19 people review one game at the same time: 28 May 2010 onward

[Zak33]

Lo people

IF YOU ARE ONE OF THE REVIEWER'S AND YOU'VE NOT PLAYED IT YET, DON'T READ THIS THREAD UNTIL YOU'RE READY TO COMMENT FULLY WITH YOUR OWN, UNBIASED VIEWS

Following on from the http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-gaming...-pls-guys.html thread, 19 people are about to receive by post a fully boxed new game.

The games were posted today (27th May 2010) first class to all of them.

None of them yet know what the game is and all of them have been asked to play it for a minimium of 3 hours, and to write a minimum of 100 good and 100 bad words about it.

This thread will contain the words of these game testers: and any debate about it.

[jim]

So can I just clarify - we play the game for 3 hours or more, give our thoughts on it (at least 100 words on the good and the bad) and then start arguing the toss about its merits and detractions in the hope of coming to some sort of consensus?

[Zak33]

OK... review words start from TOMORROW (Sat am)

cos no one can wait long enough

And Blueball might need help... he can't get it to install!

[Zak33]

So can I just clarify - we play the game for 3 hours or more, give our thoughts on it (at least 100 words on the good and the bad) and then start arguing the toss about its merits and detractions in the hope of coming to some sort of consensus?

3 hours yes
100 minimum on good and 100 minimum on bad..

and after that it's up to you all to debate those merits.. but the concensus... 19 of you.. ?

no hope...

I'm interested to see if anyone gets stuck and needs help from fellow gamers too

[kalniel]

First impressions are important. Mass Effect's stirring sense of human endeavour. The epic evolution sequence of 2001: A Space Odyssey. The surprising opening sentence of Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines. A shame then, that Dark Void does its utmost to convince you that no, you weren't here to meet anyone tonight.

Install issues aside (easily worked around simply by installing from hard disk), the prologue highlights all of the game's control flaws shortly before dumping you in the ugliest part of the whole adventure. If I wasn't reviewing it I'd have stopped there and then.

And that would have been a mistake, because Dark Void goes on to produce some moments of genuine fun along with some interesting game mechanics.

You play Will, an aviator who crashes after flying through the Bermuda triangle and finds himself in a strange land and helping the fight against a mysterious, metallic-shelled, enemy. Along the way you'll uncover journals recounting past events from several different viewpionts.
Okay, so the story isn't really what this game is about and if you've played other Capcom titles like Lost Planet you'll know that it's all about the action - waves of bad guys, action sequences, boss battles that have you targeting weak spots etc.

The twist in this game however, is that equipped with a rocket pack you can switch between Gears of War like shooter fare and action in the air. This is presented as a smooth transition under your control and feels completely part of the game - it's neither tacked on nor gives the feeling of being two separate games unlike some other titles which have tried the same. Unfortunately it's here that the control flaws start to raise their head.

First of all, forget playing this game on anything other than an X360 gamepad. Flight is utterly uncontrollable with keyboard and mouse, and all the in-game prompts refer to gamepad buttons rather than your bound controls. This is especially frustrating during the quick time events that populate boss battles - where you have to mash certain buttons and waggle sticks in quick sequence in response to on-screen prompts. Having to register the button and then either remap it in your head to the keyboard equivalent (it's not even that consistent) or look it up in the manual is just unworkable. Same goes for using non-X360 'pads.

Once you've resigned yourself to using the gamepad things get a lot better, although I laughed each time I lit up the rocket pack only to then slam head first into a wall and die. Well, the first 40 times at least. Then I began to get fed up of starting at the last checkpoint.

So no, the flight mechanic didn't really do it for me. However there is also something of an in-between - vertical walls/platforms enable a Prey-like shift of perspective as you leap up or down from ledge to ledge. These sections really did float my boat - the sense of vertigo and slight spatial disorientation gnawing at you while you leap about trying to get a bead on the enemy and avoid being shot. The enemy AI is superbly suited to these sections as well - ducking behind cover, bounding from ledge to ledge, and the sight of them swarming towards you in the vertical is something special.

