Dark Void Review

I’ve been far too busy with several games this week, to the point that I almost missed reviewing this one, buried under a stack of discs and network cables. But after playing Dark Void for a couple of hours, I wanted to take the game disc and bury it in my back yard in the hopes that it might bloom into a sequel that would redeem Capcom from this truly disappointing game.

I will say this: Dark Void does offer its own sprinklings of fun every now and then, but it’s so short lived that as soon as you’re actually having any fun with it, the game does a complete 180 degree turn and slaps you in the face with an ironing board. This game just might be my contender for most-hyped game of the month, but we’ll have to wait and see if it wins it.

While I usually start a game review by briefly explaining the storyline, it’s almost hard to figure out what Dark Void’s story is. It’s the 1930s, and your brave character (a pilot) is flying around in his little airplane when lo and behold, he flies into the Bermuda triangle. So of course, he suddenly has engine trouble and goes plummeting to his doom. Fast forward a few cutscenes later, and you find that you’ve entered a parallel universe dominated by an alien race known as The Watchers, with an Aztec-esque human race living in complete submission. Seriously – the story here plays out as if it was cobbled together from the back of a cereal box. When you do recover from the almost brain-dead introduction to the story, the game transforms into a traditional FPS-style game, where you go running around on foot shooting at aliens while diving for cover to save your own hide. There’s nothing wrong with this at all, except that it’s all been done before and often much better than how things play out in Dark Void.

However if you think that the game is only about mindless shooting, think again – there’s also a jetpack! Ah, I can see your faces light up already…surely a jetpack would make things more interesting? Well the short answer is yes – when you finally are rewarded with the jetpack, the experience can be somewhat satisfying, even if the controls are somewhat buggy. It certainly beats going around on foot, and speeds up your exploration considerably. But once again, no sooner are you having the tiniest bit of fun with the jetpack, the game comes charging back to remind you that having fun here is illegal. Sure, you can fly around to your heart’s content in some areas, but there are plenty of annoying invisible borders, and if you fly into any of these borders, your character does an automatic turn and makes you fly back – hardly the freedom that comes with own a jetpack. But thankfully the jetpack does give you some benefits – it allows you to pull off some very versatile attacks on your enemies. You could be hiding under cover in one area, and then spontaneously lift off and fly over your enemies for some well-placed headshots. You can also use the jetpack to hover to nearby ledges or to cushion a fall, so you’re only really playing through the first part of the game just so that you can grab that jetpack.

Aside from the somewhat satisfying feeling of flying around shooting at things, there’s little in this game to keep you occupied for long. Sure, there are gigantic robotic aliens to beat up and some snazzy weapons you can wield, but the game quickly runs out of steam and starts showing some of its gaping flaws. For example, there is no connectivity with any parts of the story. Where did the alien race come from? Why has no one tried to defeat them? And why on earth is Nikola Tesla inventing jetpacks in a parallel universe? The game also has no proper continuity – as soon as you start the game, you’re thrust into an all-out dogfight that serves as a flight tutorial, playing a character that has no relation to who you play as later on. And once you get your jetpack in the story, you have to do a similar flight tutorial all over again.

While some of us may be able to look past the gigantic holes in the story, it’s the gameplay that truly threw me off. While you can traditionally hide behind objects to take cover from enemy fire, the jetpack allows you to also take cover vertically when hanging from a ledge. Initially this was a lot of fun to do, and quickly peeking out to shoot and alien and watch it fall to its doom was somewhat satisfying. But after a few instances of the same hanging-on-for-dear-life scenario, I couldn’t help but yawn every time I was left tethering off a ledge. And speaking of the aliens, you’d best stock up on plenty of ammo – apparently these aliens have titanium bodies or something, because I found myself shooting mercilessly at an alien gunner before it finally crumpled to the ground. But here’s the real fun – when in close quarters with an alien, you can simply tap a button to melee attack them. So after facing immense frustration with trying to shoot the aliens, I would simply fly over to an enemy and completely dismember him with just one melee attack. I’d then fly over to the next enemy and repeat the same, much like a tired game of Whack-a-mole.

Since there’s no multiplayer option, there’s very little in Dark Void that will keep you playing for very long. The incredibly short campaign will leave you puzzled and disappointed, while the often repetitive gameplay won’t keep you entertained for too long. Dark Void sounded like it was going to be a great game, but it’s clear that the game was rushed through production, thus yielding this half-baked fly-and-shoot game. It’s a real pity, as Dark Void had the potential to be a decent enough game, but sadly not even Nolan North’s voice acting can save this game.