Dark Void Hot

Dark Void looked and played so well at E3 2009. It had all the potential in the world and it left a dark void of mystery (yes, pun intended) about how the rest of the game went. Capcom was only running the flying/battle sequence at the show and all of us were in awe of how cool it would be to land on a flying ship and kick the crap out of the alien inside of it, thus taking control of the ship.

Should have realized something was up at that point, but it was too cool to think beyond that moment.

It's tricky

It's always polite and proper to talk about the positives of an item you're about to critique before you go into the negatives. It's a fact that it's easier to criticize something than to praise it.

Dark Void had a boatload of potential behind it. The fact that Capcom's dev team took what basically was an idea from Disney's Rocketeer and made it into a game is nothing short of interesting. Having the ability for your main character strap a rocket to his back, armed with guns, and fly in a gigantic environment fighting large-scale aerial battles was a positively fantastic idea. Capcom toted this portion of the game proudly and it deserved to do so. The concept, to say the least, was nearly original and seemed to be on the right track for fun.

That was the first big positive that Dark Void had going for it.

The second positive was the possibilities of the storyline. An alien race showing up in what seemed to be in a WWII timeline was certainly cool to think about. You play a pilot named Will, who is hired to do a job (deliver a payload somewhere via plane). While on route to your destination (with you ex-lady friend), you run into a terrible lighting storm and suddenly find yourself inside 'The Void'. The Void is filled with mechanical creatures called Watchers and other inhabitants that appear to be human, but you're not so sure. With a story set-up like this the potential is really quite endless.

Again, both of these positives are based off potential.

Folks, this is where the ride gets bumpy. Potential isn't good enough to make a game great; rather it's the starting point of most great games. How that potential pans out is really what counts for games. Dark Void's only positive is 'that' potential; it falls short in almost all areas there after. Let me break down how this game went wrong.

The biggest sore spot for me in the game is how the controls work. In battle, on the ground, the controls are very good. You basically have a third-person perspective, which changes to first-person when you aim whatever weapon you're using. The perspective changes depending on weapons. For example, if you're using a machine gun packed with explosive rounds, you get a typical first-person shooter perspective when you try to aim down the barrel of your gun for a more precise shot. When you're using a Watcher's sniper rifle you get a more zoomed in, slower moving aim mechanism that makes it easier to get head/kill shots. On the ground this type of aiming and firing works like a charm.

It goes to hell when you are in the air trying to focus on targets. While less to do with actual aiming and more to do with aerial movements, it's difficult to get your bearings on enemies when you're hovering in the sky. For example, when I obtained the sniper rifle from the Watchers, I flew in the air to eliminate some flying Watchers in the area. As you're hovering, you're swaying left/right a bit and you're losing altitude slowly. Basically you're floating and moving down at the same time while trying to aim at a moving target. Can you imagine how difficult that is? It's horribly difficult and it makes you want to fight on the ground at all times. Why is this a bad thing? The gimmick of the game is to fly around and battle in the air. If you take the aerial fighting out what does that leave the game? It leaves it as another third-person shooting game, which makes it less unique.

Sticking with flying, the entire flying experience is very flawed. Sure the aerial battle with guns is flawed, but what's even worse is how you take off with the jet pack. As I'm thinking about this as I'm typing I'm really getting irritated imagining how much time I wasted in the game with dying from take-offs. When you launch yourself into the air you have to hit the 'Y' button twice. The first time turns your pack on, while the second button mash propels you into the sky. Every time you propel yourself into the sky you do a wild arm flail and are completely out of control for about 1-2 seconds. Doesn't really sound bad, right? It's downright unforgivable. Not only should your character improve their take-off three-quarters of the way through the game (come on, sometime Will has to get use to the process, right?), but if you don't take-off from the edge of a platform or after you jump off a large cliff/ship/whatever then there is at least a 50% chance you're going to die (or get severely injured). I did this several times on the first episode of the game, which is in the demo, where you're on a landing platform. If I took off from the middle of the platform, even if I was looking up at the sky, I would somehow find poor Will smashing into the floor.

Once you're in the air it's not too bad, but take-off is so horrible that it's really difficult to forgive the game. Aerial fighting is decent though, as you'll control Will like a fighter jet. Both analog sticks control direction and movement of the man and his rocket. You can perform preset aerial maneuvers to help out in the game, such as barrel rolls and mid-air U-turns. Capcom did a fabulous job in putting together different methods to avoid getting shot while you battle.  Each method isn't terribly difficult to pull off and it adds to the fighting quite a bit.

