Dark Void

You are a well-trained pilot named Will just on a routine flight across the Atlantic. Nothing special, until you and your plane plummet towards the ground somewhere around the Bermuda Triangle. As rumour has it the Bermuda Triangle ends up being a transitional zone from the world into a different dimension known as the 'Void'. Will ends up making contact with a strange group of other-worldly folk dubbed as 'Watchers' who take to Will's presence as... annoying. Thankfully Will comes across a group of humans who have taken it upon themselves to fight these aliens – you are now part of that fight.

The plot for the game is not the only different thing about Dark Void. It is set apart by the combat system and flow of vertical and horizontal combat. In traditional third-person shooters the player only needs to concentrate on hostiles on the ground, the X axis, or the horizontal plain. This makes for an average experience, and the developers of Dark Void they decided to do something different. Upon coming to a vertical drop or climb, the camera flicks correspondingly and the player is given a down or up view of the level. Most of the environment in Dark Void consists of cliff faces with out-croppings that enemies like to perch on – and take shot at you.

Will is gifted with a jet pack that serves as a tool for launching up or down these vertical gauntlets. Say for example the player is at the foot of a cliff face with enemies above him raining hell with their energy weapons. Will can activate his jet pack and burst up the cliff face, taking cover underneath outcrops to avoid the incoming fire. Upon coming to an outcrop occupied with enemies, the player can shoot them or pull them off for maximum gravitational-based death.

The traditional ground-based third person action is still there however, so traditional third-person fans wont be disappointed. Not only can the jet pack be used for boosting from cover to cover in vertical combat, but it can also be used to hover and fly almost anywhere in the outdoor levels. This system can also be used for sluggish-looking open-air combat and chasing after UFOs. If you do manage to catch up to said UFO then it is possible to hijack it and use the superior firepower for your own use. Think of it as Grand Theft UFO.

Dark Void seems to score as a fun and fast-paced shooter that will hopefully produce a new experience on the PC, Xbox 360, and PS3 platforms. Unfortunately it looks like a long wait as the game is scheduled for release sometime around winter 2009. So in the meantime strap on your jet packs and hover around NZGamer.com for a bit – a full review will be up closer to release.

» Return to Top