Platform: PS3/360/PC
Developer: Capcom
Genre: Action/Third Person Shooter/Flight
Pros: Playing rocketman and killing enemies with headshots is just good fun
Cons: Inconsistent presentation, mean camera, hijacked gameplay
Verdict: Rent it, play it, return it, be done with it.
Price: $60
Acquired: Developer Provided Review Copy
Why is it that we find rockets strapped to our backs to be one of the coolest things since Oreos came pre-assembled? Dark Void looks to fulfill this rocket powered fantasy by strapping you down with a jet pack, some high powered guns, and giving you lots of metallic aliens to practice those head-shots with. The only issue is that as soon as the fantasy takes off it is over. Maybe they needed some Viagra to keep this fantasy going.
Nathan Drake….err, Nolan North voices the hero here. Is anyone else getting a bit bored of the same voice showing up in game after game. I mean he has a great voice and all, but it is getting a bit out of control. Dark Void even goes so far as to put in banter between two characters during the play through. It feels highly ripped off from another game that has recently won many awards.
The area that this game really excels is in the musical score department. The music just fits like a good pair of old broken-in jeans. I would love to get a soundtrack download option for this game. Sometimes it has a bit of an classical 90′s scifi feel to it, sometimes it is very muted and subdued. Either way, this is one treat for the ears that is worth the play through alone. {Ed Note – Bear McCreary, of Battlestar Galactia fame, composed the soundtrack}
Dark Void makes the game pretty easy on ammo. Just pick up a new weapon and it is pretty much a guarantee that the ammo count will max out. It felt a lot like the enemies might as well just walk up, hand you some ammo, walk back to their original position and keel over dead. This one simple act would have save the programmers a lot of time and headache. While I like this cake walk ammo distribution system, I did find myself just shooting at anything that might have moved. In some ways, it felt like easy mode was just spray painted all over the game.
The big gimmick in Dark Void is the jet pack. I can say without reservation that it is indeed damn awesome. Taking the fight into the air is every bit as rewarding as it looked in all the trailers and screenshots. Feeling pinned down at times? Just jump and use the jet pack to hover and pull off a headshot or four. This also caries over to world navigation. Getting to higher points and making long jumps is just awesome with two rockets roasting that ass. Dark Void does a fantastic job of incorporating the flying mechanic into the standard fare third person shooter.
There is a downside to this marshmallow roaster called a jet pack. The camera does not always want to agree to do its job nicely. This will often lead to some weak deaths and really odd kills. Yup, I was staring at a wall for a moment and killed four upset aliens. When I landed and was able to get the camera back under control the room was clear and Clark Kent was asking where Superman had gone. I kid you not. You have been warned.
What is it lately with games starting to use crazy situations to induce vertigo? Assassin’s Creed 2 has you climbing giant towers. Bayonetta contains that nice disorienting moonwalk. Dark Void, now, has combat while walking up and down cliffs. At first this seems to add a whole new dimension to combat. You really get a feel that you are hanging by some magically placed platform and fighting terminators on the side of a cliff. No sooner than that feeling sets in than you realize it is nothing more than the cheap cover system at play and your still a badass marksman with that blind fire. Overall this starts out awesome, but looses that slippery slope feeling after the third time or so. Again, it’s just too easy.
One of the biggest inconsistencies with Dark Void is how the areas can go from “Oh this is badass” to “WTF happened to that kick ass feeling?” There are areas in this game that are highly memorable and breathtaking. So many times you come out of a jungle and stand on a ledge with tall waterfalls, picturesque valleys, and all the bells and whistles that implies. Stunning. Breathtaking. Etc. Then, there are areas that are so bland they could use a lot of salt to make them pleasing. I’m talking boring stretched out textures in several shades of blah. There really is no rhyme or reason to this either. Maybe the artists were out getting lattes during certain stages of production? Or maybe they should have been GIVEN them on those blah days at the development studio. Who knows? Ultimately, the inconsistency hurts the gameplay.
The common spray painting of easy mode applies to the enemies as well. Most of the enemies use a simple pattern that can be observed quickly, then overcome. Enemies will use cover, but often leave a limb or head exposed. It makes for some very easy battles. Gaming veterans will find this to be a very easy game due to those enemies who just got off the shortbus. Maybe they all had a pan full of hash brownies before showing up to work. Either way, they’re not very tough to take out.
Amazingly, blind fire is really accurate here. Those who have played games with a cover system often see blind fire raining bullets all over the place. That is not so much the case in this game. Most of the time the bullets travel in straight lines directly to the enemy. Add this to the fact that baddies will pretty well leave you some sort of appendage to hit, and you have a recipe for sleepwalking each level. Maybe the alien robots are giant electromagnets?? While bullets are attracted to enemies like Twinkies are to chocolate, their heads appear to pull some sort of magical dodging move from time to time. There are too many times where a headshot is clear as day, only to be snatched away from the player in some sort of odd head jerk that’s unseeable by the human eye. That, or the game cheats. This does add a certain air of randomness to the battles which I suppose could be seen as a difficulty curve. Maybe. Probably not.
One of biggest gripes I have is with the odd running and jumping animations. There is no reason anyone should look like they crapped their pants while running all stiff legged. Just no reason for that. The jumping just does not fare much better. Considering that this is all in the third person perspective, this feels like a big let down. It is almost comical at times. Aren’t we in the times of video motion capture? Watching the naturalistic movements in a game like Uncharted 2 brings a level of immersion to that game. These horrible animations take players right out of it.
And why is it every action game of late has to shove some love story down our throats? Dear developers, tacking on a love story will not win you an award {this time –Ed}. That is exactly what is done here. The main story feels good, but then there is a C-grade movie love story tacked on. If there is going to be some love story with my alien brain painting, make it interesting. This love story was tacky; even my wife looked at me in horror and walked out….and she is a sucker for bad love stories.
The biggest let down in the whole game, however, has to be the mission where the jetpack is taken away. That’s right, a little over halfway through the game and they up and take the mechanic that is the saving grace of the game and chuck that right out the window. It must be what hitting a brick wall at 80mph feels like. Why do that? Who decided that, hey, you know that ONE original component in our mediocre game? Let’s get rid of THAT. The story at this point in the game would have been just fine with some CG, but no, we gotta struggle through another ground based mission without the ability to shoot some magnetically charged bullets at the tin-cans that are considered enemies. It was really hard to play through to the end after this level. The dreaded wall was reached, beyond which 65% of gamers do not tread.
This is not a horrible game. It most certainly is not a good one, however. It is DEFINITELY not something to rush out and drop sixty of your slaved-over dollars on. Hit up your local rental store, snag this, and enjoy it over a Saturday. This will ensure you enjoy the good parts of the game, but don’t burn your ass on the flames of frustration when you realize that there are way better games to play, many of which with the same voice actor in the lead role. The game started out with that “oh shit this is awesome” feel to it and ends with a wet floppy feeling. And no one wants that.
Popularity: unranked [?]
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