Dark Sector was one of the early next-gen titles that was announced back in 2004. It started off with a space concept, but the whole idea was completely erased -- Well, maybe. Dark Sector takes us to the fictional military town of Lasria in modern-day Russia with a sci-fi twist. This is where our protaganist arrives: Hayden Tenno; black-ops agent; ex-CIA. You are sent to Lasria to kill a scientist named Mezner who is trying to use some sort of techno-organic virus to infect the world. As with some assigned missions, not all ends as planned, as Hayden is ambushed by Mezner and some sort of bionic-imbued metal skinned warrior. In the process, Hayden gets infected on his right arm, and Dark Sector’s colors are about to reveal itself. Dark Sector has enough flash to keep you Glaiving, but the story-telling lacks in substance.

While the premise of Dark Sector’s story is really promising, it has a lot of unexplained details about certain characters who you interact with. Hayden Tenno acts out his part really well during the game, but there’s not enough back-story to tell who he really is and why he’s an "ex-CIA" agent, or why he chose to go the way of what he’s doing now. The story doesn’t seem too original, either -- A scientist is labeled "insane" for some military reason, and is now trying to infect the world with a disease. And as Hayden -- an infected -- you must now take the powers you’ve gained and stop the disease from spreading. What could use more spreading in this game could be the story-telling aspect. It isn’t spread out very well throughout the game -- There’s hardly any cutscenes or flashbacks which explains what went on in the past, or what’s really going on behind the mind of certain characters. While the story of Dark Sector doesn’t sustain itself very well, at least the action-packed game play should give you enough flash to get through it.

Dark Sector features an over-the-shoulder, third-person view; a la Resident Evil 4 and Gears of War. Speaking of Resident Evil 4 and Gears of War -- If you’ve ever played any of these two games, then you’d be quick to notice the similar traits that are featured in Dark Sector. Some features found in Dark Sector that could be found in Resident Evil 4 could be the ability to buy weapons from an inconspicuous character, or wooden boxes to find ammo in them. Dark Sector features a Black Market where you can purchase new weapons and apply upgrades (which you find in silver suitcases throughout the game) to your weapons. A trait of Dark Sector that makes it similar to Gears of War is the cover system. Although you can’t blind-fire, you can move from cover-to-cover in certain area, and you can also do forward, backward, and left/right barrel rolls. Remember: borrowing elements from other games is not a bad thing -- First-person shooters do it all the time.

The one thing that makes Dark Sector stand out as a third-person action game, is that Glaive. The Glaive: a weapon that makes you hear hellish, freakish screams from enemies that you just dismembered. It is truly sickening to watch the animations as you slice your enemy’s arm, head, leg, or half of their body off. It is incredibly well-detailed, but it’s probably the reason why it was banned in Australia. There are many things you can do with Hayden’s glaive -- For example, you can use it to bust open wooden boxes and grab the contents in it to from them to you from afar. The glaive comes in handy for solving environmental puzzles, too: Am elevator won’t work unless its operator doesn’t get an electric charge. Easy: imbue your glaive with electricity and throw it at the non-powered operator. Dark Sector features a lengthy single-player campaign that can take you around 10 to 13 hours to complete, and once you’re done with that, you can either play it again on a higher difficulty setting, or hop online for some Infection or Epidemic matches.

Playing online in one of Dark Sector’s two modes is a hit-or-miss thing. The modes can hold up to 10 players, or you can play with bots in an unranked game. In Infection mode, one player gets to play as Hayden with all of the powers, and you’re up against other Hazmat soldiers. What you do in this mode (if you’re Hayden) is of course try to stay alive and cut off as many arms and limbs as you can. If you’re one of the Hazmat soldiers, you’re working with a group of others to try and take down Hayden. You’re ultimate goal as a soldier is to be the next Infected, so try to take down Hayden so you can be the next Hayden character in the next round. In Epidemic mode, it’s basically the same as Infection, except it’s much more team-oriented. Each team will get one Hayden character, and the other soldiers are to take down the other team’s Hayden to win.

Dark Sector features some of the most gorgeous visuals yet. Running on the Evolution Engine (developed by Digital Extremes), it’s as if the developers took the Gears of War engine and put make up on it. Hayden is detailed really nicely, and the powers on the glaive (fire, ice, and lightning) compliment his overall lighting with slick-looking fashion. Dark Sector not only looks great, but it plays great on top of the amazing visuals -- Running at probably 60 frames per second (tops), it’s indeed a seamless and wonderful experience. No complaints with load times, either -- As they’re not long at all.

Although Dark Sector seems to be the most ambitious title for Digital Extremes yet, it does fall short on the story-telling side, as well as the linearity. At least Dark Sector will be made into a trilogy, maybe then the story will be spread out across the future Dark Sector titles to explain a bit more about the Dark Sector universe. All in all, Dark Sector is a well-polished game that is worth playing if you absolutely love third-person action games.