisingly good, especially on the first play through. The achievements are spread out throughout the levels, with your normal style complete a level for 10g, and complete the game for 100g, but you also have kill certain bosses for a hefty amount of gamerscore, and for killing people in a certain way. These are kills like incinerate 30 different enemies, shock 30 enemies, freeze 30 enemies etc.
If though, you are looking for a game with great gameplay, a fair bit of replay value (as hard mode is unlocked after the first run through) and aren't so fussed about getting the full 1000 gamerscore, then this game is great for you, and you should not be put off by the fact it is a fairly unknown game. New IPs are becoming very popular these days, and Dark Sector is one that definitely stands out for me as one you should pick up. Despite its flaws, of which are minor, a brilliant variation on the Third person genre lies here, and deserves at least a purchase from any lovers of Gears of War and newer games like Saboteur and Resident Evil 5.