Dark Sector

GC '07: Dark Sector Hands-On Preview

LEIPZIG, Germany--Not much has been seen of Dark Sector, but developer Digital Extremes and publisher D3 chose the Leipzig Games Convention to give the game a playable unveiling. Clearly taking an influence from last year's Gears of War, this third-person action game sees you taking the role of an infected black-ops agent endowed with superhuman abilities. Now being chased by the agency he was once a part of, Hayden Tenno harnesses his infected body to become even more powerful, all while outrunning his previous employer across Eastern Europe.

Sitting down to play the game at the D3 booth in Leipzig, it's clear to see that the game takes its inspiration from Gears of War. The same run-and-cover mechanic of Epic Games' acclaimed shooter makes another appearance here, right down to the fact that you can perform close-up melee kills on enemies. Instead of the futuristic setting though, Dark Sector takes place in an Eastern European contemporary setting, with you doing battle with a bio-suited government agents.

Dark Sector incorporates a unique weapon called the glaive -- a sharp boomerang-like device that's controlled by Tenno's newly-mutated arm. First of all, it can slice limbs off on both its outward and return journey. You can also sling the glaive at a number of environmental elements such as fire, ice and electricity to collect its effects. This means that you can use the weapon to electrocute enemies, set them on fire or freeze them, or even just light the way through a darkened corridor. There's plenty of potential for this weapon in the finished game, and while the demo only showed the electricity effects, the developer promises that the weapon will have uses for both attacking and puzzle-solving.

In addition to the glaive, Dark Sector puts a whole host of traditional weapons, gun emplacements and melee kills at your disposal. The demo we played offered an arsenal of handguns, shotguns and grenades to play around with, all of which provided different ways to dispatch the enemy. The handgun is fairly weak but it is precise, allowing you to take off an enemy's gas mask from afar. Manage to perform this precise shot and the enemy will run around trying to hold their breath, at which point you can take them out with a shotgun or your glaive. Go up close to the enemy, press the 'B' button and you can perform deadly neck-breaks instead.

The government operatives won't just stand there and take your attacks. They promise to dynamically adapt to attacks, taking cover from glaive attacks and tossing gas grenades at you to compromise your vision. The Leipzig demo also offered a first chance to see the first boss of the game, the colossus, who makes an appearance in the fourth mission. He's fairly stupid, climbing around a church and throwing debris at you, but it's meant to be a gentle introduction to using the advanced features of the glaive. To beat the creature, you need to cover the weapon in fire and then throw it at the enemy in order to stun him. From there, you go in close to the colossus and perform a series of button presses to wound him, much like the quick-time events in Shenmue and Tomb Raider: Legend.

It's clear from the demo that Digital Extremes intends to combine the gameplay of Gears of War with the horror element of Resident Evil 4. At the moment, it's quite reminiscent of the recent PlayLogic title Infernal, and it's clear there's still some work to do before the February 2008 release date. We also know very little about the multiplayer game at this point, other than the fact that the developer promises it will be innovative. We'll keep an eye on how the game is progressing, and as soon as we get an update we'll make sure we check it out.

Gamespot