Capcom has been out of the big budget gaming business since the release of “Dead Rising” in 2004. So far two games have caught the eye of the public. “Dead Rising 2” and “Dark Void”. The latter was released last week.
Dark Void is an action adventure game with some Sci-Fi elements thrown in for good measure. It was announced to be an innovative game that allowed you to fight off an alien threat any way you want. Be it hijacking their “flying discs”, rain down on them with your jetpack machineguns, hang from a cliff while engaging them with the “vertical” cover system, and engage in good-old-fashion firefights. Most of theses aspects the game performs very well.
The games most exciting part is obviously the jetpack. It performs well and the animations while in-flight are beautiful to say the least. Yes, it does take some getting used to and can be disorienting at times but it doesn’t take away from the fact that this is the first game that actually made that jetpack your best means of survival.
The games missions are interesting and they utilize flying well. They sort of have a mission impossible style fell and are really fun.
The game tries to mimic the ARMY OF TWO series with an upgradable weapon system. The system is completely linear and I wish there could’ve been a focus on customizing your jetpack.
Dog fighting is extremely fun and intuitive you’ll always have some action while in the air.
Boss battles are interesting to say the least. They are usually against huge enemies. Ultimately they boil down to fun distractions from the games best feature.
The vertical combat works well to. It is fun and innovative idea but is bought down by the games shooting mechanics. I found the enemies to act as bullet sponges. Taking close to a whole clip to kill (clips hold anywhere from 32-100+ bullets). They could easily overwhelm you when 2-5 enemies are all firing at you. I also found the combat while on the ground to be clunky. When you play as a character with a jetpack you kind of expect to be nimble and speedy. Not to move as terminator when you so clearly are not.
Also the ground animations and cover system both needed some upgrades in the graphical and game play department. I often found myself clipping through plants and the animations are just silly. The “normal” cover system is a joke and the blind fire is TOO accurate! There is no reason why I shouldn’t have to aim and there is no reason why my enemies can perfectly track my movements.
Dark Void fell into a lot of pitfalls that “The Saboteur” bought to the public eye. Goofy animations and sluggish ground combat drag it down a few notches. However the sheer quality of the flying is enough to keep that disc from turning into a “flying disc”.
