Dark Void Review

Dark Void, Fantastic First Impressions, but was it enough?

Having potential means to have possibility or capable of being but not yet. This is how I would best describe Dark Void. The game jets in with a fantastic first impression by blasting you into the sky in control of a jetpack wielding hero weaving between cliffs and tearing down enemy saucers but after an exhilarating start, Dark Void fails to take things further, leaving you to wallow in the shallow waters of what Dark Void could have been.

So Who is your bloke in Dark Void?

You play as Will Grey in Dark Void, who is voiced by none other than Nolan North (Uncharted 2), a pilot who while flying through the Bermuda Triangle is sucked into the Void during a massive storm. He finds himself in a transitional jungle world which is inhabited by both humans and a hostile Alien race called the Watchers. With some grounded ties to real world history and Tribal Alien worship, Will finds himself in the middle of a war to save the world. If Uncharted married a sci-fi geeky girl, Dark Void would be their baby.

Who is trying to kill you in Dark Void?

The Watchers are robotic entities controlled by slug like creatures that make a deadly first appearance by coldly snapping the neck of a human solder. This is and will be the only time you will feel fear of a Watcher. That are heavily armored being robotic but they are not very bright and killing them involves nothing more than waiting for them to stand still and firing at them until they explode. Tech points are collected like XP for kills and can be used to upgrade weapons as you make your way through the void.

War is waged both on the ground and in the air. On the ground it the gameplay is much like a Gears of War/Uncharted style of cover and shoot. Will can also jump over obstacles and melee Watchers which ironically is a one hit kill move. The game also introduces a new innovative vertical cover mechanic which tilts the camera to face right up or right down depending on whether you are climbing or descending a cliff. It’s something we’re all yet to see in game before and it works really well. It shifts the ground game from a horizontal perspective to vertical one, taking the combat to a whole new orientation.

Dark Void now you’re in control of the man with the pack!

Dark Void really comes to life when Will fires the boosters of his Nickola Tesla(yes, he is in stuck in the void too) designed jetpack. It’s not all that surprising given that the games developer Airtight games brought us Crimson Sky’s: High Road To Revenge only a few years back. The flying is great, weaving through mazed cliffs and taking down enemy craft with the jetpack mounted machine guns is thrilling. The combination of Will’s leather jacket, boots and helmet made me think of the 1991 Rocketeer film only now in Dark Void you’re in control of the man with the pack.

The fun of flying is negated by the terrible control transition from ground to sky and sky to ground which was probably my main cause of my death through out the game. It helps to set the y-axis controls the same for both ground and flight but it does not solve the problem entirely. Although being able to fly is a great feature in the game it’s rarely used for nothing more than taking down the enemy saucers or slowing your fall into a big hole. It would have been really nice to be able to use it more freely during battles and as an alternative to climbing but sadly the wonky controls prevent any kind of pinpoint control.

Dark Void Story?

The storyline takes a back seat to the endless drones of Watchers that you find yourself up against. There are many things that are never explained and the narrative is driven by no more than the odd cut scene and in game dialogue which seems rushed and incomplete. It feels like a story told with only a fraction of the original script. The games score however, rings with a breath of fresh air, superbly composed by Battlestar Galactica’s Bear McCreary and in all fairness would have been better off accompanying a better game.

The games frame rate was extremely choppy and on more than one occasion the gamplay kicked into a slow-mo, dreamy state that could only be rectified by restarting the game. Restarting was not only required to get it running smoothly again but was forced onto me by numerous system freezes. This added with the painstakingly long route through the menus to get it running again was a big frustration.

Dark Void weighs in at around 6 hours and for a relatively short game I expected a lot more bang but the game fails to deliver that magic spark. The jetpack flying is great and Airtight succeeded in delivering a great new game mechanic but with the failed support in the departments of gameplay, story and overall stability, what could have been a great game gets chopped down at it’s knees and added to the pile of “had potential”.

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2. E3 2009: New Dark Void Screens that are quite dark
3. Dark Void ties into real history
4. Capcom teases us with this Dark Void trailer
5. Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena Dev Diary