Sky Captain puts on a jetpack and fights the Geth, directed by Spielberg and written by George Lucas.
Dark Void can be best summarised as Sky Captain meets Steven Spielberg and Stargate. It's the story of a pilot that crashes in the Bermuda Triangle and gets trapped in another dimension, The Void. Here, ancient reptilian gods and their mechanical servants plot to return to Earth, and, well, the story is too interesting (for a video game at least) to be spoiled. Suffice is to say that the hero's initial thoughts that these aliens are Fascist aren't that far from the truth.
The game introduces new elements very gently. First, you get used to the cover system in basic shoot-outs. You'll then discover what vertical cover really means. You'll get a hoverpack, and finally a jetpack that lets you be the Rocketeer.
Dark Void constantly builds on top of these elements until the very end. Vertical cover starts as a gimmick and ends up being a mind-bending exercise in level design, bringing back memories of Prey's gravity alterations or Portal/Narbacular Drop's puzzles. It's the kind of stuff you expect to see in an indie game, not in a blockbuster from a major studio.
You'll fight in battles that take place both in air and on ground. Dark Void is at its best when it mixes on-foot an aerial sections. The open and cleverly designed levels and the titanic scale allow a lot of freedom. You are always able to pull off impresive stunts. I had a lot of fun pretending I'm starring in a movie and trying to look as cool as possible. There was a palpable sense of danger every time I tried a new stunt, amplified by the gigantic scale of the levels and the chaos around. You must learn to master the jetpack and abandon your orientation habits – I spent a lot of time flying upside down and marveling at the impressive alien machines... that I was climbing on the inside.
The weapons start out pretty lame, but the upgrade system makes them really fun to use; you wouldn't think that seeing there are only three upgrades available though. The enemies have different enough behaviours and weaponry to make them fun to fight, and every once in a while you'll have a hard time outmaneuvering an evil UFO that locked its sights on you. Did I mention you have a jetpack? A jetpack! That's incredible stuff right there. The simple fact that you see your character flying around means a lot, it's not the same detached stuff as when playing games that feature aircrafts. It's hard to describe, but the feeling that you, *you* are flying is great. Thankfully, the controls are good – just tweak your mouse settings a bit. It's one of the few flying games that controls well using the mouse and keyboard.
I never paid too much attention to the marketing. I thought it was supposed to be a sinister alien adventure, closer to Dead Space than Crimson Skies. The reality is that the game feels like a 1940's comic book, with exaggerated cartoonish designs, tons of cheese and filled with a whole lot of fun, camp and outrageous George Lucas moments.
A few months ago we learned that Brad Pitt bought the rights to develop a Dark Void movie. If everything goes right, expect a kick-ass adventure movie. There's no reason why Dark Void can't be a proud successor of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.
Not everything's so good though. It's pretty unstable. Alt-tab will most likely freeze it. The cutscenes have a bad habit of not fading out fast enough, thus ending in a disturbing frozen animation (same thing happened in Wheelman). It sports the default ugly, oily, pink-and-silver look of Unreal 3. It seriously lacks colours. The textures and special effects are nothing special, except for a couple of nice PhysX-powered particle effects. To be fair though, the levels are huge so it kinda makes up for the mediocre look.
Unfortunately, the final third falls apart. It feels rushed, and even the story becomes a bit disjointed. The pacing is all over the place and, even worse, all your toys will be removed for a short (but annoying enough) period. The dreaded escort missions strike again. Another problem is that the checkpoints are really far apart. But when it's fun, it's damn fun.
By the way, the soundtrack is wonderful. It perfectly fits the game – it's exotic, melodious and very, very catchy. I can't get the main motif out of my head.
Dark Void is short. I finished it in just six hours, while taking my time to look awesome and come up with insane maneuvers. There's no multiplayer, which sucks. You have a New Game + option and can replay any episode (and I certainly will replay a few fantastic sections), but it's simply too expensive for what it offers.
Pick it up when it drops to 20-30 dollars, once you get used to the flying controls you'll have a lot of fun. The demo is a bad representation of the game, it's the beggining and a part of the ending section of a very cool level. They missed a huge opportunity by removing a good 20 minutes from it.
If you like Dark Void, also try Crimson Skies for awesome and campy aerial combat, Prey for quirky alien level design and Rogue Trooper for a very flexible cover-based action game.