Dark Void (Xbox 360) Preview
Posted by Adam Larck on 01.08.2010
411 takes Capcom’s new jetpack shooter for a spin. See Adam Larck's thoughts inside.
Capcom has given Dark Void an interesting premise. It's a jetpack shooter that allows players to fight while flying, hovering or running and seems to pull it off fairly well in the demo that's now available.
Before going into detail about the demo, I first want to talk about the jetpack mechanics. Surprisingly, it handled really fluid once you got to flying. The controls were accurate and pinpoint and were easy to handle, even in fights.
To turn the jetpack on, all you have to do is double-tap Y on the ground or once in the air. Every time you go into the fly he seems to need to gain his bearings and flounders around for a few seconds before flying smoothly. I can understand it in the demo since it's supposed to be his first time using it, but hope he doesn't do it later on in the game.
While in the air, you can boost, brake, or press A to hover. Hover slowly makes him descend, but a boost can be used to give him some lift. The hover also has to be used when it comes to landing; otherwise, hitting the ground just injures him while flying. There are also invisible barriers keeping him from flying anywhere. Even with the barriers, there were a decent amount of places you could get to for vantage points, and it will be interesting to see how this can be used in the full game.
Also, various aerial maneuvers can be done by clicking the Right Stick then moving both sticks in various directions. Moving both left or right can have William do a barrel roll in that direction, while moving them up and down or in opposite directs has him flip to the opposite direction. These moves drain a bit of boost each time you use them, but the boost recharges quickly. This was fairly useful to avoiding fire or to do a quick turn to face an enemy.
The jetpack can also fire machine guns while in flight by clicking the RT. The fights in the air were fairly simple, with only three Watchers (the main enemy) flying at you being the only moving targets you'll have to fight while flying. The only other things you shoot at are some Comm. Towers and a mounted AA-Gun.
The jetpack fight is actually fairly simple, but offers various ways to accomplish destroying them. Before the fight starts, a hint comes up telling you that holding LB will lock onto the nearest enemy. This feature is nice, but aiming while doing this just felt awkward to me. I found it easier to just tap it to find where the enemy was then torn and shoot without it.
Anyways, in the battle, the flying ships can either be simply destroyed with gunfire or hijacked by initiating a quick time event by pressing B when a ship gets close. The QTE consists of dodging gunfire from the ship's turret while trying to rip off the panel on the ship. This also has to be done while trying to remain on the ship as it tries to flip you off. After getting the panel open, you then have to move the Left Stick to kill the pilot and take over the ship.
The ship's controls actually handle just as well as the jetpack. It comes with a gun and a missile launcher as well. However, because it is a bigger target, the enemies seemed to hit it a lot easier then when you are just flying around. The vehicle can be abandoned by hitting B twice to exit then Y to fly again.
After destroying these three enemies, you go onto a platform where you fight off some generic enemies to turn a shield off outside. The fighting on the ground is fairly easy as well. You have a cover feature available by hitting X near a wall. The cover works good and responded well. I never found myself trying to perform some other function and instead attaching to the nearest wall, like I had in other games.
There are a few various guns you can pick up while in this portion as well from the Watches. One fired similar to a machine gun, while one felt a bit like a shotgun. It fired a bolt of energy that did more damage close range then long range.
Also in this section I tried shooting from a hovering position. While this worked decent for a spray of bullets onto enemies, trying to accurately aim and shoot at an enemy while descending downward just didn't seem to work great. I can see this being good for launchers or things with splash damage, but accurate shots were better on the ground.
Another problem I had with this section were the melee attacks. You can't melee whenever you want; you have to actually be close to someone before hitting B to melee. Often when I was trying to melee the enemy would get the first shot in because it didn't want to register the hit or the range of the melee. The range is also a problem; sometime it only wanted to hit when it was close up, while other times there could be a decent amount of distance for the melee.
Anyways, after killing the soldiers and hitting the console to release the shield, snake-like creatures come and attack you. They can jump and pin you down, which you'll have to move the Left Stick to free yourself. I found it easiest to just melee these enemies to kill them, as they went down in one hit.
After escaping the building, a short cutscene happens before the demo comes to an end. It's a short demo, lasting only about 10 minutes, but does show off the jetpack nicely. However, there are a few other things I wish they had shown off as well. The vertical cover I would have liked to see in action to see how it handles in the game.
Tech points are also gained from enemies in the game to upgrade guns, but you never see how the points can be spent. It would have been nice to at least see how guns will be able to have been upgraded, and maybe shown off an upgrade or two as well.
Besides the gameplay, the music was good in the game and fit the mood of the area while flying around. The voice acting in the game is good as well. While you don't hear too much of the voices in the game, early on they give you help in learning the controls of the jetpack.
The environment looks great and was fun to fly around in. the character details were also good, but didn't look real crisp while in the cutscenes.
Overall, the game definitely seems ready for its Jan. 12 release. The flying was fluid, and fighting on the ground worked well. Besides some small problems with the melee and firing while hovering, it looks like Dark Void should be a solid game when it comes out.