Conclusion
All in all, Dark Void is a typical example of a Capcom game - they have to be given credit for bringing this genre of game to the PC from the consoles, but the transition to PC never goes entirely smoothly. If the PC market could ever justify the additional cost for the polish it needs then this game would be opening up or at least reinforcing a whole new market. As it is though, it just misses the mark, and is at risk of falling into that deep, dark void...

Kalniel's rating: 6.5/10
Think Gears of War mixed with Lost Planet, Prey and Tomb Raider, with a touch of StarFox.

[jim]

I've now spent 3 hours with Dark Void, even if 2 1/2 of them were spent trying to install it

Sorry if I seem unreasonable, or failing to be impartial. I'm being completely honest here... just my thoughts.

The good:

You can shoot things, and it comes with a manual. Mildly satisfying to watch protagonist hurl himself to his death. If anything else strikes me, I'll add it here.

The bad:

No matter how clever the storyline is, how well-designed the characters are, and how revolutionary the gameplay is, if it's dogged by technical issues, it'll be a poor game. Dark Void is almost certainly the most buggy game I've ever played... in no particular order, I have

• fallen straight through the floor twice, with no obvious reason, into deadly oblivion
• spent over 2 hours trying to install the game from the disk, until I gave up and ran it from hard drive
• sent dead enemies' bodies hurtling through the air by nudging them with my leg
• suffered constant framerate issues, despite recording around 140 fps the rest of the time, causing the game to periodically skip ahead a second or two, so I can watch myself hurtle off ledges or run straight into enemy units
• struggled to aim properly, as the camera moves in an extremely jerky manner
• walked over ammo crates 5 or 6 times before they are actually registered and picked up
• shot enemies around 20 times without them reacting at all, until they die
• crashed to desktop repeatedly at the same point in the game

So I'm completely unable to continue with the game beyond my current (very early) point. The game also fails to save my progress, despite me passing a checkpoint on the way there, so to reach the crash to desktop requires 5-10 minutes of play-time from the previous savepoint. Not particularly tempted to keep retesting I'm afraid.

The most irritating part of this, by far, is the aiming and the framerate. They're probably linked, and basically stop the game from being any fun at all. When you're fighting with the targeting reticule to make it move properly, it's difficult to have fun. The section at the beginning where you fly around is really hard to control as well, which makes it a fairly unenjoyable experience. And watching the game stop, and then fly into action a few seconds later, as the protagonist continues running straight over the edge of a cliff is irritating. Well, only from the playing perspective. Watching the annoying [expletive] sod off and die is somewhat therapeutic.

Which brings me to the next gripe... the voice acting and script is awful. All of the main characters sound permanently disinterested in everything that involves them. It feels as though 90% of the script is based around the words "Oh", "Eh?" and "Meh." And of course, it's all horribly cliched, with such classics as

"Oh, this random person I've got to meet looks like that person that was at one point the love of my life."
"Yes, I am."
"Oh. I see."

"Quick! There's a man on the ground!"
*Checks pulse* "He's dead."
"Oh. Bye."

"My goodness, this giant rockfall has somehow caused us to become separated. How unlikely. Whatever shall we do?"
"Don't fear, we've got this handy two-way radio system that we can now engage, until we find each other again."
"Good thinking. And we'll only talk into it very occasionally for no particular reason, so that the other person can respond and tell us that they're in serious danger. Because they didn't think it worth mentioning previously."

The physics engine, flawed as mentioned in the earlier bugs section, also managed to provide some ridiculous visuals - everything appears to have been filmed on the moon. The protagonist looks a bit like a rabbit when he jumps, and then hangs endlessly in the air. Equally, Ava (the love interest) flails her arms around, in a similarly moon-walk-like manner as her forearms float mysteriously in the air as she runs. They look a bit like a pair of spring-operated table legs with a hinge in the middle, bouncing around for no obvious reason.

