I have to admit, I groaned after I saw the first ten seconds of Dark Void. It looked like Mass Effect, but it appeared to play not unlike another derivative cover based shooter. The weapons looked cool and the mechanics seemed solid enough, but there wasn’t anything to set it apart from the tedious onslaught of space marine adventures. Duck, cover, pop off a few shots, melee some unsuspecting foes – you know the drill. Yes, Dark Void looked like another one to get lost in the shuffle…and then I saw the jetpack.
A cardinal rule of life is that anything is a least 150% more interesting than previously thought if a jetpack happens to be involved. Only when it was activated and the character soared around the map, with appropriate body flailing and seemingly neck snapping grace, did my draw jump and did Dark Void gain my full attention. The conclusions I had planned on jumping to were premature, and I saw the game in a brand new light. Engaged the jetpack at any time, and you’re absolutely free to blast off into oblivion at any point. Practically this means you can blow out of cover and get some high ground on your opponents (blasting away as you hover back down to the ground), or fly across the map to reach new areas, but more dynamic elements also came into play.
For example, I saw the character intercept a flying saucer, grab onto it, and pull the enemy out of the cockpit before killing him, taking control of the aircraft, and engaging in a dogfight. It looked like a remarkably fulfilling experience, though I did wonder if doing all of that would lose its luster after a few go around.
Another jetpack sequence involved infiltrating some sort of tower. While it is entirely possible for “people with skill” to freely fly around, into, up, and through the tower, the preferred method of entry involved vertically scaling platforms from top to bottom (or vice versa). Enemies taking cover in vertical space seemed kind of gimmicky, but it truly seemed to be mechanically standard combat, especially when you had to time your grenades to explode right next to the enemy.
In all honestly, Dark Void jetpack sequences felt like the game that Iron Man should have been (with the benefit of a considerably insane context). Capcom wouldn’t give us a solid release date, other than to expect Dark Void sometime during 2009 (though we’re better later rather than sooner.
