Okay, so this isn't an extensive review. The person who wrote the longer one detailing just what's great about this game and just what the critics got wrong was spot on. And I've even read the reviews not rating this game so high. Nitpicky. All the things they find faulty or challenging about this game, I just thought it was all great. And the guy that talks about the licensing?, really, you'd rather have a game called The Rocketeer? No, you wouldn't; it came out for the 8 bit Nintendo and was terrible and I will never or extremely rarely buy a licensed game because they're just making it as part of the synergy to promote the current largest media outlet of that product: movie games especially. I only make an exception for Spider-Man; I have broken down and bought two of those, but only when they were not tied to a movie of any kind, because then they were independent creations and Web of Shadows really let me down.
But back to this game. Dark Void is a blast. I love it how when you're close enough to enemies and shoot them, you hear the 'tink,' 'clink,' 'skarmp' of your laser blast pelting their metal. I like it when from wherever you start your jet blast, your characters legs flail all out like he's really blasting off--nice animation. I like the variety of attacks you can use and the different visual environments. I'm only a few hours into it and from peaking at some of the levels on youtube, I have quite a ways left to go.
This game is unbeatable for the price. I hope enough people buy this game on whichever platform so that there can be a part II. If you add this game to your library you will not be disappointed. If I had to say it was a mix of games, I'd say it was a cross somewhere between Dead Space and Uncharted. It feels a lot like Drake's brother playing the protagonist. And the neatest thing about this game, is yes, the fully 3-D environment. You can move the camera and see all angles of every piece of the level. You can attack up and right in front of you. I like how one of the in-game hints says "If you can't find where to go, look up!"
I also liked the Bionic Commando game, except for the voicing, and in a way this feels a little similar to me, but if I had to pick one to play, I'd go with this one, you can fly! Okay, I think that wraps it up. Let me get back to playing.
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Dark Void by far is the best jetpack action game that I have ever played. It includes everything that you might dream of. You have a variety of guns that you can use, your able to take over UFO's, and get to kick some alien ass! Don't take my word for it, you should try the game for yourself.
-Darkjack67 (Dark Void Community)
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Initially
I read a lot about this game and all disparaging once played the game demos, and this is not logical to judge the game as soon as the experience of demos
One of the coolest games I've played in 2009 and 2010
A game with a new style and with a great idea and is an established and well known, but it is true that the graphics are not the desired level but the game does not have to talk
An entertaining game, fun and liked it so ... I loved the philosophy of Fine
Not trust the opinion of one did not try the original game, and you will find the difference between the demos and the game itself
Nice and good for all
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First of all, I just bought a PS3, and to figure out what games to buy, I have downloaded and played dozens of demos. This game so far is the best yet. Is a remarkable and near flawless combination of flying, fighting, shooting. It is a step forward in terms of what a game can be. I played to flying simulator games that are very highly rated, but were no where near as fun as the flying portion of this game. Nor were they as unique, or stunning in terms of graphics. Ive played a dozen third person shooters, half of which arent near as good, while the other half are comparable, except for the fact that they are not as creative. This game was one of the few games that stands apart from the rest in terms of production value. Due to the dismal reviews Ive read, I hesitated to even try it. But once I did, I was blown away. Immediately when I started flying, I realized that there was something missing from the other flying games I played...FUN. With other flying games, I chase my oponents doing loops until I lock on, fire a missile, and watch a small explosion form what seems a mile away. Boring. This games flying is far more exciting. When I landed and began shooting and fighting the aliens, I initially thought that if so much energy was put into the flying, the shooter aspect must suck...WRONG. Ive playing gears of war, and the only thing that game has on this one, is more blood. I can live without the blood. I actually thought this was better because although the mechanics of duck, cover, shoot, and steal your enemies weapons was the same, there was a lot of variety in alien weaponry, as well as behavior. And I cannot wait to buy the game and try out the insane bosses on this game. Another note is the simple fact that not only are this games graphics out of this world compared to other ps3 games, but the controls are tighter than almost all of other games I have tried. Never did I feel like I was fighting with the controls. Basically, I used to wish I could create my own videogame exactly the way I wanted with everything I wanted. But now, Im just gonna buy this game. Its that good.
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this is a low budget game ,dont know what they wear thinking,my ten year old did not like this one....im a game freak so i passed it over to my son and he right away said no daddy this game is boring so i ran to the game shop sold it as quickly as possible only got 23 $$$ dammm i paid 43 on amazon lost 20 of my hard earned money in three days, that realy hurt, CAPCOM can pay me half what they are paying thies dummys at development ill do a better job....