Now, with that said, the fighting in the air gets incredibly repetitive as you'll run into a couple of choices during a dogfight: blow up the Watcher's ship or board it. Going back to our E3 experience, the concept of boarding a ship in mid-air, knocking out the watcher and taking over the ship is simply cool. If it didn't get old after the third fight I would say that it worked brilliantly. If you're not familiar with the concept here's how it works. A Watcher's ship zooms by Will, a 'B' button icon is activated, you hit 'B', Will boards the ship. As Will attempts to break into the Watcher's ship, the Watcher tries to shoot Will off the ship. If the Watcher isn't shooting Will, the Watcher is doing barrel rolls with the ship to fling Will off (which is damn cool). This entire process is facilitated with quicktime events. To open the cockpit of the ship you'll have to hold down on the 'B' button, while avoiding getting shot. You press the left analog stick to avoid getting shot, and later returning to the back of the ship to continually hold down the 'B' button. Once the cockpit is open, Will attacks the Watcher and you'll be asked every time to move the left analog stick left and right. If you win, you get to fly the ship. If you lose, well.... you can guess.

While the flying and taking over ships thing is neat the first go around it really does get repetitive as the game goes on. For me, it seemed a bit shallow on the control side of things. If Capcom had just included a variety of ships or even mixed up how to take control of ships then this might have been a bit better. If the flying had gotten progressively smoother as Will progresses in the game then this might have been much cooler.

Again, all of this is based on 'ifs' and 'potential'.

Other points of interest in Dark Void that had potential, but just came up short include weapons and upgrading. I love the variety of weapons that the game offers. I like the fact that you can carry two weapons at a time (more than that seems illogical). I really like that you can pick up weapons from the Watchers and use them. I really, really like that each weapon has a strong point and a weak point. All of this says 'yes, I love it' on it. Capcom could not have gotten this more right.

I hate the upgrades. Let me clarify that statement a bit. Upgrading a weapon is neat. You can add explosive rounds or more damage to the enemies through the weapon upgrade system. The problem is I didn't get my first upgrade until the third level of the game. To upgrade your weapons, which is doable through randomly placed lockers in all the stages; you must eliminate enough Watchers to gain points. These points can be used to purchase upgrades. It's difficult to get a large amount of points at any given time. Like I stated a few sentences back, I didn't obtain my first upgrade until I made it to the third scene in the game. The distance between upgrades, point-wise, is huge that you don't get to enjoy upgrading weapons (and jet packs) without killing a lot of enemies. Earning the points was tough, but earning 1400 points to do a simple upgrade, with 3800 points being the next upgrade was tough to watch. Offer more upgrades with shorter distance between them. I commend Capcom for the idea, but feel like the execution is all-wrong.

Let's shift gears here and talk about the AI in the game. The AI is damn good. Both the Watchers and your freedom fighters have great artificial intelligence. The Watchers avoid you during the game and do what's best for them to kick your ass. The suicidal Watchers (you'll love those) run at you without regard for their lives. It makes for more tense moments and forces you to identify different Watchers in the game. It also makes you strategize your attacks. So, simply running into battle with guns blazing ain't an option.

As for your friends in the game, they do help in battle (imagine that). Towards the end of the second episode of the game, you're in a fierce battle with the Watchers and a couple of big bosses. You've got a nice little army with you and each person is actually doing damage to the enemies. You aren't stuck in a G.I. Joe situation where your friends are firing at the enemies and 'just' missing them. Rather they're doing damage and helping you out. Again, this is huge for the game and it makes the battle scenes a bit more fun. Rarely do you have games nowadays where back-up characters are worth a damn. Dark Void stands out in this category and chooses to go the opposite route.

In light of this, the game still underachieves overall, which is very disappointing. The overall game time for Dark Void is around 6-10 hours (at best). Depending on what type of gamer you are and if you can work through the control frustration, you will probably find something in the game to satisfy you enough to work through it. While I've played games that have been the same length, I think the bigger question is the replay value. For me, there isn't enough here to make me want to return to the game. The storyline, which had great potential, really doesn't stick as well as other storylines in games (such as Uncharted or Dragon Age). It won't compel you to fall in love with the characters and return later to revisit the story like a movie might. There's just not enough solid substance here to warrant another go through.  More importantly, and lastly, there's not enough continual fun.