Other smaller gripes include:

The complete lack of any noise in the menu system... I thought I'd muted the game somehow and went back to Windows to check the mixer, but there just isn't any. Sound only starts when the game begins. It feels very odd indeed.

There are loads of invisible walls that prevent you from walking off the edge of the map - I thought we'd stopped with those things years ago, but clearly not.

The enemies are completely brain-dead, running around aimlessly and routinely charging out of cover so that they can be mowed down by your machine gun. Others just stand around doing nothing until you kill them.

The camera angle on the ledge sections is dreadful. I thought I'd found a bug in the game at first, but that's actually how it's meant to be.

There are barely any graphical settings to alter to improve performance. And even when they're at max, the textures look dreadful up close. The graphics generally are okay, but not up to the calibre of other recent titles like Just Cause 2, and it performs far worse so I've got no idea what the reason is. Dodgy port presumably?

No save function - a real pain in the neck when you have problems like my crash to desktop, as it's very nauseating to replay a certain portion of the game 20 times to find the source of the problem.

In conclusion:

I was shocked to find that it's been out as long as it has... I had assumed this was a pre-release sample yet to go through bug-testing, but clearly not. Despite having zero expectations, I'm still disappointed by Dark Void. I have absolutely no idea what it's meant to do, or what it's meant to be.

It's a long time since I've played a game that I've found so actively unenjoyable to play... it's probably toe-to-toe with Fortix on that front. And I thought Fortix was a rip-off at £3. Oh dear.

[Spud1]

OK so i've played for about 5 hours on this game now..and just realised I should probably stop for a bit to type up the review hehe

Like most of the other reviewers I had issues installing the game..the installer simply refused to install it, copying about 1gig of data over the course of an hour. Copying the DVD to the hard drive and installing from there did the trick, but I should not have had to do this. I did eventually get it installed though..and then had problems launching it, causing computer lockups after reaching the main menu. I replaced my graphics card (8800GT) with an ATI 5770 last night however, and when I tried again it worked perfectly..ironic really as the game touts its "Nvidia" association! (note I didn't replace it soley for this game..but it was a very good excuse to upgrade hehe). Anyway on to the game.

The Good.
I didn't really have high hopes for the game from the box, it sounded like a typical console port of a 3rd person action game, with a little bit of a twist. I was pleasantly surprised when I started playing though. The graphics are really quite impressive - lots of wide open spaces full of detailed greenery, architecture and the like. The game models are impressively detailed, and had a feel much like Half Life 2 to me..I know we're a few years on from that now but that is the impression I got. You are thrown in at the start to a flight scene where you have to fight off some enemy "planes" (for want of a better word), great fun bit of dogfighting that gets you used to the controls in flight mode. The focus then shifts very quickly to ground based exploration and combat, where you stay for the next hour or so of the game. This transition works better than you might expect, being pretty slick and seemless really, and I think this dynamic is well implemented. The storyline is quite engaging, always prompting you to ask "whats next" and it does tend to keep you on the edge of your seat, something which I find quite impressive in the age of basic "you are stuck here, kill things to get home" stories. There is a love angle here too like any good movie Combat is fun and quite simple to get the hang of - pretty much point and shoot, either from the hip or aiming with the right mouse button. One thing I must mention here is the "cover" system, which works very well. You press C to hide somewhere and can then pop out to fire with the right mouse button, very similar to how Gears of War does it..but just better. It's very slick and you will soon be using it everywhere. You are not forced into this however and in some situations you can just "rambo" through..but this will often get you killed. The weapon choice is pretty good with a nice variety, and also a great upgrade mechanic which sees you collecting "upgrade points" from dead enemies that you can spend at certain points in the game to upgrade your current weapons with larger magazines etc. It's a nice touch similar to experience but with a focus on damage. I have really enjoyed the first few hours of play and hope that there is plenty more to come..this game does have a few niggles that i'll get to but on the whole, its a really fun game.

