Dark Sector (Xbox 360, 2008)

Overview
Take the idea of a mutating virus out of Resident Evil, the graphics and controls from Gears of War and use the idea of The Glaive from the movie Krull and you've got Dark Sector. While on a mission CIA Agent Hayden Tenno becomes infected with a devastating virus that warps a person's body and normally drives them mad from the pain. However, because he was born with a condition rendering him unable to feel pain he is unaffected by the madness and is able to use the abilities gained from the virus.

Gameplay
If you've ever played Gears of War, from the onset of the game you will immediately be able to see and feel striking similarities. Whether it is the roadie run, attaching yourself to cover, vaulting over obstacles, firing from behind cover or the ability to heal by staying out of fire; all the ingredients are here.
Dark Sector sets itself apart from the rest of the third-person shooter games by employing the Glaive, which is a three-bladed boomerang that he can generate from his infected arm. Players can throw the Glaive at enemies, but more importantly they can hold down the RB to adjust it's direction slow motion in midflight to hit multiple enemies or aim for headshots. The Glaive can also become frozen, on fire, or electrically charged to not only do more damage to enemies, but to also solve various environmental puzzles that the player will be met with during gameplay.
Hayden also has access to the use of various guns, such as pistols, rifles and shotguns. A black market dealer is also located at various places throughout the game, allowing Hayden to purchase new weapons or upgrade existing ones. Hayden may also pick up and use enemy weapons against them, however these will explode after a few moments because they are encoded with a self-destruct chip that can detect when used by an "infected person", forcing you to rely primarily on your own arsenal and Glaive.

Graphics
The whole game looks very polished with character models and environments rendered beautifully and combat looking sweet with decapitations, dismemberments and loads of blood.

Controls
If you have played any third person game they will be sort of similar to Gears of War and games like 50 cent: Blood on the Sand. Holding down the A button will cause Hayden to "roadie run", L trigger zooms just like GoW, and the X button reloads.

Sound
Pretty spooky and appropriately atmospheric. It's quite unnerving to play this game with the surround sound up and the lights off because of the moans and groans of the infected. The voice acting also good, specifically with Hayden being voiced by actor Michael Rosenbaum.

Multiplayer
Dark Sector features two modes of multiplayer, Epidemic and Infection. Offering for up to 10 players to battle on five maps.
Epidemic tasks two teams against each other with one player on each side assuming the role of Hayden, with both sides attempting to eliminate the other team's Hayden character.
Infection on the other hand allows for a free-for-all battle with one player assuming Hayden's role. When a player kills the Hayden character they will become Hayden next and the process continues.
In both gametypes the Hayden character has maxed out abilities while other players run around as generic soldiers with only a firearm and some explosives to use.

Conclusion
IMHO, worth it for third person shooter fans. Enjoy...

Dark Sector seemed like a very promising game. Taking the cover system of Gears of War and tying it into the third person shooting style of Resident Evil 4, it was almost as if there was little room for error for such a game. However, the cover system did not always work well. A lot of times it left you still exposed to enemy fire which becomes a pain on brutal mode when just a few shots and you're dead. The shooting aspect of the game is good though. The guns perform well although there are only a few that can be used in the game which is disappointing. I suppose the main weapon here is the triple-bladed boomerang-like glaive. This weapon can severely dismember an enemy in a single throw and you can receive power-ups for it throughout the game. Revolving the game mostly around the glaive was a good choice since it's a seldom used weapon in gaming and a neat twist on using it in a third person shooter.
Now, the campaign itself is good with a wide variety of enemies and bosses and some great graphics and scenery. It also has a good amount of cut scenes thrown in for added dramatic effect. The down side of campaign however is the length. With 10 short chapters, you can easily complete it in one or two days of playing. However, it is a good campaign and one that may have you going back to play brutal mode (which isn't really all that "brutal") for the fun of it.
With the online aspect of the game, there are 2 modes of play and only a few maps. Online is mediocre at best and there just isn't much content there to keep people coming back for more. However, the developers of the game did deviate from the standard "deathmatch" style of games for something more unique to Dark Sector, being "Epidemic" and "Infection" game modes which are worth at least checking out if you can get enough people on to get a game started.
The final aspect of the game is the achievements. They are all well-rounded with the only difficult ones being for online (Hero, Hero of the People) due to the amount of grinding for points that it will take to obtain. Aside from that, the achievements in the game are well done and are fun to get.
Overall, Dark Sector is definitely a game to rent if you have high standards but if you find it for under about $40, it's worth picking up and will last long enough until the next good game comes out.

