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Darkvoid

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Upgrading Your Weapons
The weapon selection in Dark Void is fairly slim, although between your standard assault rifle and alien weapons, you will find a comfortable balance. Dark Void doesn't really need additional weapons, but it would have been nice to see more diversification. Shotgun anyone? However, even though you only have six weapons to play with, each weapon can be upgraded. This includes the Watcher's weapons which can be improved by tweaking their accuracy, damage, radius, and more. Non-alien weapons can also be upgraded to improve it is their clip size, damage, and so on. The most important factor to all this upgrading is that each weapon will actually feel a little different, and you will want to use the weapons you modify more than the strait up gunners.

William “Pac-Man” Grey
How you upgrade you arsenal is by picking dropped power-pellets, called tech-points. These pellets drop from the enemies when they die, and you can also find more pellets dispersed around them map, along with re-supplying ammo packs. This whole idea of snagging pellets is a little too arcade(ish), which briefly takes the player out of games atmosphere. I really found Dark Void to be interesting as it lured me into its time-twisting tale, but then it started to be too much like an old school arcade game, than the modern masterpiece it was trying to become. I know jetpacks, trans-dimensional worlds, and alien slugs don’t scream ‘realism’, but all that, I can accept... Power pellets on the other hand, naaa... I don’t think so.

Graphics
The graphics in Dark Void are underachieving, and ultimately disappointing. The environments are drab without any sense of fascination, with inadequate texture work to boot. On top of this the animations are glitchy and can look unnatural at times-- just watch William run and jump. The melee hits are also a bit off, and never seem to really connect. Lastly, the accuracy at which you snag on to each ledge is too loose and feels unconnected. On the good side, well, the character design, and weapon look is mildly interesting, and yes, even though you have seen it all before, Dark Void's attempt at steampunk feels genuine.

When its over, it is over!
Once you wrap up the campaign in Dark Void, it looses its momentum. The only things that will draw you back into its world is achievement hunting, or wanting to up the challenge. Aside from those two factors, there isn’t much to fall back on. Dark Void could of had a remarkable multiplayer component with some serious mind bending potential to be one hot Deathmatch. The possibilities of squaring off against players from around the world strapped with a jetpack and a laser gun is sci-fi,fodder. It's too bad a little more exploration wasn’t done with Voids development, because multiplayer could have saved Dark Void from being one of those high turnover titles.

Lowdown
Dark Void lets you become the Rocketeer in a trans-dimensional tale of hostile alien life-forms in an escape from the inescapable. Flying along Dark Void’s linear path of motion sickness gamers will likely find Dark Void to be different than your conventional action adventure title. Dark Void is seriously fun, even if it is a little vertigo inspiring.

Although, I was pleased with the effort Airtight Games put together, I can stop to sense they could have done more. The graphics quality and parts of the gameplay, like the tech-points, need to be varied up to make Dark Void stand amongst the thieves. Even so, Dark Void gets our recommendation even though it doesn't meet our expectations. This one not for everyone, but those who do not mind shooting into the air, will find Dark Void to be a refreshing sidestep from the norm.

Gameplay:7.5, Graphics:6.0, Sound:7.5, Innovation:7.5, Mojo:7.5 Final: 7.2 / 10


Reviewed by Downtown Jimmy | 01.21.10

+
  • combat is extremely untamed and fun
  • jetpack adds an interesting layer to combat
  • ability to upgrade weapons and jetpack
  • plot ends up becoming rewarding after a slow start
  • great droning soundtrack
  • can’t grab all ledges
  • no multiplayer
  • some camera issues
  • action feels a little too loose
  • graphics are underwhelming
  • can cause vertigo sickness
  • no motion controls for the PS3!
  • power pellets?! huh

Boxart

Dark Void

Publisher
Capcom

Developer
Airtight Games

Genre
Action

US Release
January '10

ESRB
"T"

Platform
PS3, X360

Features
Players 1
5.1 surround
HDTV 720p
D/L Content

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