Dark Void Demo Impressions

Nathan Fillion?

Imagine a man who holds the ability of flight at his fingertips. In his suit, he can soar the skies with the speed of a jet, yet maintain the flexibility of an agile athlete. The pinnacle of a harmony between man and machine, he is both a fighter and his own most powerful weapon. He is…not Iron Man.

No, William Grey is a simple cargo pilot. But in Airtight’s latest game, Dark Void, he becomes an aerial hero and your player character through the title’s third-person shooting adventures. After crashing in the historically mysterious Bermuda Triangle, Grey enters a portal to the Void, an alternate dimension of seemingly benign, beautiful tropics that really host the Watchers, a hostile alien threat to Earth.

The demo for Dark Void sees Grey already in the Void when he first dons his iconic rocketpack. With the talented Nolan North (Uncharted 2, Assassin’s Creed II) lending his voice work, Grey expresses robust character and charm as he undertakes an exhilarating first flight. I felt just as exhilarated since I could control the rocketeer with surprising fluidity. I appreciate just how every one of my mouse motions makes accurate pitch and yaw movements, while at the same time Grey’s aerial action animates realistically and loosely with just as many bobs, weaves, and dangles as I’d imagine a flying body would do.

Falling, with style!

That said, however, some aspects of the controls appear more suited towards a controller, as a few “interesting” and ill-conceived default keyboard bindings bring a nice contortionist circus act right to your desk. Although the more advanced airborne maneuvers demonstrate the cooler and finer points of Grey’s flying, for some reason you have to hold Left Alt along with WASD to perform them. As much as I enjoy contortionists, I preferred the acrobat that arrived after I rebound the controls, which allowed easy performance of lateral jukes and other aerobatics so Grey could best dogfight against the alien threat.

Opt to hijack…

And aerial combat highlights just how much maneuverability you truly have. Even against a new rocketman like Grey, the Watchers stand no chance in their sluggish flying saucers. Sure, they may look awesome with their well-designed gyroscopic stabilizers, but you can basically dance around them as you blast ‘em out of the sky. If you’d rather sacrifice flexibility for firepower, you can also try some of the finely animated hijacking: the Watcher will try its hardest to shake you and fry you, but after a few dodges, a removed control panel, and a quick kill, you’ll have your very own flying saucer.

…for a splatter-filled payoff and a free ride.

You won’t have much time to enjoy your new toy since the demo soon takes the fight to the ground. The third-person cover-based shooting might make combat look like traditional Gears-of-War-fare, but remember Grey still has his jetpack, so he can literally boost combat back into the air. Whether the enemy has you pinned or they’re just hiding behind an annoying hunk of cover, you can break free of the constrictive 2D plain and line-of-sight: use the brief, yet useful hover ability to launch above the heat and pick off the aliens like ants. All of the combat options and full use of verticality makes combat fresh and interesting, though it does make Grey somewhat overpowered compared to his landlocked foes. While I welcome Dark Void’s take on third-person shooting, I hope that the full game will dole out tougher enemies that can counter Grey’s hovering and offer a necessary challenge.

While its combat makes the gameplay highly unique, Dark Void certainly looks familiar; at least with the on-foot action, I could easily mistake it for Mass Effect. The Unreal Engine 3 renders beautiful and expansive outdoor environments that provide great freedom to soar, but are sparsely detailed. A lack of in-game anti-aliasing support and the dull indoor structures, meanwhile, mar what’s overall a lush and finely constructed world of the Void. As far as the demo shows, it doesn’t quite reach the graphical quality of the best-looking UE3 games, such as Batman: Arkham Asylum and Mirror’s Edge, though its art style seems to focus on making the aerial action as eye-catching and dramatic as possible.

From cover-based to hover-based.

The demo shows how Dark Void places an innovative new vertical twist on the already thoroughly iterated third-person shooter by applying the classic rocketman fantasy from film that has yet only appeared in relatively few videogames. It strikes me, especially with its strange and adventure-themed orchestral score, as a title that hearkens back to beloved ‘50s sci-fi and film serials just short of having a bold-typed poster advertising “DEATH DEFYING THRILLS!” and “FLYING SAUCERS!” Though the demo brings up some valid concerns, including the controls and the difficulty, it ostensibly doesn’t showcase all Dark Void has to offer, such as the so-called “vertical cover system.” So, I look forward to how all its individual gameplay and narrative aspects weave together into the whole of the final release.