Dark Sector Eyes-on

Gamers probably know Dark Sector as the first game ever announced for next-generation consoles. Announced by Digital Extremes in April 2004, the game backed into the shadows soon afterward and didn't emerge until last week, at an event held by D3 Publisher. A new trailer for Dark Sector preceded the event, showing off a brand new art style that ditched the sci-fi setting for urban grit.

It still has sci-fi elements, of course - players assume the role of a mutating anti-hero infected by a space-age plague - but developers wanted everything else ground in reality. In doing so, developers hope to accentuate the hero, Hayden Tenno, and his ever-evolving condition, as truly fantastic. There's no better way to make something special than to downplay everything else around it. Not to say the environments lack pizzazz - in fact, they look downright gorgeous - but it certainly focuses the spotlight on Hayden. Speaking of environments, the recent demo took him through a crumbling city filled with overturned cars and abandoned buildings. Snow covered the ground and drifted from the skies. Fire from trash cans lit nearby walls and objects, too. Even without some of the special effects in place, it's still a pretty game.

As a special operative in charge of "cleaning" messy political situations, Hayden travels to a fictional Soviet State to investigate a biological experiment. Like most biological experiments, this one has gone terribly wrong and turned a section of the population into ravenous killing machines. When Hayden arrives on the scene, he stumbles upon a war-in-progress between the "infected" and mysterious group of armed soldiers. He needs to find out what's up and fix everything before the world finds out half of Russia has evolved into monsters. A pretty big task, even for a guy who Digital Extremes likes to describe as a crossing between Jack Bauer and Wolverine. Either way, he needs to get the job done. Fortunately, he's not alone in his task.

via IGN