Dark Void

While the shooting and platforming elements don't individually ignite the gameplay experience, when Dark Void combines them with the superb aerial combat, the action soars and the game's potential is fully realized. [Feb 2010, p.78]

I’m disappointed. I thought Dark Void would be a great mix of air and ground action, but there are bugs in it and after a few hours it starts to get boring due to the lame fights. Also the graphics inside buildings aren’t the best.

Dark Void is seriously fun, even if it is a little vertigo inspiring.

Unfortunately, the shining strengths of the game are buried underneath a thick layer of rust that only the thirstiest of air-junkies should bother chipping through. [Feb 2010, p.95]

The concept of Dark Void is great and the gameplay generally works fine. Unfortunately, the story isn’t interesting and far too short.

Its lack of multiplayer (dog fighting could have been sweet) and small hiccups in gameplay and presentation keep it from greatness. On the flip side, does it deserve the relentless beating it's taken from the press? No. It's still a fun science-fiction thrill ride, one worth taking for the sights, sounds and entertaining combat.

Dark Void poses something of a dilemma. On one hand, it is an extremely enjoyable, quirky and lovingly crafted B-movie adventure delivered by a developer with obvious ambition. On the other hand, however, it has a number of fairly significant rough edges with elements that don’t stack up quite as well when compared to other titles in the action adventure genre.

This is not to say that Dark Void is a bad game, rather it's an above average game that misses to deliver that final knock out punch.

At its best, Dark Void is an incredibly fresh and free-form experience. [Feb 2010, p.110]

Targeting your enemies from high above sounds fun, but the mediocre AI and several glitches drag Dark Void to a decent level.

Dark Void is a great example of wasted potential. The story, the "jetpack-flying-action", the 3D-Gameplay ... all that in combination could have made a great game, but thanks to a boring mission- and level-design, repetitive enemies and mediocre graphics it just isn't.

Fun to be had, but ultimately disappointing.

A solid but unimaginative shooter, with poor characters. [Feb 2010, p.86]

Dark Void has some enjoyable moments, but its poor control scheme and forgettable IA makes its gameplay pretty boring.

The expectations of those who were hoping for a videogame, Dark Void, which would finally be able to bring a breath of fresh air into the third-person action genre, are sadly disappointed, at least in part, from this title. Certainly the air-combat component has been implemented in a very good way, but it's unfortunately not sufficiently good enough, in a game were you must alternate flying phases with boring sections on foot. The game's value is also clouded by an only discrete technical compartment, lifted in part by a great soundtrack. A pity, because there was a huge potential in the concept idea of Dark Void.

All in all, Dark Void falls short of the expectations set forth by largely ignoring what makes itself stand out and muddling with gameplay mechanics that are average. The inclusion of the ground sections makes it feel like Dark Void wasn't confident enough about the jetpack to really drive the gameplay with its use.

Zooming around with your jetpack can be a lot of fun, but routine shooter action and long flightless sections keep Dark Void from flying high.

And once the brutally short campaign is over, Dark Void is over.

The ultimate issue in front of Dark Void is the fact that it doesn't know whether it's a third-person shooter or an arcade flight game, and does a pretty mediocre attempt at both. An uninspired approach to the design of the game's stages and challenges ultimately leaves Dark Void dangling in the chasm of mediocre shooters.

It is strange to say, moreover because this is an original proposal, but Dark Void lacks something, maybe inspiration or perhaps just a better execution.

Dark Void can be summed up in just six words: so much potential, so much disappointment.

Maybe in Dark Void 2, in which a brash, headstrong pilot gets a hold of a jetpack created by an aging engineer and uses it to fight zombies, we'll see the full-fledged realization of this game's genuinely interesting designs. Until then, however, jetpack fans will have to settle for half-baked.

An canonic third person shooter, without any specificity.

Dark Void demonstrates promise that a sequel may realise, but as a spiritual successor to Crimson Skies it's in severe need of liposuction. [Feb 2010, p.118]

The flight system is interesting, but that's about it, leaving the player with an extreme anxiety, because I know that there is potential for much more.

