9-Dec-2022
Dark Void is a third-person shooter published by the hugely famous Capcom and developed by the not so well-known Airtight Games. The game borrows its plot elements from various places in popular culture, and even though it didn't sell so well, players and critics alike still acknowledged it for the innovative gameplay and story twists, and there have actually been plans to make a movie based on the game, though nothing solid has come out of that so far.
Gameplay
This is not your traditional shooter or even action game – controlling a character with a jetpack on his back, you're able to navigate the levels with ease, and Dark Void features a surprisingly pleasant combination of air combat mixed with ground warfare.
You're playing the role of a pilot flying a cargo plane sometime before World War 2 unfolded – your airplane gets drawn into a disaster by strange forces, eventually getting to the infamous Bermuda Triangle and being teleported to an unknown alien world. He soon finds out he's not the only human to make it there, and the current inhabitants have formed two warring factions, with another group represented by an alien race also present in the world.
The combat is a good mixture of fast-paced and tactical – you have some good arsenal to wipe out the enemy hordes with, while on the other hand you'll frequently be forced to take cover and regain yourself before heading out for another round of gunshots and explosions. The mid-air combat also utilizes cover heavily, despite what you might expect – you'll find various hiding spots and nifty locations to pick off your enemies from afar.
Graphics and System Requirements
Dark Void is yet another title on the so-popular Unreal Engine 3. As a nice addition, the developers have also licensed PhysX to take care of the physics (if your hardware supports it, as not every video card does, even today), as well as a special set of add-ons and tools called the Lightsprint SDK, which provides lighting effects a lot more realistic than what the UE3 can normally handle.
The system requirements (if you're playing on the PC) are close to those of other games on the same engine, despite the added effects and eye candy. If you have a PhysX-enabled card, your framerates should be slightly improved, while you'll get to enjoy more realistic physics and particle effects, as those calculations will be offloaded to the PhysX component completely and the GPU/CPU will have more time to do their own jobs.
Other
The music score is a very notable aspect of Dark Void, composed by Bear McCreary who's known for his contributions to the Battlestar: Galactica series.
Conclusion
Shooters – both first- and third-person – seem to be on the verge of exhaustion in ideas. Developers are doing whatever they can to make a more unique-looking (and playing) game nowadays, and the addition of vertical combat in Dark Void does the job just perfectly.