Written by: PlayDevil.com Staff

 

 

 

'Dark Void' is an upcoming sci-fi 3rd person shooter. The plot revolves around William Agustus Grey, a pilot who crash-lands his cargo plane in the "Bermuda Triangle", before he is then transported to a parallel dimension that is in the middle of an alien occupation.

 

While the story may not win any points for innovation, the game introduces a ‘vertical cover’ mechanic that manages to set the game apart from the crowd.

 

In a similar way to Gears of War ‘stop and pop’ mechanic, this ‘vertical cover’ allows you to lock-on to elements of the environment (to provide cover from which to attack). Unlike Gears however you have a jetpack strapped to your back, which enables you to launch in to the air and cling to platforms for cover.

 

It is an interesting mechanic and one that even in the small section I played added a significant amount of (enjoyable) complexity to the combat.

 

According to staff at the booth ‘in the first hour or so’ you spend your time acquiring parts to enable the construction of your equipment. After this the game opens up properly. It sounds like an extended tutorial, but from my experience it could be necessary to help teach the game mechanics the game introduces.

 

When I started the demo I found it be a strange mix of familiar and unintuitive. While the gunplay and hovering felt like second nature, finding a path through the level using the mini-map proved surprisingly tricky. Difficulties navigating were hindered still further by having to try and spot ledges and handholds that didn’t clearly distinguish themselves from the rest of the environment.

 

The best method I could devise to find my route though the level was to run around blindly until an onscreen prompt informed me that I could climb/fly up. While this proved functional, it made me feel slightly buffoonish as ran around in circles hoping the game would ordain to tell me the route.

 

My path finding wasn’t helped by the fact that, at first, the vertical cover mechanic is hard to get used to. It maybe something about the way the camera tilts as you traverse the shear rock faces, but it gives the impression that it will function in the same way as a standard cover mechanic (on flat ground).

 

In fact it does operate very similarly, but vertical movement is bound to a different button. This means that if you want to move directly from one ledge to another while staying in cover you just have to tap of the appropriate button, which then automatically launches you to the selected ledge. Intellectually I can see this is a good system, but in the few minutes I had with the demo it was confusing. I am confident that after a little more time with the game it will feel start to feel natural, but I spent the majority of my time with the demo launching myself in to volleys of laser fire.

 

As I became more familiar to the controls, movement actually started to feel like it had a lot in common with Uncharted (crossed with ‘The Rocketeer’). The cover mechanic had a similar looseness to it, giving a feeling of more speed and agility than a GoW character. Boosting from platform to platform became exhilarating as I started get to grips with the mechanic, and the promise of even greater maneuverability once the jetpack is fully assembled has me wondering what other tactical options will be made possible.

 

The gunplay did feel a little underpowered, but this could easily have been due to my starting weapon. Of course the characters offensive abilities may have been underpowered to force players to adopt evasive strategies in their combat, utilizing more of the defensive capabilities of the character. Either way this didn’t stop me wondering how resilient the opposition’s faces could really be to bullets, no matter how underpowered the gun may be.

 

"Dark Void" has been delayed a number of times now, most recently pushing it back after New Year (shocking when you remember it was meant to be released last holiday season). Looking at the game as it stands now I can only assume that the developers (Airtight Games) are just ironing out bugs or waiting for a better release window, because from what I saw the game is ready to go.