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Browsing the plethora of reviews and finding that they handed out mediocre (or worse) scores for this game only served to reaffirm my belief that the majority of so-called "professional" critics and awards (though the latter is another subject entirely that I'll not get into here) are completely worthless. Simply put, the critics got it almost dead wrong when they reviewed Dark Void. At the risk of utilizing too much formality, I will break this review into two parts. The first part will discuss how the vast majority of critics' criticisms are completely off the mark, and the second half will discuss what they somehow missed about this game that makes it worthy of a place on my shelf next to Half-Life 2, Fallout 3, Bioshock, and the like.
For starters, critics complain that you spend too much time without being able to fly. This is flat-out false. First off, the ratio of levels that contain wide-open areas that encourage dogfighting and enclosed levels that encourage on-foot or hover action are pretty even. This is what is known as VARIETY. Not many games can claim that they have a flight simulator, a third person shooter with a super-jump and hover ability, and a platformer (of sorts, which I'll get into later on) in one game, and fewer still can claim that they implemented each mechanic with the same quality and care. In fact, I am hard-pressed to come up with a single example of such a game. Further, even when you are in an enclosed base of some kind (which is NOT the majority of the time), you can still go into flight-simulator mode for a few seconds to cover an amazing amount of ground in the space of seconds, then turn it off and hover...or even drop down and melee someone, earning you style points. And as I said before, it is a rarity that you are in a confined space. On the massive levels afforded to the player, you have three options of movement that you can switch between seamlessly and at will, and the result is the most amazing and fully 3D shooter experience you've ever seen. Even mundane (if you want to join the critics in calling them that) shootouts can be taken to the next level by utilizing your ability to go ANYWHERE. You can jet up and point-blank someone on a ledge with a sniper rifle...you can strafe them with your jetpack machine guns...there are an amazing number of options at your disposal. In addition, even if you do want to turn the shootouts into plain-old shootouts, what is wrong with that? The cover and weapon system is a very solid Gears of War clone, which of course is a fantastic game that even the critics agree on. The difference here? You can then also super-jump and hover or even fly if you like. Even when you think you are being forced into flying, you can often times end up doing other things like free-falling to your target instead (if you like) and seeing how far you're willing to risk it before you hit the hover button to break your fall. And this, I must tell you, is too much fun.
Now, the Gears of War mention brings me to their other criticism that is downright ludicrous: enemies are too repetitive. Wow, really? There's another thing this game shares with Gears of War, except that Dark Void has more impressive and creative bosses: with the exception of a few tougher enemies they introduce along the way, you'll be fighting the same kind of enemies all throughout the game. Shooters follow this formula all the time! If anything, Dark Void is LESS repetitive than other games (particularly shooters) because there are so many different aspects of play. And unexciting shooting they say? It's the same shooting you find in all other shooter games, only you have interesting and creative weapons at your disposal that you can upgrade for a variety of fun effects (something, again, many shooters lack).
Now that we have established how unfair and even downright false the criticisms are, it is time to address what the critics decided to leave out of their reviews that bump this game up from a good time to a great time. First of all, the vertical combat system is ingenious, novel, and all kinds of fun. In fact, I would like to cite an example from early on in the game: you find the U.S.S Cyclops, a naval vessel, hanging vertically from a Cliffside. Since at this early stage of the game your jetpack doesn't allow you to full-on fly yet, you must fight your way up the ship before it falls off. And as you do this, you take cover not behind, but UNDERNEATH various obstacles on the deck. You can then pop up and fire back at enemies who are shooting at you from above or below. In effect, this mechanic is very similar to your average cover-oriented shooter, with a few amazing exceptions: one is that you are obviously facing up or down instead of straight ahead. The other is that if there is another piece of cover directly above or below you, you may either jump or flip down in a stylish spin (depending on which direction) to achieve that position. Then, if you just jumped onto a ledge that an enemy is using for cover, you can grab their leg and drag them off to their doom. And amazing mechanics aside, the level design when based on vertical combat is very well done. Various parts of the ship break apart as you proceed, and at times the tremors force you to tap a random button repeatedly so that you don't lose your grip.
Switching gears a bit, there are a few minigames that start up under certain circumstances and provide yet another avenue of game play variety similar to the way The Force Unleashed did. When hijacking an enemy fighter in the air, you must avoid their rotating cannon while attempting to access the cockpit and kill the pilot and simultaneously making sure you don't lose your grip. Some of the tougher enemies require you to start up a similar minigame to defeat them, which are equally creative and fun. Archons can be taken out either by coaxing the pilot out (via sabotage) and breaking its oddly-shaped neck or grabbing one of its exposed pieces of metal on their weapon emitter, tearing it off, and chucking it into the main weapon's nozzle, causing an overload of some kind (the danger here is of course getting out of the way of the weapon before it fires).
