Flying High and Shooting Stuff by Yourself – Dark Void Review (PC)

Posted by Tim On January - 22 - 2010

When I fired up Dark Void I had no real notion of what the game was about. I knew there was flying and that the game was a cover-based shooter. With the birth of my son in December, I was glad of an excuse to really sit down and play through a game. The list of unfinished games for both 360 and PC is growing ever so steadily.

But I digress – Dark Void, developed by Airtight Games and published by the good people at Capcom is an experience that has a distinct feel. And that feel is unfinished.Riddled with small annoyances and loose controls, and a story that has more holes than Star Wars (I say that with love), I would have loved to see this game in 6 months or more when it would have been finished. With no singular direction, the game suffers but still manages to pull off a passable 8-10 hour single player experience that has some satisfying moments. However, with a distinct lack of multiplayer

Read on to know the whole story…

Dark Void starts off with a taste of what’s to come by getting you used to the flying mechanic. Now, for those playing on PC as I am, you should be warned that this is a joystick-shooter. If you don’t already have your favorite console controller for PC then you will find the mouse/keyboard controls frustrating. The game was meant to be played with a controller. Anyways, it goes through a short flight tutorial, and then drops you into the shoes of Will (voiced by Nolan North), the game’s main protagonist and introduces Ava (voiced by Polly Walker), the inevitable love interest who has a complicated past and relationship with our hero. A short cut-scene later, you’re in the Void, and robots are trying to kill you.

You pick up a gun and the game shows you how to shoot and survive by hiding behind cover. The ruins of an old civilization provide ample coverage for a soft-skin such as yourself. It was heavily inspired by the likes of Gear of War, but never achieved the satisfying feel of it. Most of the time, I saved ammo by running and shooting in bursts, then just mashing the melee button until the bad guy died. There are only a few ground enemies that this cannot be done to and I took full advantage of it. The shooting was alright, if a little loose. I never felt fully in control of my aiming reticule, even near the end of the game when I was “used to it.” The heavier the action got, the more squirrelly the controls felt. Headshots seemed to be at random, which was frustrating because I am big on saving ammo when I can. The gun upgrade mechanic seemed almost like a throwaway. Each gun only had two upgrades, and you get far fewer points than you have options for upgrading guns. I just upgraded the main rifle (most ammo) and the disintegration gun to max which gave them more ammo and blew stuff up better.

With the annoyances of the ground combat and control, the air battles were fun and crazy. Unlimited ammo and the ability to upgrade your jetpack to shoot missiles was a nice touch that made the combat satisfying. It was at this point of the game that I realized that I didn’t see any options for multiplayer. Playing 8 or 16 person aerial deathmatch or aerial firefight/horde mode would be an incredible amount of fun, taking me back to the days of Starfox 64. The controls were tight and the physics were not too game-y to be ridiculous. This was the best part of the game by far. The lack of multiplayer is an enormous oversight and a downright shame for a game so short. I am hard pressed to say the game merits the $60 price tag for consoles, but the $40 price for PC is much more reasonable. Airtight and Capcom missed a huge opportunity to capitalize on the lack of aerial combat shooters.

With a strong performance by Nolan North (Will, the protagonist) you feel like you’re playing something of a Nathan Drake spin-off. With competent one-liners and an overall interesting take on the anti-hero Will is not really endearing but likable. Ava, voiced by Polly Walker is mostly good but Tesla and the rest of the voice acting crew were greatly overshadowed by North’s work – sometimes to the game’s detriment. The performances were so far apart in quality sometimes that it made you cringe.

The story was somewhat contrived and lacked finesse. There’s only a tiny bit of backstory for Will and Ava, but the rest of the game’s characters are, essentially, red shirts. Tesla seems like he was thrown in just to explain their technology (the jetpack, ships, etc) and there was almost no explanation of how anyone else came to be there. It makes a small effort to explain the “bermuda triangle” disappearances as saying ships and planes fell into the Void.

To get a bit mushy, the game is very pretty for the most part. The character models and scenery were done very well and I think the PhysX were a nice touch. This game, more than others I’ve played, looks better with the extra particles and such that it adds. It adds a bit of grime and dirt to the scenery which makes it look at feel more genuine and real. I actually like the character animations and facial expressions better than certain current games. *coughAssassin’s Creed 2cough*

To top it off, there were times during the game that the music made me stop, reload an earlier save and play through the section again just to hear some of the best music in a video game I’ve heard in a long time. Its no wonder, because Battlestar Galactica composer Bear McCreary was the composer – his liberal use of heavy drums and exciting passages add an almost immesurable ammount of joy to the flying parts. The last battle in particular is one of my favorite musical moments in the game. Also, for those who are patient enough to sit through the credits there is a nice musical treat near the end. McCreary has some interesting things to say about his involvement in Dark Void on his blog. Warning – there are some plot spoilers ahead – Bear McCreary’s Blog.

Overall, the game does a great job of bringing us some good air combat and an incredible music score, however the ground combat and story leave much to be desired. If you have a chance, at least rent the game to hear some decent Nolan North and have a lot of fun flying around shooting things. The game lays the potential for a sequel, however I don’t know if that project will ever get the green light.