Dark Void was released in January 2010. In it you play as Will Grey, voiced by the always quality Nolan North. The game's premise is interesting: the protaganist and his old flame are on a cargo plane which goes down in the Bermuda triangle. From that point you are trapped in a strange new world which is ruled by a race of cruel aliens called the watchers. The watchers have plans for the real world of Earth and you must stop them while aiding the humans who are also trapped in this "void" with you. You will encounter Nikola Tesla who will give you access to a jet pack eventually and from here the game really takes off.
The game starts out as a 3rd person shooter, but when you get the jetpack you can take to the skies. The jetpack is a really fun gadget, and the flying parts are by far the best part of the game. When you are flying the controls are akin to an air simulator, and dog fighting with Watcher aircraft like this can be really fun. You can jack enemy aircraft, though the quick time event which is required to do this becomes really tedious really fast.
The game's story is ok, but felt fairly rushed and not as in depth as it should have been. The characters development is rushed and some story aspects felt very contrived to me. The graphics are not good at all. There is severe pop in and bad textures all over the place. The unreal engine was implemented very poorly here. The game frankly looks like a ps2 game. The environments generally looked ok at a distance, especially while flying, but when on the ground all the forests and bases feel empty and lifeless. The music in Dark Void is excellent, being composed by Bear McCreary of Battle Star Galactica fame. The voice acting is fine, with Nolan North being the star again.
The game is fun when flying, albiet the controls are not the best. Quick time prompts don't always work and melee attacks are very janky and unresponsive. When on the ground the weapons you can acquire can be seen for the variety they provide, but the cover mechanics do not work well at all. Its a pale and poor impersonation of gears of war at heart for those sections. The pacing is not consistent at all. Some of the levels go on and on and become very boring while others are extremely short. The last few levels in particular are short and it resulted in the game's ending being disjointed from the rest of the game.
The replayability is next to nothing, with a bland campaign and no multiplayer. All in all, the game has its fun parts and a great concept with the jet pack but repetitive enemies, boring combat and technical issues get in the way of the game. A game which completely failed to reach its potential. I was really disappointed with this game, but it was very cheap. A semi fun romp through a bland world.
Pros: decent voice work
jet pack levels are fun
music is great at times
Cons: poor graphics
boring combat
texture pop-in
slow pacing
wtf: Bear McCreary and Nolan North were involved with this?!?
Score:
- 4/10