Labelling Dark Void an 'action romp' however, would imply that the game is entertaining when in fact the only joy to be derived is unintentional hilarity when working through the shoddy cover shooting and numerous glitches and bugs that plague the game.
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| The aerial action certainly looks and plays better than the generic shooting on Terra-firma, but it never quite lives up to what we expected. | Will Grey: grey by name, grey by nature. He's an uncharismatic lead, even though he's voiced by Uncharted's Nolan North, who in Dark Void, just sounds extremely bored. |
Crashing his plane while flying over the notorious Bermuda Triangle (big mistake), protagonist Will Grey and his female sidekick find themselves lost in the 'Void' – a zone inhabited by an alien race of shiny robotic endoskeletons known as Watchers.
Right from the off, you're tantalised by the jetpack combat during a short prologue, which proves to be surprisingly dull, but not nearly as dull as the clunky cover shooting that follows. After the brief aforementioned airborne introduction, Dark Void falls to earth with a deafening crash, forcing you to trawl through an inhospitable jungle fighting multiple generic, spindly Watchers - while dashing between obstacles using the most insipid cover shooting mechanics we've encountered in a long time.
Appearing generally well-presented from the outset, the cracks soon start to quickly appear from the moment you start playing, with lacklustre animation, inconsistent visuals and one of the worst soundtracks we've heard in a high profile title such as this, all colliding to create a truly shocking dog's dinner of a game.
It's hard to believe that Bear McCreary of Battlestar Galactica fame composed such a cacophonous, discordant score for starters, and while the graphics look fine for the most part, the animation seems incredibly old fashioned – something more akin to a PS2 release than a current-gen title. For what was supposed to be a triple-A title for Capcom, there's a very rushed and unfinished feel to Dark Void, which pervades almost every aspect of the game.
Overlapping looped dialogue pops up from time to time, you'll occasionally die for no reason and when you do the floppy ragdoll physics will likely provoke fits of laughter, as Grey casually mutters “Oh no” while plummeting to his death. Patient players might find something to like in Dark Void - those prepared to put up with Will's floaty run animation, his baggy jump action and all-encompassing blandness. Even being voiced by the ubiquitous Nolan North, voice of Uncharted's Drake, doesn't inject the character with enough charisma to make Grey a likeable lead.
You could almost excuse the shabby ground-based combat and poor presentation if the jetpack component managed to make up for its shortcomings, but even when the action eventually shoots skywards, it fails to provides any genuine thrills. And getting to the real jetpack stuff takes far more effort than it should, your first meeting with real-life inventor Nikola Tesla only granting you with a hoverpack after more than an hour or so prancing around the jungle.
Salvaging airplane parts and Watcher technology soon enables you to return to Tesla for an upgrade, but by the time you finally get to the meat of what the game has to offer – yes, the jetpack stuff – chances are you'll have grown weary of Dark Void long before the moment you actually get to strap the rocket to your back and rocket into the stratosphere.
Until then, there's plenty of vertical cliffside leaping to get through, which is another dull, repetitive grind punctuated only by the odd point of interest, such as the wrecked, derelict shell of a plane teetering over a cliff edge or taking part in a precarious battle while shimmying above a sheer drop. But then, you'll attempt to hover to an area and explore only to be punished with a fail screen, which sends you back to a checkpoint. Going off the beaten track in Dark Void is simply not an option.
If, by some incredible feat of endurance, you do make it to the aerial combat, or the vertical gunplay, the former plays almost like any dogfighting flight game, with you controlling the throttle, boosting and barrel rolling as you soar through the air. There's some fun to be had jumping onto Watcher UFOs - although the accompanying QTE mini-game quickly wears thin – and boosting through the sky can occasionally be exhilarating, but it's just not enough to salvage how unbearably generic and uninspired the overall experience is.
Gathering tech points to bolster your weapons provides some much needed depth and respite from boredom, but like everything else in Dark Void, it's just not very well realised. The ideas are there, but Airtight has simply failed to build sufficiently upon the core foundations that they've laid down, which is true of every one of the game's facets.
There's no impact to any of the action, no sense of immersion in your environment, the narrative is mostly nonsensical and the gameplay is repetitive and deeply unsatisfying. Capcom halving the projected sales for the game before the it had even been released spoke volumes about Dark Void's quality, and having played it we can see why the publisher chose to do this.
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| It's screens like this that made Dark Void look like it might be something special. Don't be fooled. There are flashes of fun that hint at hidden potential, but it's never fully realised. | Look at this shot closely. If this looks entertaining, then perhaps you'll really enjoy Dark Void. We actually think this looks incredibly boring. It is. |
You'd have thought that any game featuring a high velocity jetpack would be a guaranteed winner, but Dark Void somehow manages to ham-fist the execution completely, leaving a game that's only ever fun in parts, while the rest is simply not up to scratch. We had high hopes for Dark Void, but ultimately, the final product is a crippling disappointment with very little lasting appeal beyond its slender running time.
That said, there's potential in some of Dark Void's concepts for a great sequel. If Capcom choose to commission one that is.
Us? We won't be holding our breath.
Top game moment:
DARK VOID VERDICT
That said, there’s potential in some of Dark Void’s concepts for a great sequel. If Capcom choose to commission one that is.
Us? We won’t be holding our breath.
TOP GAME MOMENT
Carving through the clouds and shooting down UFOs is fun to begin with, but it soon grows tired. Shame.
