Dark Void

The Good
The gameplay is a mixed bag of tricks. It incorporates elements of hide-and gun ground combat as well as aerial dogfigthing action and both parts actually work well together which makes gameplay fun and varied. At it's best, It's an intense and actionpacked game with quite a few challenging battles. The dogfights though, are what really shines and is no doubt the game's strongest aspect. You have many choices here, you can shoot enemy aircrafts down with your rocketpack's inbuilt machineguns or man an allied antiaircraft gun to take the UFO's down. Or even more fun, you can chase after a UFO to hijack it and then fly it yourself.

The Bad
You aren't likely to appreciate this game for it's plot. I thought it was quite weak, mainly because it seems like a patchwork of several halfbaked ideas instead of a coherent well-defined story. Also, none of the characters have any real personalities and come across as shallow and dull stereotypes so it's hard to really care for any of them.

Searching for the collectibles in the game, techpoints and journal entries, is mostly a waste of time. The upgrades you can add to your weapons doesn't seem to make much difference and the journals which tells the stories of various other people within the void feels bland and uninteresting and adds nothing.

It is also too bad that the game's best aspect, using a rocketpack to battle UFO's at the same time feels so disappointingly underdeveloped. The rocketpack could have been far more useful and versatile, as it is it's little more than a regular plane in mini-size.It,s almost useless outside areas with wide, clear spaces. If you are in more cramped spaces you will barely be able to lift before you smack hard into a tree or crate. It is my opinion that when a game features a trademark tool such as a whip or a boomerang or jetboots or whatever, that tool shouldn't just have one purpose, it should be useful for various tasks. (Think of the bionic arm in Bionic Commando from 2009 and you should have a pretty good idea of what I mean) Also, there is hardly any difference between flying your rocketpack or a commandeered aircraft so the whole skyjacking-thing becomes little more than a fun gimmick.

Lastly, I encountered some annoying lockups of the game on more than one occasion so apparently the programmers haven't done their jobs as well as they should have.

The Bottom Line
I certainly had fun while playing this rather short adventure but when it was all over I didn't have any lasting impression of it. This game certainly had the potential to become a really great game which I think the developers could have achieved if they had incorporated a better story and focused more on the jetpack and dogfighting aspect. Still, it's certainly worth a playthrough if you can get hold of this game for a bargain-bin price.

The Good
First of all, I liked the plot. It is so fictional, and it touches so different things that it stays in mind.

Two different gameplay elements such as 3D shooter and 3D flight is incorporated successfully in the game. Ability to hijack the UFOs on the air is impressive and QTE only allows to simplify the process.

Flight physics is nice, but mouse sensitivity should be strongly adjusted. It was seen that most of the developers worked on Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge, and it defines the style and success of this part of the game.

The other part - 3D Shooter - is also made well, but it is seen not from the first sight. During 1st episode I was mastering the controls and only after gaining experience with covering system and abilities of Will, I've seen that such part is not bad also.

It may be said that AI of enemies is not high or even middle, but sometimes the battles are very challenging, especially when you fight with so-called bosses.

The music performed by Hollywood Orchestra in the game is great.

The Bad
The worst thing in the game is default flying controls. But it may be made better, adjusting the mouse sensitivity in options. I made it two times. First time in Prologue, when I've controlled some character not seen during the rest of the game, and second time, when Will starts to fly.

The second bad thing is a plot. Not the plot in general, but connection of its parts. It seems that it so much edited or "cut" that many events are left behind the scene seen to the player.

The absence of manual save also gives some troubles, but I'll finally master the controls and raise my class to pass the action sequences successfully.

The presence of Diary is unclear, however I did not find all the diary entries scattered along the playfield. It may be recollected to reach 100%, but I haven't a desire to make this. The story in the dairy entries does not influence the gameplay anyhow.

During the first episode, when Will can't use jetpack, I have found certain places, where you can't go out from due to geometrical polygon's problem. Only restart of checkpoint solved the problem, when Will reappears on the open field.

Another bad thing is AI of enemies. Such creatures are always told that they are more intellectual, but their behaviour is similar to human and Will eliminates them easily.

The final bad thing is a length of the game. It is short, however it allows to see the finish quickly and switch to the next game.

The Bottom Line
The game is a nice science-fiction epic inspired by Jules Verne`s "Journey to the Center of Earth", events of World War II, the Bible, the Star Wars, H.P. Lovecraft's Ancients, and Bermuda's Triangle's mystery. If you may blend all of this and even more and if you like 3D shooters and 3D flights, this game will be your best game for 1-3 days until you finish it. The alternate interpretations of different events shown in the game will be kept in your mind if you'll share such interpretations. Physics on land and in the air is nice, and it is easy to master the controls for non-"hardcore" players, so the fun is guaranteed if you like such kind of the games.