Dark Void is what you get when the creators of
Crimson Skies cross
Gears of War with
The Rocketeer and throw in lots of alien robots and flying saucers. It sounds great on paper, and while
Dark Void has some exciting moments there aren't enough of them to make the game really memorable.
Dark Void takes place in the mid-1930s: your character,
Nathan Drake Prince of Persia Hades Desmond Miles Jason Fleming Will Grey, is a cargo pilot hired by his ex-girlfriend to run an errand. During their flight, the plane is lost in a violent storm over the Bermuda Triangle and crashes in a place known as
The Void, a mysterious dimension inhabited by aliens known as The Watchers, who are trying to escape The Void and start World War II or something like that. Opposing them are tribes of humans who have become marooned in The Void over the years. Rather than sit around and do nothing, Will decides to take up arms and hide behind conveniently-placed chest-high walls and shoot The Watchers while he tries to determine how to get out of The Void, save humanity, and patch things up with his girlfriend.
Dark Void's storyline had potential but the presentation of the plot is dull, with most of the relevant bits being spelled out every now and then in diary entries you find laying around and skippable cinematic sequences featuring voice actors that sound like they're phoning in their performances.
Most of the time,
Dark Void plays like a standard third-person cover-based shooter: you move from place to place, hunker down behind a short wall or up against a pillar, and then squeeze off some shots and throw grenades at enemies. Clear out an area, then move on to the next one and do the same thing. It's all competently handled, but isn't terribly exciting. The guns are okay and they can be upgraded by collecting orbs from fallen enemies, but you'll soon realize that it's much easier to run up to an enemy and just punch it to death.
To the designers' credit though, they do attempt to do something different with the cover-based shooting: from time-to-time a "vertical cover" sequence will take place. During these parts you aren't moving horizontally through the level but rather vertically, ascending and descending steep surfaces using the bottoms and tops of things like rock outcroppings and platforms as jumping-off points/cover objects In simpler terms: the "walls" become floors and floors act as walls. Vertical cover looks cool and is kind of disorienting at first but these moments play like the rest of the shooting parts, with the only difference being that dead enemies will fall up or down (depending on which direction you're heading) when you defeat them. There's one pretty good vertical cover sequence early on where you make your way up the deck of a ship (the USS Cyclops, a real vessel that was actually lost in the Bermuda Triangle in 1918) as it falls apart; this brief bit of action is one of the better parts of
Dark Void.
Dark Void's other claim to fame is a jetpack, which you are teased with in a short playable prologue and then are forced to trade in exchange for three hours of
Gears of War in the Jungle. Given to you by Nikola Tesla - yes,
the Nikola Tesla, a character so important to the plot the game doesn't even tell you who he is until the house lights are 20 minutes from coming up - the jetpack allows you to rocket about some wide-open skies battling Watcher UFOs and terrorizing enemies on the ground. The dogfighting is done well and is fun, although the controls take some getting used to. The designers did a good job invoking a sense of reckless freedom, danger, and speed with the jetpack; they just don't let you use it enough.
Players can also hijack UFOs while in mid-air via a tedious quick-time event that plays out the same way every single time; it's even possible to get hit by an errant shot and die during these bits, which basically means
Dark Void is killing you during a cutscene. Most of the time, you're better off just sticking with the jetpack and using its guns instead.
Dark Void practically epitomizes blandness: there's nothing wrong with the game and it works (although it does have some minor bugs). But 75% of
Dark Void consists of activities most gamers have done dozens of times in other, better games. The other 25% is fun, but
Dark Void can be completed in around six hours; do the math and you'll see that the cool stuff isn't experienced all that often.
Presentation-wise,
Dark Void looks okay although this is far from the best-looking
Unreal Engine 3 game you've ever seen: character models, animations, textures, and environments are competent, yet dull. Some of the special effects, most notably particle effects on weapons fire and bullet impacts look downright bad though, almost like they used flat 2D sprites in places; it sticks out like a sore thumb when you see it happen.
The sound in
Dark Void is respectable: the guns and explosions are loud, and the voice acting is serviceable. The best part of the audio package is the orchestral soundtrack, which is very good and belongs in a better game. If you care, the music was composed by the guy who did the theme music for the
Battlestar Galactica TV show.
If you're into achievements,
Dark Void has 47 of them. Expect to get about 30 achievements on your initial playthrough of the game. Once you've finished
Dark Void for the first time, you can replay chapters from the main menu and collectible items are marked on your radar so you can go back to certain areas if you feel the need for more achievements. Since
Dark Void has no multiplayer modes whatsoever, uncollected achievements would be the only reason to revisit The Void.
Dark Void isn't a total write-off; there are some cool ideas at work, and at times everything comes together and fun times are had. But these moments are fleeting.
Dark Void is best experienced as a weekend rental that you'll play through on Saturday and Sunday afternoon and totally forget by Monday morning when its time to take the game back to the store.
3.0