Jetpack-clad space-marines soar a bit too high for their own good, in this ultimately forgettable third-person-shooter.
In constantly halted development, Dark Void finally makes it's debut on PS3, XBOX 360 as well as PC platforms in January of 2010.
PLOT and ASPECTS:
Myth and legend alike surround the various mysteries behind the numerous disappearances of mortals and objects alike into the depths of Bermuda's infamous triangle, and yet all answers in wait have yet to be found. Taking influence from this very subject, Air-Tight games set players into the shoes of one William Augustus Grey; a cocky, comical tough-guy protagonist with a personality see-through enough to yawn repeatedly after his first few lines; this is not helped by the appearance of a certain Uncharted's Nolan North as his voice.
Prior to World-War-2; while in transit across the great blue vast body of water known as the Pacific along with his stereotyped English colleague "Ava", his plane runs into a "game-stopping bug" above the Bermuda-Triangle that sends everything inside plummeting towards the ground, in a violent crash; that is of course, after passing through a planar-rift that opens up an entirely new plane of existence, otherwise known as "The Void". Here, every disappearance soon becomes accounted for after the two protagonists discover that the surviving humans in this "other-world" are in the midst of a long-lasting conflict with an ancient race of mechanically enhanced lizard-folk from another planet unknown to humanity named "The Watchers". Their sole purpose is to kill and enslave humanity, and with no reason given other than that...they're evil...because...they're aliens, and therefore they are out to destroy humanity; Will and Ava set out on an explosive mission to save themselves and get back to their homeworld.
From here, Dark Void's practically non-existent plot escalates at an alarming rate down-hill into an ultimately ridiculous and forgettable series of conclusions, which in turn lead players up to an ending so obviously shouting "sequel", that they might just rally to set up a full-scale boycott for Capcom due to there overt marketing schemes within their own games [not seriously].
GAMEPLAY and ELEMENTS:
Airtight awards players with a gameplay system that ranges throughout the game from the "boring" mark on the scale, all the to "mildly interesting and intense", with certain sections of the game relying heavily on generic [yet clunky] cover-based shooting [Gears Clone] as opposed to high-flying jetpack-dogfight sequences respectively speaking.
While utilizing Dark Void's primary-novelty; players are allowed to step into robo-jetpacks within the confines of jagged-cliff air-arenas in which they are tasked with either of two objectives: The first, is getting from point A to point B. While the second, is the plain and simple order we all know a bit too well by know; kill everything that moves.
The setup may sound simple, and it is; yet dog-fighting with alien-flying saucers has never been so inventive, and it's here that players will most likely find most of their replay value, as intense stunts are only the beginning of the many possibilities waiting to be explored with this seemingly basic high-flying device.
Armed with two high-cal heavy machine-guns and harnessing the ability to dodge missiles while in flight, players can really take on opposing vehicles in one of two ways; firstly, they can perform a tedious chase of the highly-maneurverable alien-spheres, or they can choose to grab a-hold of one, go through a series of button mashing sequences and eventually take control of the aircraft.
While the concept seems bright, flying can feel fairly clunky at times, and dogfights soon become more of a chore than an enjoyable event.
More on the down-side of "Dark Void", comes constant intermission-shooting levels, that offer players strict "shoot and kill everything in the level to win sequences", reminiscent of a clone-gone wrong originating from a game such as Gears of War. Playing out as cover-based third-person shooter sections, these areas provide most of the down-fall of Dark-Void.
Allowing players to only take cover on certain objects, rather than any wall they can find, playing on harder difficulty settings will require quite a lot of patience, seeing as opponents [even of lower difficulty settings] soak up damage like a wilting plant soaks up water; and even worse, ammunition is scarce - headshots are really the only means of survival, and there's no auto-aim system on consoles, which in-turn guarantees console-gamers a hard-enough time using a controller. In addition, bad level design choices offer up cheap deaths on a mass-scale, ranging from running into invisible walls on clearly unobstructed areas, all the way to hitting death triggers from taking a short-cut by jumping down to the lower level of a building, across a distance that would seem ridiculous to die from.
Dark Void's also offers up a below-average array of typical alien-weaponry, ranging from plasma rifles to zero-gravity cannons.
Overall, the Void has little to offer to hard-core TPS fans, and aside from dedicated fly-boy gamers looking for some creativity on the jetpack front, it's hard to recommend this title to anyone looking for a decent 2010 shooter.
VISUALS and EFFECTS:
Utilizing a lightly-customized Unreal-Engine 3, Dark Void's weakest point yet, is perhaps it's graphical capacity. While the stylish artwork and satisfying sun-flaring techniques are passably well-crafted to some extent, the now 4-year old engine shows it's age through the form of grainy textures, unrealistic landscapes and bland shader-effects. Further-more, character models are both poorly detailed, with little personality to be viewed and during the numerous in-engine cutscenes - badly animated; these sarcastic animation issues are reflected through cartoony movements somewhat reminiscent of a Pixar movie; an in-definitively bad decision by the developers, as it more or less comes across as lack-of-effort, as opposed to stylization.
ULTIMATE CONCLUSION and OVERALL VALUE:
Dark Void is an ambitious title, plagued by some severely overshadowing technical problems, bad design choices and an ultimately unfinished product with a story desiring of no honorary award.
"Jetpacking" around large-scale maps is fun for a while, yet clunky controls and unpolished gameplay result in a product well-deserving of a makeover.
Disappointment of the year? We'll have to see, yet as with their previous release - Bionic Commando - this is one game that Capcom shouldn't consider giving a sequel anytime soon, and won't ever do so in their right minds.