So in this game you play as Hayden, some sort of covert operative who also happens to be a polygon pushing pretty boy, something about his face didn't sit quite right with me. It was as if someone from a WB drama series wandered into the game and decided to be the main character. Anyway, he's on a mission to stop some crazy who's hellbent on releasing a virus upon the world. Story isn't something this game has a whole lot of, and when there is some the scenes are well directed but the story isn't anything special. One nice touch however is the black and white prologue, which then is Wizard of Oz'd once Hayden is also infected with the same virus he's attempting to put an end to.
What's the virus/infection do? Well, the main bad guys Number 2 man apparently became a badass looking cyborg type straight out of Guyver. All you get is a metallic arm and control over a glaive. So the game is 3rd person action, the camera sits behind the main character ala Resident Evil 4, though I'm not sure if it was because I was sitting close but the camera seemed a little too up close and personal with the main character than I liked. I wish it would've been pulled back just a hair more. Anyway, you go from Point A to Point B killing everything in your way, which consists of about 6-7 enemy types. There's a few boss battles along the way, nothing as memorable as the many many bosses that were in Resident Evil 4. But to counteract that the glaive is a lot of fun, whether you're putting some aftertouch on the throw to make sure you nick that bad guys head clean off, or using it to harvest the elements around you such as fire, ice, and electricity.
The game also does a good job of introducing new powers at just the right intervals of time, right when you've got a hang of the latest power, a new one is usually right around the corner. Things like a shield that is in front of you for a short time deflecting anything being shot at you, stealing guns right out of the enemies hands, or picking things up off of the ground / tables with the glaive. The game definitely puts an emphasis on the glaive as it seems to get the job done much better than the weapons you're given, and unless you buy your weapons from the Merchant who lives in manholes, why I have no idea, then you can only use the enemies weapons for about 1 minute. Apparently their weapons are chipped to realize when someone is handling it and has the virus, so this chip explodes and renders the gun useless.
The graphics are nice, I found the indoor, dank, sewer type areas to be the most impressive as compared to the outdoor levels. But still that's nitpicking, overall the game looks great. The sound is also top-notch, the weapons have a nice punch to them and my only complaint would be some of the explosions don't pack the same punch. I took down a few choppers along the way and for some reason it sounded as if they had landed either in a field of pillows or a field of tempurpedic mattresses. Aside from that, no complaints.
So what sort of rating does this game get? Well, after playing one night I was 8/10 through the single player, and I didn't even log in that many hours really. There's multi-player which I haven't tried, and I highly doubt there's a huge online community playing it constantly and having fun with it all the time. I would personally stick to just the single player portion and with that I would say this game is a Thumbs Up Rental. Worth seeing and checking out for a few bucks, but nothing more. If ever there is a sequel, they should go with full blown Guyver looking dudes and have gun fights, the glaive, and on top of that have these Guyver looking dudes have all out brawls maybe in the similar vein to Zone of the Enders 2. Then also in true Guyver fashion have the badguy clutch his hands around the Guyver's little weakness sphere in his forehead. I guess I never paid enough attention to those movies to figure out why molesting that sphere in his forehead caused him great discomfort.
Summary For The Lazy: If you've played Resident Evil 4, Gears of War, all the best in this current revival in 3rd person action games, it wouldn't hurt to give Dark Sector a whirl. While it lacks that secret sauce that those two former games had, you'll still have a good time for a few days playing it, and you might as well while you wait for RE5 and GoW2. Thumbs Up Rental.
On a side note, for a silly B-movie series, the two Guyver movies had cool actors playing the main character, first there was Mark Hamill, then there was David Hayter, it's been 14 years since the 2nd movie, how much longer must we wait? Maybe it's better this way, they'd probably throw Shia LaBeouf into the role. Screw that.
Final Verdict: Thumbs-Up Rental
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