It’s The Rocketeer, Ironman, and Independence Day with a hint of Nathan Drake, all rolled into one!

Submitted by Los

Games come and go. Some stay in your head others buzz off and are forgotten. And then there are the few that you sit down and play through till it’s done and then can’t help but ask yourself, “what the hell was that?” Dark Void is that game.

You play as Nathan Drake, as The Rocketeer. No, wait; you’re Will, my mistake. It’s so easy to confuse the two (damn you Nolan North. How about taking a little break before over exposure gets us all Northed out). The story takes place in the ever popular, rarely ever used in video games, World War II era. But there is a twist. You get sucked into the Bermuda Triangle and get thrown into another dimension where there is a war going on between the Survivors, humans who have gotten there the same way you have, and the Watchers, a sort of alien/robot species that once ruled over humans and who are trying to get back into the regular dimension to take control and enslave humanity once more.

And that’s about where I lost track of everything.

Somewhere between bad story telling, mediocre third person shooter gameplay, and trying to not fall off cliffs and ledges to my death, I was starting to lose interest really fast. It’s as if they wanted the gameplay to tell the story for them so they didn’t bother introducing characters or explaining who and what. This is fine. But not when what you’re doing is boring and slowly paced. That is, until you reach the later parts of the second half of the game. That’s when someone pushes the Ludicrous Speed button and passes by the stuff that you were actually wanting to know.

So why did I keep playing? Simple. I’m a sucker for flying. I love flying in games. That coupled with my love for the 1991 Disney movie The Rocketeer, Dark Void had an unfair grip on my jetpack ignition. Don’t get it twisted, the flying is not the greatest, but if you need a fix and want to do some air combat then this will tie you over. They had some neat ideas when trying to put this game together, it’s just too bad they were poorly executed. Like hijacking a UFO, which sounds like fun doesn’t it? Well it was the first time. But doing it’s drawn out button pressing over and over isn’t exactly a good time. And then there’s the “which way is up? Oh, never mind, I just found this nice hard wall” problem that kept popping up for me. If that wasn’t when I was trying to follow something in the air, it was the kickback from initially turning the jetpack on where I’d go shooting off flailing in the air for a few seconds before I rocketed head first into a wall. Apart from a few annoyances, I can’t complain about this aspect of the game because it is what I was looking forward to the whole time. I guess you can say I had fun with it. Sadly, those flying levels took up about 35%-40% of the game itself.

Umm, call me crazy, but aren’t your legs supposed to be burnt off by now?

The rest of the game you were on foot shooting different colored robots. This gameplay is what got me weary. It was playable, but there just didn’t feel like there was any depth to it. And then you had this weird vertical cover system. Where you would rocket up to a ledge, and hang underneath it but not like you would think. You’re crouched behind a vertical ledge in a very uncomfortable and unnatural looking position especially for someone with a jetpack on their back. And if you think that would mess with your head and cause you to go a little dizzy, trust me, you are spot on.

In the end, it’s hard to say go out and play this game. Because I for one would be happy never touching it again. Sadly, the ending leaves it wide open for a sequel. It’s too bad you’ll be left wondering what the hell just happened when the game ends, leaving that want and need for a sequel nowhere to be found. The story felt very slow and then very rushed with no happy medium. And the only part of it all that’s enjoyable is a small percentage of the game as a whole. When it was over the smile on my face was priceless, because I knew that I can finally toss Dark Void into itself. (Get it? A dark v… nevermind.)

Final Judgment,
2.5 Water Bottles Full of Pee, out of 5

Speaking of which, be careful after you play a lot of the flying levels and then go to pee. This surprisingly deadly combination caused me to get dizzy and almost fall over into my toilet.

Tags: Dark Void