GST: Dark Void – A Not So Live Review
When gamers are strapped for cash but still want to shoot and loot things they turn to Gamer Savings Time (GST) to get the skinny on forgotten bargin bin titles. This time we look at Dark Void. As one of the most anticipated games of early 2010 Dark Void, developed by Airtight Games, was positioned to be the next huge Capcom franchise. Well, we know how that went. Less than half a year later Dark Void can be purchased on any platform for under $10. I say ANY platform, but it’s still retails on Games for Windows Live – Games On Demand for $30, which ironically is the platform on which I played it. We will get to that details on that in a moment.
On paper, Dark Void is amazing. Conceptually its an amalgamation of numerous beloved gaming and sci-fi ideas. It is simultaneously set in an alternate history and an alternate dimension. It has alien-like flying saucers, robots, a Jet Pack and friggin’ science legend Nikola Tesla. Part action adventure, part shooter, part Steam Punk, Dark Void looks like a delightful romp in nerd-land, and in some aspects it succeeds.
What’s good about Dark Void…the setting, story, characters and art-style. Airtight obviously spent alot of time fleshing out the back end of the Dark Void universe and created a story that fits the unique setting like a glove. The sad part is that outside of that, most of Dark Void falls flat on its ass…er rocket pack.
You play as Nathan Drake Will, a generic white dude, voiced by the most prolific voice actor in gaming Nolan North (Nathan Drake, The Prince of Persia, Desmond Miles). Nothing is too special about Will, but he does end up in a Jesus/Neo-like position towards the end, which makes his character a bit more interesting. Will and his former love interest are conveniently flying through the Bermuda Triangle when their plane crashes on an Uncharted Undiscovered island in the Atlantic ocean. It quickly becomes apparent that they are no longer on earth and in fact have been transported to another plane of existence called the “The Void”. I hear its dark there… I don’t want to spoil the story because there is so much wrong with this game that needs to be talked about.
For a game that prides itself on Jetpack gameplay, there is very little variety to the jetpack levels. The flight control feels good, but outside of a few mission specific tasks, the Jetpack is only used for dogfight-like battles with UFOs. You can hijack the UFOs, but that quickly turns into a monotonous quick-time event that is in no way necessary. Also, Will gets full access to the pack way too late in the game, but that is more of a comment on the length of the game and the volume and placement of enemies.
Nearly every enemy encounter, goes on for just a tad bit too long. Rather than feeling like an accomplishment, most of the battles on foot are laden with the thought of “Geez, I gotta kill more of these dudes?” On a quick run through the game can probably be finished in about 5-6 hours with most of that being Gears-style 3rd person shooting. The shooting mechanics aren’t bad, but the enemies take way too many rounds, especially if you haven’t upgraded the gun you are using. I found myself emptying multiple machine guns clips into certain enemies to take them out and with many of the robots being the shape of famished Calista Flockhart and bounce around like a ping-pong balls, landing clean headshots is terribly frustrating.
I quickly realized that the best way to take out the baddies is to just Rambo up to them with guns blazing and meleeing every single one of them. This worked well in almost all situations. Crowds of 7 or more enemies had to be whittled down first, but the remaining few were best taken down hand to hand.
A novel part of the game that got alot of attention before release was Dark Void’s vertical combat. Trust me, its not as compelling as it sounds. Basically, instead of standing behind chest high walls, Will shoots enemies from platforms above and below him, using the platform he is standing on as his “chest high wall”. It actually makes the idea of a cover-based shooter easier since you don’t have to worry about the moving around part as much. Luckily its not tedious and is a welcome break in the action.
I can’t help but think that the developer Airtight is simply stuck in the past. Airtight is made up of a core team of people who worked on the Xbox game Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge. I haven’t played it but apparently it was great. Had Dark Void been released on the original Xbox in 2003 it would have been ground breaking and possibly amazing, but games just aren’t made like Dark Void anymore. The game design is too simple and nothing is terribly deep. My suggestion is that Airtight Games spend some money and send a large team to the game developers conference next year. They are obviously a talented team that seems to have lost their footing. While they are there they can learn how to properly implement achievements.
Games For Windows is Microsoft’s platform for PC release standardization. Games for Windows Live is a Live (a la Xbox Live) enabled version of this format. GFWL games have Achievement support that feeds directly into your existing Xbox Live account. Dark Void didn’t ship with GFWL support. All disc based copies of the game still don’t have Live support, but a few months ago Dark Void popped up on the GFWL download store with Live support effectively giving the game achievements. The problem is that they simply don’t work right.
As I played through the game I earned all of the story related achievements, but many of them never unlocked on my actual Live profile. So, according to my gamer score I finished select levels through the entire campaign and as evident on the Giant Bomb achievement tracker for the game that has happened to numerous other players. A google search for the achievement glitch brings up a pretty extensive thread on the Games For Windows Live forum. The game obviously needs a patch, but nothing has been announced, and players are very doubtful that it will ever happen.
Dark Void had alot of potential, but despite multiple development delays it still feels miles from finished. I reasonably enjoyed my play-through and if you are looking for a quick 700 achievement points on the 360 or a nice chunk of trophies on the PS3, its worth the 6 bucks plus shipping. However, if you are expecting something close to the level of quality typically found is Capcom games, you need to look elsewhere.
Verdict: A Plane Wreck