Last, but certainly not least, there is one critical element that elevates this game into great status, and this is overlooked by many (including critics) for reasons I cannot fathom. Just as this game took a bold leap into the realm of freedom of movement, so did the developers demand a quality musical score. Sure, there have been great scores composed for video games in the past...but none of them completely matched the tone of each level, nor did they develop themes that represented various characters or races and evolved with the situation. The care that the composer took not only to develop a quality score but also to ensure that you never heard exactly the same piece of music twice is astonishing. Further elevating the soundtrack's quality is the simple fact that the drums, South American woodwind instruments, string sections...the entire, massive ensemble was recorded live. There is not a single fake instrument sound to be found. The result is music in the background that enhances your game play experience to such a degree that it makes you feel like you're in the latest box-office hit. From racing, thundering Taiko drums underscoring the frantic melodies carried by the French Horns or perhaps the Duduk, to soft, introspective character moments, Dark Void has covered the one area that is so often overlooked by developers to a degree that I have never before seen. Kudos, Capcom, for actually spending money on an aspect of video games that is, in my opinion, equally as important to the experience as the level design or the gameplay mechanics.
Now, I'm not going to pretend that Dark Void has no flaws. I would add my own that hasn't even been touched by the "professional" reviews that I've seen (they can't even get the weaknesses right!): the dialogue is very uninspired. The story is good, but when the dialogue isn't very sharp, it can be hard to be concerned about the plot as much. And in fact, there is one universal criticism that this game actually deserves: there is no multiplayer or even coop featured in the game. Your only option for play is a single-player campaign. The campaign is of course fantastic and hours upon hours of fun...but a cooperative mode and especially some sort of minigame mode involving aerial stunts, races, obstacle courses, and the like would have been excellent additions to this game. Better still would have been deathmatch maps for multiplayer play, designed so that players can dogfight or duke it out on the ground in the same area. This game, while realizing much of the potential it revealed, still has more potential to rise and meet, but anyone who rates this game as anything less than an 8/10 or so would be a hypocrite, because I guarantee you they had more fun than that. As I would suggest with any medium that has dedicated critics to tell you what is good and bad, ignore them and try it out yourself.
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I'm not a great gamer and barely qualify as a dabbler -- I bought my PS3 and Xbox mostly for my nephew and niece to use. But DarkVoid appealed to me based primarily on the jetpack angle and the 1940's "Rocketeer" story setting. I ended up playing the entire game through -- okay, so I did it on the Easy setting but, hey, this is only the second game I've played to completion and the first since Crackdown a couple years ago. DarkVoid was generally fun -- you got to do a lot of shootin', and you got to do some jetpack dog-fightin'; the storyline didn't make a whole lot of sense but it's all just (interesting) window dressing for the gameplay. I wasted some time because sometimes the level goals weren't clear. I also thought some of the on-screen symbology was not clear -- example: I didn't realized until I was 95% done with the game that what looked like a bullseye indicating where to shoot was actually an indication to push the circle button on the hand-controller; oy. Bottom line: I liked the game, and became somewhat obsessive/addicted about making progress, but I also know I'm not any kind "power gamer".
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If you ever played Crimson Skies you'll feel right at home. Control config. is even the same wich is a good thing. Newbies might have some trouble with camera work but is a skill easily attained. cover system is basic and easy but the real fun is in the flying. 2 hours slipped by me without even focusing on the missions. I gave this game a 4 because the cover system can be a little etchy at times, and graphics arent too wowing, but this is definitely a game that should not b ignored.
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The flight aspect of the game is extremely cool! :D It takes some getting used to, and the initial awkwardness in taking off gets old quickly. (note to developers: there should be at least 3 different takeoff postures where the character becomes more proficient as the gamers become more adept fliers), I hope the full game version features this nuance. The "special maneuvers" were cool but limited in the demo, though I can't imagine there are more that 6 in the game...so that gets a big yawn for lack of imagination, as you've got at least 16 stick combinations on the ps3 controller!!
The hijacking was actually quite fun.
The melee feature is rudimentary, and preferable to gunning targets when there is only one adversary remaining.
There is likely very little replay value, since the game is straightforward, and the controls will be patterned throughout the game. I'm looking forward to what more the full version offers in regard to flight and difficulty.