This is my second disc I have had to buy for the one year that I have had my 360 and it is by far the most played game on my 360. Not only one the best shooters, but a third person shooter (which seems to be rarity with Halo and Halo clones). Plus an innovative weapon that changes the way you think about throwing something in a game.

The story is pretty solid and the graphics are amazing. I was and still am more impressed with the graphics of Dark Sector than I have games released in the last year. The sound effects are realistic enough that I rarely play with the SF on. When you bring the pain to an enemy, you are going to hear about it.

There is one more difficulty level after you have complete the first play through. There is a multiplayer, which is still fairly active. I don't play online myself much, but most of the time when I do there are people there to play with. I wouldn't say you could get on a daily basis and play, but fairly frequently.

The achievements are pretty cool too. They encourage the player to search for items, use new found powers, and seek to increase your skills as you play through. If you are going to play the hard mode, getting all the achievements will prepare you for the harder difficulty.

By far my favorite game of this generation's consoles, and one that I find is greatly underappreciated and unknown by many. The only reason I know of it, is because the console I bought last Christmas had this game packaged with it. Go out and get it . . . it's worth the money.

Dark Sector is a fun game in the likes of Gears of War. The control scheme is almost exactly the same so if you had played Gears as I had before getting into Dark Sector then you'll have no problems at all switching over. The action is good - the glaive is quite fun to use - and the story moves along at an even pace. As you progress through the game your character gains additional powers that help even out the playing field, and keep things fresh. Some might say that the use of the glaive is over done but I honestly never really tired of using it. There was definitely a certain feeling of satisfaction from getting a curved head kill using the blade - especially if you curved it around a corner or such to kill an enemy hiding behind cover.

That said the controls are very fluid. Hayden, the title character, moves swiftly under the Gears control scheme and the action feels pretty fluid. The game is also all about cover but it's a little more forgiving if you just run around and shoot - early on anyway. There close quarters combat is almost entirely an after thought and it's extremely weak, requiring you to sometimes hit an opponent over 4 or 5 times before you can finally kill them off with a quick time event finisher.

Although the earlier chapters seem to zoom by, as you progress into the storyline the levels definitely get long. Sometimes almost too long as you are forced to navigate tunnel after tunnel of seemingly pointless railstations, or buildings.

The graphics are amazing for Dark Sector. Water effects are spectacular as is the character bump mapping. Especially during the day sequences the game shines, as at night when everything gets darker it's harder to see the lush graphics.

Solid game, fun shooting, unique power ups as well as weapon upgrades to collect keep it from getting stale. If you like third person shooters then you will probably enjoy this but millage may vary!

The game is ok. Sometimes it's hard to know where to go. Everything kind of looks the same.I love the Condemned franchise(xbox360),Resident evil 4, (ps2) and was hoping this game would have similar game play.That was not the case.I would not recommend this game. I've played tons worse or my rating would be lower.The controls are good, no trouble moving around. However when shooting around I think it's cool when the windows shatter and small things like that make the game feel more realistic.Even a better arsenal of fire power.
Bottom line: this game is nothing to write home about.Nothing really stands out.If you have the chance to play this game before paying do it. Bioshock, Condemned 1&2 ,Resistance Fall of Man 3, now invest in those!! Good luck and have fun.