Dark Void Preview: Exclusive!

By Dave Rudden
December 12, 2008 16:32 PM PST
Print
Email this!
Share
- Digg
- Yahoo Buzz!
- FaceBook
- StumbleUpon
- del.icio.us

Take flight, and then take cover in this unique shooter. With the advances in the past few gaming generations, the lack of 3D jetpack fun, outside of the bleh blastoffs in Star Wars: Bounty Hunter and GTA: San Andreas, is nothing short of a travesty. Capcom, thankfully, is taking the action genre in a brave new direction with Dark Void, creating a game that not only does the jetpack justice, but uses it to foster innovation in the run-and-gun genre.

I Miss the Earth So Much

Here's what we know of Dark Void's story so far. Will, the game's protagonist, crashes his plane in the Bermuda triangle, waking up in an exotic new land run by aliens. Known as The Watchers, they sport robotic armor with heavy ammo and, yes, the ability to self-propel. Will takes the fight to the alien scum, hoping to free fellow humans and return home. While the steampunk, 1940s serial setting is cool, Will was kept under his helmet for far too long. I've been told the final game's narrative will provide a better introduction. Additionally, the enemies consisted of roughly three different flavors of robot, but I'll chalk it up to the stages being shown thus far and hope that the narrative opens up in terms of both character development and introduction. Thankfully, a newly-introduced boss portends some industrial-looking shells hiding hideously slimy creatures.

Run, Float, and Fly

There are three major methods of movement in Dark Void. The on-foot combat is very similar to Gears of War, with a heavy emphasis on cover, blind fire, and hand-to-hand attacks. The next level of gameplay utilizes the hover pack, which you activate via a double jump. It allows you to move through the skies at a pace slightly slower than running, but opens up the combat from the closed-in cover style. For example, one encounter with a pair of enemies occurred with cover points on both sides of a small pit. Where a game like Gears would have you trading shots across the crevasse, Dark Void allows for an imaginative solution: flanking the enemies from the side with some evasive hovering.

The hover pack also allows for the game's greatest innovation-vertical cover. When traversing up the side of a cliff, for example, Will zips from outcropping to outcropping, picking off enemies peeking out from over cliffs or melee attacking ones directly above, shimmying from side to side to avoid falling enemies that can knock Will off his perch. The most original moment I've seen in a shooter in quite some time took place during a vertical firefight. I found myself hanging on one of two cliffs adjacent to an enemy. Hopping across wasn't an option, so I literally turned Will's focus so that he was shooting directly across while upside-down. I picked off the enemy, and resumed my upward focus, but that crazy shooting angle won't soon be forgotten.

The final method of gameplay is full-on flight. You can take to the skies with a jetpack that shoots Will sky-high and flying at Mach speed. Unfortunately, it's tough to whip out a firearm when you're battling 100 MPH wind resistance, so you're stuck with the jetpack's integrated weaponry. Weapon-equipped jetpacks appear later in the game, but without that luxury, I had to take down enemy UFOs GTA-style. When in sniffing distance of a UFO, you can latch onto it, clinging on for dear life as the ship tries to shake you off. By pulling off panels, you'll eventually draw out the alien pilot, and can wrestle the ship from his grip. After that, you've got control of the spaceship, and can blast the other aliens out of the sky while piloting the UFO.