Aside from the less than intriguing plot, Dark Void's gameplay is a welcome change to the generic action shooter.
...Or shall we just admit the developers realised 'Black Hole' was a little too generic? Since Robert Zemeckis' Back to the Future II and Mr. McFly's floaty board that he unceremoniously robs from a child (and never gives back mind you), the notion of flying without wings has been a fantasy for many (though not for Westlife, it's apparently a reality for them). There's something about the freedom of movement, the elegance of form and the excavation of insect limbs from ones teeth that you simply cannot reproduce within the confines of a pilot driven, aluminium coffin, constructed as a perfect ecosystem for bacterial growth and distribution.
Dark Void is testament to this fact, as we are immediately inserted into the tight and restrictive pants of Will, presumably William though realising that a name with more than two syllables can sometimes sound a tad suspect if spoken by another male (unless they are Patrick Stewart), a decision was made to utilise the most optimistic of the three syllables... Will. Will is a pilot, as is standard for a game such as Dark Void, for otherwise his chosen career would not translate into what he will later be required to do. Will's job today, is to fly a passenger to a specified location over the Atlantic Ocean, turns out Will's passenger is an 'old flame', though the flame will quite clearly and 'miraculously' reignite within a small time-frame, what with all the sexual tension and the chemistry and the magnetism and the jet packs. What? Jet Packs? Yes. The highly strung love interests name is Ava, which is convenient as now when we put the two protagonists names together we can construct a variety of sentences e.g.
Bartender: "What can I get a fine, Jeggings wearing male such as yerself and the headstrong though submissive, but wont be able to bear your children due to the tightness of yer chosen attire, little missy behind you?"
Will: "I, Will, Will Ava smoothie, cos I'm a suave recovering alcoholic, and Ava, Will Ava Bloody Mary with extra Vodka as I would like to investigate the confines of her conservative, though possibly frilly, white panties."
This pretty much sums up the two characters personality traits.
As far as aeronautical flights go in video games, this one goes in the exact direction you would expect, if a plane lifts off, game physics dictate that there is a higher than average probability that it will land on its nose as opposed to the landing gear, especially so considering the flight path takes them directly into the Bermuda Triangle. The cause of such a catastrophe... Little green men! Well, tall, bio-synthetic humanoids with a rather nasty glowing retina and an inherent hatred for the humans they once ruled over, after they inevitably decided they weren't keen on being kept as people pets, rose up and cast them into the in-between dimension known as 'The Void'. Now, they have found a way to pass from the 'Void' into our world through a number of gaping portals, one being the Bermuda Triangle.
As the story progresses, Will comes into possession of the aforementioned Jet Pack, with which he uses to deal out some 'sky pain', the added novelty of such a device also enables for the seamless transition between aerial and Terra Firmer based combat, so you can be mashing up all manner of pitching, diving and barrel rolling E.T.'s in the stratosphere one minute, to simply cutting your pack's thrusters, buffering your descent with short, trouser cough based squirts of rocket juice, and prancing around a plasma streaked battlefield in your plimsolls the next. The freedom of movement therefore, is a welcome move upwards from regular shooters. It is something of a revelation when you find yourself outnumbered, out-gunned and squinting through the pink throbbing mist that signifies Will is very shortly to loose control of his bowels, curl up and die, to be able to look skywards, flip the bird to your dismayed assailants, deploy your awesome spine mounted rocket, then circle round and strafe the ground with your high calibre machine guns!
There are other interesting aspects to the game-play that deserve commendation, such as the vertical combat sections which, although looking rather ridiculous when moving about in this particular mode, nevertheless evoke a sense that there really is very little the game developers haven't explored in terms of landscape interaction and multi-faceted combat. There are occasions where it seems like your inner ear balancing mechanism may have liquidised and trickled down your neck, as the constant and often frantic shifts between air, walls and floor can sometimes have you wondering whether the arse you are sat on is really your head and you have in fact been feeding the wrong orifice your entire life.
Aside from the less than intriguing plot, (seriously, shallower than a 50 Cent CD) Dark Void is a brave new world for the gamer looking for something a little different to the generic Action Shooter. And for those whose lives were taken from them between 2003-2009 as a result of the epic science fiction series 'Battlestar Galactica', Bear McCreary the series composer lends his considerable talents to the game's score, a move which only heightens and reinforces its focus on aerial exuberance.
Andy Poole
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