Points - Dark Void
I heard about Dark Void when it was still in development and thought the Gears of War meets Rocketeer concept sounded awesome. The lackluster reviews made me worry that the game didn’t live up to this great idea. Here are some noteworthy points from my playthrough:
- The core of the game was a fairly basic third person shooter. They didn’t try to innovate here, which provided a solid and approachable foundation for the game.
- The jetpack completely changed the feel of the standard TPS gameplay. Most importantly, it never felt like a gimmick. They went strong on the jetpack as their one unique feature and really fleshed it out. Vertical cover, hover flanking, and aerial combat were all fun and satisfying to play.
- Dark Void was really at its best when it forced you to wield all of its varied gameplay in one level. Smooth transitions from aerial to hover to ground combat and back was incredibly powerful. They used this to craft unique experiences that played to the strength of the game’s jetpack.
At this point, we see a solid core with mechanics that are fun and work well together. It seems like there’s a great game in the works. Unfortunately, the devil is in the details:
- The pacing was truly awful. Action ranged from plodding to hectic, while difficulty ranged from laughably dull (anti-air shooting galleries) to obnoxiously difficult (three archons at once). Too often I felt like I was just waiting for something to happen.
- It was very clear that Dark Void had a cool world with a potentially interesting story to tell. Unfortunately, they just couldn’t deliver on the narrative. Plot progression came in awkward chunks, and the game itself was too short to ever feel truly epic. The last chapters felt more like a beeline to the end rather than a journey to a climactic finale.
- Overall, the polish level felt low, like the game was a bit rushed to release. While I’m not usually one to complain about a game being too short, this was definitely a game that deserved more content to feel truly great.
While Dark Void was far from great, I don’t think it deserved the critical thrashing it seemed to receive. I hope this style of gameplay gets another chance at life, be it in the Dark Void franchise or elsewhere.
