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Well, we still have Crimson Skies.

Dark Void was a title I had somewhat high hopes for going in, but one that ended up leaving me a little dejected and disappointed in that it was made by the same crew, Airtight Games, that gave us the awesome Crimson Skies game from the old Xbox days. And it's not that Dark Void is particularly awful, or broken, but that it's just not as entertaining as it could have been. Really, it's a little too tied down by the shooter mechanics of this gen to stand out against the pack, and while it tries to change up some standard mechanics when it comes to cover, it only comes off as mildly interesting and not a truly innovative way of handling a system that's grown a bit long in the tooth over the past four years or so.

At its heart, Dark Void is a third person shooter, something akin to titles like Gears of War, maybe a little too similar for my tastes. It incorporates a cover system that's nearly identical, but not necessarily worth noting since the use of cover has popped up in so many games since Epic's first entry into that franchise. Of course, Dark Void also has its use of a jetpack for the main character, which you would think would free up the game to do some interesting stuff, but really, so much of the level design is restrictive and filled with enclosed spaces that you're left with little options when it comes to movement. Nothing is more annoying than being introduced to some awesome jetpack flight combat in the first five minutes of the game, and then having to wait until the end of the first act to get to re-experience it again for about five minutes or so. It's not that I'd want the entire game to be a pure flight combat title, but there's a lot that could have been done with the mundane combat if they just gave your character a little breathing room, but that doesn't happen nearly enough.

Maybe the inclusion of vertical cover was an effort to alleviate some of the boredom in these pure shooter segments, but it's not nearly enough to make it interesting. At various points in the game you'll be traveling up and down instead of just moving forwards or backwards. With the jetpack, you can do short hops to platforms in front of you, grabbing on to the ledge with one hand, and firing behind cover with the other hand. In reality, it's no different than just using cover on the X-axis, something you'll start to realize quickly enough. It does look cool from a visual standpoint, but it doesn't add anything interesting to actually playing the game.

While the story concept of Dark Void is pretty cool, what with pilots being transported to another dimension filled with alien beings called Watchers, and Nikola Tesla retrofitting their tech into jetpacks, it ends up falling a bit flat in execution. There's two or three stand out moments during the cutscenes, but as a whole, the story dragged on and by the end and I felt like I could get away with skipping cutscenes entirely and not miss anything drastically important. It doesn't help that Nolan North didn't bother to change his voice from Uncharted's Nathan Drake, which feels a little out of place and far too similar to Sony's popular hero. Also, keeping the non-interactive stuff down, the Unreal Engine used here makes for some ugly character models, something that's a little too similar to the early days of the engine on current-gen consoles. I wasn't a huge fan of the robot designs either; while they look cool they also feel out of place in comparison to the era and the rest of the tech. The story and setting has a real 50's sci-fi vibe to it, but the robots and enemies are far too involved and busy looking for that kind of set-up. That complaint is going to be pretty subjective for most, but it really stood out to me that the game could have benefited from some boxier robot designs, something that fit with what I felt was the overall theme/era being represented in the game.

Overall, Dark Void was a definite disappointment, but at the same time it's completely playable. It's hindered by staying a little too close to standard third person shooters, adopting the same mundane cover mechanic that just about every game post-Gears of War has stuck with, even if they try to dress it up with "vertical cover". The jetpack mechanics are great when you actually get to use them, and provide some of the best segments in the game. The problem comes from them being dangled in the player's face like a treat or promise of better things to come, instead of being part of the standard gameplay from the onset. If I actually got to fly around and make use of the really solid control set-up for the flying segments a bit more, I'd probably be a little less bitter about this particular title. If the game spawns a sequel, hopefully some of my current issues are addressed, but I have a feeling it'll be a long time before we see an actual non 8-bit follow-up to this one.