The Bad.
Aforementioned technical issues aside, once I got it running it was pretty stable and I didn't have any crashes. I do have a few gripes with the game though..The first is the controls. They are a bit flaky to say the least, especially with regard to sensitivity in the air and on the ground. This is the first game I've played where my sensitivity buttons on my sidewinder have been useful, though without them I think I would struggle! I suspect this is due to the keyboard/mouse combination and that it would be a non-issue with a gamepad however. The POV that you are given is also very odd..your character is to the left of the screen, and not central as you would expect. This does allow a greater field of view as you can see what is in front of you, but its REALLY odd when you first start playing, especially if you are used to the traditional central POV. There are a few issues around the level design and scripted nature of this game - lots and lots of invisible walls where you should be able to go but can't, and this does make it feel very scripted and like you are being pushed towards a certain goal all the time..this isn't helped by the objective marker which is always on your screen, and makes the game feel very dumbed down. Again this is something we are getting used to with console ports. I am not very keen on the health system either, it's call of duty style where you get hit, hurt, and can just hide to recover..I much prefer the old fashioned health pack system, but it doesn't ruin the game and it does make it much easier than it could have been. The lack of a health indicator is a real pain though, all you get is a blurred screen when you are near death..no real indication of how damaged you are. My last gripe is the lack of multiplayer - I can see why but it would have been a nice addition, especially for the flight mode. Oh and I guess one last thing - it's way too easy. Enemies are too easy to kill, the AI is rather poor compared to some other modern titles, and the game does give you far too much direction about where to go/what to do..but on the up side it does make it very accessible.

Conclusion.
All in all despite it's bad points I have really enjoyed Dark Void, and it's surprised me. Good storyline, good game mechanics and a lot of fun to be had, this game does keep me wanting more. It's missing a bit of polish in the controls and definitely needs a bit of tweaking w/r to the installation process, but all in all I would reccomend this game to anyone who likes action shooters, well worth a purchase.

8/10 overall rating.

System used for testing - 2x 2.8ghz quad xeons, Radeon 5770HD 1gb, 4gb ram, all settings on high @1920x200

[Terbinator]

System used to the left.

The good: The flying mechanic the game is based around is actually really good. As mentioned by other the controls are clunky (right analogue stick serving no apparent purpose) but the freedom to fight on land, air, and mix of both however you see fit was quite surprising to be and weirdly liberating - for this the game gets a plus from me and hopefully I'd like to see the concept revisited in a more highly polished game. The pseudo customisation afforded to the user is also a nice addition with it not being very in-depth and seemingly no way for the user to lose out when upgrading weapons - the right direction I feel for this specific game. The environments were also quite varied, not only form but function. Taking the boat part for example - being able to scale the boat in various different ways was welcoming, even when you have limited jet pack capabilities but ultimately the areas you travel through sometimes feel bland.

The bad: The technical issues have already been mentioned but its insulting to me at least that a customer cant realistically install he game from disc unless they want to leave there machine on for hours on end, the irony being they're not likely to even play the game for that long if they have the same views as me. The game is generally lacking polish in every area - animation, speech, video & sound are all very mediocre. The game doesn't loose the cheesy feel and you know as soon as you see the characters the role they are going to play: the bad ass, the bottom feeder, the women, the seedy old man who builds contraptions in caves like the guy from 'Up', this doesn't help make your hypothetical purchase seem worth it when you release you've got an extremely poor version of Gears of War. The graphics and sound departments lack the customisation options offered by other PC titles and while some may argue this is because its a port but other UE3 titles usually have a decent array of options to mess with in addition to decent performance we've come to know from UE3 titles which is also on hiatus with Dark Void. The inclusion of PhysX is welcomed by me personally but its implementation is about as much use as Anne Franks drum kit and turns the game into a slide show.

