A world outside our own, filled with alien life and lost civilizations struggling to break free from the pressure of oppressive thumbs. A world so strange that even modern man bleeds into it and makes it their own during a time of great turmoil and strife. This is the world of Dark Void, the maiden voyage for Airtight Games and published by one of the big powerhouse companies, Capcom in 2010. And while the game comes from a premium publishing pedigree, Its reception was far from positive. Was the game worthy of its criticism? Does it deserve to lay buried beneath other mediocre titles or is there something there worth recognizing and appreciating? Let’s find out with the next entry into the Obscura.
A dear friend of mine online, SimonAshtear, reached out to me one day and asked if I would like to play a game whose premise was simple; what if we had a Rocketeer game that was a 3D action adventure? I was sold. The world of jetpacks in games has been a sordid one at best with titles like the shareware puzzle/platform darling, Jetpack and Star Wars Bounty Hunter on PS2, but there never was a game that really brought the feeling of flying and fighting with a jetpack boosting you through the sky in frenetic dogfights competently. This is where Dark Void comes in. Set in the era of World War II, a secret organization seeked to uncover and oust a supernatural plot by interdimensional aliens to aid the Nazis and take over the world. As Will Grey, you are hired to help an old flame fly through the Bermuda Triangle, which happens to be the portal into another world. Here, the secret society is working to help the denizens of a lost civilization free themselves under persecution by the evil alien baddies while helping close the portal and thwart their plans to cross into the Earth Realm and subjugate all of mankind. With you are the likes of historical figure, Nikola Tesla, who is believed to be a prophesied chosen one who will save the day. Tesla provides the fabled Jetpack that you will use to fly through the skies and aid the resistance to keep the enemies at bay.
Soaring through the skies on a jetpack is so amazing
That sounds awesome right?! Well it is awesome… gameplay-wise. The mechanics to the game seem simple on paper. At first what seems like a typical cover shooter a la Gears of War, quickly turns into a game of intense verticality in level design and a jetpack that completely changes the way you play this style of game. You see, once you have acquired the jet pack early in the game, the levels change dramatically. They open up as you move seamlessly from small tight corridor fights into large open air dogfights. The Jetpack allows you to activate it from anywhere, even indoors. There is no mechanical gatekeeping at any point. If you want to go full thrust up a vertical shaft of arcing energy and dangerous platforms to reach the top and circumvent the bulk of a fight? It will be hard and require amazing reflexes, but you can!
Shooting aliens feels goooood
There is something truly magical about the way they do this. Imagine in 2010 being able to fly around in the skies, taking out enemy turrets from large floating capital ships only to then zoom into their landing platform and hover from above, picking off enemies with no loading or transition of gameplay. It feels so good and their use of verticality really highlights this sense of vertigo that adds to the immersion of the world. They took the basic concept of the cover shooter and turned it on its head and it was bold to do so. I can not stress how fun that feeling is and it was a real marvel.
The problem I had with the game was its presentation and narrative. This is where the game falls flat in the worst way possible. Most of the story is told through journals you find. They offer insight into the world and give you some perspective of some main characters you meet, but that is about as good as you are going to get, because everything falls apart when trying to tell the story directly.
Falcon Punch!
Characters are introduced, completely dismissed and reappear near the end in vital plot twist moments, giving zero time to develop them. We are introduced to people, places and events with reckless abandon and in disjointed order as time passes so dramatically without the player's participation that there is weight of importance. Key characters will go off and do exciting missions that you are not a part of, yet it is treated as if you did. To give you an example, early in the game, your love interest takes a jetpack to fly off and save Tesla who is kidnapped. You think she's dead. When you are united with the resistance faction, months pass in a cutscene and it cuts to your love interest emerging to cheers with Tesla in hand and everyone acting like she is the biggest hotshot and the protagonist simply says, “Congratulations!”
Nikola Tesla is not happy with the narrative
And let’s talk about our dear protagonist Will. There has never been a more blank slate, milquetoast hero than him. He has zero personality and zero character design as he channels the most generic soldier man ever made. It does not help that he is voiced by the legendary voice of Nathan Drake from Uncharted, Nolan North, because you can not help but make the comparisons to the latter iconic character. He offers no insight to the world, or to the characters. He is simply a guy who flies around and shoots things while everyone else does more interesting things off screen
There is potential there and I truly feel that the faults of the narrative are more of a concern of budget than anything. The game spent a lot of time getting the technology just right to allow you to transition from these enormous environments into small, highly detailed structures with no loading. It is a shame, because the actual gameplay is fun and frenetic. For being a person who adores narrative, it is extremely hard for me to engage with a game when I don’t have those narrative hooks, but somehow Dark Void did just that. Through the enthralling novelty of the jetpack, I was able to embrace the game wholeheartedly and go for the ride they were trying to take me on.
Even the quick timer events felt like they carried weight.
Did the game warrant an average metacritic score of 59? Not even close. Was it flawed? Absolutely, but there really are some design concepts that need to be taken from this game. Its use of vertical levels was genuinely well put together. They handled a jetpack in a way that felt real and revolutionary and the story on paper was really interesting even if the execution was abysmal. Would I recommend this game to anyone? That depends. There is a steep learning curve on handling the jetpack, but with the moderate length of the game and quick engaging combat encounters, if you are a creative type who loves to play with the tools given to you in new and interesting ways, I would absolutely give my stamp of approval to play it. Dark Void earns itself a, “Yeah, No,” from me.
To Humor,
Jonathan
Dark Void is, "Yeah, no."
If you would like to learn more about the beauties of Dark Void, check out my good firend SimonAshtear's Blog, The Best Game Never Played.