Eat Sleep Geek

It was with great anticipation that I eagerly awaited Dark Void and after spending the last couple of days playing it I’m sad to report that it left me  feeling underwhelmed and so here come the part where I tell you why.

First off the story,  folks at Capcom came up with a great premise for Dark Void, the really did. The only problem is that a premise is pretty much all gamers get from Dark Void. Dark Void  dosn’t  give you enough to really latch on to; just enough to irritate the fuck out of you. So many things undermine Dark Void’s premise and make the story seem so stupid.  For example, lets take the calm manner with which Dark Void’s characters take the predicament they find themselves in, it’s  madding, I don’t know about you but if I was sucked through the Bermuda Triangleand had to fight robot alien things with ray guns I don’t think I could take that in stride and operate like it’s business as usual. On top of that when Dark Void’s characters speak the graphics look a little off like there mouths are to big and cartoony.  Graphics that aren’t in sync with the tone of the story take away from any game, and that’s  especially true in Dark Void since the rest of it looks pretty good and gives the story some real atmosphere.

Next we have Dark Void’s,  AI now there seem to be moments where the AI in Dark Void  is great, enemies use cover well and move all around the screen; the AI system seems to be working fine. Then you have characters on your side who run straight into a canyon and get mowed down by laser cannons.   I’m not kidding either, they fucking  run straight for it every time.  You have only one option here really which sucks since all the hype Capcom generated prior to Dark Void’s launch talked about fighting anyway you wanted.  Which technically I suppose you can,  if you like Dark Void so much that you don’t mind redoing the same part over and over again (that’s right people that idiot running into laser fire has to live if you want to make it to the end of Dark Void). So instead of taking cover and taking out the air support first and then making your way to the cannons,  you have to shoot your self up the cliff wall down the other side and take out the cannons before captain suicide runs down the gauntlet of death.

Now if you can get over this kind of stuff Dark Void is a fun game.  I  love flying around with a jet pack shooting stuff but I except more out of games these days, Dark Void reminds me of Uncharted 2, but shitty.  Where Uncharted 2 had great looking cut scenes Dark Void has weak ones,  where Uncharted 2 has real feeling characters who seem to react to shitty situations in the right manner Dark Void tries to make you believe that after crash landing on crazy world you wont ask the name of the scientist guy who has electricity in a under ground lab under a Mayan type temple cuz you know that shit is normal.  I  never ask for names when  strange people give me weapons and jet packs (there are other examples of stupidity but I just chose this one I don’t want to spoil Dark Void for you,  oh and in case you are wondering the scientist is Nikola Tesla). Dark Void seems like it wanted to be an action adventure type game but its just not as good as others out there. Especially with Uncharted 2  being around,  hell even the characters are similar as both are the reluctant hero type but unlike Uncharted you just can’t seem to like the main character in Dark Void (his name is Will by the way).

Now there are things that are good about Dark Void,  mostly its the flying and the hijacking of enemy ships so you can fly them.  This is a lot of fun makes you feel like you are flying at break neck speeds and when you fly into walls (which you will) you will break your neck  (that’s a lot of fun).  The music is also great especially if you liked the new Battlestar Galactica (since Bear McCreary also worked on Dark Void) it has that same type of feel this will keep moments tense when they need to be and keep you flying around and shooting stuff it just works well.  But the million dollar question is of course, is there enough in Dark Void to make it worth 60 bucks?  I say no! rent this game it’s worth that and not much more

After 3 days of playing Dark Void Capcom’s latest effort has  left a bad taste in my mouth.  If you want something awesome to play go pick up Uncharted 2 or the God of War collection(still fucking awesome games) or pick up Bioshock if you haven’t played it yet (like me who only started playing it last week). They are all way better games than Dark Void and this saddens me because other than  God of War 3 this was the game I was most looking forward to in the new year. So for irritating me with short lousy cut scenes, crappy AI,  and unlikable characters I give Dark Void a 6.5 and only cuz jet packs and Bear McCreary are so fucking cool.

Post script after I finished writing the review I picked up Dark Void back up to find that I was about 30 mins away from beating the game (sigh) so not only is it a shitty game buts it’s short real short you can beat this in a day if you just played straight through. So with that in mind I think I will be dropping my score down to a 5.8. I expect  a lot more for $60 shame on you Capcom shame on you.