Norm and I took a trip to the offices of fortyseven to check out a few titles coming from Capcom in the next few months. I’ve been following Dark Void since CES 2009 and the game is due to come out this January. We sat down with the game’s producer, Morgan Gray, as he gave us a fun, more in-depth run through of the upcoming game.
Dark Void is a unique adventure experience that blends aerial and ground combat. Developed by Airtight Studios, the team that brought us the Crimson Skies series, Dark Void takes the shooter genre to new heights by combining seamless aerial and ground based combat. The game’s main character, Will, uses a jet pack to launch himself into the skies from ground combat to hovering ground combat to full blown dogfighting aerial combat against alien UFOs. The ground combat is very similar to Gears of War, using a third person action style versus a first person perspective. The action is seamless – you can engage in melee combat, hover over your enemies to use an aerial advantage, and blast off into the sky using your jet pack literally in one combat sequence really changing up how we have traditionally seen video game combat.
When the game was in development they knew they didn’t want to make another flight game, they really wanted to find a way to change the perspective of standard shooter games, taking them away from the “hallway-room-hallway” formula. The original thought was to use a grappling hook but Capcom already had a few games that used the grappling hook like Lost Planet and more recently, Bionic Commando. As a joke, one of the Lead Designers said, what if we used a jet pack? Of course, the idea stuck and after some initial jet pack designs the game started to take off. The designing of a jet pack powered game proved difficult as they discovered that the level design and the AI had to be fully fleshed out, especially the levels since you would have to be able to travel up, down, left, and right.
The ground combat plays out like Gears of War with the third person view and cover system but with strategic use of the jet pack, you can do a lot more like hover and snipe or even break out into full fledged fight to come down on your enemies from a completely different angle. Enemies will drop Tech Points when they die that you can then use to upgrade your weapons. The health system is regeneration based, so you won’t find health pack lying around, you will need to find cover to regenerate your health or fly away if you get too close to dying. Melee attacks are a crucial part of combat, although some enemies will be stronger than others so you will need to use a mix of melee and gun combat or even melee, gun combat, and flight/hover techniques to defeat your enemies.
I had played the game at E3 so I gave Norm the opportunity to check it out for the first time. Here are his initial impressions:
It was really exciting to fly around for the first time. It took me a minute to get my bearings but once I did the controls felt really tight. It reminded me of Crimson Skies. However, when I landed, I had to learn a whole new set of buttons. The nice thing was that the control scheme was right in line with what I am used to in Gears of War. It was especially cool to use the hover to jump over obstacles and strategically put myself in a better position in relation to the enemy. The trickiest parts are figuring out your objective and switching between flight and ground combat. I came away extremely impressed and confident that this game will be a challenge for even the most hardcore gamer. Casual gamers – beware.
Overall, I am really excited about this game. As a fan of the shooter genre, it’s nice to see a fresh take on the standard combat you see in most shooters. The game will not be for everyone as the game is also a flight game and does heavily use the jet pack flight mechanic throughout the game. If you are not a fan of the flight genre, you may not be as interested in this title. There are some crazy vertical climbing sequences which will trip you out as well as possibly give the player a little motion sickness from the new perspective. Gamers looking for something new and challenging will definitely want to check out Dark Void. Those looking for flight/shooter multiplayer action will have to wait for a sequel as there is no multiplayer in the game.
Dark Void is rated T for Teen and will hit stores on January 19th, 2010 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and the PC.
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