Dark Void: A game full of empty

RATING: 4/ 10

PLATFORM: PS3, XBOX 360
GENRE: Third Person Shooter
RATED: Teen
PURCHASE RECOMMENDATION: Pass up (unless its on the bargain rack)

SUMMARY: My only guess is that CAPCOM ran out of money and/or time for this game. Slight moments of greatness are surrounded by sheer horribleness. My only hope is that someone will take the amazing rocket pack combat and place it in a deserving game.

THE GOOD: Rocket pack combat is a fun original gameplay experience. There are really only three phase of the rocket pack combat, on the ground, hovering or flying. While on the ground you have your basic 3rd person shooter but add in the hovering and the fun begins. Cover is no longer enough for your enemies as you can hover above them or to the sides flanking them. By adding the vertical dimension combat is that much more engaging. Now what make things even better is when you can come flying in from the open air full speed and then hover to take out your opponent. Like wise you can be hovering to take out a generator and then quickly switch to flying to avoid the massive explosion. The simplistic and freedom of this combat is hopefully something that we will see again in the future.

THE BAD: The first two hours of the game really shows how poor the game is. Without your rocket pack you find yourself in the middle of a B picture game. Combat is only ok at best, story is all but missing, and the visual look makes you think the game was made five years ago. As the game progress you realize you do not care for the game's characters or story. I got the most informational story segments from loading screens and the plot line is that of a 5th grader (an I do not mean the smart ones you see on TV). Soon enough you do not really care about any except you rocket pack and think to yourself hmmm maybe if everyone had ones of these and all we did was fly around all day fighting each other this might actually be fun.

THE CONCLUSION: Yes the economy is a mess and yes Dark Void failures were probably due to that but it was it is. Game developers these days have to work simple, small and push their game's strength. If your game's selling point is rocket combat you do not need to try and surround it by an epic story. You need to make the best rocket combat game ever and if your game for a moment stops you from rocket combat you are doing it wrong.