Dark Sector
A CIA agent, Hayden Tenno is sent into the fictional nation of Lasria to prevent a bio-weapons nightmare, but ends up getting mutated by a mysterious virus. Sounds interesting, right? But there are few snags. Here are my thoughts:
The action is great but needs a little polish. Hayden controls fairly well, but I have to get used to the setup. A little awkward at first; you’ll accidentally dive around with Hayden until you get better. Handguns, shotguns, and machine guns fire differently enough from each other, giving much variety to combating the hordes throughout. Also enemies can overwhelm you if you’re not careful. The real meat and taters is the Glaive. This three-bladed discus of death can slice and dice enemies and is useful for environment puzzles(which break the monotony of killing everything you come across).
So far, I’ve unlocked the Steal(snatch distant objects and bring them to you), Aftertouch(long-distance control), and Absorb Energy(add fire, ice and electrical) abilities thus far, and it makes for some satisfyingly gory combat. Enemies come at you en masse, but the AI at times can be a little suspect(monsters can hung up in doorways/corners, soldiers hiding where they can easily be shot, etc).
Man, did they need a real writer or what? It’s a shame Tom Clancy or Orson Scott Card didn’t pen this. What could have been a great Splinter Cell/RE 4 (mix of government intrigue/free game downloads/science fiction)just appears to be phoned in and rushed. Not enough background, lot twists, and decent voice acting considering Mike Rosenbaum’s voicing Hayden. Damn near random storytelling for what could have been X-Files or something. A director’s cut(ala Ninja Gaiden Black) could REALLY fix this if the developer was still interested. Sadly, I don’t think the sales may justify this due to the current price drop.