Interview: Dark Sector Infects PS3 & 360

It's one of the best-looking games we've seen on the new systems to date, but will this-gen's first ever announced title deliver or fade to black? Producer Josh Austin talks.

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Another nice touch is that the glaive is luminous, so it's like a long distance, projectile flashlight - at one stage in the demo we enter a dark, claustrophobic cave where we have no idea what may be lurking beyond, and a fling of the glowing boomerang-like glaive is not just visually brilliant to look at, but also shows whether there's anyone - or anything - we might want to watch out for.

Players can also 'combine' attacks together, for example by throwing the glaive down one side of a room to take out enemies, while shooting guys on the other side of the room as the glaive returns - it's a charming effect. "We have other powers that we're not talking about yet," promised Josh. "But we're not overwhelming the player with a ton of options - we're giving them enough so that they learn something new each level, as the game progresses. It's like Zelda where you get this mysterious item on one level, and then learn why it's useful on the next."

"The glaive is definitely one of those weapons we want players to run in and explore everything in the whole world - what happens if I throw it here or there... there are scenarios where you can actually target, say, a light source and then an enemy, in that order, by throwing it in a certain way. Some of the things we're playing around with are going to be a lot of fun. You can pull cover away with it, rip stuff down - there are going to be a lot of interactive elements."

From the first-hand Xbox 360 version we witnessed, there's no doubt that Dark Sector boats some of the best graphics we've seen on any console to date. Rain, lightning and some really nice effects made this dark, night-time level something very atmospheric and special, and the screenshots haven't done justice to the way this title looks in motion. When you throw your weapon through smoke, the smoke distorts convincingly according to the direction you've thrown it in. The mutated enemies are excellently detailed and there are some nicely animated death scenes whenever you take them out.

"We are using [tactical] cover in this game," says Josh. "But it's not all about cover - it's more for setting things up, looking around the environment and surveying the area, it gives you a chance to figure out what your next move is and regenerate some health." And there's no on-screen display with health status or the like - "all that stuff is on the character," Josh explains. "So if I fire the gun, there's a yellow blinking light on the side of your actual gun indicating that you're low on ammo, and it turns red if you're out of ammo. We're using indicators like these to keep the player immersed as much as possible." Similarly, he showed us, when players are taking a beating in the game, the screen will seem redder and you'll hear the character's heart pounding, while different 'pain' animations will indicate different injuries.

So the player's connection with the main character seems pretty essential - but what about interaction with other, non-playable characters in the game? We asked Josh about this to get a sense of whether the world will feel as real as in, for example, Half-Life 2 or even GTA IV. "He's evolving into a hero," explains Josh. "We've got a great character arc for him, and a some of that comes about when we you run into civilians that are going to get shot by soldiers; some of the soldiers will use civilians as bait to lure monsters out, so you're going to have an opportunity to save civilians, and they might lead you out into a black market area or give you something to pass on to get another weapon or whatever -there's going to be a lot of interaction."

Dark Sector will be released in October, and promises at least fifteen hours of gameplay plus a really cool multiplayer mode, according to Josh. And since it's a 'superhero origin' story, gamers can definitely expect a lot more Dark Sector after this first game, if it lives up to the high expectations we now have for it.

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