Dark Void Demo: Nathan Drake As The Rocketeer?
When the opening cutscene took place in this demo I felt strange, like I was having a flashback to a scene from last year's Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. As the lead protagonist putts around in a dark cave I distinctly hear the voice of Nathan Drake floating out of a character model that is a worthy facsimile to the swashbuckling dreamboat. The voice is that of Nolan North, the actor responsible for Drake and apparently lacking the range necessary to take my mind off of Uncharted throughout this scene. The comedy drones on with with similar direction as this slightly less cautious, and decidedly Sci-Fi adventurer discovers a jet pack and insists on trying it out right away.
Make the Jump for more impressions.
The demo itself is deftly delivered and sweet in its execution. I found myself reveling in the freedom of jet pack flight afforded by Capcom's deliciously implemented controls. Clear mission objectives and slick targeting provided easy access to the demo's more complex movements. Thrusting forward and barrel rolling were particular favorites, facilitating movement throughout the pure blue sky. The mid-air shooting mechanic was initially disorienting, but once I got the hang of the inverted controls I was blasting space crafts like a pro.
When the action moved to the ground I was pleasantly surprised. The transition from hovering to landing required manual direction instead of adopting the more traditionally used mini cutscene as in Resident Evil 5 with the swamp mobile. Since you can't just press a simple button to land, it forces the player into fully committing to the gameplay and allows for maintenance of unbroken interactivity.
Once on the ground, I again became dubious as my Uncharted flashback continued with an analogous cover and fire system. Even the hand to hand combat feels familiar, allowing the player to negotiate sneak attacks when gaining ground throughout the level's cover system. The shooting mechanic feels different and more weighted as would be appropriate for space age weaponry but just giving generic guns and grenades a Halo sheen does little for the fledgeling IP.
The enemies and encounters were varied and while that Sci-Fi stock feeling still hovered in my mind, the progression from blasting and disabling turrets to a deeply disturbing narrow escape from slug-like creatures, rounded out the mission objectives and left impressions of Dead Space lingering in the wake of this tight demo. Overall I am curious as to what kind of story would spawn in this game world. The monsters and mission objectives brandish much lore potential, especially when wrapped around the massive set piece of this introductory level. I know from the forums you gals and guys have a specific flavor left in your mouths from this demo. I'm curious to know how excited or not you are from this sampling of Dark Void. The game is due out Jan 19th for Xbox 360, PC, and PS3.
ROCsteady
Posted to Video Games on 10 January 2010
· Comments (4)
Other stuff like this: capcom, dark void, dead space, halo, nathan drake, nolan north, sooter, uncharted 2
With the somewhat absurd cost of video games these days and the economy being the way it has been, I've been a lot more prudent in my video game purchases. When I first saw Dark Void, it looked kind of fun and I thought it had a nice premise. Then I heard about the golden jetpack, and I decided to go ahead and preorder. However, I was not above canceling said preorder if needed.
However, the demo pretty much solidified the purchase for me. The game world is expansive and beautiful, and while I found some of the evasive controls to be a little difficult to execute at the same time as dogfighting, I now know that this is a game I'll enjoy. At this point, I think I'll only be disappointed if the action is repetitive and/or there is no replay value.
Found the demo to be extremely poor :( was really looking forward to this and all. Well rent it and if its better then the demo shows then I will buy. But this could end up being another case of Too Human where I should have just gone with my instinct of the demo and just steered clear.
The only poor thing about the demo was the difficulty in the dog fights. The rest was pure quality!
Even after the demo I'm still more excited about the retro-themed DSi game than the console game.