I can’t help but wonder what happened during Dark Void’s development to lead to the game that was released. I was personally pretty jazzed about it when it was first announced. I mean, what’s not to like about guns, aliens and jetpacks? Once I started playing the final game, I quickly found that there were a lot of small things that were poorly executed, leading to a final product that was shoddy at best. Don’t get me wrong – Dark Void isn’t a horrible game; in fact, the parts where you’re soaring through the wild blue yonder are actually quite good. I suspected as much, considering that Airtight Games (the developers of the game) also created the fantastic Crimson Skies for the original Xbox. However, what I wasn’t counting on was the frustratingly dull ground combat elements, and a derivative, incoherent story,  both of which quickly drag Dark Void into the mud.

 

Dark Void follows the exploits of Will Grey, a pilot by trade who’s hired by his ex-girlfriend to fly through the Bermuda Triangle. Of course, as soon as you enter the infamous area, you’re taken to another dimension. Soon after you recover from the crash, you find that this new environment is filled with an alien evil out to take over the world… At least, I think that's what was going on. You see, this is where one of the biggest flaws of the game comes through – the story seems just barely cobbled together. Things happen without any rhyme or reason. Will’s soon recruited into the human resistance and is introduced to an older gent who has an obsession with electricity and gadgets. Even though we’re never properly introduced to this new character, Will somehow discovers his name (and vice versa), but all this does is confuse the player. This style of exposition (or lack thereof) is frequent during Dark Void, giving the narrative an extremely stilted feel. I constantly felt like I had missed something, as if I skipped some segment of the game entirely. This sort of disjointed approach to storytelling is intrinsically built into the game and ultimately takes away from the overall experience.

 

The indecipherable narrative could be excused if there was some decent fun to be had, but the multiple styles of gameplay do their best to constantly keep players on their toes -- and not in a good way. Rather, the mix of gameplay styles is fairly disorienting, creating a situation where playing the game is as incoherent as the story, and that’s hardly something to brag about. The ground combat is ordinary at best – it plays similarly to what you’d find in Gears of War: find cover, shoot the baddies, move forward. To add to the mediocrity is the fact that it’s just not that polished. Everything feels incredibly loose and unstable. Aiming is sketchy and takes some time to pinpoint your target; movement feels a bit like you’re sliding around on ice; cover, while passable, is very contrived. The cover system works well enough, but we’ve seen it before, and we’ve seen it done in vastly superior ways.

 

 

A new element dubbed “vertical combat” allows our hero to progress up or down a vertical plane using various platforms. Think of Gears of War’s cover system where you move forward and hide behind cover, but instead of a horizontal plane, you’re moving vertically. Again, it’s very similar to the ground combat. Although it certainly adds a new twist, when you break it down, a simple shift in perspective isn’t going to change the fact that the core gameplay is lacking. Along with the rest of the ground-based combat comes some hover functionality through your jetpack, unfortunately, the hoverpack in question is basically a glorified jump button. Yes, you can take to the air, but it’s essentially a super-jump that allows for a slow descent. Yes, you can leap to a better vantage point for the various battles within the game, but it doesn’t really add anything dynamic to the experience.

 

The shining light of all this lies within the proper flight sections of the game, where you find yourself jetting across the skyline, dogfighting the various baddies in the game. This is where Airtight Games’ pedigree comes into play, showcasing all of the amazing flight and combat functionality that I came to know and love during my time with Crimson Skies. These mechanics are easily the best part of the Dark Void, and with good reason; they convey everything I was hoping for: Soaring through some great landscapes while shooting down the enemy, creating some chaotic and lively scenarios. Along with that, the game does a good job of creating an impression of something larger going on. You’ll often find yourself providing air support to troops elsewhere, acting as a sort of guardian angel and making sure you put a stop to your adversaries before they do any real damage to your forces. Sadly, the game binds you to Earth for a decent chunk of time before you even get to take flight, which is more irritating than anything else. Along with that, it’s about a 50-50 mix between ground combat and airborne missions, giving far too little of the good to compensate for the bad. For a game that uses “rise up” as its campaign slogan, it does quite a bit to keep you grounded.

 

Dark Void held quite a bit of promise in my eyes – an original concept, basic running and gunning, and flying elements – all of which fell right into my style of game. What we received was something that did only one thing well, and the rest of the elements were barely passable. Clearly, there were some solid ambitions involved during the creation of the game, but very few of them came to fruition, creating something that’s solidly in the “meh” range of games. While the flying portions of the game were quite a bit of fun, the ground combat and the shoddy story really brought things to a screeching halt. Rather than taking to the skies for something remarkable, we’re stuck on a dilapidated runway, waiting for a reason to fly.