Dark Void demo impressions

With over a week to go until it hits stores, Dark Void recently was made available for demo play.While the playing time was much too brief, the playtime yield some interesting results.

The game is a mixture of Gears of War-style cover combat. That part of the game is solid and slightly interesting. The bigger promise is the rocket pack flight and combat. This is where the length of time might have hurt some impression, but the flight controls felt a little touchy, as players can spend a lot of time trying to keep William Grey flying straight.

The flight combat segments got a little frustrating as the targeting reticule is tied how a player flies. That would be fine if there were stationary targets. When flying targets get added to the mix, then it becomes highly frustrating. Thankfully the developers knew this and some targets could be grabbed and the battle turns into a psuedo quick time battle.

Dark Void promises all combat in the air and on the ground. From the demo, the ground combat seems solid, if not, unoriginal. The flight itself is exhilarating when it works. Hopefully with its intriguing sci-fi story, it can turn out better than Bionic Commando, the last time Capcom published a game from an non-Japanese developer.

Dark Void hits stores January 12th on PS3, Xbox 360, and PC. Enjoy the screenshots.