Preview – Dark Void (Demo)

While short on story elements, and short in general, the Dark Void demo show cases the strongest elements of the game. Whether or not you see the connections between Dark Void and the Crimson Skies series, as many mentioned in the past, Dark Void makes a case for it’s own with the perfect blend of exhilarating aerial combat and competent and open ended on-foot action.

The demo starts out with the main protagonist, Will Grey, trying out the jetpack for the first time. I made the mistake of pressing up on the analog stick moving forward while engaging the jetpack. In true aerial control fashion, up on the analog stick actually points Will down. After skidding through the ground a couple times and realizing my mistake, I finally got into the air. The flying itself, once you stop grinding your chin on the ground anyways, is fairly straight forward and responsive.

What’s amazing is the details on Will while he is flying through the sky. When you first boost off into the air, he wails around frantically struggling for control. The jetpack constantly jitters throughout the flight as if there is wind resistance, and air streams that appear seem to emphasize this fact. Every bit of attention, from how Will squeezes the control mechanism on his right hand to break or boost, or how he straightens himself out when boosting give a strong sense of realism no matter how fictional or impossible it actually is.

Shooting ground targets while in the air will be easy for anyone, but when the appropriately named flying disks appear it becomes a different story. Thankfully, since it’s near impossible to pinpoint a target due to their constant movements, the game introduces the lock on mechanism to aid you in gunning down your targets. Another option is to jack a flying disk when you are close enough to the ship. After a short mini-game and a quick-time event, you’ll dispatch the enemy pilot and take control over the ship, gaining extra firepower and some cover in the process. Though the aerial combat will take some getting used to, it’s a blast flying through the air shooting down or jacking enemy ships.

Will can also hover in the air, which is useful for jumping to higher ground or landing from flight. Shooting enemy targets on the ground below while hovering above their heads is a fun and empowering experience.

The ground combat also feels right, though the enemy behavior leaves much to be desired. Generally they take cover competently and shoot back at appropriate moments. But when you take cover they seem to try to get up close, which incidentally gives the player the upper advantage. Mashing the circle button makes Will melee any enemies foolish enough to enter into range until they die. Hopefully the game introduces enemies that act a bit smarter or are immune to Will’s deadly fists or this might become tedious.

Other issues with the game are due to it’s low details in the surrounding environment. The textures are fine when you are flying through the air, but once you hover down for a glimpse you’ll see blurry textures and bland environments that remind you that this a game level, and not a believable environment. On certain surfaces Will actually stands above the ground itself, breaking the suspension of disbelief even further. I do think I’m being somewhat overly critical about the environment since most of these areas were meant for aerial combat and maybe because it’s a downloadable demo. But as someone who likes to explore open areas, it does disappoint me that these examples are easy to find. Either way, the textures where you are actually meant to fight on the ground is much more detailed and pleasing to the eye.

While there are other small niggling points, such as how often Will folds onto himself upon death, or how walking into deeper water will immediately kill him without any warning, the overall demo experience was entertaining enough to play multiple times trying out different strategies. Hopefully the title can carry this throughout the whole game when it finally arrives on January 16th.