Overall I wouldn't mind seeing the concept of flight and fight combined again provided it was done properly, unfortunately for Dark Void this key game play element seemed to be relied on too much and doesn't cover of the tremors and stability issues exercised by Dark Void and for me it wouldn't be recommended in any form - I only played it to the point of having some points to share as I owe it to Zak.

[danroyle]

Here is my review/ opinions of the game.

Dark void review.

The Good
When i recieved dark void i wasn't exactly sure what to make of it i'd not really seen anything about it so went in it to not really knowing how it would be but straight away i was pleasantly surprised, The graphics are crisp the face modelling is excellent and overall it looks very slick with good framerates. Once i passed the initial bit where you are thrown in with the jetpack dogfighting it becomes a pleasant game, The 3d gaming is different and quite fun if a little disorientating at times, the ability to upgrade the weapons is also a nice addition and not too complex. The game progresses along at a good pace and some bits are great fun such as the escape from USS cyclops as the ship collapses off a cliff you have to jump up in 3d mode fighting the alien robots. The storyline is interesting and getting the jetpack improves the games experience greatly it is a novel idea and the game implements it very well with the use of the 3d enviroment and the transition between the two works very well.

The Bad
When i first got dark void out of the box to install it the installer crashed at about 1% using windows 7 64bit, I left it for 20 minutes cancelled the installation and the game had installed so was less annoyed. Once i got into the game the first dogfight section i found difficult and frustrating as i had to spend ages messing with the sensitivity of the mouse in game as the slightest movement sent me swooping into a wall and to my death, The storyline while being interesting is never really gripping i feel no association with my character, so many great games you become attached to the lead character Gordon Freeman, Soap Mctavish, Nate Drake, Marcus Fenix to name a few, Once you get onto land and start fighting the guns feel week and on a few occasions trying to jump onto logs was impossible from certain positions.My main issue with the game was sound related using a realtek hd audio with 5.1 surround sound the speech was muffled and incoherent at times, switching to a headset instead did nothing to fix this and at times in cutscenes ava would open her mouth to speak but i would get no sound so i had to use subtitles instead,The rest of the sound was fine.

Conclusion
Dark void has good and bad points while it brings new ideas to the table it sticks to a standard format especially with the storyline, man and woman troubled past together split up will undoubtedly fall in love again before the end of the game. However it is a solid 3rd person shooter with good graphics and good gameplay, most of the glitches can be patched and it will be a good game sadly it doesn't quite cut it in terms of being a great game.And once i finish work today i intend on finishing this game so thats always a good sign.

Score 8/10

sorry i think i went slightly over 100 words on good and bad.
P.S hope my Gwammer is not all messed up innit.
and thanks to Zak for a free game.

[pollaxe]

Dark Void
I had never heard of this game and so I tried to approach it with an open mind. On first sight it was not a game I would have purchased. My game-playing ability is not brilliant. I tend to prefer things like the Total War franchise but I do enjoy a good first person shooter from time to time too. If you want to understand the kind of gamer that I am, imagine your favourite uncle trying to use your console at Christmas and haplessly crashing or getting completely beaten up by the game's bad guy(s) whilst moaning about the controller.

The Good
I like alternate histories and so the premise of the game was an interesting one. Once I was past the first stage of the game (more on this below) I found the shoot-ups quite entertaining. Dodging behind cover, nipping out to shoot another silvery git in the head and the occasional lobbing of explosives (most amusing!) appealed to me too. There never seemed to be quite enough ammunition to be comfortable but usually at critical moments you’d find some. The female lead (Ava) reminded me a lot of Fiona Bruce which made me chuckle. An appearance of the huge bloke from Prison Break (just before you meet a scientist of famous memory) also amused me (okay, she’s not Fiona B and he’s not the Prison Break guy either but I find such things moderately entertaining.) There was quite a bit of climbing and general monkeying about which I was not used to and that for me was a fairly novel experience as I don’t own a console or play this type of game too often. The graphics were pretty good, the settings quite immersive and they try to hook you early on with the storyline; not unsuccessfully, I might add.

