Dark Sector's a third-person shooter. The main character's named Hayden, working for The Agency to bring a scientist named Mezner's. Mezner's at a research facility in Russia trying to harness a technovirus, both to amplify himself, and take control of all the seemingly mindless people already infected. Hayden quickly runs afoul of a particularly powerful one of these infected, and winds up at the mercy of Mezner. Who promptly infects Hayden with the virus. One of his arms begins to change, appearing to have a metallic sheath, but more critically, he sprouts a glaive. Not the long two-handed blade, a three-pronged throwing weapon*. It comes back when you throw it! It can absorb certain elemental properties from the surroundings (fire, ice, electricity)!
The glaive and Hayden continue to power up across the game. I was especially grateful for the Shield, and especially the Shift (temporary invisibility) upgrades. Initially, Hayden's goal seems to be escape. Reach the chopper, get home, get something to stop the virus. After all, this was supposed to be Hayden's last job, and he wasn't really in the right frame of mind for it to begin with. Then he finds complications. First, a helpful old double agent who finds himself in a spot of trouble. Second, Nadia. Nadia was part of The Agency once, but now she's out, and working with Mezner. She hates the Agency for some reason, and Hayden in particular. Hayden feels quite guilty about it, for what that's worth.
Dark Sector only allows you to carry two weapons at a time, though there are Black Markets scattered about under manholes which will hold on to your other guns in the meantime. If you carry a pistol, you can wield it and the glaive simultaneously, but the shotguns and such require both hands. I had read a review that said the glaive was so powerful they didn't see the need to upgrade their weapons (you can find upgrades scattered about the levels). I actually didn't like using the glaive in combat. If you throw it, you have to wait until it comes back (or fire the pistol anyway while you wait). If you use it up close, that means you're up close with an enemy, which is something shooters have taught me to avoid. The glaive isn't hard to use in combat, other than a Power Throw is a specific move that requires precise timing. Not something I want to rely on while besieged by enemies (boss fights are another matter).
One thing Dark Sector did well was build up Hayden's opposite, the powerful infected I mentioned. After that encounter, he gets ambushed and thrown out of an attic by it once, and later tries to fight it, only to be beaten easily. At which point Hayden nearly gives up. Even with the glaive, he can't win. But the old man tells him where he can find his own Power Suit, like his opponent's. In RPGs there are fights you can't win, because the foe is meant to be a persistent problem through the game. This is a 3rd-person shooter version, only I didn't have to go through the frustration of actually conducting a battle I can't win. I watch it in cut scenes, feel Hayden's frustration rise and hope fall. Then, when the odds are actually even, I found myself with some real anticipation. It wasn't going to be a cakewalk, but I knew I could win, and I knew Hayden really badly wanted to win, if only because he was sick of getting kicked around. It's one of the better build-ups to a boss fight I can remember.
* I didn't know that was actually an accepted term for that sort of weapon, but Wikipedia suggests it was adopted as such during the 1980s.
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