Dark Sector drops you into the shoes of Hayden Tenno, an American special forces agent, who just so happens to be tracking down a former agent in the fictional Soviet city of Lasria. It doesn't take long for Hayden to locate his target, Mezner, whose massive beard and crazy eyes immediately mark him as a bit of a loon. As it turns out, Mezner wants to unleash a virus upon the entire world. Talk about a bummer. But for gamers, this offers all kinds of goodies: an antagonist, zombies, and special powers.
Hayden is soon infected with the virus himself, but instead of mutating into a raving zombie mutant freak, he manages to fight the virus and hold on to most of his humanity. Hayden gains the power to wield the glaive (rather out of nowhere) and develops other abilities as the game progresses. Dark Sector's storyline is its biggest weak point; the plot simply isn't well-developed and the characters lack the personality and chemistry to make them memorable. In the end, the plot is really just a flimsy excuse for traversing the dreary Soviet landscape.
Thankfully, the action mostly makes up for it. By the time the final showdown with Mezner rolls around, you probably won't have much of a clue as to what's been going on, or why -- but you'll know it was a fun ride. Dark Sector offers a plethora of tense and exciting moments: more than once I found myself frantically backpedaling, attempting to kill a horde of zombies before they could grab hold of me or smash me to a pulp with lead pipes. Also, the showdown with Mezner's armored bodyguard, Nemesis, was exhilarating and intense. By the way, Nemesis? Totally the Guyver.
As is likely already quite clear, Dark Sector's gameplay revolves around the glaive. Hayden wields his death blade in one hand and can hold a pistol in the other. I probably don't need to tell you it's a lethal combination. The glaive can be charged up for a quadruple-damage power attack, and the path of the blade can be altered in slow-motion with an aftertouch feature. The charge attack requires some precise timing to pull off, and while the move is by no means difficult, it provides just enough of a challenge to keep tense moments especially heart-pumping. Additionally, the glaive can briefly take on the unique attributes of certain elements it comes into contact with: the traditional fire, lightning, and ice powerups add an awesome twist to the combat, and are also important for most of Dark Sector's puzzles, which are typically pretty simple and show up rarely.