The Bad
Well, like everyone else I could not install the game from the DVD. I started on Friday morning but it wasn’t until Friday evening (and on reading the Hexus thread) that I took Kalniel’s advice and copied the disc to a local drive and installed it that way. My first fifteen minutes with the game were also not positive. I found the flying to be very unintuitive. I thought I was getting the hang of it when suddenly I’d do a somersault (presumably on reaching the top of the skybox or just drifting off course from where the game wanted me to be) and be plummeting to earth. I struggled through about ten deaths in a row (bouncing off walls or making like Wylie Coyote) before the game kicked-off. Fortunately, it was then to third person running around and shooting. I’ve only played a couple of console games but this felt very console-orientated. (Is it a port? I don’t know, I haven’t looked but I suspect it could be.)

My biggest problem with this game is: motion sickness. I’ve been jogging around, leaping up ledges and scooting around with a jet pack and frankly, I feel sick as a dog! I’ve had this before with some games but this one’s got me quite badly. As a result, I feel unwilling to play on to be honest – not that this is the fault of the game, though.

Conclusion
Overall, I would give this game 7 out of 10. It has enough in it to keep me interested and one thing I use to judge a good game is whether it makes me want to go back and try to do something better or to finish something that I’ve not been able to complete. Dark Void has done this which suggests it is a playable game. My main problem is feeling very sick when I play it and as a result, I'm not sure I'll go back to it.

A big thanks to Zak for sending this on. I notice he said a minimum of 100 words but excuse me if I've gone a bit discursive on this.
Edit: I realised I put first person shooter in the review, on reflection, this is a third person shooter (again, not something I'm used to playing.)

[blueball]

I hereby affirm that I have not read any other reviews of this product prior to playing and reviewing it personally.

System:

Q9650 (4 x 3GHz Cores)
Gigabyte P35-DQ6
8Gb (4 x 2Gb) Geil 1066MHz DDR2
1TB (2 x Samsung F1 500Gb) RAID 0
Benq DW1650 16x DVD
1GB BFG Tech GTX 280 OCX (665MHz Core)
24" Samsung T240 (1920x1200)
Win 7 Ultimate x64
CoolerMaster 700W
Lian-Li A17
Virgin Media 20Mb

Resolution used for gameplay: 1920 x 1200 Texture High, Models medium

My review starts here:

The Good

It has a good intro although I'm sure that the cut-scene transitioning between the airborne ambush and Nassau was entitled "one week later" instead of "one week earlier" but maybe that is my mind playing tricks.

I found the graphics to be reasonably impressive but found it difficult to control in flight using the mouse/keyboard. Setting the airborne sensitivity much higher in Options helped but it still was not as good as using a joystick. Framerates were pretty reasonable with only very occasional stutters (seemed to be when changing music).

When working up/down on platforms the controls work well. Initially, fighting down a serious of platforms can feel very uncomfortable but once you have done this a few times the unusual camera view becomes quite normal and moving left or right becomes quite natural even at strange camera angles. All in all I thought this aspect was very well done (apart from the aiming problems mentioned later)

I did enjoy playing the game, the storyline is interesting and you do wonder "What will happen next?".

The Bad

The DVD Box claims that it is the first fully 3D action shooter but Shattered Horizon was released several months prior to Dark Void. As with most games, it is almost impossible to assess the System Requirements or to read the small print on the back of the box without a magnifying glass. Additionally, the instruction manual is written for the Xbox 360 controller not for the keyboard!

Installation really was not good! It was painfully slow and after 20 minutes I had to cancel it as there was still no indication of data being transferred and CPU usage was non-existent. I ran a CD/DVD Drive Cleaner to ensure the lens was clean and restarted installation. After 30 minutes I still only had about 1% to 2% of the files copied. Again, there was no CPU usage and Perfmon indicated no disk write activity.
Frustrated, I rebooted, checked the disk and found no apparent physical damage. I took a chance and disabled anti-virus but it made no difference (so I left it running). It installed in 4 hours 18 minutes!! A new record?
The installation routine installs Securom but doesn't tell you it is doing it and it isn't mentioned in any of the literature! Naughty naughty. When are they going to learn?

