Dark Sector Review

If you remember four years ago when Dark Sector was originally announced as the first ever Playstation 3 game, than you're a bigger nerd than I am. The game is finally in stores now and chronicles the light-hearted adventures of a secret agent with the unfortunate name of Hayden Tenno. Sent to a fictional former Soviet Republic to fight some bad guy with a beard, Hayden encounters a deadly virus that transforms people into thick skinned magical monsters. As you've probably already guessed, the storyline is convoluted and pretty forgettable, but it never becomes a burden on the game.

The gameplay is basically an exact replica of Gears of War with a heavy sprinkling of Resident Evil 4 thrown in for good measure. The basic movements and gunplay are identical to that of Gears, though developers unwisely removed the ability to fire blindly over pieces of cover. It's all pretty recognizable and honestly kind pedestrian, until Dark Sector pulls of its Trump card: Xena, the Warrior Princess' blade boomerang! They call it the glaive and make no mention of the lesbian cult figure, but when you get right down to it, Hayden's razor blade Frisbee is basically the same thing Xena's packing.Once the glaive starts flying, the fun really starts, as Hayden is able to chop off enemies' limbs, heads, or torsos. In addition, the glaive is also used as a key to some rudimentary puzzles that spice up the gameplay, or as a boomerang to pick up weapons or items. You can even take control of the glaive while it flies through mid-air, directing it to slice up multiple enemies in one toss. While is quite gory and clearly the reason this game was banned in Australia, it's also undeniably fun.

The title, Dark Sector, is a fitting name, as much of the game is so darkly lit that I found it nearly impossible to discern shapes and objects while playing in my sunlit living room. After fighting through what seemed like 4 levels of sewers, I finally emerged outdoors and into a well lit environment. Overly dark settings aside, the game itself is good looking with strong graphics that are enhanced by some well placed destructible objects.

It's not all good though, especially when the game runs out of steam about halfway through. After a certain point everything seems to stagnate and killing enemy troops and infected civilians kind of becomes a monotonous task. In addition, I hated play as the whiny and unlikeable Hayden. He is a lot like Raiden from Metal Gear Solid 2, except somehow with worse hair. I remember reading an interview on IGN with the developers of this game months back in which they described Hayden as a cross between Jack Bauer from 24 and Wolverine. So tell me again how we ended up with this whiny bitch with an emo haircut?

Dark Sector is a solid action title with some legitimately fun gore thrown in, and if you're into that kind of stuff then you owe it to yourself to play this. However, if $60 is still a lot of money to you, and you don't want to play a game that has the lead singer from Hawthorne Heights as its protagonist, you'd probably be better off just renting it.