Dark Sector is a unique game that will catch a gamer's interest for its violence and implementation of its weapon, the glaive. The glaive unleashes a tremendous amount of bloodshed throughout the course of the game through decapitations, limbs being cut off and torsos being ripped in half. If that doesn't catch their interest, then perhaps the beautiful graphics will.
Right up there with Ninja Gaiden, the action is brutal. If Dark Sector was to come out in the early 90s, this would have been one of the select few to be protested by parents, such as Mortal Kombat was. Having heads fly off, while blood is squirting against the walls, Dark Sector isn't kind towards children. Definitely aimed at mature audiences, this isn't for the faint mind.
Beginning with the story, it's full of cliché villains and faux surprises. Pitted in the role of Hayden Tenno, a man out to stop a virus from spreading and eliminate it for good, Dark Sector treads water of being too predictable. After the second mission, the storyline becomes increasingly uninteresting due to dismal storytelling. The direction of the storyline is a mess that needed to be handled a lot more carefully since the storyline is a big reason why gamers become attached to a game. Dark Sector has no moment where you'll be bragging to your friend of what you accomplished within the game.
Progressing through the game, Digital Extremes does grant Hayden new abilities to go along with his glaive in Dark Sector. The first of the few abilities is to attach environmental changes to the glaive such as electricity, fire, and ice. Hitting an electrical box with your glaive will have it become a source to shock your enemies and kill some of them instantly. Throwing your glaive through a fire will of course set your glaive on fire to set ablaze the enemies set before you. The same applies to the frozen glaive; it freezes the enemies into an ice cube for a one shot kill as they explode into a thousand pieces.
Outside of the environmental changes to the glaive, Hayden gains new abilities to use without having to throw his glaive. The first is a shield that will deflect projectiles back at enemies and stop bullets from passing through. The second and third are being able to throw your glaive harder and to guide it directly into the enemies. As for the last ability that Hayden gains, it's a stealth skill that permits him to be invisible for a particular amount of time or until you decide to attack the enemy. All of these abilities come at a price though as every time Hayden gains a new ability, the more the virus spreads to his body.
When playing through Dark Sector, many gamers will notice many similarities to Microsoft's Gears of War. The first resemblance comes through the form of the cover system and its controls. Without teammates, Dark Sector is all solo work as you run through the environments, using cover to your advantage, to accomplish your objectives. The A Button is used to enter in and out of cover easily, along with running faster through the terrain. The aiming system is even the same style of viewing and zoom-in that Gears of War accomplished. All of this isn't necessarily a downfall as Gears of War proved to be highly successful in 2006 when it released.
