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Only recently have I acquired the ability to play a first person shooter with any skill. Before last year, my experiences consist of the first 1-3 levels of many titles, a lot of dying, and should I dare multi-player - many, many respawns. Having just gotten my Xbox 360 back from RRoD repair, I was giddy to receive darkSector. The wicked-cool glaive for a weapon had nothing to do with my enthusiasm. No, not one bit.

As Hayden Tenno, reluctant special operative, I enter Lasria (Russia) to stop a madman from spreading a virus that turns people - and the occasional animal - into mutant killing machines. All is going well, I'm setting C4 charges in key areas, when said madman captures me and infects me. That totally screws my day. In retaliation, I blow the building. Apparently, my "people" who sent me to do this neglected to take into account that doing so would infect the surrounding town and to top it off, said nutball isn't dead. Oh, and the infection ... I'm transforming. My skin is slowly turning to steel; I have amazing reflexes (except that I run like my grandmother and forget how to duck); and that wicked-cool glaive I mentioned before? It literally grows out of my right hand.

Of course I have to go stop the whacko that is up to whatever it is that madmen do (he'll give me his Roy Batty speech at the end). As I work my way towards my goal, I must remove a few impediments: chiefly the Lasrian forces and the transformed. Ultimately, darkSector is level after level of wave upon wave of baddies who want to shoot me, crush me, eat me and generally end my existence. Being the mutant badass that I am, this isn't going to happen.

Normally, I save the things I don't like about a game until the end of the review but I'm going to get them out of the way right now. Graphically, certain portions of this title simply aren't finished. Models had clipping issues - I'd run towards a flashing item thinking I should interact with it and it was an art error; textures were still low resolution requiring the use of the flashlight all of the time; the bloom (brightness) was far too high but the game itself was much too dark - the combination making it impossible for me to make any adjustments; and the dark/light contrast was drastic. I don't understand how I could run, during broad daylight, into a shadow and have the "press b to vault" indication appear and need a flashlight to find that there is a stack of approximately 20 sandbags in front of me - three times.

Ok, infection running rampant, big ole shuriken-looking thing is now attached to/part of my hand but I can also throw it while I shoot with my left. Rock. I completed nine levels before repeating an environment; there is no lack of variety. There is also no lack of enemies. When I wasn't taking out Lasrians in hazmat suits, I was culling the hordes of infected.

Initially, I could throw the glaive, injuring or killing my enemy. Each successive level and increase in infection increased my skills. The ability to steal an item - use the glaive to pick something up - changed my tactics completely and made for interesting multiplayer dynamics, brief though my experience was. As Hayden, I may have been rather superhuman but I was still limited by a distinct lack of ammunition. Though I could throw my glaive, distance is a limiting factor. Using the steal ability, I could simply turn around and pick up the weapon of the newly deceased some 30 yards behind me. But those Lasrians are crafty; knowing the infected would want weapons they built in detection and the weapon mechanism self-destructs after about 30 seconds. However, 30 seconds can be a long time.

I continued through the city, gaining abilities that served as keys to puzzles or ways to uniquely kill groups of enemies (remember this in your first sewer encounter) but once I gained the aftertouch ability everything changed. Throwing the glaive then directing it so that it swerves to the left to take out the second guy because the first took cover was simply sweet.

Speaking of cover (or a distinct lack thereof) the AI in the game varied from oblivious signposts to Tom Clancy-envisioned intelligent. Fire into an area and they may pop up like prairie dogs communicating in packs. Then again, while I was gleefully dispatching them if I wasn't paying attention the uber-soldier from hell would climb up next to me and take me out in one shot. I give the infected more credit; single-minded in their pursuit of food or death they simply kept coming in any way possible.

darkSector is not a long game; depending upon your skills you may get 7-10 hours of it. It is very linear, auto-save all the way with no going back. There is an option to replay on brutal difficulty but beyond this the only extendibility is the multi-player. Because I received my copy pre-launch, my play experience was limited. There are two modes: Extinction - team play; and Infection - Hayden vs. everyone else. There were a few games available in Infection; though only one map, it was great fun - assuming the 6 of us could take Hayden down. Hayden is hard enough. A good player as Hayden is hell.

Graphics and length aside, I like darkSector. This is a solid game that isn't overly difficult and doesn't insult the player by being too simple. The story is compelling; the voice over is solid, the ambient sound amazing. A friend played for a bit while I was and said it wasn't his type of FPS because there was neither "powered armor" nor could he "run and gun" but it required "skill to play". Yes, it does. And a little bit of new thinking in weaponry use. If you've ever wondered what it would be like to be a man of steel ... with a glaive, now is your chance.