Dark Void Review

1 Comments Posted by Burn360 staff on January 18, 2010 at 4:19 pm

Dark Void is the soon to be released third person action adventure game by Air Tight Games and Capcom. Dark Void is an interesting take on the genre, as the developers look to meld third person cover mechanics combat and vertical combat. There are also heavy flying elements in the game which include dogfighting. The story of Dark Void is largely centered around the main character William Augustus Grey. Grey, a cargo pilot who crashes in the Bermuda Triangle, is transported to a parallel universe where he encounters “The Survivors”. Teamed up with the survivors, Will must do battle with The Watchers, an ancient alien race that is secretly trying to enslave mankind.

The Good

Vertical Combat – Putting all dimensions in play here, Dark Void challenges both gamers minds and stomachs alike. Dark Void’s vertical combat is fun and intuitive its most likely the one and only glowing bright point in a series of missteps that the game took. That being said many 3rd person shooters have become stale and most are knock-offs of the Gears of War franchise. While much of the cover system feels very similar to Gears when you are on the ground, the vertical combat and cover is something new. Although it may be somewhat lacking, I think the game used it just sparingly enough to make it fun when the situation arises. Be warned you may lose your grip, and your cookies if you are prone to fits of vertigo.

Well it sounded Good in Theory – Honestly I am reaching here, trying to find anything truly good to say about Dark Void. I didn’t really enjoy the game, but Air Tight Games really put forth a good effort here in giving gamers something new and innovative. Boiled down they tried to combine the success of their Crimson Skies game and its flight elements with a new and unique approach to third person shooters. While I for one appreciate that it wasn’t like anything I had ever played before, introducing new ways to play games is never an easy thing to do.

The Bad

These guys made the great Crimson Skies? – You wouldn’t know it from playing the flying sequences in Dark Void. The Dogfighting sequences of the game occur infrequently and I for one was glad for that fact. Enemies seemed to almost always remain behind you, no matter what tactical maneuvers you managed to pull off. The controls felt sloppy, and the aiming was equally bad. Most of the dog fighting sequences boiled down to boosting out to far enough range where you could turn around and blast one or two enemies before turning around and repeating the same process for the next ten minutes or so. Our recommendation use the AA guns they are much more accurate and lethal. If not you will be prone to ship jacking cut-scenes which are about as fun as getting kicked in the balls.

Artificial Intelligence or Lack Thereof - Whether fighting on the ground or in the air your allies d0 next to nothing. It seemed that your allies were more of an aesthetic to the combat rather a tool that was necessary to win any particular battle. Equally lacking in Dark Void was the enemy AI. Proficient in using cover in the game, enemy AI units would also wait behind cover for you to come melee them with little to no reaction or knowledge of your presence. Our recommendation: Melee , when fighting enemies always melee first, shoot second, or shoot as you are running to melee. The action freezes and you can go from enemy to enemy in close proximity while taking little to no damage.

The Story - The story of Dark Void seems like it had much more to be conveyed than actually was through the game. There is little to no explanation of the underlying plot, other than vaguely pieced together cut-scenes. With no explanations the game leaves alot to the imagination at some points. By the end it didn’t matter much as I felt disassociated with the game around mid-way through.

The Game Tries to Do Too Many Things – Dark Void tries to bring together a lot of different gameplay elements to form the game. The result is that it doesn’t form a cohesive experience for the player. When combined with the fact that the campaign is extremely short by ODST standards, the player never really has chance to get comfortable with either the controls or the possibilities of the game. Most levels will neither challenge or frustrate the player. With that there is no real incentive to explore different strategies, as your basic controls are more than enough to get the job done, tedious as some may be.

Overall,

Dark Void tries many things new and old but excels in none. While somewhat charming, and at times fun, the core elements that make a game great or even good are lacking from Dark Void. Willing to be daring enough to introduce gameplay elements that have never been seen before is welcomed. However, they could have developed these features more, and as a result the game has underachiever written all over it. Not that it’s the worst game I have ever played, but as the bar gets raised Dark Void comes in decidedly lower.