When configuring the controls you are not warned of key conflicts (you could bind the same key to left and right for instance).

There were not any Physx options showing so a quick Google and I downloaded the Physx Patch for the game from http://nzone.com/object/nzone_darkvoid_downloads.html - sadly there were so many scenes where Physx caused stuttering (multiple particles in view) that I disabled Physx completely.

In common with many games most of the progress is very linear with negligible options to explore so it's "follow the corridor" and the animation of Ava running is, how can I put it, weird!

When trying to fight up or down (for example the escape from USS Cyclops) your ability to aim above you is severely hampered, you cannot move the aiming reticule in certain directions such that, although you have clear line of sight on a target, you have to move somewhere else to actually aim at it.

Just after getting the rocket pack, I stepped out and saw the watcher ship under the large dome and then CRASH to desktop. Restarted game and got through it the second time so maybe not a game issue.

Conclusion

As a game I would give it 7/10. As a piece of software I would only give 4/10 mainly due to that Securom rubbish.

Thanks Zak for sorting this and thanks Capcom for the free game.

[fuddam]

Dark Void is a curious beastie: feels a bit outdated, with a very linear storyline (zero possibility to explore so far), average graphics, and repetitive gameplay looms large (well, until the novelty of whichever chapter you begin using the jetpack to look for stuff).

I played it for over 3 hours last night, after some teething troubles with installation, and weird graphic glitches.

The game hung the first time my character died, and during the 2nd chapter, every time I died I had to restart the chapter - NOT nice. No save games, and a lengthy chapter.... it should at least take you back to the latest checkpoint.

Other niggles includes when you boot the game, you can't skip past the advertising which gets irritating quickly, and delays when trying to skip a cut scene.

Halfway through chapter 2, you have to pass through a doorway you've busted open with a turret weapon. Instead of a cave, I found a ledge with a massive drop, and a weapons cache & powerup floating out of reach over the abyss. There was NO way to reach it, and restarting the chapter (!) gave no improvement. I even tried jumping into space, but fell to my death, which then triggered an unintended checkpoint. This meant I respawned on the ledge, but could no longer exit the cave back to the bridge - an invisible door stopped me. Very annoying. I only realised it was glitching when I rebooted the game, restarted the chapter for the 6th (7th?) time, and suddenly the cave appeared where it was supposed to be.

It isn't all bad. The fighting on the cliffs (ie vertical movement) is novel, the use of the jetpack is cool - well, it makes a change from stomping through the undergrowth, and the character movement is nimble.

Pudding test: I feel like continuing the game, so that's a good sign. However, I'm NOT expecting a lipsticked rhino wearing a bowler hat and a tutu - nothing exciting/surprising anticipated.

I wouldn't pay good money for Dark Void, but it makes a change from the FPS games I usually frequent. A nice try.

Thanks for the game, Zak Am sure my kids will love it.

[danroyle]

i hope its a coincidence but my samsung spinpoint starting knocking this morning and then this afternoon could no longer get into windows with it. no more games for me for a few days

[kalniel]

Some tips:

• Get around the installation problems by copying the DVD to a folder on your hard drive then running setup.exe from there. You will still need the DVD in to play the game.
• The introduction logos are all unskippable, so delete/rename them from ../DARK VOID/nativePC/SkyGame/Movies/ and your game will load much more quickly.
• It's an UT3 engined game, which means there's a ton of configuration open to you. Don't edit the config files at the game data location though - you need the ones in your local documents. For window 7 that's My Documents/My Games/Airtight/Dark Void/SkyGame/Config/

[oolon]

Pre-able

Sitting around waiting for the end of day on friday was hard, would the game arrive? Would it be Show Jumping with Barbie? Fortunately my better half was home in the afternoon, so she called me to tell me what the game was. I have to admit to be very pleased with the result, the game in question has been widely advertised on the as a header for a TV show. It looked interesting but being a contraian in nature I try to actively resist advertising. Now I don't have to! I do now have to resist looking up anything able the game online fortunately the only thing I know about this one is from the TV ads.

