Kombo's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.

What the Game's About
Dark Sector was one of the first announced games for the PS3. After several major delays and revamps, Dark Sector has finally been released by Digital Extremes.

You are in control of Hayden, a reluctant CIA operative, sent into a near-future fictional country named Lasria in order to neutralize a man named Mezner, who is responsible for unleashing the mysterious biological agents which have ravaged the capital city of Lasria.

After a failed attempt to assassinate Mezner, you are subsequently captured and exposed to the very infection you have been sent to prevent from becoming epidemic. The infection which has driven the Lasrian population into a mob of crazy mutated zombies slowly begins to mutate and take on a different form with your unique physiology.


Dark Sector
What's Hot
Dark sector is a gorgeous looking game. The lighting (or lack thereof, during the game's darkest moments), textures and effects are at times on par with the industry dominant Unreal Engine 3. For an engine that was supposedly written from scratch specifically for Dark Sector, it looks and runs beautifully. The dark, dusty and hazy corridors and biohazard body bags of the unfortunate provide you with a great sense of atmosphere.

The Glaive is quite possibly one of the greatest weapons in modern gaming. It's a super-powered, three-bladed boomerang type weapon, pulled straight out of the 1983 sci-fi epic 'Krull'. Think of a bladed version of Captain America's shield… now imagine it on steroids. The glaive is ridiculously powerful; it slices, dices, juliennes and fetches. If Lasria had more greenery, I'm sure that you could use the glaive to cut the grass. The designers cleverly limited the effectiveness of the game's gunplay and emphasized the use of the glaive. As you gain more abilities over the course of the game, you develop more of a bond with the glaive as it assists you with puzzle solving, combat and literally "disarming" enemies.

What's Not
The game looks great, but it seems to suffer from severe graphical repetition. Buildings, tents and hallways all start to look the same. At times, the game seems to be a bit too dark. Particularly after loading a game save, if you don't remember quite what you were doing last time, it will take a few moments to reorient yourself to which area you were last in.

Although the cover system is well-implemented, the game is designed for relatively close combat. Enemies tend to flood the same locations. Every so often the game will send out a shielded enemy in order to flush you out from cover. All of this is well and good, however certain sections will continually send out enemies until you advance far enough forward. For a veteran agent, your aim with firearms is never really that good, so you rely mostly on your glaive.

Dark Sector's voice-acting is a mixed bag. The choice to cast Michael Rosenbaum as Hayden was excellent. However, he can only do so well since the script is not very strong. He is the only true benefactor to the game's audio. Many of Dark Sector's sounds are eerily reminiscent of the first Killzone for PS2. Enemy death cries sound like they were recorded through a tin can filter. Perhaps this would not be terribly bad, however the same screams are repeated over and over, ad nauseum; you can't help but be annoyed.


Dark Sector
Dark Sector also contains two multiplayer portions. You can set up for a LAN party or for a regular match over the Internet. You get to play as a group of guards attempting to take down a player who gets to control Hayden and has access to all of his powers, or you play as one of two teams, each with their own player in control of Hayden. Both modes offer a relatively unique multiplayer aspect, but most of the fun can only be had while playing as Hayden.

Final Word
Dark Sector is a great experience and worth a playthrough, but perhaps the largest issue with Dark Sector lies in that much of it is all too similar to what has come before it. Some of the better ideas and parts of the game are lifted directly from other titles, even

In an industry where complete originality is rare, Dark Sector seems like an amalgam of greatest hits in game design. From the cover mechanics, the gritty art design, the black market arms dealers, the shaky-cam running effect, after touch effects, melee finishing moves and quick time events, you can tell that Dark Sector has all of the makings of a great game. Unfortunately it just lacks that certain unsaid element that just makes everything work really well.