I logged a couple of hours on the demo version of the game before calling my local video store to ask about availability. The story is decent, but I'm not playing games to learn or be immersed in someone's contrived drama, I want to forget about my drama!
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I played the demo on PS3 prior to playing the actual game. So far my opinions regarding the game are not shining. For one there isnt a life bar....it tries to use the newer technique of the more damage you take the screen either gets bloodier, darker, redder, or blurrier like in many other games. However, in Dark Void there is no way to associate if you are more or less dead, or how fast you are healing (which takes a while as well). As for the controls....Flying is fun but taking off is a knee-jerk reaction that often times makes your character go flying into some obstacle and either die or take major damage which again, takes forever to heal. The AI for the characters you are supposed to protect gets them killed causing you to redo that section you are in from the beginning. The graphics are crisp, but for a game called DARK VOID, its too colorful and the intro screen when the title comes up as well as the menu screens are blah. So all in all, I was excited to get the game because of reviews regarding the vertical combat techniques and the flying and hijacking of spacecraft. Too bad I felt like I was playing Uncharted fighting aliens (The main character's voice and attitude are very similar to Drakes' from Uncharted). Overall, the game feels a little lacking and I would probably have been better off buying Darksiders instead of Dark Void.
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There is nothing innovative about this game--it is essentially another 3rd person shooter with an added flight mechanic, which in itself I would give 3-4 stars usually. However, this game was released unfinished and froze up on me no less than 3 times, which is inexcusable. It probably would have froze a couple more times but I decided to trade it at that point and not risk ruining my system for this dog.
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Pros:
- When at long last, an hour into the game, you do get to use the full capabilities of the jetpack, it is exhilaratingly fun.
- It's a comic book story and it's fun to follow along.
- You get more out of the game if you are more adventurous in how you fight the enemies.
- There is considerable gameplay mechanic imbedded in the game such as pulling enemies off ledges, various cover around obstacles, sniping enemies, meleeing enemies, controlling turrets, quicktime combats against enemies, controlling enemy vehicles.
- Worlds are nicely three dimensional to give you a reason to use the jetpack.
Cons:
- There is a considerable lack in enemy variety.
- The game can feel repetitive unless you liven it up with your own antics.
- Far too easy to accidentally crash into an obstacle with the jet pack on and killing yourself.
- Camera control can be challenging when you are scaling ledges.
- WAY TOO SHORT with an anticlimactic ending. It's as if they just ran out of money or time. Or there was some kind of corporate decision to cut it off and release the rest as downloadable content.
On the whole the critics are far too harsh on this game. The game grows on you the better you are at adventurous combat. For example, yes you can shoot the enemies on the ground behind cover. But then you'd be playing Halo! But you're the Rocketeer! So take to the skies and swoop down on your enemies. Yeah it's sometimes harder to do this but it is awesome when it works.
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The story is just hilariously incomprehensible; I felt like they were recapping the story of a game I didn't play. It hits all the cliched narrative beats, but it ONLY hits the beats, and with inappropriate earnestness -- characters I didn't know betrayed other characters I didn't know VERY dramatically and with much assumed tension. Random characters said and did random things for unstated reasons. I literally didn't know why I was doing what I was doing 100% of the time, and now that I've finished it, I don't know what happened. I think I crashed in the Bermuda Triangle and found a lost civilization on an island, or maybe I went to an alternate dimension, and aliens were trying to make me a slave to build tanks for Hitler, but I was a hero foretold in prophecy, who defeated them by killing a robot dragon. Maybe. I think Glenn Beck wrote it.
The gameplay is barely any better. On foot, bad guys take between thirty and ninety bullets before dropping (luckily the amateurish AI means they'll just stand there and take it), and mission objectives, such as they are, are difficult to discern. There's no tension or charm in gun battles -- you shoot the bad guy until he's dead, and then run to the next bad guy. In the air, while the jetpack flying mechanics are pretty fun, the combat is tedious and repetitive. I swear, one mission in which you're meant to defend a convoy as it travels down a canyon must have lasted two hours. I sat in a fixed machine gun and destroyed wave after wave of spawning UFOs in exactly the same fashion as the last.
What bugs me the most is the missed opportunity of just making this a licensed game based on the movie and comics, The Rocketeer. They'd have already had a story to back up the jetpack mechanic, which is clearly all they were interested in developing at any length, and there would have been some available, quality art design to provide visual interest, instead of the bland and generic robots and aliens they scraped up. What Dark Void ended up being instead is a game that PLAYS like your typically mediocre licensed game, but without the assets of a familiar license.
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