After a fight to install the game, I fired it up and was thrown into the prelude, where you are a man on a jetpack, I was bouncing off invisible walls and into the side of cannons hitting nothing and dying lots. At that point I thought, no way was I going to enjoy 3 hours of this and it seemed utterly unplayable. Fortunately for me that section seems to be time limited so it moved on after a while. I might still have been there otherwise. The first first land missions are a bit dull as you have to find out the "right way" to do things. Mostly they are there to train the player, and they do a good job, later on the player gets to choice how to do things, jet-pack or climb. This can make the game some what of a slow burner. Its good Zak33 put a 3 hour mininum on the game as I can see why people would abandon it early on.

Good Points

• Upgradable weapons, tech points mean the player picks which to upgrade, these tech points are quote hard to get the required number meaning the user has to think about what to upgrade.
• Some fun mini-games, I particularly like the boarding saucer mini-game, that gets a controllable flying ship!
• Cover functions and climbing under objects is rather good, hover and float work rather well allowing for large jumps to be made.
• Some of the protection missions can be very hard as there is an effective time limit on them, requiring the player to go on an all out attack rather thn hiding and waiting.
• Missions are very varied fly/ground exploration/killing the boss(es). Protecting the Ark from the Arcons is particularly challenging being a time limited, 3 boss killing flying mission.
• I like the "style" of the game being fast past-alternative future genre works well for me.
• Have to choice your weapons you can only carry 2 of 6.
• Game works well at 1920x1200, on a i7 with a 4890 graphics card, so should work well on most people hardware pairings.
• No bugs so far in the game making it impossible to continue, rock solid in coding, a credit to the developers. (it is all to common to release buggy games that require updating).

Bad Points

• The installer (copied the files off using linux and installed from the network).
• Mission based play, limits the amount of playable time in the game having played a day I have already completed over 2/3rds of the game.
• Human weapsons are special interest, as ammo is not dropped for them (via kills), and you can only carry two weapons so its best to stick to the enemy ones.
• Linear structure to missions, particularly object traversal where you need to work out the right way to do a mission.
• Jet Pack too fast to control on small maps, only has three speeds fast, very fasts and ouch I hit the wall again.
• Saving the game check points and autosaves in episodes, making it impossible to go back an repeat things that have been performed badly, upgraded the wrong weapon etc.
• There are some "Tech Point" cheats in flying episodes, where repeating episodes can get you as many tech points as you like.
• Possible to complete some missions by running past everything to get to the checkpoint, rather than taking on the enemies.
• No onscreen heath level, and you "heal" to easily, only requiring a few seconds to recover full health.
• Some of the cut screen animations are a bit wooden remaining me of my days playing privateer. (These are only story related).

Conclusion

I am still playing the game and want to complete is it cannot be bad! This is not a game I would have normally gone as I normally go for free form games, so its nice to play a mission based one once in a while. I am not sure I would pay full price for this game due to the limited playtime (thats probably just me), however it will provide a solid "Gaming" weekend of fun (and frustration). Sadly a few of my annoyances, means I can only give it a 6 out of 10, it so easily could have been higher. Perhaps in Dark Void II?

[Zak33]

oh my word...

my absolute word....

this idea is paying off in BUCKETS... by the SPADE load.

I don't mean to imply that people here are influenced by the mass hysteria of reviews and stuff.. but what I wanted.. REALLY wanted, was pure, total, first impressions from TOTALLY un influenced people.

And that is what we've got.

From people with horrific graphic glitches... to people playing a virtually bug free game.

Install, so far, is clearly biting the big one.. but apart from that, we are getting a fantastically balanced set of reviews.

Players... I quite literally salute you all and look forward to the other reviews