All right who wants a jet pack with fully automatic weapons that have infinite bullets? Yes, I do too. It is kind of uncommon to have one in the year 1935, but when you accidentally get side swiped in your airplane and land in the Bermuda Triangle a lot can change. If you’ve ever seen the movie The Rocketeer and wanted to experience what it would be like to control a high powered jet pack with some nice modifications. Then thank the people over at Capcom for giving you Dark Void.
To sum it up, you play as William Augustus, who is a cargo pilot, that crash lands in the Bermuda Triangle (after getting side-swiped by what looks like a UFO). The setting is at the start of World War II and bad enough he has to deal with a huge war, but now he’s crashed into the Bermuda Triangle. Since he’s in 1935, you would expect there to be “normal” weaponry, however there is a lot of robots sporting high technology with “lasers” trying to burn the flesh off your ass. As William ventures off into the jungle, trying to find out what the heck is going on, he stumbles onto a village. Of course he isn’t welcome, and totally gets the “we want you to leave” vibe from the villagers, one villager decides to help William out. His name is Nikola Tesla, that’s right Tesla! If you don’t know who that is you need to get a history book and look him up, shoot even Wikipedia him if you have to. After meeting Tesla, he gives you something pretty cool, a jet pack! But for right now it just lets you hover, but it’ll get better promise. The jet pack is pretty useful while in combat, besides the obvious getting from point A to point B, its good for some stealth ambushes.
I’ve been asked what’s so different about this game versus others (that deal with the duck/cover shooting system)? Well first off, you have a jet pack, is that different enough? Capcom kicks its up a notch by giving you a vertical cover system as well. Both systems are useful when trying to fight the baddies aka the Watchers. Their main goal is to enslave humanity in this parallel world you’re in. Beside being a shooter style game, there are some melee skills you can use which seem to be more efficient than just shooting the baddies. Besides melee, shooting, and the jet pack, you have grenades as well. With the grenades, the longer you hold them the shorter it takes for them to explode. Master this skill quickly, or you’ll be learning how to eat with you’re other hand. The upgrades are very linear, with some cool additions like scopes and powerful rounds for your gun. You also have guns on your jet pack, which is a great touch and there is no reload either!
Now to dog fighting in the air with your jet pack. For the most part, you will feel outnumbered when in the air. However, since you’re smaller, its easy for you to sneak up on other vehicles and high jack them. Also you’re size allows you to be more stealthy. Sneaky sneaky! I failed to mention that the good people that made Crimson Skies helped develop the game, so this is more of an arcade style dog fighting combat.
The game may seem complicated but the beauty is simplistic. There were some reviews that said that the graphics were bland, but I think they need to clean their monitors or take the crap out of their eyes, because they are outstanding. The visuals are outstanding with a great value of color throughout the jungle and the characters. I was amazed by the textures and the glare effect that was in the game. There were times when I had to adjust my position because the sun was blocking my vision.
I spoke of the good parts of the game now for the bad. There were many times in game play where it became very repetitive. Running into an area, looking on my radar to see enemies, killing them with the duck/cover system, and then repeat. The scavenger hunt missions were a bore, especially when you don’t even have full jet pack capabilities. I would also like to add, the best way to play this game is with the dialogue off or the volume down, because the characters were dull and left you asking yourself “why should I care”? Another point about this game, is that its a total achievement/trophy whore game, I swear I just breathed and I got one.
Even though Dark Void was interesting, the game was a bit too familiar and with no replay value. My final verdict is to rent it. I hope you enjoyed the review and make the wise decision to just rent it. As always stay frosty and keep to the skies.
