Dark Void Gameplay Preview and Developer Interview 0
We get some hands-on time with Dark Void, and talk to Senior Producer Morgan Gray.
 By Jeremy Azevedo |
Of all the games scheduled for release early next year, few are as eagerly anticipated as Dark Void. We’ve watched this title evolve over the last couple of years into what is shaping up to be a genuinely unique experience, so it was with great pleasure that we got some play time with the latest build of the game. |
The first thing you will notice when you pick up Dark Void is that it is remarkably easy to control, despite the many different operations that you have to manage at any given time. It seems daunting at first, juggling your movement, jetpack, hover abilities, combat, etc. But minutes into it, you’ll wonder why it took someone so long to take the ceiling off the shoot-em-up.
There are so goddamn many ways that you can tackle any given level that it’s almost retarded. You can strafe your enemies from above like a one-man airstrike. Or you can hover over the battlefield tossing grenades, or fly up to a high vantage point and snipe enemies from there. Or you can rip the pilot out of his/her/it’s UFO, hop in and crash that motherf**ker into a crowd of bad guys like some kind of intergalactic Bruce Willis. Or you can get down on the ground and use the excellent cover system to blow your enemies to hell like in Gears of War. You get the impression that there could be an enormous replayability value to Dark Void, if for no other reason than that you aren’t really locked into any one particular method of combat. On some of the vertical combat sequences, for instance, a really good jetpack pilot could conceivably speed run through them and rocket straight to the top. Most people would probably splatter on one of the platforms on the way up but the option is there if you care to risk it.
One way to totally disrespect your opponents is to pinch a loaf on them from above.
Best of all, the camera system is near perfect. I can’t stress the importance of this enough, as it could have really been a deal breaker for the title. I shit you not, the camera in Dark Void is so intuitive to where you are and what you’re doing that you don’t even have to control it with the right thumbstick like in most other games that feature a wide range of movement. This frees your analog sticks up for a myriad of aerial maneuvers, and keeps you focused on steering, which is great. I don’t really know how to explain it, but somehow they managed to find a sweet spot in the perspective of the character and the scaling of the environment that most other titles don’t even approach.
But perhaps it’s better to show you Dark Void than to tell you about it, or at least have someone with more experience do it. Check out the following gameplay walkthrough/interview with Dark Void’s Senior Producer, Morgan Gray. Morgan shows us some of the different approaches to combat, a few of the sweet weapons at your disposal and goes over the story and characters a bit as well. There’s even a little bit of conversation about the movie, so watch for that as well!
