Great combat gameplay... terrible storytelling... pretty much equals Dark Sector
To sum up Dark Sector as far as the synopsis is concerned; You play a CIA opertaive called Hayden, who must infiltrate an Eastern European village, which was quarantined and has become a ghost town after a deadly virus was released, infecting everyone and everything in the area, turning them into mutated, blood-thirsty freaks. Then... unexpectedly... you become infected by this virus by the very man who is your target. And now you must hunt him down, killing anyone who gets in your way, and at the same time preventing the infection from being unleashed outside of the quaratined area.
Now, the storytelling is'nt really up to scratch. However, the gameplay is something different.
Gunplay may be irrelevant compared to what else you can do once you are infected; but theres no fault to controls. Even blind shooting around a corner does not degrade your deadly accuracy of blowing an enemies face off. Explosions are pretty impressive as well. You are even able to customise and buy new weapons at black market stalls. However, its bloody expensive in the black market so dont even expect to get half of the weapons before you complete the game.
It is safe to say however that the best part of Dark Sectors suprisingly decent combat controls and features is the virus itself. Throughout the game, you unlock new abilities thanks to the virus, including; summoning a force-field that deflects projectiles such as bullets and rockets, become invisible for a period of time etc.
What is arguably the most pleasing part of the game is Haydens new weapon, the Glaive. The Glaive is a circular, three-bladed weapon that that grows out of his arm and works like a boomerang that can cut through flesh like a white hot knife through butter. A nice little bonus with the Glaive as well is the ability to combine the Glaive with elements in the environment and to use them to take your enemies down with greater ease and style. For example, use ice to turn your enemies into a man-sized ice sculpture, and then blow them up to little pieces with your gun like in Terminator 2... nice. Or use fire to set them alight... you get the idea. But also combining elements with your Galive is essential in getting through the game when it comes to certain minor enviromental puzzles.
One way or the other; killing numerous foes with the Glaive NEVER get old. The most enjoyable feature of the Glaive, which you unlock in the game, is called the 'after-touch'. This is where you have the ability of controlling the path of your Glaive in, slow motion, after you've thrown it. Allowing you to sit in ore as you see defenseless foes get slice to bits in all its close-up, bloody and brutal glory. You can control the Galive with the six-axis feature, or with the analogue stick, either way, hella lot of fun.
The third-person camera work of Dark Sector is very much like Resident Evil 4 so thats fairly self-explanatory to what its like, because everyone must of played resident evil 4 (and for those who havnt played it yet hasnt experienced the fruits of video-gaming until they do).
The colour palette of Dark Sector is pretty cool, with its dark and gritty textures with monochrome blacks really reflects the nature of this Sci-Fi shooter. The sounds arent bad either, however its fair to say that the voice acting is is only fair.
Overall conclusion of Dark Sector; If you are after a game with good storytelling, this is by far NOT what your after. However if you are after a game with some pretty cool combat features and abilities to experiment with thorughout, then this might just be the game for you to check out. Great game to rent... perhaps not so much as a permanent purchase.