Dark Void is perhaps worthy of a rental or a bargain price purchase, but apart from this there's nothing here that's inspired enough to entice you.

Dark Void winds up being less than the sum of its parts.

Someone forgot to add "fun" to the jetpack. [Mar 2010, p.75]

The basic problem with Dark Void is that there are too many annoying moments and not enough great ones. It's not a bad game, but things like that the flying is constantly interrupted and the terrible camera make it tepid.

The idea behind Dark Void is pretty cool, but the gameplay just isn’t very good. Most of the time you’re flying with your jetpack and you have to shoot while you’re in the air. That’s the biggest problem. Flying and shooting doesn’t work at the same time because of pretty bad controls. Visually the game is normal, not bad, not good. The audio is probably the best part of the whole game.

It's just a damn shame that the nigh-amazing "The Rocketeer versus UFOs" premise crashes hard into "tepid Gears of Uncharted knock-off" ground.

The only area where SEGA succeeded was in realizing that the game had to blend together the different elements, not keep them apart. Where Airtight failed was not realizing that very fact. In the end, it's worth playing Dark Void, though expectations should be kept very low, and it's not worth picking up at full price by any means.

Dark Void feels like a rushed game and tries to combine too many elements into one.

Every bit as disappointing as expected. By Capcom's normally impressive standards, this is by some margin its least impressive offering for a generation. To be blunt, Dark Void is a bland mass of half-baked ideas, generic combat and unengaging aerial action, with poor AI and a wearisome story.

Dark Void had some great concepts, but ultimately they were never realized. Flying is entertaining enough, but the rest of the game is repetitive and mediocre at best.

The fundamentals are there but Dark Void never soars to great heights.

You'd have thought that any game featuring a high velocity jetpack would be a guaranteed winner, but Dark Void somehow manages to ham-fist the execution completely, leaving a game that's only ever fun in parts, while the rest is simply not up to scratch.

The jetpack might be a nice gimmick, but it’s not innovative enough to carry an entire game, especially since vertical cover can only be used in certain places. Everything else in Dark Void is as generic as generic can be. The level design, enemies, weapons and story, nothing stands out particularly. But for an eight hour single player-only experience, it should have.

Apart from the jetpack moments, Dark Void doesn't bring a lot of new stuff to the table. The unengaging storyline, formulaic action and short game time makes it difficult to motivate choosing this game over any other high quality third person shooter that's been released lately. In 2010 there aren't any excuses for mediocracy.

The story’s never explained adequately, the combat’s pretty much always a chore, and flying isn’t nearly as fun as it should be. I don’t hate Dark Void, but I don’t care for it, either.

Dark Void is a rare game with a great idea, but isn't going to please anyone. It's one of the biggest disappointments of the year, which is impressive when you consider that it's only January.

The story is bad, the shooter elements are lackluster, enemies are repetitive, level design is confining, and vertical combat is a gimmick.

Dark Void is probably going to go down as one of the most disappointing titles of the year, after all of the expectation and hype. With a bit more time spent polishing and developing key elements and its story this could have become a “classic” as the potential is their for all to see, however in its current form it will sadly slip into the void of mediocrity that has claimed so many third person shooter in the past.

Dark Void may be the most aptly named game to ever be released - with a half-dozen good concepts sucked in, alas, never to be seen again. It ranks even lower than last year's Bionic Commando in Capcom's list of franchises that had promise but turned out to be no fun to play. A little more fluidity, polish and thought would have made a big difference for this game, as it stands though, Dark aVoid this one.

From glitches to repetitive dog-fights and long stretches sans jet-pack, there is always something to ruin your fun as you trudge toward a wholly disappointing boss-battle and an inconclusive, patchwork ending.

Overall, Dark Void was a definite disappointment, but at the same time it's completely playable.

Even though some stages (like the penultimate aerial battle) felt like they lasted forever and ever, Dark Void is a pretty short game with an anticlimactic ending that does little more than set up a sequel.

There's barely enough time to rail at the missed opportunities in one of the least substantial games ever.