During this past week’s Game Developer Conference, TGR was lucky enough to be invited to a D3Publisher event featuring a number of games, but of course the real star of the show was Dark Sector. Although we were shown some more single player footage of the game, the big news was the unveiling of the game’s multiplayer mode. It was clear from our time spent with the game that Dark Sector’s multiplayer component will be quite different from most multiplayer action games, and all of the main character Hayden’s powers will factor heavily into its gameplay.

During our playtime with our colleagues of the gaming press, there were a total of six players participating in the action, although the game’s developer DE (Digital Extremes) explained that the maximum will be 10 players in the final version of the game. We played two different modes, Infection and Epidemic, which also happen to be the only two modes that the game will ship with, but we were that told more are planned for future downloadable content.

When you first pick up Dark Sector, things will immediately feel a bit familiar as the game possesses a very similar control layout to that of Gears of War. There is the typical over the shoulder view of your character, the left trigger pulls up a targeting crosshair, and the A (or X) button is used for taking cover, as well as rolling and running. Even the B  (or Square) button is used for melees and finishing moves on unsuspecting opponents.

Those guys have no idea what’s waiting for them

Some of the controls differ depending on if you are playing as Hayden or a soldier. When playing as Hayden, RB (R1) is used to throw your glaive, where as a soldier can lay down a proximity mine instead, as well as using Y drop a waypoint on Hayden for all to see. For the most part the controls felt pretty decent, but one thing we found a bit uncomfortable was the extreme sensitivity of aiming when zoomed in with the left trigger.

The first mode that we played was Infection, which works like a game of tag. There are five soldiers and one player as Hayden, the idea is that the soldiers must kill the infected player who is imbued with all the powers from the single player game, thus given quite the edge. Whoever takes out the infected player starts a new round where they are then infected.

In addition to carrying a gun gamers playing as Hayden will have access to the glaive weapon, cloaking (holding Y or Triangle), a shield (tapping Y ro Triangle), and the after touch control of the glaive, which does not have the camera following the blade as in single player. In order to activate after touch, the player must zoom in, hold RB (R1), and release it correctly upon a visual queue from the aiming reticule. Holding RB (R1) will also increase the effectiveness of the glaive, allowing it to slice your opponents in half instead of merely cutting them.